As a “computer guy”, one of the worst calls you can get after hours is a call from your companies’ monitoring center calling to let you know your equipment has failed, and someone needs to go fix it. I dread those phone calls, but at the same time…I love them! Before you peg me as a nutjob, let me explain.

Managing an aging system know for its reliability, security, and stability has its draw backs. Patches are far and few between, and unexpected failures are almost non-existent. This makes learning the crucial ins and out of a system a bit more difficult, since you really have no need to be poking around in it. Super powerful commands and tools available on the system remain unused for years at a time! Knowledge of these commands is slowly pushed into the darker nether regions making it harder and harder to remember. Even worse, the “new guy” is hired and the senior staff member doesn’t feel the need to cover certain commands or tools simply because they are rarely used, or even because he himself doesn’t recall them. The senior staff member leaves, and the “new guy” suddenly finds himself as the senior member. This is why some employees aren’t quite up to par on the workings of the system I work with. I dread the feeling of being just a person filling a chair so the company can get paid. If I’m there to maintain and manage a system, I want to truly learn the ins and outs of that system.

Once I get that phone call, I’m finally able to use some of these commands and tools to get the job done. Even better, sometimes I might not have any idea what needs to be done! Thats great, because the company has “Tier 3″ support available 24/7. Speaking to these fine people is a real pleasure since most of them have been working with this system for years, and deal with all kinds of emergencies almost daily by walking site personnel step by step over the phone through all kinds of procedures. I always learn something new when speaking with someone at Tier 3. A new command, a new feature, a new method of doing something, or even a better understanding of a current toolset. Imagine my surprise when this “new guy” suddenly started getting phone calls and e-mails from other site personnel in my district asking ME for help on something. Thats a good feeling, and one that I truly love.

A good friend of mine once told me something about IT work like ours, “We’re not paid to work, we’re paid to be there just in case.” Its in those “just in case” moments where I truly thrive and enjoy my line of work. You can keep the internet surfing time for yourselves, give me a system failure any day!

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