One Man Show

Anyone have any experience being the one guy for a medium sized business?

My supervisor is quitting and he was also their compliance officer, so that leaves just me to manage all Security and their entire infrastructure until they hire someone else. I'm a bit intimidated so I'm curious if anyone else has gone through this. I will definitely need to hire another guy to do what I do, so I wouldn't be opposed to hiring a fellow TE member.

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MeanDrunkR2D2

Mow wrote: »

@Kreken - I'm starting to suspect you might be his boss...

Or he's not exactly a fun person to be around. My guess is that he's a similar type of boss and doesn't think that he's a jerk.

IronmanX

MeanDrunkR2D2 wrote: »

Or he's not exactly a fun person to be around. My guess is that he's a similar type of boss and doesn't think that he's a jerk.

Well the boss just seems more like a business person then an IT person.

How much for a new phone system? and how much with that hurt the productivity of all the employees?
What are the risks to the business?
Current System: Machine Blows up and phone system will be down until your able to build back up from a back up.
New system: Migration blows up and you have to revert back to the old system. Performance issues. Usability issues. Bugs. etc...

Making major system suggestion after just a short time with the company and with little IT experience probably wasn't the greatest idea.

I've done this same thing (offended people by talking bad about there tech/system baby).
Years ago I was trying to help someone out with a ColdFusion web application I said something along the lines of that Cold Fusion is not powerful (Was having issues query a database that was a huge mess) and the reply was a quick Cold Fusion is plenty powerful. That is the last time they asked me for help haha.

Thinking back I really didn't mean it wasn't powerful. In my opinion the problem with these tools that try to take the coding out of development is that they are great and quick for doing what the creators designed them to do as soon as you start doing advanced/stuff out side of the box it gets messy quickly and doesn't handle it well.

thomas_

Kreken wrote: »

It was a deliberate choice of words.

I think it was a poor choice of deliberate words. If you're trying to imply that Markulous is perceiving himself to be the good guy who is trying to save the business from disaster without having made any errors or misjudgments on his part, then "infallible knight" would have done a better job. Using a "knight in spotless armour" gives the visual image of a knight who is meticulous about the appearance of his armour such that there are no spots and would be the equivalent os saying markulous wears clean clothes

markulous

I should have prefaced this in regards to the phone system but there's two reasons I brought it up:

1. The IT manager that died shortly after I got here had a quote in place and was very close to signing a deal with a SIP provider that was going to get everything over to VOIP here. The owner was well aware of this too.

2. I mentioned to my boss before that if the phone system went down, the potential loss of earnings, wages paid, repairs, etc. would be almost the same price as what it would cost to move to VOIP. If there was any kind of event here that brought down that system (power outage, etc), we'd be able to roll over our SIP traffic to another office within minutes, ensuring much higher availability.

TeKniques

I was a one-man show IT Manager for many years until I finally got budget/approval for a couple resources. In my experience this type of situation often comes with a huge sacrifice of not being able to have any sort of work-life balance. It seems that the prior manager probably was close to the owner and had a certain way of doing things. This usually makes it extremely difficult to bring any sort of real "change" to the environment. Like so many other things; change is hard and requires a bit of trust with key decision makers before it can be implemented. If you stay, you'll have to prove yourself to other mid-managers and specifically the owner before you can get things done your way. Personally, I would never go back to a situation like that - I'm sure I cut off a few years of my life by taking on loads of stress and being a single point of contact for all IT. Hopefully one of your interviews pans out - good luck.

IronmanX

markulous wrote: »

I should have prefaced this in regards to the phone system but there's two reasons I brought it up:

1. The IT manager that died shortly after I got here had a quote in place and was very close to signing a deal with a SIP provider that was going to get everything over to VOIP here. The owner was well aware of this too.

2. I mentioned to my boss before that if the phone system went down, the potential loss of earnings, wages paid, repairs, etc. would be almost the same price as what it would cost to move to VOIP. If there was any kind of event here that brought down that system (power outage, etc), we'd be able to roll over our SIP traffic to another office within minutes, ensuring much higher availability.

Fair enough. So this is system upgrade that has been in the planning but sounds like the boss is having second thoughts.

With the new hire (who seems desperate for a job) and the boss ignoring you i think you may be let go tomorrow.
BUT it sounds like they have had 2 IT guys for quite some time (Manager who died and the supervisor you had for a couple of weeks).
So who knows sounds like a bad place to work at to say the least.

markulous

It's definitely possible. He just tasked me with a couple projects so maybe not, but I'll expect the worst.

On a positive note, I got a final interview for one of the security analyst jobs I've been interviewing with. I am not sure if it's just me or if there's someone else I'm up against, but either way it's a good thing.

blatini

Congrats and goodluck with that dude

blatini

Mow wrote: »

@Kreken - I'm starting to suspect you might be his boss...

I missed this when scrolling through but my keyboard is covered in Jameson now. Well done

TechGromit

TeKniques wrote: »

I was a one-man show IT Manager for many years until I finally got budget/approval for a couple resources.

How does this work? How can you take vacations? Sick days? Take training? I can't imagine how you can get any time off without being hassled by some emergency while your on the beach on a tropical island.

NorrisMcWherter

#munchingpopcorn

markulous

Well not fired yet. I'm really optimistic this next week I get an offer somewhere. The new guy is interviewing next week also, so things won't look so good for them.

DatabaseHead

Yay!

MeanDrunkR2D2

Congrats on surviving the week. Let there be good news for you moving on in this coming week and you are in the drivers seat when it comes to your current employer.

markulous

Well the email I got Thursday afternoon said they just needed to schedule out my final interview, so I'm about 90% sure that will happen this week. I'll follow up with the other job I interviewed with 3 times and between the two I should hopefully be good.

MeanDrunkR2D2

That's definitely good news for ya man. Hope all goes well for you and you can move forward to a place that can truly allow you to grow and not be stressed like you are now. I have a big final interview with a large company in the area I'm relocating to tomorrow and will be traveling tonight after I get some work done and then be ready for a nice 3 hour interview. This is the company that I want to work for as they have all the paths towards some high level roles that I can grow into internally, as well as they pay relocation expenses and have a rather nice benefits package. It's intimidating, but I'm excited to hopefully get a shot to get on board with them. I should know within 2 weeks if they like me or not lol. And from what I gleaned from people I know internally the interviews will be mostly based on the STAR packet, so I'll be studying up those things and have good examples.

Good luck man! Hope for the best for you with that.

markulous

Thanks!

Good luck to you to. Let me know how it goes. Sounds like both of us has opportunities to move on to bigger and better things.

MeanDrunkR2D2

I will, just hopeful that this one will work out as it's the one I really want. The main difference between our searches are of course the reasons behind it. I do like my job and company and feel there is good growth. But, I live in a backwards state that values the rich and their tax cuts over the welfare of children once they are born and especially if they have disabilities. (It's your moronic neighbor state to the east, you could pick and you'd be right either way lol) So that is the reason behind my job search. If I had to deal with the crap you have, I'd probably go crazy. Good luck and I'll post any updates I get. I'll be heading out of town for the interview in a few hours, so I'll be sure to rest up and be ready for the interview.

markulous

Got a call from the other job I interviewed with two weeks ago. This was the one they reposted the job for whatever reason. This will be the 4th and final interview (So this is the 2nd job with a confirmed final interview). It's between me and one other guy. They told me I was ahead of everyone from a technical standpoint so hopefully I'm good.

scaredoftests

markulous wrote: »

Got a call from the other job I interviewed with two weeks ago. This was the one they reposted the job for whatever reason. This will be the 4th and final interview (So this is the 2nd job with a confirmed final interview). It's between me and one other guy. They told me I was ahead of everyone from a technical standpoint so hopefully I'm good.

4th? Wow. Good luck. Sending good cyber vibes to you.

markulous

Yeah, both of them have a 4 step interview process, which is a lot IMO. But I got a good feeling from both places on their culture, this one especially.

Thanks! Your cyber vibes have definitely paid off.

MeanDrunkR2D2

Awesome and good luck man. I just got out of my long interview and may have accidentally got a security job. I sold the crap out of myself and I have a feeling that 2 departments will be fighting for me. This was the final interview so I'll hear more very soon and on less than 2 weeks.

markulous

And now the other job wants a phone interview tomorrow AND another in-person interview on Thursday morning. It sounds like I should get one of these hopefully.

@MeanDrunk - Wow nice! Keep me updated. If you feel that good about it then sounds like you got it.

EnderWiggin

Will Markulous receive a new job offer this week? Will MeanDrunk also receive a job offer? Will the new guy quit as well? These questions, and many others, will be answered in the next episode of.... One Man Show.

markulous

That's awesome.

scaredoftests

@gettingthepopcornready

MeanDrunkR2D2

EnderWiggin wrote: »

Will Markulous receive a new job offer this week? Will MeanDrunk also receive a job offer? Will the new guy quit as well? These questions, and many others, will be answered in the next episode of.... One Man Show.

Hopefully for the two of us the answer is "Yes". And if the new guy goes too, will the show be called the "No Man Show"?

It's a race now Markulous. Which one of us escapes first?

markulous

The race is on!

I'm flying out to California on Friday, so I'm hoping I hear some good news then.

scaredoftests

markulous wrote: »

The race is on!

I'm flying out to California on Friday, so I'm hoping I hear some good news then.

Just curious, but are they paying for you to fly out there?

markulous

Oh no, this isn't related to job searching. I'm visiting some friends. Both jobs are local to here. I'm just hoping I get an offer before the weekend because I'm way too impatient.