Current Events > Oh wow, I'm having to get my high school diploma for a background check.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I wonder if my mom still has it.
---

Holy crap, I found it! That thing has been sitting in the exact same spot for 15 years. Never thought I'd actually need to look at it again.
---

Does looking at it bring you back to good times?
---

Blue_Inigo posted...

Does looking at it bring you back to good times?

Yeah. All the accomplishments I had playing saxophone. The fact that I actually graduated high school on time even though I got viral meningitis the summer before freshman year, which caused me to start having random seizures. The medication I was on to help control the seizures was screwing up my short term memory (didn't realize this until years later). Made school really tough. I was an A and B student all the way through 8th grade, then started failing classes for the first time my freshman year of high school.
---

How old are you?
---

ConfessPlease posted...

How old are you?

32. I'll be 33 in August.
---

What kind of background check required that you to produce your high school diploma? I've been through federal ones that never made me do anything like that.
---

cant they just call the school
---

Master_Bass posted...

What kind of background check required that you to produce your high school diploma? I've been through federal ones that never made me do anything like that.

I dunno. My job is actually in the process of bringing me on full time now, and I was told the high school diploma was the only thing holding up my background check today. The registrar at my high school said I could pick up a transcript for $5, but my mom lives like 2 minutes away from the school. I decided to go to my mom's house first and look around first.
---

Romulox28 posted...

cant they just call the school

They did, but it's apparently some stupid drawn out process. I'm not 100% sure on the details, but I wanted to help speed it along. They hired a global IT director recently and his background check still hasn't completed.
---

They approved the salary I asked for and I should be getting the offer letter today!

Hell yeah

My official start date will be June 4th, assuming everything goes as planned.
---

Congrats, TC!
---

Master_Bass posted...

Congrats, TC!

---

CableZL posted...

They approved the salary I asked for and I should be getting the offer letter today!

Hell yeah

My official start date will be June 4th, assuming everything goes as planned.

Not that I'm asking for your salary but how much more are you getting compared to your contractor status?

Congrats on them approving your salary! Makes you wonder if they would have gone higher. lol
---

BlazinBlue88 posted...

Not that I'm asking for your salary but how much more are you getting compared to your contractor status?

Congrats on them approving your salary!

It's a $13k base pay raise, along with a $15% annual bonus. I won't be getting overtime any more, but I'm not too concerned about that. I worked a ton at my old job without getting overtime for $35k less
---

Highschool diploma? If you have your College Degree, then Highschool Diploma's should be obsolete at that point because most colleges require that you graduate from a highschool, unless they're suspecting of something shady.
---

Prestoff posted...

Highschool diploma? If you have your College Degree, then Highschool Diploma's should be obsolete at that point because most colleges require that you graduate from a highschool, unless they're suspecting of something shady.

I dropped out of college after my first year.
---

CableZL posted...

Prestoff posted...

Highschool diploma? If you have your College Degree, then Highschool Diploma's should be obsolete at that point because most colleges require that you graduate from a highschool, unless they're suspecting of something shady.

I dropped out of college after my first year.

Ah, makes sense why they would ask for it.
---

Congrats on the offer!

Thats a super weird request for a background check. Ive never had a company ask me for that.

Cleo_II posted...

Congrats on the offer!

Thats a super weird request for a background check. Ive never had a company ask me for that.

I didn't really have to do it, but I've been waiting to become a full time employee for 2 years, so I volunteered to go get either my high school transcript for $5 or my diploma if I could find it. Just to speed the process along.
---

CableZL posted...

Blue_Inigo posted...

Does looking at it bring you back to good times?

Yeah. All the accomplishments I had playing saxophone. The fact that I actually graduated high school on time even though I got viral meningitis the summer before freshman year, which caused me to start having random seizures. The medication I was on to help control the seizures was screwing up my short term memory (didn't realize this until years later). Made school really tough. I was an A and B student all the way through 8th grade, then started failing classes for the first time my freshman year of high school.

I had seizures in school too. Bad experiences all around.
---

I got an email today from the people who set me up as a contractor asking for proof of my degree

I've already been a postdoc with them for two years now though so.....somebody dropped the ball somewhere
---

P4wn4g3 posted...

I had seizures in school too. Bad experiences all around.

Yeah, I'd have to say that was one of the hardest things I've ever dealt with. I was a super healthy and super active kid until that happened.
---

Agreed. Worse really was the limitation on things you could do, the shitty meds and side effects, impact on the psyche. Fucked me up for years. I worked my way out of it eventually but it took work. I can drive now on 4 year license and I am on working meds.
---

Master_Bass posted...

What kind of background check required that you to produce your high school diploma? I've been through federal ones that never made me do anything like that.

my secret clearance background needed my highschool and college diplomas
---

P4wn4g3 posted...

Agreed. Worse really was the limitation on things you could do, the shitty meds and side effects, impact on the psyche. Fucked me up for years. I worked my way out of it eventually but it took work. I can drive now on 4 year license and I am on working meds.

Yeah... It sucked that it just wasn't safe to do anything that I found fun any more. I was so used to swimming, playing football with my friends, biking, rollerblading, skateboarding, etc. pretty much all the time.

They also kept increasing the dosage of the dilantin I was taking almost every time I went in for a checkup. I went from taking 1 a day to 1 in the morning, 1 at night... Then 2 in the morning 1 at night... Then 2 in the morning and 2 at night... Then 3 in the morning and 2 at night. Then 3 in the morning and 3 at night.

I decided to stop taking the medication on my own after not having any seizures for about a year and a half. I had a seizure like two weeks after I stopped taking the medication. Then after another year of not having seizures, I decided to try again and I haven't had a seizure since.

My short term memory was terrible. When teachers would teach stuff, I'd understand what was being taught pretty easily. By the time they passed out worksheets so that we could practice what we learned, I'd often have forgotten what was taught and the stuff on the worksheets then might as well have been in Greek.

Teachers would assign homework. The next day, a classmate would ask "Did you do the homework?" My response was commonly "... ... We had homework?"

I'd also lose things so much. It was aggravating. I lost my graphing calculator with absolutely 0 clue of where I even left it. In college, I had an ATM card. I'd put it in the ATM, get money out, then walk away without the card. I did that like two days in a row. Then there was an incident where I got on the bus with my backpack full of expensive ass books. Got to my stop and got off the bus without my backpack. I went back to the school to wait for the bus to come back, but my backpack was gone.

It has now been maybe about 10 - 12 years since I've had a seizure. I stopped counting the years after 8 or 9, though.
---

Well you've pulled through pretty well, a network engineer and all that. I'm working towards cyber security. Aside from epilepsy I had a few family tragedies come up in high school too, so I basically had to figure my shit out in college and I didn't quite manage to settle on the degree I wanted, but whatever. Current job is pretty good actually, I'm doing desktop support but it's not very busy and the days off are nice. I need to figure out next steps though to get to being a penetration tester. I figure the security+ will be next.
---

Romulox28 posted...

Master_Bass posted...

Congrats, TC!

---

Yeah, my memory is pretty much back to normal. I'd say I'm still a little forgetful, but it isn't bad at all.

I currently have CCNP Route/switch, CCNA Security, and a Meraki cert. My next goal is to go for CCDP, which I'll have to take two exams for (CCDA, then 1 of the 3 CCDP exams). Assuming I pass the CCDP exam, it'll renew my CCNP route/switch cert for another 3 years as well as my CCNA Security cert.

Then I want to take a few swipes at CCIE route/switch
---

Frankly your job sounds like a hassle from the number of times I've seen you talk about ISPs giving you shit. Though I suppose that would be a reasonable to be applying elsewhere.
---

P4wn4g3 posted...

Frankly your job sounds like a hassle from the number of times I've seen you talk about ISPs giving you shit. Though I suppose that would be a reasonable to be applying elsewhere.

It's kinda nature of the beast. It's a lot better here now that I'm a network engineer for *a* company. When I was in telecom and supporting hundreds of companies, I hated it. We don't have outages too often, but when we do it's typically a pain dealing with it.
---