I worked at AWS for 2 years and ESD was not a thing at all. In my 2 years, i haven't used any ESD protection while working on servers and network devices. Since joining Google, I was surprised how ESD protection fanatic is Google. ESD cart mat, ESD shoes, ESD floor, ESD racks, ESD everywhere.

Those who work in other hyperscalers, what's you experience?

Looking for some perspective from people actually working in data centers because I can't tell if this is just how hiring works or if I'm getting played.

Background: I'm 22, currently working as a data center associate doing rack deployments (building out racks, mounting servers, power, copper/fiber runs, labeling, documentation) for a big logistics company. Before that I was a fiber tech doing installs, fusion splicing, terminations, and light testing. I recently finished two Cisco Networking Academy certificates on my own time because the goal is server break/fix work, like actual hardware troubleshooting, drive/RAM/motherboard swaps, ticket work. Install and cabling is what I'm trying to move *away* from.

Here's my situation:

**TEKsystems** has had me "in process" for a data center technician role with a major client since FEBRUARY. Nine months. Every few weeks it's the same update: "openings are coming next week," "the client is reviewing resumes," "we're waiting on interview dates." Nothing ever materializes. A second recruiter at the same company even set up a technical screening with me and just no-showed it.

**Apex Systems** interviewed me a few weeks ago for a break/fix contract role. It went well, and then... same story. Waiting on the openings to "come through." A second Apex recruiter who contacted me literally deferred me back to the first one.

Meanwhile I passed an AI screening interview through a third agency for another break/fix role, got told I did great, and the next step is a panel interview whenever the client decides to open the position, supposedly "in a couple of weeks."

So I have three agencies all telling me they're waiting on the same client to open spots. And in between all this waiting, the only recruiters who actually have live roles keep hitting me up for infrastructure/install work, rack and stack, structured cabling, fiber circuit repair, which is exactly what I don't want.

Questions for anyone who's been through this:
1. Is this "waiting for reqs to open" limbo a real thing, or are they just keeping me warm in a pipeline?
2. When these spots do open, what should I expect the interview process to look like?
3. Am I screwing myself by turning down the install roles while I wait?

Appreciate any real talk.

Hello! I've applied to Google for a DCT role in Reno, Nevada. I've done the screening call and went on to the 3 interview loop and I think I did well. I might have over prepared but its been to be over prepared than know nothing. The moment I finished my 3rd interview (its had to be rescheduled since the interviewer was late), I got an email an hour later about scheduling a feedback call. When I did research on the Google hiring process, it said to schedule a feedback calls can take up to a few weeks to get one. Is this the norm? This is literally my first time applying to Google so I don't really know to process and I got more of my information online and asked a few Google employee at the data center I work at. Is this a good side or a bad one? Let me know!

 Oracle isn't walking away from the project; it is simply trying to protect itself if the project gets scrapped. It isn't clear if this tactic will actually help in a worst-case scenario, but this is an appropriate legal step for the company to take, just in case.

Located in New Mexico, the data center's campus is expected to be larger than Central Park in New York City. The data center is expected to be part of OpenAI's Stargate Project, which will include multiple data centers supporting artificial intelligence (AI). Bloom Energy is involved because it is expected to provide hydrogen fuel cells to power the Jupiter Project once it is complete.

Did my DCO L3 virtual loop for Adamstown this past Monday. Anyone who interviewed the same day heard back from their recruiter yet?

I’ve been trying to get into the center since I graduated college back in April and I’ve had no luck and just wanted to see if anybody had any insight honestly I’m thinking about just switching career path to maybe something that more hands-on but really wanna get in the center. I have a bachelors and information technology in multiple CompTIA certifications.

Hi all. Background: I have a couple years of data center experience: one year in decommissions, another year in true break-fix type operations. Wanted to mix it up and was able to take some time off out of the data center world. This is East Coast, USA.

Now I’ve been back in for a couple months - currently working a vendor contract with Microsoft. However, I somehow was able to receive a written offer from Oracle for a Senior Data Center Technician position. Comes with a significant pay raise/benefits compared to my current vendor role. However, the Microsoft team I work with is awesome and I’d love to be with them full time. 

My question: what would you choose? Stick out with the vendor contract, with the hope that I’d be able to convert to FTE with Microsoft in the future? (I'm not sure if the current Oracle offer can be leveraged somehow into the Microsoft interview process...). The team and work life balance has been great so far.

...Or, take the legitimate offer from Oracle now, take the significant pay bump, along with the “Senior” title to be used on my resume…and try that for a few months until the inevitable next round of layoffs? lmao.

I just finished a technical screen round for MSME role and would want to express the experience. Honestly, this being my first interview with a FAANG company I was nervous as hell. But the interviewer was casual and walked me through the interview process and it really helped ease my stress. I didnt ace the interview but really understood the gaps identified through this interview. The interviewer also explained what went wrong and also explained his expectations for the MSME role which i kind of liked and i honestly felt i would need to work on the gaps and try again. The questions werent any deep technical or complicated and it just revolved around the fundamentals. It took me 8 years to get into an O&G role and who knows maybe another 8 years to land a role in FAANG . I'm just going to leave this here and come back once i ace the opportunity to get into a FAANG company. Who knows maybe not a MSME role.

Hi, I just got hired as a field service engineer and I was notified that some places such as AWS do a ten panel test upon entrance. I wasn't aware that this was an issue, I wasn't tested upon hiring. I'm just concerned that I won't be able to clean up in time as I was a heavy user. Does anyone have any supplemental information?

Thanks

Hey everyone, I’m a recruiter with PKAZA Data Center Recruiting. I’m working on several data center and mission-critical openings and wanted to share them here in case they’re relevant to anyone in the community.

🏢 Facilities & Engineering | Onsite

Site Director, Data Center Facilities | Reno, NV | $200K

This role oversees an entire 24x7x365 data center campus, including facility and engineering operations, vendors, security, and the client relationship. The Site Director works alongside the Chief Engineer and serves as an escalation point for customers.

Looking for:

• 10–15+ years in data center or critical facilities operations/maintenance
• 5+ years leading technical teams
• Previous Data Center Facility Manager experience
• BS in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, or equivalent directly related experience
• Strong MEP knowledge, including MV switchgear, generators, UPS, chillers, CRAC/CRAH, and PDUs
• Budgeting/P&L, vendor management, SLA management, and client-facing experience
• Ability to read one-line drawings
• MS Project, Revit, BIM, or AutoCAD experience is a plus

Data Center Engineer | Reno, NV | $150K

Data Center Engineer | Minneapolis, MN | $150K

These roles serve as onsite engineering representatives at active colocation facilities, working between owners, contractors, and operations on CapEx/OpEx projects, retrofits, and upgrades.

Looking for:

• 3–5+ years in data center construction, design, commissioning, or MEP engineering
• Electrical or Mechanical Engineering degree preferred
• EIT/PE is a plus
• Knowledge of UPS, generators, switchgear, ATS/STS, PDUs, chillers, CRAH, and cooling towers
• Construction administration experience, including RFIs, submittals, and change orders
• Commissioning support experience
• AutoCAD, Revit, or BIM experience
• BMS/BAS knowledge is a plus

Benefits for the Reno/Minneapolis roles:

• Discretionary annual bonus up to 15%
• 401(k) with 3% company match
• Medical, dental, and vision
• 20 days PTO + company holidays
• Monthly cell phone allowance

⚡ Commissioning | Limited Travel

I’m also working on commissioning roles with an EPC company that designs, builds, and commissions large-scale data centers for enterprise, colocation, and hyperscale clients.

These are limited-travel opportunities in:

📍 Phoenix
📍 Atlanta
📍 Austin
📍 Columbus

Data Center Commissioning Project Manager

• Leads the commissioning process and coordinates the Cx schedule with the master construction schedule
• 5–10+ years of data center construction and commissioning experience
• L1–L3 commissioning experience
• GC or third-party CxA experience is a major plus

Data Center CxA Agent

• L1–L3 QA inspections and commissioning
• Checklists, issue tracking, and documentation
• CxAlloy experience is a plus
• MOP/SOP review
• 2–5 years of data center operations, commissioning, QA/QC, or relevant military experience

🇺🇸 Military Backgrounds

Military experience is a strong plus across these roles, particularly:

• Navy Nuclear: EMN, ETN, MMN
• Navy Seabees
• Army Power Generation
• Air Force Power Production
• Generator Technicians
• Other military backgrounds involving critical power, electrical, mechanical, or facilities operations

For anyone interested, please use the official job posting or company recruiting channel to apply.

I’m also happy to answer general questions about the roles, qualifications, or the data center recruiting market in the comments.

I need some help to decide wether this role is good fit.
Have the offer but I am from design background mostly behind desk producing drawings.
I know from discussions there lot of Field service engineers here. Can you’d guys please share some insights!

How is day to day?

Do you guys get work from home - even one day?

Is the schedule too tight as do you need to be on your toes all the time ?

By onsite role what exactly it means - do you sit in trailer offices? Or in data centers or there is office building somewhere and you go ON site as needed ?

How are the performance review processes and what makes you stand out ?

Lastly are there opportunities for you in other hyperscalers?
I see lot of people on LinkedIn working 1-2 ( sometime even less) and move to Google or Microsoft or somewhere, why is that?

Thanks in advance!

Reached out by a recruiter for a DC job in the San Fran area. Pretty sure it’s Gilroy. It’d be a L3 tech role. I think the range is around $35.52 - 62.30 with relocation (I’m not in the state).

While I’ve been trying to break into the DC world and this would be a good opportunity, I don’t know if I’m being silly by thinking that regardless of all that, I doubt it’s worth moving to a whole new place. Let alone in California. I’m still early in my career so I doubt I’d get the higher end of the pay band either. I’d like any thoughts on if I’m missing out by not pursuing this or any insight in general.

I'm trying to get a role in Adamstown area for L4 DCO but from everything I've seen they are only interviewing for L3 techs right now. Have all the L4 roles been filled or does AWS start searching after L3 hiring?

Hello, earlier today I heard back from my recruiter and they told me that I’m moving on to the final interview at AWS. The only downside is that their schedule is full and the earliest available date (until Jan 2027) is a week from now, so I have about 6 days to prepare 😭. I was really hoping to have a little more time.

I’m reaching out for advice on how to prepare effectively with such a short time frame and how to make the most of the next 6 days.

I’m currently in school pursuing an IT degree, my only real world experience comes from a field technician internship. But I was dealing more with installation of access points and switches. I don’t have much experience with data center operations, and I don’t have professional experience working with servers, server setup, or server troubleshooting.

For anyone who has gone through the AWS L3 DCO interview process, what was your experience like? What topics did they focus on, what technical concepts are most important to understand, and what would you recommend prioritizing if you only had 6 days to prepare?

Any advice is welcome, thanks in advance.

What exactly are data centres and what are they used for ? In simple understandable language

As stated in the title I don't have any actual work experience in the tech field yet as I just graduated with a bachelors in cloud and network engineering. I do how ever have minimal experience managing people in one of my positions where I managed a gym. In this position I would be managing a team of 8 people in a data center called "Novva" and I don't know how to prep for the interview. It's this Thursday. The guy interviewing me is a family acquaintance and seems genuinely interested in me, but I'm sure I still need to come off as competent in order to get a job. What should I do to prep? What kind of questions are typically asked for a roll like this? Also here is a my resume.

Edit:

Just wanted to clarify some things about this post.

1. No I do not think that I am qualified for this position nor do I expect to actually get the job. I do however want to make a good impression in the interview as it could lead to future possible roles with the company when an entry level position becomes available. He already knows that I'm not qualified for the position and is still deciding to interview me anyways after looking over my resume.
2. The interviewer is an Eagle Scout and I already know that he will appreciate that little note on the resume. No I will not keep it on the resume when I apply to other jobs as it's not the most relevant thing when it comes to the tech field. The one month span is how long my Eagle scout project took. Not how long it took me to get my Eagle scout. To become an Eagle Scout took me a multiple years.
3. I'd appreciate real advice on how to prep rather than people telling me that I'm not qualified for the position. Any person in their right mind can see that. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. I don't care. This is still an interview where I can gain interview experience wither I'm qualified or not.

Hi,

I recently received two contract offers (2 different teams) for opportunities in Europe with Google.

The first is a Project Manager with heavy MEP technical knowledge. The other is electrical subject matter expert.

The money is comparable, travel is similar, qualified for both and both positions interest me. I’m at a crossroads in which offer to pursue and looking for some input/insights.

Hello, everyone!
I have a Google Data Center Technician II technical interview coming up soon, and I’m feeling a bit nervous. For those who have interviewed for this role or currently work in data center operations, what kinds of technical questions or topics should I expect?
Any advice on how to prepare, what to focus on, or what the interview process is like would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your help!

Hey everyone, I passed my technical screening interview with flying colors and have my loop interviews coming up soon.

I was wondering if anyone who’s gone through the process would be willing to share what to expect or any advice on how to prepare.

Anything would be appreciated. Thanks!

For those working in facilities hosting H100 clusters: when an H100 tenant’s contract ends and they move to B200 or B300, what usually happens to the H100 racks? Do they get re-leased as-is to a new tenant, sold off, or sit idle for a while?

And with Blackwell needing more power per rack and often liquid cooling, does the space usually get reworked for the new generation instead of staying H100?

Trying to understand how H100 fleets are actually aging out in US facilities.

I have 4 years distribution engineering experience, 1 year HVAC I have a ME degree. I was looking into the data center career path. Would it be more beneficial to get a PE in power vs HVAC? What side would have more opportunities in data centers?

I am wondering what kind of questions are they going to ask about Leadership or behavioral questions for google data center technician,Could you guys share me some of your experience ?

Do I have to wait 6 months to reapply to AWS if I miss my final interview?

I had my final interview for an L3 DCO role scheduled today, but woke up with a high fever and a severe sore throat. I tried rescheduling, but the recruiter said all interview slots were filled.
Does anyone know if I’d still have to wait 6 months to reapply, even though I couldn’t attend due to being sick?