So a little over three weeks ago I started my new job. This was my break and I was willing to take a pay cut in what I am use to making in order to expand my career. See for the last ten years I have been pigeon holed as a systems administrator. Certain jobs within the IT industry are black holes that are impossible to get out of once you learn them:
Systems Administrator
Network Administrator
Systems Engineer
Network Engineer
Programmer
and a few others. Companies do not want to lose a solid sys admin even to promote them into management since that means that they are going to have to find another sys admin to replace you and contrary to all the people running around with MSCE’s would like you to believe, we are not that easy to replace. I made it harder on myself by being a multi-platformed systems administrator (I could manage Solaris, Linux, HP/UX, Windows, Macintosh and some AIX).
Needless to say I have been trying for about five years to break free of systems administration and move into a more management minded position. My new employers contacted me and offered me a new position that morphed weekly until we sealed the deal a month later. My title is now:
Site Supervisor/Project Manager
and I have a three page job description of my duties to go with it. I also have the ten to twelve hour work days to go with it. And the paperwork as well.
My day typically starts at 7:30 – 7:45 so I can make sure all the personnel have gotten in on time, are prepping their computer equipment for deploying to clients, schedules are understood and adjusted as needed and things run quickly yet smoothly until the last tech is out the door by 9:30.
Then I start reviewing my stats from the night before for a computer refresh project I have a couple of the techs working until 1 AM. I submit the clients that were not taken care of for rescheduling and I close out the tickets for the clients that were taken care of. I also note what adjustments need to be made for the next night refresh that kicks off that evening.
During all of the above I am also answering questions by my boss, taking phone calls from clients seeking to escalate their issues, noting how messy my call floor is as well as my warehouse and scheduling our free floaters.
I usually then head back to the warehouse to see what needs to be done in my continuing quest to bring order to the chaos they called inventory for the last year and a half or so. There is surplus equipment to be sorted through, palletized and scheduled for removal. There is new equipment to be sorted through and scheduled for the techs to install and there is the trash the techs are trying to hide from me instead of taking it out to the dumpsters.
I get a brief lull between 11:30 – 12:30/1:00 while techs and clients alike take lunch. I can sit at my desk closing tickets that have been completed while covering my boss’ phone while he goes to grab something to eat. I also can make adjustments in the tech schedules with the schedulers.
After the lunch period I like to touch base with as many of the five team leads as possible so I can see how things are going. Get feedback on what is working, what is not working, who is missing and who has kicked some major ass for the day.
Sometimes I head out on site (the closest being less than five miles away, the furtherest being over 14 miles away) to see that the techs are doing what they are suppose to be doing and impressing upon them that I will pop up unexpectedly to ensure they are doing what they are suppose to be doing.
Then around three techs start coming back in. There is new equipment to be checked back in for reschedule, old equipment to be surplus (but they try to hide that stuff too since it is too hard to walk next door less than twenty feet in order to turn it in) more tickets to be closed, clients to contact and reschedule for any given reason.
Then the night crew comes in. Have to make sure they are briefed on how many computers they are replacing, what site they are working out of, where their equipment is located at and brief the team lead on any special instructions I might have.
Check with the other team leads about how the day went and any issued they know about. Talk to whatever techs might be around and see what their views are on how things are running. More tickets to be researched and closed.
And I am not even coming close to describing my day since there are the e-mails and issues and fires that need to be address as well as counseling interviews and forecasts to be taken care of. You know, the small things.
I am usually getting out between 6:00 PM or 7:00 PM. Needless to say I miss my family, I miss my friends, I am neglecting my sites and I usually do not have time during the week to do squat.
All this in order to expand my career in the IT field past just being a sys admin into management.
There are days and will be more days where I will come home, plop down in my chair and say to myself “Gods I wish I were just a sys admin again”
Gods, your day sounds so much like one of my own… welcome to the long days of the project manager
The only difference in my role is that it is all about the heavy construction world. But I do love being a woman in a man’s world. Take care and it is nice to see you writing still.