Did a new job ever bore you to death?

rizzo777

Has anyone here ever started a new job and walked into something totally different than you expected? and also 90% of the time there is NOTHING to do??

LoMo

I'm in that situation now. First few weeks I just sat around. Now that I am working I don't find the subject matter very interesting at all. On top of that, the nature of the job is such that you could have 50 tickets and if you can't get ahold of the users then you can't do anything.

Plus they won't let me study.

ehnde

LoMo wrote: »

Plus they won't let me study.

Sucks to be you. My work is indistinguishable from my studying

And no, I've never been bored at a new job...but I'm easily amused.

Armymanis

I have a contract position like this. They interviewed me to image Desktops to Windows 7 and I end up using no technical skills and deploying HP hardware. I have learned how to use a drill though, which I never knew how to before. I also learned about the various kinds of HP hardware and the models. So I guess I got something out of this.

themagicone

Well one of my last real jobs was working for a envelope stuffing equipment company. They had a contract to maintain 4 of their machines inside a bank. They had 3 full times techs stationed there and I was the 4th. Going into it I thought there be a lot of technical stuff and w/e. But, really all we did was sit there and watch machines stuff envelopes for 8 hours. Every 4 hours we'd have to spray them down with air to remove dust but that was it. Every week we'd take one apart to do a PM. I got yelled at because I was doing it too fast. Goal was to stretch the PM out over 4 days so there would be a little work to do. Worst part of the whole thing was it in the basement with no windows and just solid white walls. For 8 hours you'd hear nothing but the loud hum of the stuffers.

odysseyelite

I'm there as well. The job im at was titled as a system admin and its more of a desktop support role. I just got a esculated ticket from the helpless desk to log into a computer with admin rights (which they have) to run an update on a program.

I keep a pdf of the my Cisco book on hand. Ever now and then I'll be thrown a project, but even those can linger on because people are slow to respond. I spent 3 hours refreshing techexams, slickdeals and digg on Monday until it was time to go home.

The worst part is, when I get home im mentally drained from doing nothing and its hard to focus on studying.

I'll have 20 tickets in my queue of pointless outlook issues the helpdesk could not resolve. When i call the user's I leave a voicemail to never hear back. After a few weeks of no response I just close the ticket. It doesn't bother me if your printer or outlook is not working, mine works just fine.

Turgon

rizzo777 wrote: »

Has anyone here ever started a new job and walked into something totally different than you expected? and also 90% of the time there is NOTHING to do??

Before IT I tried a number of different types of jobs either before University or in the holidays or before my first IT job. All of them required work and none of them ever left with me with nothing to do. A lot of them were boring though and a good deal didn't work out too well. I need a job that interests me really if it's going to last sometime.

Mishra

Worked a year and a half at a job where I did nothing.

It was government too. Surprise?

Turgon

Mishra wrote: »

Worked a year and a half at a job where I did nothing.

It was government too. Surprise?

Are there many government jobs where you do nothing? What did we pay you for

pham0329

My last job was like this - I spent 99% of my time watching CBT Nuggets or labbing in PT or GNS3.

When I was interviewed, I was under the impression that it was a large company, with branch office internationally, and that they have a large client base to support (managed services).

After my first week, I found out that their 3 international offices have, at most, 3 users in each location and that what they meant by multiple clients was 1 client, with 5 users.

loxleynew

odysseyelite wrote: »

I'm there as well. The job im at was titled as a system admin and its more of a desktop support role. I just got a esculated ticket from the helpless desk to log into a computer with admin rights (which they have) to run an update on a program.

I keep a pdf of the my Cisco book on hand. Ever now and then I'll be thrown a project, but even those can linger on because people are slow to respond. I spent 3 hours refreshing techexams, slickdeals and digg on Monday until it was time to go home.

The worst part is, when I get home im mentally drained from doing nothing and its hard to focus on studying.

I'll have 20 tickets in my queue of pointless outlook issues the helpdesk could not resolve. When i call the user's I leave a voicemail to never hear back. After a few weeks of no response I just close the ticket. It doesn't bother me if your printer or outlook is not working, mine works just fine.

It's really eery how exactly the same my job and yours is. The only difference is I spent 3 hours refreshing techexams, espn, and fark until it was time to go home.

djfunz

Interesting topic. I'm in a system admin role as well. Just an apprentice though.

I find the work I'm doing very repetitive as well. Imaging mobile scanners, imaging computers and laptops, repairing paper jams, troubleshooting the mail client for users and installing software.

I really look forward to the day when I have more hands on with the network. I suppose this is a good experience though to see what desktop support is like.

Arysta

I've come to accept that all work is boring. These days, I'm less bored when I have nothing to do than when I'm actually working. I'm tier 1 help desk and it's the most boring, frustrating, annoying, aggravating job I've ever experienced. My faith in the intelligence of humanity has totally gone way down hill. I expect nothing from anyone anymore. Sometimes I miss doing data entry -- at least that was just boring.

shecool

I went through something very similar when I got a job in a NOC last summer (4mo contract). I remember asking about the position during the interview (since the posting was very vague) and I was pretty excited. After a bit I started considering myself the "IT Secretary". I was literally just answering the phones, crafting tickets, and informing customers of monitoring alarms. I was absolutely miserable there.

On the bright side, I was allowed to study Cisco material while I was there, and I did end up getting my CCNA during that summer.

Michael.J.Palmer

That was like the job I have now, for the first couple of months I was bored out of my mind most of the day. Unfortunately the boss figured that out and now I do almost three times as much work as everyone else just to stay busy.

N2IT

Mishra wrote: »

Worked a year and a half at a job where I did nothing.

It was government too. Surprise?

Hahaha

I tested windows boxes for 2 months then totally got derailed and sat and did nothing for 6 months lol