New Job - 1st Impressions

RouteThisWay

Hey guys! I started my new job yesterday and am now on Day 2. As with any other job i have started, I feel a bit... overwhelmed. I assume this will eventually pass as it always does, it is just having to learn a whole new set of inhouse apps, acronyms, etc lol.

Traveling today to accompany the head sales guy to a sales meeting a couple hours away to meet with some of the outside sales guys. Tomorrow I am traveling with my boss to our manufacturing plant which is about an hour away in the other direction. A lot of travel. Thank god I get a car allowance Although I wont be driving either time lol.

Without going into too much detail, there is A LOT of work to be done. Bad, because prior people to my boss and I didn't really follow best practices and it is going to be a lot of work getting everything overhauled... Good, because I will be getting a TON of experience with vmware, citrix, router/switch configuration aka networking lol, voip via shoretel, some sql, tons of server work, etc. I am def up to the challenge

One of the changes we are making is that we are going from a no help desk solution to implementing one. Spice Works is pretty awesome! It was ironic because I recall a post not too long ago with people praising it. So far... I can see why. It is awesome!

All and all... I am happy with my decision to leave my old job (help desk t1/t2) for this one (system administrator). I will still be doing help desk work until we can justify the cost of hiring a t1 guy (ty SpiceWorks time management), but the call volume doesn't seem to be what it was at my old gig and I have a ton more higher level responsibilities in my realm of work duties.

Hypntick

Glad to hear things are going well for you. Should be a good time playing with all that stuff and getting it to a managable state. Kinda hope to find something like that myself sometime soon.

ibcritn

This is the same way I transitioned from Help Desk to Sys admin!

Good luck!

Turgon

RouteThisWay wrote: »

Hey guys! I started my new job yesterday and am now on Day 2. As with any other job i have started, I feel a bit... overwhelmed. I assume this will eventually pass as it always does, it is just having to learn a whole new set of inhouse apps, acronyms, etc lol.

Traveling today to accompany the head sales guy to a sales meeting a couple hours away to meet with some of the outside sales guys. Tomorrow I am traveling with my boss to our manufacturing plant which is about an hour away in the other direction. A lot of travel. Thank god I get a car allowance Although I wont be driving either time lol.

Without going into too much detail, there is A LOT of work to be done. Bad, because prior people to my boss and I didn't really follow best practices and it is going to be a lot of work getting everything overhauled... Good, because I will be getting a TON of experience with vmware, citrix, router/switch configuration aka networking lol, voip via shoretel, some sql, tons of server work, etc. I am def up to the challenge

One of the changes we are making is that we are going from a no help desk solution to implementing one. Spice Works is pretty awesome! It was ironic because I recall a post not too long ago with people praising it. So far... I can see why. It is awesome!

All and all... I am happy with my decision to leave my old job (help desk t1/t2) for this one (system administrator). I will still be doing help desk work until we can justify the cost of hiring a t1 guy (ty SpiceWorks time management), but the call volume doesn't seem to be what it was at my old gig and I have a ton more higher level responsibilities in my realm of work duties.

It's great experience but as it's a mess you could get burned at any time, anywhere.

Try not to take too much on the first few weeks. Being new you are vulnerable so stay out of trouble. Make a list and concentrate on what you can do confidently and quickly without..

1. Breaking something you know little about
2. Incuring costs to the employer
3. Causing problems for end users

If you are not sure about something, dont do it. Always ask yourself 'Do I really know what Im doing? What is the risk I might break something here?'

Suggest you go through the priorities with the new boss regularly. When you are doing this less often you will know you are going well.

Make friends there and be nice to people. Dont jump to conclusions about people as it's too soon for that. Every working relationship is important.

Good Luck.

RouteThisWay

Thanks guys!


and Turgon, thank you very much That is some solid advice I will definitely keep in mind!

it_consultant

RouteThisWay wrote: »

Hey guys! I started my new job yesterday and am now on Day 2. As with any other job i have started, I feel a bit... overwhelmed. I assume this will eventually pass as it always does, it is just having to learn a whole new set of inhouse apps, acronyms, etc lol.

Traveling today to accompany the head sales guy to a sales meeting a couple hours away to meet with some of the outside sales guys. Tomorrow I am traveling with my boss to our manufacturing plant which is about an hour away in the other direction. A lot of travel. Thank god I get a car allowance Although I wont be driving either time lol.

Without going into too much detail, there is A LOT of work to be done. Bad, because prior people to my boss and I didn't really follow best practices and it is going to be a lot of work getting everything overhauled... Good, because I will be getting a TON of experience with vmware, citrix, router/switch configuration aka networking lol, voip via shoretel, some sql, tons of server work, etc. I am def up to the challenge

One of the changes we are making is that we are going from a no help desk solution to implementing one. Spice Works is pretty awesome! It was ironic because I recall a post not too long ago with people praising it. So far... I can see why. It is awesome!

All and all... I am happy with my decision to leave my old job (help desk t1/t2) for this one (system administrator). I will still be doing help desk work until we can justify the cost of hiring a t1 guy (ty SpiceWorks time management), but the call volume doesn't seem to be what it was at my old gig and I have a ton more higher level responsibilities in my realm of work duties.

Welcome to the jungle! These kind of jobs can be so rewarding. One day you are recovering a SQL database from backup, another day you are replacing a firewall. Don't be afraid to seek manufacturer support when you find yourself having to use "break me" commands in production environments. Remember that fixing a stupid printer issue is just as important to perception as subnetting or setting up a killer server cluster.

RouteThisWay

Rather than start a new thread, figure I would update this one.

So I got fired.

Just kidding! I just wanted to start off with a little bit of induced drama

So, if I would have thought I would be where I am out now 5 months ago... I would never have believed it.

I am the lone System Administrator under the Director of IT. The company I worked for is owned by a guy who owns a couple small business that compliment each other's goals and direction. One is a chemical manufacturer and has now 2 plants (had 1 when I started...), a chemical reseller/distributor that has a main HQ I work at, and then it has 3 other branches.

I have done a TON in the last few months and have grown more in the last 3 months than I had in the last year and a half. Our two major networks both have vSphere infrastructures, with ~25 virtualized servers each. Both companies have remote offices that are connected via WAN VPN tunnels and are managed via Cisco ASA 5501's. Needless to say, I had to dust up on some Cisco CLI and some ASDM configs.

We have quoted to replace both hardware infrastructure for both companies VMWare presence. I was hired without too much virtualization experience, just a basic concept. They knew this. They hired me anyway. And right now, I am sitting in my plush hotel room finishing up the 2nd half of my week long VMWare class my boss sent me to. Which means, I can take my VCP in a few weeks as well with some more studying It shows a lot about a companies value in you if they are willing to not only help themselves by buying new hardware/software to support their business directives, but to also invest in the skillset of those running it. Every other company I have worked for before looked at the cost of the hw/sw, purchased and said "ok we're done, go learn it via google". This company (primarily my boss who used to be an SA) values knowledge, and values spending the money to do things right. They are shooting to pay for a week long class for something once every other quarter (twice a year), which will be supplemented by local or online training inbetween. Works for me.

I have migrated BES server to BESX, I have come up with slick documentation for our servers since the last guys who ran things felt documentation was optional (btw, SYDI rules for documentation). I have helped implement ticket tracking software, I have helped implement our new AV (Sunbelt Software - VIPRE) from an older one that was a resource hog. I reworked the entire backup process at one of the companies due to the old one failing nightly even before I got there.

The benefit I get out of wearing all of these hats, also means I have the negative. Yes, I do help desk tickets for users. But we do not have any desktops. All of our users are either on virtualized desktops, terminal servers via XenApp (looking to change TS software), or use travel laptops.

I read through posts from new guys asking for resume reviews, asking about spring boarding from Help Desk to something "better", asking for the correct path out, etc etc. It really reminds me of myself a few years ago when I joined these forums. I was doing Help Desk/ Desktop Support and felt like I was getting no where. I went out and got my A+ and Net+. I got my MCTS:AD. Everyone here encouraged me to keep at it, study hard, learn, and try to move on if I couldn't move up. And that's what I did. I really do owe a lot to some members here who helped me tremendously whether they know it or not (Veritas_Libertas, Hyper-Me, MikeJ, PlantWiz, EsMes, Forsaken_Ga, N2IT, Turgon and quite a few others.) They motivated me, encouraged me, inspired me, etc. It really did make a difference.

I decided to take a break from the boards because I didn't think me visiting TE within my 90 day probation period would be very impressive lol. I focused 100% on my new job and I will tell you what... they have given me 100% in return. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who encouraged me over the years from wanting to get into IT, getting my Help Desk job, and now having successfully transitioned into my full fledged System Administrator job. Yes, it did take years. But wow has it been worth it. Now time to go cruise the sites of this new city, and do some more VMWare studying tonight for the rest of my class

blargoe

Congratulations on your achievements, this is a great situation that will only get better for you. Thanks for sharing your story.

N2IT

Congratz

Glad things are working out for you!!!

powerfool

Congrats on this... even if things turn out to be a pain in the butt within the next two years, you will always have memories of this job, you can count on it. I would have to think that within the next two years, you will will grow even more than you expect today.

My advice in these situations is to start out with the low hanging fruit. But you have probably already figured that out.

Turgon

RouteThisWay wrote: »

Rather than start a new thread, figure I would update this one.

So I got fired.

Just kidding! I just wanted to start off with a little bit of induced drama

So, if I would have thought I would be where I am out now 5 months ago... I would never have believed it.

I am the lone System Administrator under the Director of IT. The company I worked for is owned by a guy who owns a couple small business that compliment each other's goals and direction. One is a chemical manufacturer and has now 2 plants (had 1 when I started...), a chemical reseller/distributor that has a main HQ I work at, and then it has 3 other branches.

I have done a TON in the last few months and have grown more in the last 3 months than I had in the last year and a half. Our two major networks both have vSphere infrastructures, with ~25 virtualized servers each. Both companies have remote offices that are connected via WAN VPN tunnels and are managed via Cisco ASA 5501's. Needless to say, I had to dust up on some Cisco CLI and some ASDM configs.

We have quoted to replace both hardware infrastructure for both companies VMWare presence. I was hired without too much virtualization experience, just a basic concept. They knew this. They hired me anyway. And right now, I am sitting in my plush hotel room finishing up the 2nd half of my week long VMWare class my boss sent me to. Which means, I can take my VCP in a few weeks as well with some more studying It shows a lot about a companies value in you if they are willing to not only help themselves by buying new hardware/software to support their business directives, but to also invest in the skillset of those running it. Every other company I have worked for before looked at the cost of the hw/sw, purchased and said "ok we're done, go learn it via google". This company (primarily my boss who used to be an SA) values knowledge, and values spending the money to do things right. They are shooting to pay for a week long class for something once every other quarter (twice a year), which will be supplemented by local or online training inbetween. Works for me.

I have migrated BES server to BESX, I have come up with slick documentation for our servers since the last guys who ran things felt documentation was optional (btw, SYDI rules for documentation). I have helped implement ticket tracking software, I have helped implement our new AV (Sunbelt Software - VIPRE) from an older one that was a resource hog. I reworked the entire backup process at one of the companies due to the old one failing nightly even before I got there.

The benefit I get out of wearing all of these hats, also means I have the negative. Yes, I do help desk tickets for users. But we do not have any desktops. All of our users are either on virtualized desktops, terminal servers via XenApp (looking to change TS software), or use travel laptops.

I read through posts from new guys asking for resume reviews, asking about spring boarding from Help Desk to something "better", asking for the correct path out, etc etc. It really reminds me of myself a few years ago when I joined these forums. I was doing Help Desk/ Desktop Support and felt like I was getting no where. I went out and got my A+ and Net+. I got my MCTS:AD. Everyone here encouraged me to keep at it, study hard, learn, and try to move on if I couldn't move up. And that's what I did. I really do owe a lot to some members here who helped me tremendously whether they know it or not (Veritas_Libertas, Hyper-Me, MikeJ, PlantWiz, EsMes, Forsaken_Ga, N2IT, Turgon and quite a few others.) They motivated me, encouraged me, inspired me, etc. It really did make a difference.

I decided to take a break from the boards because I didn't think me visiting TE within my 90 day probation period would be very impressive lol. I focused 100% on my new job and I will tell you what... they have given me 100% in return. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who encouraged me over the years from wanting to get into IT, getting my Help Desk job, and now having successfully transitioned into my full fledged System Administrator job. Yes, it did take years. But wow has it been worth it. Now time to go cruise the sites of this new city, and do some more VMWare studying tonight for the rest of my class

Good post. You have landed one of those acid test roles there where there is a lot going on and a lot to focus on. My first job was similar. You have made some good decisions. In a new job you stay off the web and concentrate on everything and anything you need to do that is work related. So you basically **** your cert plans temporarily as well, certainly on works time and in the evenings and weekends scale it right back because there will be plenty of things to research and think over that are work related when you are in a new job and sat at home.

Far too many people get into a cert groove, get a new job and then want to keep certing on works time. Unless you are sent on a course the first few months forget it. If you want to learn to be competant never mind good at your new job you wont have time for all that. Your time at work in a new job is far too valuable to be sitting around doing practice tests or reading cert books and CBTs. There is a lot of things you need to be spending time learning on the job just to be able to do the work, and there's plenty of that!

Nice you are on the VCP course. Sounds like a good company.

RouteThisWay

Turgon wrote: »

plenty of things to research and think over that are work related when you are in a new job and sat at home.

This is completely true. More true than I anticipated. Most nights when I go home I am doing research, connecting via VPN to do some maintenance, etc.

Heck, even while I am away at training this week... I have VPNd in every night from the hotel room and done some work. I don't have the distractions at home (i.e, significant other lol) so I can crank out some reports/docs/etc.

I have learned fast that once you get to a certain level in IT where you are managing and responsible for some part (or all heh) of the business' uptime to ensure money can be made... IT is not 8-5. You may work 8-5, however.. there just is not enough time in a work day with all the distractions at the office to get what needs to be done. Especially on the research side of things. People (non-IT management)like to see action, milestones reached, project % going up, etc. They don't want to see research because it is an intangible.

But you know what? It is everything I hoped for.

Turgon

RouteThisWay wrote: »

This is completely true. More true than I anticipated. Most nights when I go home I am doing research, connecting via VPN to do some maintenance, etc.

Heck, even while I am away at training this week... I have VPNd in every night from the hotel room and done some work. I don't have the distractions at home (i.e, significant other lol) so I can crank out some reports/docs/etc.

I have learned fast that once you get to a certain level in IT where you are managing and responsible for some part (or all heh) of the business' uptime to ensure money can be made... IT is not 8-5. You may work 8-5, however.. there just is not enough time in a work day with all the distractions at the office to get what needs to be done. Especially on the research side of things. People (non-IT management)like to see action, milestones reached, project % going up, etc. They don't want to see research because it is an intangible.

But you know what? It is everything I hoped for.

That is correct. And at that point in your career you will have little or no time on workstime to study for certifications anymore. You have work to do that somebody is waiting on.

vCole

Glad to hear you're loving it! Sounds like an excellent gig.

Dakinggamer87

Congrats on the new job!!

Sounds like an amazing opportunity

I'm hoping to move into a Systems/Network Admin. as well very soon with the same type of work in mutiple roles/duties.

RouteThisWay

Dakinggamer87 wrote: »

Congrats on the new job!!

Sounds like an amazing opportunity

I'm hoping to move into a Systems/Network Admin. as well very soon with the same type of work in mutiple roles/duties.

It is

I am sure you will get it Just gotta stay positive and confident (which sounds like you are) and it will happen

MickQ

Nice one! It's great to hear such a story of things working out really well.