First IT Job

After close to a year of applying for IT jobs with no success, I finally landed a role at a local non-profit, RBR Alliance. I was hired on in April 2024 as an IT assistant. My duties were basically to handle any tasks that my boss tasked me with.

RBR Alliance is a non-profit that performs administration duties for three other non-profits, Blue River Services, Rauch Incorporated, and First Chance Center. Between all four companies there are close to 1000 employees and a total of three IT roles. When I was hired, only the IT director role was filled.

I did not expect to learn a whole lot at this job. I figured I might be helping to fix problems in Word or Excel or troubleshooting email issues. I was wrong about that though. I was surprised at the technological depth of the agency. We managed three Microsoft 365 tenants, three on-premise Active Directory domains, 10 servers at three different locations, and anything thing else that was IT related.

I quickly learned how to create and configure accounts in M365 and Active Directory. I learned how to change and apply Group Policy to ensure employees only have the permissions needed for their role. My first week I installed and configured Security Onion at a secondary location.

In the first month, I learned how to terminate and test ethernet cables, mostly unshielded Cat5, but also some shielded cable. There were some tools that I was loaned at work, but in the spirit of investing in myself and because I always like to have my own tools, I bought the tools required to test, trace, and terminate cable. At first, it took me close to ten minutes to terminate a cable, but after a day of running and terminating, I could do it in less than three minutes.

I learned how to setup and configure Cisco ASAs and how to document and manage switches and patch panels. I was motivated and thrived in unfamiliar environments, so it did not take me long to gain my boss's confidence. I went from completing tasks that he assigned me to completing most tasks that were recieved by the help desk. This allowed him to focus on designing bigger projects like switching the entire company to IP phones.