anyone here working as "the only i.t guy" in a company

anoeljr

Verities wrote: »

As the only IT guy, no matter how high up you move or whatever title you get, you will forever be known as the "IT guy". Pay bump and title change? Still the "IT guy". However, people will treat you like a king and feed you cookies/goodies/etc because you are the only one who can fix their computers. This is based on my experience as the only IT guy at a non-profit for a while.

+1
I was just the assistant IT guy at my first job, but I would always get nice things come the holiday season. It's like you're the big fish in the small pond lol.

Verities

anoeljr wrote: »

+1
I was just the assistant IT guy at my first job, but I would always get nice things come the holiday season. It's like you're the big fish in the small pond lol.

I gained 5-10 pounds working there from all the cookies/donuts/cake/food that people would give me.

Saal

Verities wrote: »

I gained 5-10 pounds working there from all the cookies/donuts/cake/food that people would give me.

Oh to indulge in the cube farm bribes..but alas at 48 yrs old I'm relegated to Topo Chico and a light salad.

--chris--

90% of the time I am "the only IT guy" for about a 100 different businesses. Working for an MSP that focuses on businesses with a user count between 10-100 makes this a daily occurrence.

How I find it:
I think its a great step up from my last job (desktop support in a hospital).

Pros:
Exposure to all sorts of problems, issues and scenarios
Helps build my business acumen by understanding how businesses generally view IT / IT costs
Everyday is something different

Cons:
limited exposure to truly enterprise level gear, problems, etc
most issues relate to incorrectly setup systems by previous support companies / internal actors which means most customers think "I've already paid for this once, just fix it enough to get it working and stop"...very frustrating when you are the type that wants to fix it all the way and future proof then document...
its uncommon to have to troubleshoot L2/L3 network issues, 99% of the time its a L1 (failed cable, disconnected, device bombed out, NIC died, etc). I have only run into one L2 issue in 6 months.
No one to escalate issues to / bounce ideas off from if they are truly advanced problems (frequently we carry vendor support if available, which means when things get real messy we are supposed to let the vendor handle the issue to save the client money...which means my troubleshooting time is cut short).

edit: My cons list is larger than my pros list, but this is not an overview of the job...merely how I view the technical work I do. If you want my opinion on the job and its work then its a 9/10.

techfiend

The MSP I interviewed with looked very stressful, just like the interview, but it seems like a great way to gain valuable experience. I never really understood why they interviewed me with no experience and just an A+ cert other than I answered most of the tech questions correctly.

Verities

Saal wrote: »

Oh to indulge in the cube farm bribes..but alas at 48 yrs old I'm relegated to Topo Chico and a light salad.

No cube farm. I worked IT aboard an aircraft carrier; I never knew how much manual labor IT could be.

mweaver84

bradl3yC wrote: »

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned or not, but if you're at a point your career where you're still working on your skillset, being the 'smartest guy in the room' might not be a good idea. If there were nobody for me to learn from at my current job, I would be getting my paperwork in order and start looking for the next move up.

However, if a paycheck and a comfortable work environment are enough and that job does it for you, go for it.

This is where I'm at... I'm definitely still working on skills and right now it is just me and the IT manager as the IT Dept. And seems like he has been more of a manager most of his career then an IT expert. I gotta figure out a lot of stuff on my own. I pretty much take care of everything and he works on other software projects the company is doing. I'm assuming it is good experience what I am doing but I definitely am feeling it is hurting me that there isn't someone there that can show me things and learn from.

I've worked at very large companies in a call center environment, worked in smaller companies where there was about 5 IT guys, and now this where I"m pretty much the only one. I definitely think the smaller companies where you work with a few others and can learn from them is DEFINITELY the way to go imo.

I actually loved the job where it was just 5 of us. The reason I left was because they brought in a new manager that micro managed the hell out of everyone. Everyone in department slowly left because of him.

--chris--

techfiend wrote: »

The MSP I interviewed with looked very stressful, just like the interview, but it seems like a great way to gain valuable experience. I never really understood why they interviewed me with no experience and just an A+ cert other than I answered most of the tech questions correctly.

The place I work at hired people with no tech experience/education/certs. They may have had a BS in another field....some places are willing to "train up" the right people.