In Record Time Dreamed 5866 days ago | | 856 words

That’s how I’d describe my interview process yesterday. I went in for an interview at 4pm. I left at 5pm. I was offered the position at 5:19. I accepted at 5:20. In two weeks, I start working for the City of Richmond Help Desk.

But Carl, didn’t you just take a new job with GE this past December? Yes, yes I did. I am a contractor for GE for the next two weeks. I have never left a job this fast. When I have been hired for a 12 month contract I have worked that 12 months then looks for more work.

However, two things have changed. One, I recognize I need to be more proactive in my job hunting and selection. I need to go out and find what I want, when I want it and stop giving my allegiance to a company that won’t hire me full-time. I’m a contractor. A hired gun. I’ve grown to look at myself more in that way then slave to a large corporation chasing after the carrot of “we might make you full time at some point.”

So with this move, I will be working on the Help Desk for the entire City of Richmond supporting 5,000 employees. Getting inside the city system will allow me to make lateral and vertical moves to the desktop support team or even into a more senior leadership role once I prove to them what a rock star I am.

Not a jet plane rock star, more of a small bus indie rock star.

I’m really excited about the raise in pay and decent benefits package offered to me from the contracting company. The company is also based in Richmond, VA where I am! No more talking to people in Michigan!!!

The other reason I’m leaving this job is my co-worker. The one who got his very own article that’s how special he is.

As if that weren’t enough to make my head explode, GE is in the process of consolidating user accounts and domains. Now, we each used to have two domain accounts since we support users in the GE’s Lighting and GE’s Industrial Systems divisions in this call center.

Well, they took me Industrial Systems account away and his Lighting account away. How’s that for consolidation?

What this meant for him was he had to gasp setup his email again in Outlook 2003. (Yes, we’re “upgrading” this week to 2003.)

I had to walk him through the process. Let me say that again.

I had to walk my co-workers, the other desktop support tech, through the process of setting up his email using the exchange server, step-by-step.

This is not a hard process. It involves.

  1. Opening Outlook
  2. Typing in the exchange server address
  3. Typing in your SSO (employee number for GE)
  4. Hitting next a few times

This is the kind of stuff I have to help him with. Weekly.

Now, working in IT, you’d think there would be well documented procedures for installation of software, imaging of PCs and other routine tasks. It’s a call center. There is a very small set of applications used. Not hard to document and keep current.

Instead, here is the documentation on I found when I got here.

Documentation for work

Tech notes at work

IT docs

A giant folder stuffed with papers in no discernible order. Examples of tickets, procedures for weekly processes. The works. So since I’ve been here, I’ve been tasked with typing this up and creating an electronic documentation system. So instead of having to flip through this folder for 20 minutes to find what you need (assuming it’s even in there), you can browse the electronic folder instead, and search it.

I have never seen an less organized, less knowledgeable IT department in my life. No wonder the users here are frustrated to high heaven with the existing IT staff. Though it’s been nice to receive the praise from people I’ve helped since I’ve been here. I honestly feel bad for the users once I leave. Because they’ve got to go back to suffering through the ineptitude of my co-worker who self-admittedly “not a computer guy.”

I will not miss the PC which runs the payroll system for all the employees here.
Windows 95
Yes, it runs Windows 95 and is about as reliable as a leaky sailboat.

It’s enough to take a dagger to a fax machine!
Fax Dagger
Well, it’s a fax machine, so it deserved it!

By March 24th I’ll be out of here and into my new role with the city. I am excited and ready for a change. Though leaving is not without it’s cons. I will miss my friends.

Geese Parade

Good Bye GE. And thanks for all the stories.

GE

Comment

  1. Nadine · Mar 7, 12:11 PM · #

  2. Carl · Mar 7, 01:04 PM · #

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