What It's Like to Work in One of America's Data Centers

I used to travel doing optical networking deployments between data centers. Got to see a good 35+ states and even some foreign countries over 4 years or so but also completely burnt out. Telecom is a pretty miserable industry.

Most of the work in/around DCs is contract of some sort. Local structured cabling firms, electricians doing stints of various lengths, security, etc. Some of it good and lucrative, some of it not.

At my first job in a bank there was an old-timer whose job had been to fly to every trading desk the bank had in other countries to install software updates. He would do a round the world trip 1-2 times a year with multiple duplicate boxes of floppies during 3-4 weeks.