work has me stressed, throwing me into the fire!

joemysterio

I'm the typical computer guy that friends and family go to for help. That was the extent of my experience until I started working as a driver and pc tech about 6 months ago. A few months ago, my work decided to send me to a client site to train with a co-worker but when I got there, my co-worker informed me he was leaving. So I trained with him for only a week, and I took over his role temporarily.

I spent a few months as the temp until they decided to hire a driver and told me I'd be full time working with the client. I'm not the only one here though, I have 3 other co-workers who are also full time with this particular client. Just yesterday, I was informed that the most experienced one is being pulled out to work on another project/client in 2 weeks time. My boss told the client that they have only the remaining guys (me included, obviously) to continue working there, and that the client can decide what role we will be playing from now on.

Well, the client told me that of the remaining three, he feels I have potential and has the most confidence in me to take over the role my co-worker will be vacating in a few weeks. This blew my mind. The client told me that I'm going to have to work my butt off to train with my co-worker and learn as much as I can in those 2 weeks. I have to learn AD, Exchange, and general networking knowledge.

All I have is my A+ certification with 6 months IT experience (only 3 in desktop support), and I barely started studying a week ago for the Net+ cert. *sigh* I'm stressed...



Any advice or thoughts?

shodown

chin down, stay calm. Use the various online forms. Get a listing of the current issues that come in the most and start looking up with the most common fixes are and keep a lot of troubleshooting steps in your history.

Study at night and most important stay calm.


This has the potential to be the launch pad to get your career going in the right direction.

ajs1976

What version of Windows & Exchange? Find review style books for each topic version and read it quickly cover to cover. The object isn't to study and pass the exam but to get a quick overview of the product, features that are available and basic administration. As you are doing that dig into topics you need to know more about.

volume

When you're fed up or stressed about life, just remember, you will be dead & forgotten soon, so nothing really matters. Have a great day

-- Ricky Gervais

petedude

@joemysterio: Many would simply say, "lucky you!" You get to learn all those technologies and get paid for it.

I recommend-- Use any resources the folks at this board point you to, and lab like crazy in your off-time if you can.

gbdavidx

i wish i could learn and practice exchange

N2IT

joemysterio wrote: »

I'm the typical computer guy that friends and family go to for help. That was the extent of my experience until I started working as a driver and pc tech about 6 months ago. A few months ago, my work decided to send me to a client site to train with a co-worker but when I got there, my co-worker informed me he was leaving. So I trained with him for only a week, and I took over his role temporarily.

I spent a few months as the temp until they decided to hire a driver and told me I'd be full time working with the client. I'm not the only one here though, I have 3 other co-workers who are also full time with this particular client. Just yesterday, I was informed that the most experienced one is being pulled out to work on another project/client in 2 weeks time. My boss told the client that they have only the remaining guys (me included, obviously) to continue working there, and that the client can decide what role we will be playing from now on.

Well, the client told me that of the remaining three, he feels I have potential and has the most confidence in me to take over the role my co-worker will be vacating in a few weeks. This blew my mind. The client told me that I'm going to have to work my butt off to train with my co-worker and learn as much as I can in those 2 weeks. I have to learn AD, Exchange, and general networking knowledge.

All I have is my A+ certification with 6 months IT experience (only 3 in desktop support), and I barely started studying a week ago for the Net+ cert. *sigh* I'm stressed...



Any advice or thoughts?

Love it man this is a great time. You'll learn a ton and grow as an IT professional These are the best opportunities!

coreyb80

Take it as both a challenge and opportunity to better yourself in the IT realm. This is an excellent opportunity for you so embrace and run with it.

joemysterio

Don't get me wrong, I'm really appreciative of this opportunity but it's scary and stressful as hell for me lol. I found tons of videos from ITFreeTraining on youtube that I started watching last night, trying to get myself up to date with AD. I'm going to check later to see if they have Exchange as well. I'm still going to continue reading/studying my Net+ book as well.

This client uses a mix of Server 2003 R2 and 2008 R2 for the servers. Exchange is on a 2008 R2 machine. I'm not sure, but I think they are going to switch over to 2012 R2 but I will have to ask about that tomorrow.


Over these next two weeks, I will only have 5 total days with my co-worker to train. Not sure if I mentioned that in my OP, but that's another thing that's got me stressed.

kohr-ah

First relax and dont stress. Just think how awesome it is that they were confident in you.

Just look at is as a way to learn. Being thrown into the fire sometimes is the best and fastest way to learn and understand that I am sure they dont expect you to be an expert at it. Relax, go with it, learn everything you can from it and keep rolling with it.

Like others said look at this as a great step in your career!

danny069

Great opportunity to learn on the job and on the job is the best experience that you can't get from a book or exam.

Essendon

Jeez man, I wish the same happened to me too! This is a golden opportunity, dont let go.

I bet they arent going to ask you to start designing Exchange or complex ADFS environments, so dont stress. Create a lab at home/work, throw Exchange on a VM or two and start learning.

Snow.bros

Your passion and interest should be your guidance in this instance just remember to always keep an open mind in everything that will be taught to you.

All the best with your adventure!!!

Trifidw

joemysterio wrote: »

Any advice or thoughts?

You Career just got accelerated. Make the most of the the time with the other colleague, ask as many questions as you can think of and familiarise yourself with as much of the setup as you can. After a couple of weeks it will be like normal and you won't be stressed out by it.

Geetar28

Take notes...take notes...then take more notes. Ask the fellow that is there for the next 5 days what the top 4-5 issues are that he deals with and ....TAKE NOTES. Repeat the mantra "Google is your friend" and be glad that you have someone for the next 5 days. Ask him if he has any notes he'd be willing to share.

It is stressful...but obviously the client sees your potential, just do the best you can, that's all they can ask for. Things will calm down for you eventually.

RouteMyPacket

lol...welcome to IT. Trial by fire..that's how the real pros learn. It sucks while its going on but after it's over and looking back it will have been an amazing ride and one you hopefully learned a ton from.

As someone mentioned before, the number one rule is

Stay Calm

The most you can probably get out of the other IT person is general knowledge so make sure to create a checklist for each system

1. IP Addresses of each system
2. Access Credentials

From there I would begin going through the interfaces getting a feel for them with him.