I Helped Create a Monster! IT Guru...

[natedog75]

I went the other way.

I paid my way through college with construction to get an IT degree. Stayed in IT for about 8 years. I had worked my way up from pc tech straight out of college to systems admin all the way to senior network admin in 6 short years. Lived two years as senior network admin and called it quits.

I left and started my own construction company. I have 5 crews to date and am doing better than I ever have.

I can say that IT degree has helped me along the way to think of the processes and systems of construction in a different light than most.

I spent nights sleeping on the server room floor doing system upgrades, changing hardware, installing new systems. Traveled all over my state. Spending the night in hotels. All for a salary wage. The only benefit was we got comp time for overtime worked but it is hard to take it when no one else in the building can spell VOIP let alone imagine a world where they weren’t clamping a buttset to a 66 block hunting for dialtone. Or when you installed the help desk ticket software instead of the sticky note system (they had 1200 employees supported by a team of 4 for network/hardware) and nobody else cared to learn how to administer it. I loved my job I loved the people I work for and with. But the pay didn’t match the cost on my part. They did offer me a raise when I turned in my notice but it was too late. I was already done.

Edit: Grammar

 

[MossRoad]

Some of the perks of my I.T. job at the newspaper was getting to go into the bones of the building pulling new wire. It was a 140 year old monster that took up 1/2 a city block. False ceilings, false walls, abandoned elevator shafts, etc... when I started there, I only weighed about 150# and could weasel through some pretty small passages. 30 years later, I questioned myself if it was a good idea forcing myself through the same spaces at 230#. Wondered if I'd need the fire department to get me out. :laughing:

Neatest thing was seeing old graffiti from people in the past. I added my own several times.

 

[Oaktree]

Some of the perks of my I.T. job at the newspaper was getting to go into the bones of the building pulling new wire. It was a 140 year old monster that took up 1/2 a city block. False ceilings, false walls, abandoned elevator shafts, etc... when I started there, I only weighed about 150# and could weasel through some pretty small passages. 30 years later, I questioned myself if it was a good idea forcing myself through the same spaces at 230#. Wondered if I'd need the fire department to get me out. :laughing:

Yeah, did my share of that too. Not my favorite part of the job.

Back in the 70s/early 80s I worked for a company that made computer systems for the newspaper industry. We always made it clear in the sales contract that the customer was responsible for all wiring.
I remember one instance...the cables that ran from the mainframe to the individual terminals was about 1/2", maybe a little thicker multiple conductor cable and was kind of stiff. I got there to do the installation, and discovered that the crew that ran the cables ran them backwards. Called in the contractor who insisted he'd done it correctly. He grabbed one cable, and said that we'd specified the male end of the cable went to the computer, what do you call this...., then %$#^%. His crew had a long, non-billable night.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, did my share of that too. Not my favorite part of the job.

Back in the 70s/early 80s I worked for a company that made computer systems for the newspaper industry. We always made it clear in the sales contract that the customer was responsible for all wiring.
I remember one instance...the cables that ran from the mainframe to the individual terminals was about 1/2", maybe a little thicker multiple conductor cable and was kind of stiff. I got there to do the installation, and discovered that the crew that ran the cables ran them backwards. Called in the contractor who insisted he'd done it correctly. He grabbed one cable, and said that we'd specified the male end of the cable went to the computer, what do you call this...., then %$#^%. His crew had a long, non-billable night.

HAhahahahaa!!!! :laughing:

I didn't start at the newspaper until 1987. All of the user terminals were 4 wire serial cable. Pretty hard to muck that up, yet, I recalls spending hours tracing down mis-pinned connectors. They were 25 pin connectors, but only used 4 pins. I think it was something like 1,2,3&7? Anyhow, I couldn't believe the number of times people would cross the wires, or put them in 1 pin over, etc... I also recall null-modem adapters. For something so simple, there sure was a lot of work and re-work involved. :laughing:

 

[JethroB]

Yeah, did my share of that too. Not my favorite part of the job.

Back in the 70s/early 80s I worked for a company that made computer systems for the newspaper industry. We always made it clear in the sales contract that the customer was responsible for all wiring.
I remember one instance...the cables that ran from the mainframe to the individual terminals was about 1/2", maybe a little thicker multiple conductor cable and was kind of stiff. I got there to do the installation, and discovered that the crew that ran the cables ran them backwards. Called in the contractor who insisted he'd done it correctly. He grabbed one cable, and said that we'd specified the male end of the cable went to the computer, what do you call this...., then %$#^%. His crew had a long, non-billable night.

I was helping our IT guy run some twinax cable in the ceiling late into the night. About finished and he says, Now lets pull the old cable out to de-clutter a bit. I grab the NEW cable and yank it out. #$&*%.

I really learned to hate those soldered on connector pins too. Always Pulling Back.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I remember installing a Sound Masking System in an office tower for Bell Canada. I don't remember the cable, but it wasn't supposed to be spliced, which strikes me weird now. Somehow, going up many floors in a riser it had gotten woven through some T-Bar ceilng about mid way and it all had to be pulled out again. In the middle of the night, delaying and decent return home and bed time. Then, I now remember, the lights kept going off for energy management.

 

[riptides]

I had a job under a government building that sort of put things into perspective one day. We were running some cables down below the basements. The "corridors" were as far as the light bulbs could carry our sight. The issue was, the bulbs did not illuminate the entire length of the building. When we got into the dark area, we were stringing cable and light. We came across stashes of civil defense supplies. The area we were in was a designated shelter area. It had long been abandoned. We were literally working at ground zero.

That same building had a vault system. We tried to get cabling through to those vaults. The walls inside were filled with iron balls. As the drills would work their way out, the balls would fill the holes.

Quite depressing, but good stories now.

 

[czechsonofagun]

That, imho, is a good idea. Pretty much every invoice and stmt i get is in paper and everyone says, go paperless. That's great until you actually need to see the invoice and

A....Can't find it

B......Powers out again

c.....Our networks down

D.....Our IT dept is working on it.....

E....fill in the blank

Once in the 80s it took me almost a full year to get the cable tv co to stop charging me and that I was current. I'd lost all my data on the pewter so i was helpless.

*Good thing I had all my data on bubble memory! maybe not

Exactly my point. Last year, the IRS came after me for not paying taxes on 401(k) withdrawal. It was just a missing report, I moved it because I changed jobs, but thanks to papers I was able to prove they were wrong.

 

[BravoXray]

My favorite IT stories are on The Register, a UK based IT themed site. On Mondays they run stories sent in by a reader relating their adventures in the IT field, called "Who Me?"
Another irregular feature on The Register is the BOFH (Bastard operator from H#!!), a look at a humorous but dark SYSOP for a UK company, and his sidekick, the PFY (Pimply faced youth).

 

[MossRoad]

A humorous British comedy.... The I.T. Crowd.