The Marine below is married to my wife’s niece. He is in Afghanistan at the moment, but will be leaving the Marines. He sent me this Thanksgiving day. If you think he may have the skill set to fill any positions you are aware of, it may be an opportunity to get someone who looks like they do many IT related abilities as well as have leadership and teaching abilities.

I can vouch for his character…he is the kind of man you wish would marry your daughter.


His email to me:

I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to help answer my questions. I would love to find something that closely reflects my job here in the Marine Corps. I am currently the Database administrator for the Squadron as well as the basic network administrator. In addition, I have also taken on the role of system administrator. Basically what I do is make sure our program is fully operational, and when problems arise, I troubleshoot them to find out the cause whether it be system errors, connectivity issues, or something as easy as a user errors. I also have to run a balance reports monthly and send them up line to headquarters to ensure their accuracy to prior data. However, it is hard to find a job that offers these kinds of responsibilities.

Also, I'm looking for a job with a position where I can show my true abilities and not just be a work horse. I like being in a leadership position where I can not only fix problems that occur, but also teach people how to avoid running into problems in the future. I'm sure you working with computers can understand where I'm coming from. I know that me being a Marine already sets me above the rest, but I want a company to see my résumé and know that I'm the person they want to hire. Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated. I know that you are busy with the holidays, so whenever you find the time to respond will be great. Thanks again.



If you think he might fit something you know about, send me a PM and I will connect you up with him.

Another tip:

Get him on linked in. I'm sure there are lots of other Marines in Linked In and would be more than happy to assist him.

Thanks!

I would think Austin is a great place to look. Tell him to PM me and I can help him job hunt.

Yesterday on the Austin Craigslist a posting for Giganews System Technician. The posting states entry-level but I think this is not a true entry level as no experience. Looks interesting and giganews has been around a long time.

http://austin.craigslist.org/tch/2727234....

Quote:

About Us
Founded in 1998, Giganews is a premium Usenet access company located in Austin, TX. With global operations in the United States and the Netherlands, Giganews serves a global customer base of individual subscribers and Internet Service Providers in over 180 different countries. Giganews is a profitable well established business offering extensive benefits.

Duties

Install software, apply patches, monitor performance and troubleshoot alerts
Troubleshoot and replace faulty hardware remotely, utilizing Remote Hands service
Troubleshoot and resolve or escalate network problems
System failure analysis and recovery, insuring consistency and integrity of data storage
Technical Support and General Troubleshooting
Escalations to On-Call personnel
Fulfilling all administrative requirements and deadlines
Other duties related to your capabilities, assigned on an as-needed basis


Required Skills

Strong troubleshooting skills
Excellent oral and written communication skills
Demonstrated initiative and team work competencies
Ability to communicate technical issues with non-technical people


Pluses

Knowledge of Usenet
Knowledge of Linux Server environment, especially Fedora
Knowledge of bash/perl/python scripting
Knowledge of building/maintaining RPM packages
Experience in a Data Center environment
Experience with Intel and AMD, both 32bit and 64bit, based hardware
Knowledge of RAID technologies

Corvalent moved from California to NW Austin(Cedar Park) about two years back. With this guys Marines background and with Corvalent an embedded systems builder for Dept Of Defense.

http://www.corvalent.com/index.shtml

http://www.corvalent.com/01d_careers.sht....

System Assembler
Regional Sales Manager
Hardware Design Engineers
Field Applications Engineer
Account Manager
Systems Integration Engineer
Engineering Laboratory Technician
Electrical Product / Test Engineer
IT Generalist / Support

That definitely isn't entry-level, but if you worked a tech desk for a couple of years you'd likely be a good fit.

If he has clearance he should have the run of any number of IT jobs, particularly in MD/VA/DC..

Thanks for all the tips folks. I am passing them on, but communication (response) can take many days for him.