I am 22 and a Network Admin/QA, I have also been in the field for more than 5 years. The "discrimination" that I face is a little different but I can totally understand where your coming from. I work for a startup software company, on top of my duties as Network Admin, I also do network engineering and qa testing for our software that monitors cable modem networks. Anyway I basically told my boss that I need to hire some IT help so that I can focus on on the lab/network side of things. Rather then hiring a a college student that was willing to work on contract basis, they decided to hire a IT guy with 20 years of experience. Which really doesn't mean shit in the IT world as you know, because the hardware and software change so fast that previous experience alone does not mean much. So now I am stuck with a IT guy that ALWAYS asks me how to fix things and now instead of employees coming to me, they go to him ask a question or ask to for something to get fixed and he then comes to me, so I either have to show him or do it myself. What really sucks is that they give first priority to his opinions, in which I have to prove are wrong before they listen to me. It gets frustrating when he wants to make changes to the network that I setup because he does not know linux and is uncomfortable with a corporate network that is setup with both win2k and red hat servers. I have not really explored any options as far as complaints because I don't want to cause any problems. I guess my case is little different because my Uncle (he was the founder of LANcity, and is known as the father of the cable modem) is on the Board of Directors at this company and many times people think that I am here only cause of him and not because of my knowledge and the fact that I have been working with cable modems and modem technology since I was 15. It really sucks and I can understand where your coming from. So not only to I have to work twice as hard to prove that I know my shit, I have to deal with the fact that I am young and people who are older get more attention in meetings and solving problems. Sorry for the long ass story, good luck cause the only way that I found that I win is by being the bigger man, and letting them do what they think is right and then fixing it when it does not work, not only do I get more satisfaction, but they then realize how stupid they really are when someone who is younger takes care of the issue.
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I am 22 and a Network Admin/QA, I have also been in the field for more than 5 years. The "discrimination" that I face is a little different but I can totally understand where your coming from. I work for a startup software company, on top of my duties as Network Admin, I also do network engineering and qa testing for our software that monitors cable modem networks. Anyway I basically told my boss that I need to hire some IT help so that I can focus on on the lab/network side of things. Rather then hiring a a college student that was willing to work on contract basis, they decided to hire a IT guy with 20 years of experience. Which really doesn't mean shit in the IT world as you know, because the hardware and software change so fast that previous experience alone does not mean much. So now I am stuck with a IT guy that ALWAYS asks me how to fix things and now instead of employees coming to me, they go to him ask a question or ask to for something to get fixed and he then comes to me, so I either have to show him or do it myself. What really sucks is that they give first priority to his opinions, in which I have to prove are wrong before they listen to me. It gets frustrating when he wants to make changes to the network that I setup because he does not know linux and is uncomfortable with a corporate network that is setup with both win2k and red hat servers. I have not really explored any options as far as complaints because I don't want to cause any problems. I guess my case is little different because my Uncle (he was the founder of LANcity, and is known as the father of the cable modem) is on the Board of Directors at this company and many times people think that I am here only cause of him and not because of my knowledge and the fact that I have been working with cable modems and modem technology since I was 15. It really sucks and I can understand where your coming from. So not only to I have to work twice as hard to prove that I know my shit, I have to deal with the fact that I am young and people who are older get more attention in meetings and solving problems. Sorry for the long ass story, good luck cause the only way that I found that I win is by being the bigger man, and letting them do what they think is right and then fixing it when it does not work, not only do I get more satisfaction, but they then realize how stupid they really are when someone who is younger takes care of the issue.