What do you do in IT?

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mike_hill
mike_hill Posts: 61 Member
Just curious about what other people do and maybe we can share some funny stories from our jobs...

I am currently responsible for workstation patching efforts (about 10k machines) and tier 3 desk support. Most of my career has been some type of desk side level 2 or 3 support.

One of the funniest things is to see some of the verbage in the tickets we get. Not to long ago we got a ticket that said "User not working and making a lot of noise." I guess that was supposed to be computer not working and making a lot of noise, but user was much more funny.

Anyways, if you are up for it share a little about you, your job and/or something funny from work.

Mike

Replies

  • lorals05
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    I am an IT assistant currently and trying to go back to school. I started out as a medical assistant who was just lucky with our machines at the local clinic/hospital. I now provide trouble shooting/programming for our 7 clinics and am in the process of starting 2 more by the first of the year.

    The funniest thing that has recently happened was a user interrupted my programming for a go-live that I was working on(very strict deadlines) to ask me if I could re-program her keyboard keys. She just had to have 2 tab keys. I asked her if only having one tab key was preventing her from doing her job and she answered no. Then she interrupted me again to ask how to find out and without looking up I said Google. Her response was what's google and how does it make my keyboard work!?!?!?! Hahahah

    Overall I love my job and can't wait to finish school :)
  • Sherie13
    Sherie13 Posts: 250 Member
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    Hi! I"m a python developer. I work on a Web App. Does that count? :)
  • juleseybaby
    juleseybaby Posts: 712 Member
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    I am a technical writer. I handle anything from security documentation to user manuals and on line help guides. I work directly with web developers, programmers, system analysts, and DBA's.

    They keep telling me to shove some Mountain Dew and Doritos in the room and leave them alone - but I am a social butterfly... :bigsmile: (I am a mix of BLUE and ORANGE, heavy on the blue side... if your company ever did the TrueColors Personality Assessment, you know what that means. If not - it's just an easier way of saying I love everyone and want us all to get along and so what if I color outside the lines... and the rest of my group - being mostly GOLD and GREEN stay very much in the lines and like all the rules.)
  • ktfitzgerald
    ktfitzgerald Posts: 369 Member
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    I am a Microsoft Certifid IT Pro on SQL Server 2005 - Database Development and Administration. I am the head of my companie's development department. We develop all of our applications, data integration, warehousing and reporting in-house. Most days I love what I do.

    I'm usually the one saying "Shove some snacks in the room and leave me alone". But I, of course prefer healthy snacks:)
  • CCulshaw
    CCulshaw Posts: 18 Member
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    Hi all! I've been looking for a group to join and this seemed like the logical place to start. :smile:

    I've worked in IS/IT under many different roles over the years and I'm currently focused on Business Intelligence under the finance organization. While not technically "IT", I still associate it as such, since it's a very technical job working with SQL Server (development and administration) and the Microsoft BI stack (SSIS, SSRS, etc.). In addition, I also assist with designing and supporting a consolidated data warehouse integrating data from a variety of internal and external systems and some project management thrown in for good measure. I have also started integrating reporting into SharePoint.

    No fun user stories come to mind at the moment, but give me time. My co-workers are a blast & it's a new laugh every day!
  • mmcperez
    mmcperez Posts: 72 Member
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    Yes, an IT group! NERDS!!

    I work as a Windows Engineer for a large real estate company in SoCal. Pretty much all Microsoft and VMWare I support. Some days are better than others. We just had a big layoff at the company so that's always fun to go through.

    No fun stories unless you think taking care of paper jams is funny and then taking said printer out back to smash it with a bat.
  • trelm249
    trelm249 Posts: 777 Member
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    Professional Geek.

    I am an RHCE and my current job title is Senior Linux Sysadmin. However my job is do what ever needs to be done and make the Project Managers look good.
  • dougstevens
    dougstevens Posts: 208 Member
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    I'm a database developer with experience in MS Access, SQL Server. I've also had some experience in the DBA role, but limited. Also familiar with SSIS, SSRS and of course SSMS.

    Member of SQL user groups such as PASS, Atlanta MDF, and Atlanta BI (business intelligence)

    I'm at the point where I need to start picking a clearer focus either becoming a full-fledged DBA, or train in BI architecture.

    Looking forward to Denali's release in Q1 2012 (now called SQL Server 2012). The MDM looks interesting to me too. Kind of reminds me of what BI was like 10-15 years ago.
  • avarielle1215
    avarielle1215 Posts: 59 Member
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    I work for a small software company...doing whatever needs to be done! :) I am mostly doing tech support and customer care, but I also blog on searchterms.com, do QA testing when we have new products, and do research/data collection when needed. (Jack of all trades, etc, etc..)

    The BEST story from my job (also got posted on ThinkGeek's site for SysAdmin day in 2010):


    Early in the day on April 1st, I noticed that the ubiquitous Rick Roll video was playing on our website, and I thought, "we got hacked!" I started drafting an email to clients while an engineer tried to go in and disable our servers... and he was blocked.

    There was a little panic. Our head engineer called up Greg, our SysAdmin, and asked him to go manually unplug the servers. A little later, we got a call from Greg. He said there were cops at the data center because someone was inside with a gun. We heard shots in the background, and Greg said that he had to go, and hung up.

    We did the only logical thing in this situation: we called 911. Greg called back, and we told him we called the cops and then had to get off of the phone because 911 was calling back.

    While talking to 911, our CEO finally called back, and as it turns out, the ENTIRE thing was a ruse. The video was only playing locally on our IP. The guys were blocked out to keep them from discovering that. Greg was never at the data center--he was at his computer at home with sound effects.

    But we had actually called the cops! As it turns out, they sent five squads to the data center. When they found out it was a prank, they paid a visit to our good old SysAdmin at home. He didn't get in trouble in the end, but the cops did ask him what he expected to happen given the situation, and suggested something a little more "low-key" next time.
  • Dadof8
    Dadof8 Posts: 146 Member
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    I'm a storage admin, in our department we are serving up ~4 peta of SAN, NAS, and a little iSCSI to just about any flavor of OS under the sun. We did recently get rid of our last DEC Tru64 server.
  • taeliesyn
    taeliesyn Posts: 1,116 Member
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    I'm a bit of an all-rounder. I work for a testing & certification company and support the software we use in many of the labs.
    Generally it combines a bit of DBA work, with helpdesk, scripting (VB mostly), testing and development.

    avarielle1215 - That was a heck of a prank!
  • trelm249
    trelm249 Posts: 777 Member
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    @avarielle - Great story.

    @Dadof8 - That is almost sad about the True64 box retiring. Almost brings a tear to my eye.
  • deewildwoman
    deewildwoman Posts: 120 Member
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    I currently work in the Infrastructure Services department of a large book wholesale company.

    I have performed a number of IT jobs over the years, but currently I am the Lead Sys Admin for our Help Desk/Change Manangement Software. I also do the Budget for our department and handle all the Mainframe/AS400 maintenance contracts. Bit of a jack of all trades.
  • _gwen
    _gwen Posts: 501 Member
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    I'm a technical writer. I write for IT pro's working with web and virtualized services.

    I used to work with a dev who only wanted two-dimensional food. If you could slide it under his door, he'd eat it. Pop-tarts, individual cheese slices, graham crackers, tortillas, anything sliced.... one-dimensional was OK too, basically, anything that would go through a straw.
  • Dadof8
    Dadof8 Posts: 146 Member
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    @Dadof8 - That is almost sad about the True64 box retiring. Almost brings a tear to my eye.
    [/quote]

    As it did to mine many a night!
  • billsica
    billsica Posts: 4,741 Member
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    I work in a k-12 school district as the CTO or head it manager.
    I'm MCSE 2003 ceritfied, sec+ and Cisco CCNP / CCDP certified.

    I can code, a bit, I know C. buts its not my strong suit. I am better at project management, and implementing large scale infrastructure projects.. . for the school.

    I also can do desktop publishing on the side, Adobe photoshop, illustrator, indesign. I do a bit of free lance work now and then.