When Erin Brockovich was released 26 years ago—and Julia Roberts won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the titular role—Brockovich came face-to-face with at least two new things that scared her. The first was fame. The second was a $1 million offer to grace the cover of Playboy. It wasn’t the Playboy part that scared her. Rather, it was what her father would think.

“My father was alive, and he would have been disappointed in me,” she says. When she got the call to sit down for The Playboy Interview, Brockovich thought to herself, Here we go again. “I said something to my daughter about it, and she goes, ‘Clothes on or off?’”

In the decades since the world was first introduced to her, Brockovich, 66, hasn’t slowed down. She’s spent the last 30 years exposing the bad actions of powerful people, challenging institutions over environmental injustices on behalf of communities stretching from Flint, Mich., to Beverly Hills, Calif. She’s done this while helping pass federal legislation, writing books, and becoming a star on the speaker circuit. She has a new foe in data centers, which Brockovich contends are being built without transparency and against the wishes of the residents who live in the rural communities in which they’re appearing.

“I did not vote for Elon Musk or Sam Altman or Anthropic or Peter Thiel to run the world. I didn’t, and I don’t want that to happen," she told us in The Playboy Interview.

Read now: https://www.playboy.com/read/culture/erin-brockovich-playboy-interview

Taking a break from my homework to share my story a little bit and to tell everyone I accepted a position at Google!

I’m a career changer. Came from doing construction and telecom work. 36 yrs old. I decided I wanted change and to get off the road working so I went to school to finish my degree, but chose cloud computing and network engineering at WGU in 2024.

It’s changed my life. Ever since returning to school, I’ve worked projects for Microsoft, K-love radio and FTE for Coreweave as a tech.

Anything is possible and don’t give up. Keep grinding g and pushing yourself and putting yourself out there. Keep growing and don’t ever give up. Good things will come. Don’t be afraid of taking some contract work. That’s what I did and it’s paid off.

Now I am a level 2 tech for Google on the network side I believe. Never thought I’d say that ever.

I was checking some devices scheduled for replacement and noticed this uplink with an SFP that wasn't even locked

These pics are where we’re moving FROM, and this is way cleaner than when we started haha

Revel in my frustration!

I got a new job at a DC about a month ago. Trying to find a place to stay has been tricky at best. Finally got into an apartment that’s brand new….and it isn’t available until Dec 1st. So I’m roughing it in my 2018 Model S, gym membership for showers. There’s a ChargePoint station at a Hyvee that’s free so I plug in there every night. Sleeping in the front seat isn’t too bad with the pillows. I wake up about 2:45 and head to the gym, workout for a bit then shower. Then around 7am I head to the DC to work. They have lockers there so I store most of my things there and in the back of the car. Not sure why I was actually excited to try and live this way after having decent accommodations previously. Still got a ways to go yet. Will update soon.

**EDIT 10/29/26 - appreciate the folks who have reached out and commented here. I think I’m going to make a go at this and just document and update what I do for the next ~30 days. Thought about doing a website to do daily blog/video.

**EDIT 10/30/26 - Decided to launch a website to document the month of November, domain URL link coming soon.

**EDIT 11/06/26 - Today I was interviewed by Business Insider about this experience. Appreciate all the feedback, offers of lodging and advice from others who have done the same!

I recently went through the AWS Data Center Technician (DCO) interview process. I got rejected, but I prepared seriously, and I want to share everything in one place so others don't have to start from scratch.

This is the guide I wish I had found before I started.

Table of Contents

1. What the role actually is

2. What the interview looks like

3. Technical areas to study

4. The troubleshooting formula that works

5. Behavioral prep — STAR stories

6. Amazon Leadership Principles for DCO

7. Full list of expected questions

8. Questions to ask the interviewer

9. What not to say

10. The honest lesson

1. What the Role Actually Is

AWS DCO is not a desk job. It is a hands-on, shift-based, operational role inside a data center.

Day to day, you are:

• Handling tickets for hardware failures, network issues, and component replacements.

• Following runbooks and safety procedures.

• Documenting everything — every step, every result.

• Escalating issues with clean evidence when they are outside your scope.

• Working rotating shifts, weekends, and on-call rotations.

The interview reflects this. They want to know if you can think clearly under pressure, follow process safely, and communicate honestly when things go wrong.

2. What the Interview Looks Like

• Expect 1.5 to 2+ hours total, sometimes split across multiple rounds.

• The split is roughly 20–30% technical and 70–80% behavioral / leadership principles.

• Yes, you read that right. Most of it is not hardware questions. It is psychology and storytelling.

• The interviewer may guide you through questions to give you chances to hit the right points, but the bar is still real.

3. Technical Areas to Study

You do not need to be a hardware engineer. You need to be able to troubleshoot logically and explain your reasoning clearly.

Hardware Basics

• BIOS / UEFI and POST.

• CPU, RAM, DIMMs, motherboard, PSU.

• HDD vs SSD vs NVMe.

• IPMI / BMC, what it is and when you use it.

• ESD precautions and thermal paste basics.

• Basic RAID concept (redundancy and disk failure).

Networking Basics

• OSI Layers 1, 2, and 3.

• Switch vs router.

• DHCP and DNS.

• TCP handshake (SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK).

• SSH — what it is and what port it uses.

• Subnets and default gateway.

Fiber Basics

• Single-mode vs multi-mode fiber.

• SFP transceivers.

• VFL (Visual Fault Locator) — what it does and when to use it.

• Loopback tests.

• Light meter basics.

Linux Commands to Know

• ping — basic reachability.

• ip addr — Check the interface and IP.

• ip route — Check the gateway.

• traceroute — trace path to destination.

• nslookup / dig — DNS testing.

• journalctl — system logs.

• dmesg — kernel and hardware messages.

• systemctl status — check service status.

• lsblk — list block storage.

4. The Troubleshooting Formula That Works

Use this structure for every single technical question. Everyone.

1. Clarify — confirm the symptom and scope from the ticket.

2. Impact — which service is affected, and how severe?

3. Safety — ESD, access rules, what procedure applies?

4. Physical checks — start with the simplest things first.

5. Isolate — one variable at a time.

6. Runbook — follow the approved procedure.

7. Verify — confirm the fix actually worked.

8. Document — every step, every result, timestamps.

9. Escalate — with clear evidence if it is outside your scope.

This formula shows them exactly what they want: structured thinking, safety awareness, and documentation discipline.

5. Behavioral Prep — STAR Stories

This is where most people underestimate the prep needed.

You need at least 8 to 10 stories, covering different situations. Using the same story twice across interviewers is one of the biggest mistakes you can make — they compare notes.

Story Types to Prepare

• Difficult technical problem with a root cause that wasn't obvious.

• Frustrated or stressed customer.

• Mistake you made and how you recovered.

• Time you disagreed with a decision and how you handled it.

• Time you had to learn something quickly.

• Time you worked under high pressure.

• Process or documentation improvement you drove.

• Escalation where you handed off clean evidence.

• Ambiguous situation with incomplete information.

• Long-term result that required consistency.

STAR Format

• S — Situation (15–25 seconds): context, what was happening.

• T — Task (10–15 seconds): your specific responsibility.

• A — Action (45–75 seconds): exact steps you took. Say I, not we.

• R — Result (15–30 seconds): what changed, with numbers if possible.

• Lesson — add one sentence on what you learned or would do differently.

Most Important Rule

The result is what most people make too weak. If your story ends without a clear, concrete outcome, the whole story feels unfinished. Every story needs a landing.

6. Amazon Leadership Principles for DCO

You do not need to memorize all 16. Focus on these 8 for DCO specifically.

7. Full List of Expected Questions

Opening

• Tell me about yourself.

• Why AWS? Why DCO specifically?

• Why are you making this transition?

• What do you know about the DCO role?

Behavioral

• Tell me about a time you solved a difficult technical problem.

• Tell me about a time you had a frustrated customer.

• Tell me about a time you made a mistake.

• Tell me about a time you disagreed with a decision.

• Tell me about a time you had to learn something quickly.

• Tell me about a time you worked under pressure.

• Tell me about a time you simplified a complex process.

• Tell me about a time you had to deal with ambiguity.

• Tell me about something you are proud of.

• Tell me about a project that didn't go the way you wanted.

Technical

• How would you troubleshoot a server that does not power on?

• How would you troubleshoot a server that does not POST?

• A server has 12 DIMM slots but only 6 are recognized. What do you do?

• What is IPMI / BMC?

• Explain OSI Layers 1, 2, and 3.

• What is DHCP? What is DNS?

• What is the difference between a switch and a router?

• How would you troubleshoot no network connectivity?

• What is a VFL?

• What is an SFP?

• How would you troubleshoot Layer 1? Layer 2?

Role Fit

• Are you okay with rotating shifts, weekends, and on-call?

• Are you comfortable with physical handling?

• What would you do if you didn't know the answer?

• What would you do if a senior told you to skip a runbook step?

• How would you prioritize three urgent tickets at once?

8. Questions to Ask the Interviewer

Do not skip this. Not asking questions is a red flag. Prepare at least four.

1. What does success look like for a new DCO technician after 3 to 6 months?

2. What are the most common tickets a new technician should master first?

3. How does the team balance speed, SLA pressure, and safety when they are in tension?

4. How is training structured for new technicians?

5. What mistakes do new technicians most commonly make?

6. What separates a good DCO technician from a great one after the first year?

7. What does great ticket documentation look like here?

9. What Not to Say

10. The Honest Lesson

I prepared for four days before the interview. That was not enough for this role.

The technical part is not impossible — if your background is in engineering or support, you can handle it. But the behavioral side and the story quality matter just as much, maybe more. My stories were not strong enough in the result part, and that cost me.

If you are preparing for AWS DCO:

• Start at least 2 weeks out.

• Practice stories out loud, not just in your head.

• Treat the behavioral section as the main event.

• Make every story end with a concrete, specific result.

• If you use AI tools to prep — use them for bullet points and structure, not as a replacement for actually knowing your material.

Good luck. The interview is fair. The process is transparent. You just need to actually prepare for it.

Weeks away from commissioning this remodel in Indy and the teams were buzzing today! Edge datacenter with 2MW critical scaling to 17MW. Enjoy!

Its mind boggling the amount of metro regions with multiple gigawatts of live and committed builds. Future looks bright for the industry.

I spent 20 years in the automotive industry, including owning my own repair shop. No engineering degree, no IT background.
I recently made the jump into Google’s data center operations.
A year ago, I wouldn’t have thought my experience would qualify me for a job like this. Turns out, a lot of the skills I’ve spent my career developing transfer surprisingly well.
I had some help figuring out how to make the transition, and I’d like to pay that forward.
If you’re in the trades and have ever considered a career change, ask away. Happy to share what I learned about the application process, interviews, and getting my foot in the door.

36 ports 400G for a new IXP, all in 1RU

Had to share a picture of our new deployment. Have to love that fresh rack look.

We're a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that builds Internet infrastructure and services to help people evade censorship and protect their right to privacy.

https://unredacted.org/

More data center goodness in our Detroit facility

Keep getting this error on many websites any idea what it is, no way there data centre actually caught on fire right?

Hope I don’t get fired! Eeek

So for context, I'm writing this at 9:34 pm CST on the night Netflix is hosting the Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul boxing match, and Netflix is down for thousands. Netflix's response so far seems to be saying "It's on your end." Doesn't seem very likely to me, but I'd like to hear other folks' thoughts."

For anyone trying to learn more about data center infrastructure or break into mission critical operations, I wanted to share a free training resource I found useful.

Schneider Electric has a Data Center Certified Associate (DCCA) Learning Path that covers a broad range of foundational topics in one place.

1. Go to:

https://www.se.com/ww/en/work/support/myschneider/

2.Create a free account

3.Log in

4.Search for:

ENGPRDCS1001000

or

Data Center Certified Associate Exam Learning Path

5.Enroll and start the training

Topics include:

• Power systems

• Cooling systems

• Fire protection

• Data center infrastructure fundamentals

• Physical security

• Cabling basics

The training is free. The certification exam itself is optional and paid separately.

Good beginner cert for anyone interested in:

• Critical facilities

• Data centers

• Mission critical operations

• Facilities engineering

• Infrastructure operations

What makes this course stand out is that it connects the electrical, mechanical, cooling, and operational sides of the data center into one learning path instead of teaching them separately. A lot of the concepts covered are directly relevant to real world data center operations.

It’s honestly one of the best courses I’ve taken that bundles all of the core data center fundamentals into one place.

If anyone else has taken it, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

Edit: When it asks for a company you can type in anything, that's simply a placeholder.

Excited to officially share that I’ve accepted an Engineering Operations Technician (L3) position with AWS!
This has been a goal I’ve been working toward for a long time. Countless hours of studying electrical systems, mechanical troubleshooting, interview preparation, and learning Amazon’s Leadership Principles all paid off.
I’m incredibly grateful for everyone who supported me along the way. This is just the beginning—I plan to learn as much as I can, become the best technician possible, and work toward an L4 Engineering Operations Technician role.
Here’s to the next chapter. Time to get to work.