Rant!

nel

Dammit im so frustrated right now!!! well and truely p!ssed off!

OK, started a new job 5 months back as a network engineer which is my 2nd network role. Was told i would be involved in alot of project work etc etc. The place aint bad to work at, pay is reasonable and i get on well with the folk. But heres the annoying thing, we have alot of interesting stuff going on - new wan implementations, new LAN installs using cisco Nexus switches, new firewall installs etc. So yeah it sounds good...until your told basically none of the team will be getting involved and contractors will be brought in to do it all!! what the hell is the deal with that!?!?! its total BS because that basically leaves us doing rubbish call tickets all day every day without getting involved in some interesting stuff!

anyone been in this situation before and what do you guys think the best way to approach this is? im so f*cked off at the minute wit this! you can tell the same thing happens all the time - contractors come in, do the work, leave with the knowledge and we are left to struggle to support it! arghhhh!!

sambuca69

nel wrote: »

anyone been in this situation before and what do you guys think the best way to approach this is? im so f*cked off at the minute wit this! you can tell the same thing happens all the time - contractors come in, do the work, leave with the knowledge and we are left to struggle to support it! arghhhh!!

lol... get yourself this: http://www.khznoise.net/lordkhz/guiness-big.gif

Pash

Doesn't happen at my shop, but there again I work for small engineering and consultancy firm. If you are in-house, I am normally someone who would be contracted in to do that stuff and provide documentation on the end setup. Not so much at the WAN level, because we don't usually support that side, we have partners whom do who I usually communicate with.

There is something you can do though. Speak to your line manager, explain that when you were recruited you were told that project work would be coming your way. Remember, it might not be this time around, but there may be other projects that come up soon and if you show you are keen, 9 times out of 10 you will be first on their list to overview new projects.

networker050184

I'd start looking for a new job. Sounds like they need a help desk jockey and not an engineer.

nel

networker050184 wrote: »

I'd start looking for a new job. Sounds like they need a help desk jockey and not an engineer.

Damn, only just landed this one . unfortunately it is looking like that because we are basically just picking up the crap. We've been asked to do OT for the project - to basically rack up the switches. Thats it!!

NightShade03

nel wrote: »

Dammit im so frustrated right now!!! well and truely p!ssed off!

OK, started a new job 5 months back as a network engineer which is my 2nd network role. Was told i would be involved in alot of project work etc etc. The place aint bad to work at, pay is reasonable and i get on well with the folk. But heres the annoying thing, we have alot of interesting stuff going on - new wan implementations, new LAN installs using cisco Nexus switches, new firewall installs etc. So yeah it sounds good...until your told basically none of the team will be getting involved and contractors will be brought in to do it all!! what the hell is the deal with that!?!?! its total BS because that basically leaves us doing rubbish call tickets all day every day without getting involved in some interesting stuff!

anyone been in this situation before and what do you guys think the best way to approach this is? im so f*cked off at the minute wit this! you can tell the same thing happens all the time - contractors come in, do the work, leave with the knowledge and we are left to struggle to support it! arghhhh!!

+1 for a new job. I am in this exact same situation no joke. I just finished interviewing for another company, even though I've only been here 6 months. You will be happier...run.

xwesleyxwillisx

NightShade03 wrote: »

+1 for a new job. I am in this exact same situation no joke. I just finished interviewing for another company, even though I've only been here 6 months. You will be happier...run.

I work for a small IT consulting firm but was contracted out into an augmentation role with a large company to do admin/help desk level stuff. Luckily it ends this month and I can tell you it has not been fun to watch coworkers implement projects left and right around me while I get to deal with stupid things like backups and server maintenance.

If you don't want to be doing steady-state work, I would talk to your immediate manager/supervisor and HR. If they don't have an open position I would start looking elsewhere.

Good luck.

mikej412

nel wrote: »

anyone been in this situation before and what do you guys think the best way to approach this is?

Yeah -- all the time

Get a job working for the VAR/Business partner or become an overpaid contractor and be the guy that comes in and gets to do the fun stuff.

nel

mikej412 wrote: »

Yeah -- all the time

Get a job working for the VAR/Business partner or become an overpaid contractor and be the guy that comes in and gets to do the fun stuff.

Yeah thats what im thinking after i wrap up my degree and CCNP

networker050184

nel wrote: »

Yeah thats what im thinking after i wrap up my degree and CCNP

Why wait? Apply now! The worst they can say is no.

nel

networker050184 wrote: »

Why wait? Apply now! The worst they can say is no.

Good point man, will probably have to head back down to england in search of work. Fingers crossed then!

Kaminsky

Had this once where they flew in two contractors from Finland at £1k a day each to put in this finance system. Local IT completely left out of the loop so we stayed out of the loop.

Soon enough they came to us saying they can't connect to their new server ..... "nothing to do with us.. your the contractors..." Eventually we were forced to give some advice why they couldn't connect to their new server. First question we asked - "What IP address have you given the server ?" ... /doh !

Few days later they had configured a user's PC which could connect fine but come roll out their user's couldn't get in... "Have you set up user accounts ?" ... /doh !

/sigh

Nel mate, this might be the first but it certainly won't be the last time this happens in your career. It's just part of the profession. No biggee.

laidbackfreak

nel wrote: »

Good point man, will probably have to head back down to england in search of work. Fingers crossed then!

oi that wall was put there for a reason......!

that said dont come to my place same ole promises here, in the last two years I've seen some fantastic stuff come into place and between 4 of us in the team we have the skills to put them all in. My boss calls the same firm in everytime to do the work, we as engineers do get to shadow them while they do the work and this is classed as our training!!

I'm outta here asap lol I've got another interview tomorrow for a network security role. The jd looks interesting and slightly odd so the job is gonna be fantastic or cr@p I'll let you know after.

laidbackfreak

Kaminsky wrote: »

Nel mate, this might be the first but it certainly won't be the last time this happens in your career. It's just part of the profession. No biggee.

yep well said Kam, sadly it happens all the time and people wonder why as IT professionals we move around so much.

nel

laidbackfreak wrote: »

oi that wall was put there for a reason......!

that said dont come to my place same ole promises here, in the last two years I've seen some fantastic stuff come into place and between 4 of us in the team we have the skills to put them all in. My boss calls the same firm in everytime to do the work, we as engineers do get to shadow them while they do the work and this is classed as our training!!

I'm outta here asap lol I've got another interview tomorrow for a network security role. The jd looks interesting and slightly odd so the job is gonna be fantastic or cr@p I'll let you know after.

haha, well i knew i would be heading back home from Ed at some point but didnt expect it to be maybe so soon! a similar thing happened in my last job which is why i looked about. Supposedly this job had alot of career development .

well back to the drawing board it is!!

UnixGuy

mikej412 wrote: »

Yeah -- all the time

Get a job working for the VAR/Business partner or become an overpaid contractor and be the guy that comes in and gets to do the fun stuff.

+1

this is the best (if not the only) way to get real experience.

Hyper-Me

I've been doing a lot of desktop support junk at my new job as well. It might just be cause we are the "new guys" and get the crap work.

If it doesnt pan out in a little while, I'll simply move on. I'd advise you to do the same.