As an introduction to the “changing gears” posts I’ll discuss my data center employment history over the years. I worked at both large colocation data centers as well as the hyperscalers Silicon Valley companies built to server their customers.
My Data Center Employment History: What Aroused My Interest
Before I can discuss my data center employment history I need to explain how I got my start in the Information Technology field.
I graduated college in 2004 with a BA in English with the dreams of becoming an author. Throughout my 20’s I tried to get an agent interested in my books, but that didn’t happen. While getting rejection after rejection I worked various jobs that had nothing to do with my degree. By late 2007 I gave up on my dreams and focused on finding a stable career so I could live.
After researching what career I could do without going back to college I discovered IT. I had personal experience of fixing computers for family, friends, and coworkers. After some more research I decided to try to pivot into that career. Thus, I studied for the CompTIA A+ certification for the rest of 2007. I took and passed both the exams in March 2008. By May 2008 I got my first entry-level IT job.
After working different IT jobs I came across mini data centers in the places I worked. I could look at the one or two racks of servers, but I couldn’t touch them or even enter the room without an escort. Yet, I wanted to do that work which meant I had to improve my skills.
My Data Center Employment History
Peak 10 (Flexential)
In 2014 I got my first data center technician job at Peak 10 (now Flexential) in Alpharetta, GA. I worked the third-shift performing duties like rack and stack, assist customers, monitored systems, running Ethernet and fiber optical cabling, and installing Power Distribution Units (PDUs) to name a few. It was a good introduction into a mid-size colocation data center, and the regular duties technicians faced.
Short-Term Contracting Stint
I worked a short-term stint repairing servers in a data center for a company (whose name I’ll leave hidden for this section). There was nothing wrong with the company, but I had problems with the other contractors I worked with. They weren’t nice or helpful due to the immense competition to get a permanent job there. Thus, it was too difficult to get assistance from them. Some of the other contractor were outright hostile to others. By the third month I decided I had enough and left.
Working For Twitter
In 2017 I got a job as a Site Operations Technician at Twitter to work at their Atlanta, GA data center. I was ecstatic to get this job because I enjoyed using Twitter, and wanted to work at a Silicon Valley company.
Overall, I enjoyed my time there because I learned so much. Plus, Twitter’s data centers were huge so I got my steps in! Finally, it was quite a daunting task to learn where certain racks were due to the different rooms in the building. I stayed at Twitter for over 3 years, leaving in December 2020 to start my own business.