Work
I am not a good systems admin. (I’d only ever administrated a few servers)
I am not a knowledgeable desktop support person. (I’d barely done any support outside my family before I started)
I am not an expert in database administrator. (I barely knew SQL before I started)
I am not so many of the kinds of things one should be to work properly as one of two “IT guys” in a small to medium NGO.
What is interesting is that I am at least a competent computer systems engineer, programmer, and have some people skills. These are not the commonly looked for skills in a IT Manager for an NGO. In fact looking back at the job description, almost none of the requirements for the job were big strengths of mine.
It’s funny though, the time at which I came to my current employer has been pretty much perfect for my skills set. An organisation in need of complete review of how technology is used, and in need of lots of glue to be coded and some healing of “IT” and the rest of the organisation relationships.
I after more then a year am loving my job, and finding it challenging. Occasionally I crave bigger budgets, and more support but I also love the freedom of being a largely one person show. I am working hard on both professional development and my day job. I do occasionally pity my boss, as I am somewhat unmanageable because I largely do things my way, and sometimes exceed my um organisational position in various activities. (Hi Ash)
I really enjoy most of my work relationships. As in any place there are people whom I have some difficulty in relating too, but I have learnt to have love for them all. Sometimes due to being under resourced and a sometimes limited patience I do fail to provide the quality of support that people would like. I find it troubling when I do, particularly when it is someone who I have difficulties with.
This year work has become a little more social for me which has been really nice. I have made one close friendship at work, which is vastly approaching being one of my closest friendships. I even had dinner at her house a few weeks ago, which was really nice. I got to know her partner in a better context and I really like him too. Tonight a bunch of us went out to the movies, and it was good fun.
Anyway that’s almost enough of a work rant. Really just wanted to say, I am working lots but despite stress I am really enjoying it.
I will close though with a quote from my job application. It is so applicable to my organisation that I can’t resist quoting it.
The Chai break is a critical time for networking, getting to know people, and finding underlying IT problems.