Update on job I started Monday

A few weeks ago I posted about a job offer I recieved for a Windows 7 deployment at a local diesel engine plant. I figured I'd give anyone who was interested an update on how that was going.

We started the power sweep short two lead techs so right off the bat I'm working with twice the load. Basically how the chain of command goes is the Project Manager, me and other MST hired tech, 6 Lenovo installation techs (3 on my team and 3 on the other guys team, occasionally I'll lose one who goes off to start whiping older PS machines we've pulled), then there's another 8 (four for each team) of guys who were hired to just load and move machines on the carts.

Right now I'm liking the job a lot as it's given me a chance to shows my supervisor skills and help manage a deployment from the floor level with minimum need for the Project Manager (he checks in on occasions, but basically things are in mine and the other tech's hands). Even though the days are long (I get there at 7AM and leave around 5:30 PM), I'm still having a blast, I managed to develop a system with my team that allows us to deploy about 25 machines before lunch and another 25-30 machines after lunch. My main supervisor responsibilities include ensuring that the Lenovo guys locate users and install their new machines, I also manage the cart crew and make sure that they are bringing us all of the materials we need (I communicate with one of them via a radio to ensure proper communication as they travel between our location and storage). My main responsibilities outside of that take over after the user logs on for the first time. I explain the migration process of their information coming from the server and about how long it'll take, I've gotten pre-emptive by explaining any possible erros they may see and how to handle them if they pop up. So far so good, the biggest thing that gets migrated over is Lotus Notes profiles and there have been few issues with that, all users were asked to create personal backups of their notes folder anyways so that fixes some issues that may arise by just manually moving that backup into place.

We have a total of 619 machines to deploy and right now we've done well over 200 over the last four days (and averaging between 70-90 deployments in a day between the two teams). Sad part is once the project's done, they may keep me an extra week for additional support if needed (not a guarantee btw) but after that I'm out looking for another gig. I like this job and would love to work something similar to it (well within that environment I should say, I actually enjoy interacting with the plant directors and what not as I'm deploying their systems), maybe I can get something more permanent in this kind of environment in the future.

So that's the update, it's a fun gig so far. The long days are killer, but even that I've gotten used to by now. Anyone else ever take part in a deployment like this in the past? How was your experience pre, during, and post-deployment?