maddog1982

Lovely lovely bike pal. I am after the street triple R. I currently have a 09 FZ1 with loads of add ons which I love.

Pete at Demon Performance in Crewe is one of the best places you could speak to. People travel from one end of the country to see him/

Lovey car, I've owned both a MK2 ST and a 350DE revup. Put a stage 1 Revo map, intercooler and RS plugs and it was much faster than a stock 350, bonkers fast but found on a rack at more than 110 the ST felt unsettled where as the 350 felt planted at any speed.

I loved MPSS so much on my zed I have just bought four for my mark 6 diesel golf. Haven't fount a tyre that even comes close to these.

Many thanks on the kind words Matt. It was a pleasure to meet and do the deal with you.

Sold :byebye: :byebye: :byebye:

It is with a heavy heart that I now offer my 350z up for sale. I have owned this for two years and loved every minute of it! I purchased this off a doctor who had her from 9 months old! It has the most comprehensive service history I have ever come across. There is a receipt for everything the car has ever had. The service book is also fully stamped, most of which is Nissan. In my time I have had her serviced twice by specialist garages, again this is shown in the book and with receipts.

In Summary.

2007 56 plate 350z GT with Nav (I have purchased the latest DVD disk)

296hp RevUp

Gun metal grey

59 and something thousand miles.

MOT until Dec 15.

Full alignment done at ABP when I purchased the car.

All 4 wheels striped and powedered coated and the rear tyres replaced with MPSS (Sept 2013)

Full cobra resonated cat back exhaust fitted @ 5482 miles (july 2014)

Standard rear pads fitted @ 54810 miles (Sept 2014)

Ferodo DS2500 front pads fitted @56005 miles (Jan 2015)

Full replacement clutch, flywheel and slave cylinder with a braided hose fitted @56799 miles (Jan 2015).

Last service was a P2 carried o@ 58916 miles, including replacement brake fluid and was properly bled through (I watched them do this) (May 2015)

The only part that lets the car down is the front bumper. It suffers from stone chips. However, this its booked in for a full respray Thur 16th July.

The car is snow foamed weekly and then washed by hand. It also has been professionally valeted twice yearly in my ownership. The paint work comes up like glass when washing it.

Anyway here are some pictures, It is now back on the original registration. I will go get a few pictures of the rear and the inside/

£9250 ONO

located in Sandbach, Cheshire.

Matt

**edit phone number removed as this is open/public forum - Neo **

Hi Guys, well tomorrow is my last day!

I would like to complete the studying Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Technician Course with the aim to taking exam 70-685. Can anyone recommend any good training companies? I've looked and looked and every site I come across doesn't fill me with confidence!

Mine will be up for sale shortly

 

I've just had a look at a few posts and it looks like a nice example. Let me know when you put it up although I'm keeping an eye on the 'for sale' section anyway.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you that's much appreciated. Its a great example with so much history. Recent clutch change also!

Mine will be up for sale shortly

I think the first decision you need to make is what kind of support you want to do, bear in mind that things like your geographical location could restrict that decision (is there much finance/Linux support in the north west for example?). It's all well and good going off and doing a MCP if you later decide that helping idiots with desktop problems or configuring active directory isn't your cup of tea, or doing a specialty then realising nobody within 200 miles does that. On a similar note, are you sure IT is what you want to do? It's worth thinking about while you have some cash to support your decision, you won't get made redundant that often so use it as an opportunity.

 

Personally if I had knowledge in Linux I wouldn't even consider moving in to a MS type role, however I'm a bit biased as I was a Solaris/Linux sys admin for years and now run a front line production support team for a very well known market data provider. Production support is very different from a desktop support or similar role, it's much more about following process and escalating to the right people as quickly as possible. While uptime a service levels are important, it's fairly irrelevant if your service was fixed within 5 minutes but within that 5 minutes someone's lost £Xm due to decisions made on bad data you're service provided. Although don't be put off by the process side, it's an exciting and fast paced environment when you know how much money is riding on what you do.

 

Linux can be downloaded for free and run off a USB stick to learn/revise, I'd stick to free Redhat style distributions (e.g: Centos) as most people use Redhat. You might not be able to everything depending on what hardware you have, e.g: rebuilding a mirror, but it would be good for familiarity with all the commands (never suggest Linux GUIs in an interview!). Most lower level Linux interviews will contain the usual support function type questions so are fairly easy to predict, just think logically about what might go wrong and try to fic it. e.g: "a filesystem is full, what commands do you use to see that and find the largest files/directories taking space?" (A: df, du), "a client can't connect to a web server on this box, how can you see if the server is running & listening on port 80?" (A: ps, netstat). "Where would you configure a new user account?" (/etc/passwd, basically all OS config files are under /etc), files under /proc are useful to know as well as they show a whole host of stats (cpu usage, network stats etc).

 

Regarding ITIL, I'd read up on it and put it on your CV as "studied" or "aware" rather than "certified". It's only a suggestion of how you run your business and I've never worked anywhere that doesn't have their own spin on it. The most important part of it is that everybody uses the same terminology, so understanding what an incidents/problem release etc are, what a change/release process looks like and to a lesser degree what the teams & departments are called.

 

As soon as possible, I'd phone some IT recruitment companies and discuss your experience and what you're looking for with them, you'll likely find them to be very helpful and suggest off the bat that you might want to strengthen in certain areas - they make their money finding people jobs after all. For the same reason you'll probably get some interviews out of it even if on paper you're not likely to be experienced enough, use those interviews to ask the recruitment consultants for feedback on what to improve on - make sure you ask for that feedback as it's usually provided from the HR department to the recruitment consultant anyway.

 

If you find a job you're really interested but they're unsure, assuming your redundancy is enough to cover it, you could offer to work for free for a few months while they train you up, it's gamble that might not pay off though so you'd also need some reserve money for a second period of no work afterwards.

 

Good Luck!!

 

Haydn.

Firstly, wow! Thank you so much for such a great post.

I have never used a Linux gui i my life! It is all Centos here and command line. Your post is really helpful. I will read up on the ITIL and mark it on my CV. There seems to be quite a lot of first/second line support work going in my area, more that I thought to be honest. I haven't looked for anything Linux based though.

Cant help with that location, I know a Network Architect in Manchester and I am based in London.

 

As part of your redundancy package is there any education options? Pretty sure a previous placed offered additional training courses to those being made redundant

No mention of training, however, I have had a good pay out so dont mind using some of that to train

You could look at doing a couple of short(er) contracts to try and get your skills up to scratch.

 

Ever job spec I have ever been sent has asked for MS Certification, I dont have it and its never been a problem. However, I do have 15+ years of experience Exams and qualifications will give you some confidence as well.

 

Where are you based?

Im in Sandbach, Cheshire - the north west

This is £295 : http://www.reed.co.uk/courses/microsoft-windows-7-enterprise-desktop-support-technician/25287

Yeah that is always the case maddog. Do you go current tech for use in a day to day environment (Windows7) or do you future proof and go Windows8. I can only speak from my company/clients but Windows7 is still very much the norm when it comes to the vast majority of the devices I deal with.

 

It's your call theres no right/wrong answer as skills from either would be transferable.

Really appreciate the help! The course you linked to isn't long and this is something I could complete in a few days.

Any recommended online training providers? Does anyone rate the comptia qualifications?

You're best bet would be to invest in a micro-server and get a couple of VM's up and running and use this a practice environment to work through something like a Microsoft Windows 7 cert:

https://www.microsof...xam-70-685.aspx

 

Pretty much any IT support role will require/benefit from having an offical Microsoft qualification under your belt. Without something like the above you will be restrained to HelpDesk type phone jobs.

I did come across that earlier and wondered if I should do that. I wanst sure with it being windows 7 though if it was out dated now and replaced with something newer.

Thanks Hadyn!

I currently work for a small telecoms company - I have experience in both windows and linux systems. The support experience I have are for all the telecoms switches/hardware and being on call in case these broke down in the night, its quite bespoke to the company I hence why i am a little nervous going in at the deep end.

I have no problems with taking any course that is offered to me. Ive seen companies asking candidates to be ITIL qualified and sometimes MCP.

Hey guys,

I've just taken voluntary redundancy from a company I've been working for, for ten years! I've qualifications in IT and done a support role for the company I am leaving but moved roles to become the customer services manager for them a few years back. I am wanting to get back in the IT field again. Looking for advice on qualifications, is there anything I could do to bring my knowledge back up to date/fill in the gaps from being away from it? Ive looked at Microsoft and comptia so far. Or do you think it would be better taking a lower paid job in the field and training with the company rather than go in to high and be out of my depth?

Cheers! A confused and slightly scared Maddog!

Did anything ever come of this?

That would of been me!!! I saw a 350 convertible on that road then a few cars behind a 370 that flashed and waved at me .

 

Yes, I was in the Grey 350Z roadster . The Ginger Roadster was 10 or so cars in front of me at the time...I don't really understand how it was one car behind me when I reached Winsford

 

Pete

That's right it was a ginger roaster. Were you in convoy? I rarely see another 350 or 370 on the road, to see 3 in one day is a little strange. Oh nd first time I have been spotted by another member on here! I regularly use that road as my girlfriend lives in Wales. Seems to attract a lot of speed vans too :-(

That would of been me!!! I saw a 350 convertible on that road then a few cars behind a 370 that flashed and waved at me . About 20 mins before that I let out a blue 350 convertible right near the fishpool pub. Never seen so many in one day.

Ive just paid £48 for a P1 service supplying my own oil, filter and sump plug

 

But how much did the oil, filter and sump plug cost you on top of that?

 

What you mean is, you've just £48 for a P1 service labour.

Ha yes this is true! The bits cost me £40.

Yup I know, but I couldn't be bothered and dont have a low jack etc. Stayed with the car and they really did check everything out while the oil was draining.

Ive just paid £48 for a P1 service supplying my own oil, filter and sump plug

Any updates? its been 17 days for me and heard nothing