I used to do a fair amount of pro-bono, mostly for law enforcement, back in the day when they were getting outpaced by the bad guys and before they had created forensics labs. A lot of that was actually just basic Linux training, as they hadn't seen it before. I've also done a little for local small non-profits. I helped wire the local middle school for ethernet, etc. I also helped the local high school do some "IT things".
Pro-bono work should be a part of what we as sysadmins offer as part of our community. It doesn't have to be huge, or earth shattering, just *helpful*. Granted, not everyone can pony up 20 hours a month for a local non-profit. Who can? Some years I've done a hundred or many more hours, some years I've done less than 20. It all evens out. Pro-bono work is also good for *you*. We IT folks in general are terrible at the inter-personal networking, at least with non-IT people. Pro-bono work is a chance to make friends and build your network outside the sysadmin community. I have dozens for friends that I done things with over the years. A few times we were both doing completely different things for the same pro-bono "customer", some times they were the customer. But I've got friends for life :-) I've heard of pro-bono leading to paid jobs, too. This is also a place for the LOPSA locals to get involved, the local can help find pro-bono IT help for those that need it. The local can also raise awareness of our profession. Don't expect (or let) pro-bono take over your life, just think of it as one more component of your sysadmin career. --tep _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
