u/OldAccess7504

[removed]

originally wanted to pursue cloud engineering/cloud security engineer down the road but it's monday and idek if i wanna be in tech my whole life ha

https://preview.redd.it/taotptkr39ah1.png?width=715&format=png&auto=webp&s=dedcf54b9702527d8888d76d6dd0883e3af29da1

I got my CS degree in December of 2025, and was fortunate enough to get a job in Jan 2026 as a Computer Technician.

My 180 day probation is up pretty soon and I'm really hoping i get a significant raise but doubt it'll happen. I make 52k (gross income) a year and feel like I do a lot of work/projects that could be subject to ~65k a year. The IT department consists of me and our IT director who he himself only makes ~84k (i personally believe he deserve 110k+ for the things he does and manages but whatever).

Some things I do consists of:

- migrating legacy databases

- deploying systems such as data retention archiving and an updated inventory management system on VM's

- managing AD

- Programming and deploying a front end portion of a ticketing software through GPO

- typical help desk stuff etc

I really enjoy learning new stuff and tend to try a bunch of different things before asking my IT director for guidance. I feel I have taken on a lot of responsibility especially in this last month or two. I enjoy the in office work environment, the people are okay, commute could be better (~40 mins each way), benefits are amazing, and overall culture is decent. The hands on experience is great as well.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is how do I know how much I'm worth? And how do I know if/when it's time to get up and look for better opportunities?

For what our IT director (my supervisor) does now and what his salary is makes me think this place doesn't value IT as much as other companies do.

Time: 3:58:34
Goal: sub 3:30

I’m not disappointed at all! That was kinda hard.

I didn’t prep enough tbh. I used strictly strava during prep, no watch, and my longest run was “18 miles”. Well at mile 17 of the marathon my strava said it was mile 18.15 or something so was in uncharted waters for those last 9 miles.

Also went out wayyyyy too fast. Plan was to go out at 8:05/mi pace and after 6 miles cruise into ~7:50, end up running a 1:37 half marathon and went uh oh.

I don’t think i’m a marathon guy, probably more of a half marathon guy. Last mile ended up being ~7:38 cause i was getting passed quite a bit then decided to dig in and take some souls.

Might do a half iron man next summer, who knows.

Quick context: Graduated in December 2025 with Computer Science degree, didn't secure any internships, found a job a month after graduating (sheer luck and networking), want to be working with cloud asap.

So I've been at my current position for the last 4 months and have learned a tremendous amount. The people here are good, the work is good, not super busy all the time, and like I said, I'm learning a lot. Specifically hands on system administration stuff. Been working with infrastructure, vm provisioning, AD stuff, deploying systems on infrastructure that I have setup and configured and the rest has been basic help desk stuff for the most part. The only thing I don't like about it is I don't make as much money as I would like to make. I obviously knew coming into this position I'm extremely green with no experience but I think I've proven that I have learned and applied the skills it takes to be making much more money but as soon as I brought up a minor raise I got shut down instantly.

Now I have the opportunity to make 28k more a year, only have a 20 min commute each way, and be the first person in this position for a growing company that promotes internally and allows department changes. The cons of this is i would be tier 1 technical support for an AI solution that this company sells to other companies. Recruiter wasn't able to provide specifics about the position since its the first time they are offering it so I wasn't able to get the exact details of the workload.

Basically the way I'm looking at it is I'd be getting paid a lot more money with the possibility of getting promoted/transferred to the department I want to be in but I would be losing the hands on, more sys admin type of work I'm doing now for a lot less money.

Should I just stick it out at my current job, take the crap pay for the good experience orrrrr take the good pay and gamble with how long it takes to get to where I want to be while not getting the directly related experience.

Hello, first marathoner here gonna be running the cleveland marathon and had a few questions

1. What time should i plan on getting there? I was thinking around 5:30 am (race at 7) so i can find parking, check in, bathroom if needed, warmup etc. im about 35 mins away from cleveland so fairly local

2. I think im planning on using my little running fanny pack to carry phone and gels, i dont have a watch and dont plan on listening to music but will the water stations be enough hydration for me?

Im shooting for a 3:15-3:25 time, i’m 23m in good shape, didnt go balls to the wall on training but am happy with where i’m at and getting excited!