Another Steemit Challenge - But this one may actually be a good one!

There is another challenge, which Hive account@shai-hulud has just kicked off (I think he is the first)... #introduceyourjob. This one could be very interesting, and there could be some amazingly interesting jobs people on here do. I'm quite intrigued to see just how diverse our careers, or jobs are. Who knows, it may even spark some global collaborations, and new projects and ideas here on the Steem blockchain, if the right combination of jobs/skills/people manage to collide on this tag. Or it could just make for some good reading, and you can really only do this one once... I only see a positive.

To kick it off, Hive account@shai-hulud posted about his job, pawnbroking, in a very informative, and entertaining post. You should read it. Sadly, he nominated boring old me to introduce my job... Oh what the hell!! Here Goes....

Introduce Your Job: General IT Dog's Body (and anything others are too lazy to do themselves)

That's not entirely correct, but some days sure feel like that. I'm officially "Senior IT Systems Admin" - sounds fancy huh!?!? Working for a smallish company means that I am not limited to just sysadmin work. I get to work on anything from fixing the coffee machine (because I'm in IT and drink coffee, that means I must know how to fix coffee machines, right? I do enjoy the distraction of pretending to try and fix it for a few minutes, mainly out of desperation to get one more cup of coffee, and then calling the really mechanic in.) to working on SQL queries, automating reports which our CRM can't give us, updating the company website, and crawling under desks connecting cables and things, to managing and negotiating service contracts with suppliers, and overseeing all things remotely related to IT in the company. It's a fairly broad role, which I enjoy. I get all kinds of requests from people, mainly because they think I can do something quicker by automating it in the background, than it would take them to manually do the task (or they are too lazy to try it themselves). In some cases I can, but there are just some things which can't be automated, or would take longer than doing the once-off job manually.

I've always had a keen interest in computers. I'm not a total computer geek, or nerd, or other descriptive insult... although some people would say I am... Our first computer at home was a state of the art Intel 8088 which ran at a whopping 4.7MHz, had 256KB RAM, and a 10MB hard drive, and a monochrome monitor. We slowly progressed to a 80286, then to Pentium, and upwards over the years, and today I find myself working on, and maintaining a small data center with hundreds of gigabytes of RAM, arrays of many terabytes of disk space running though fiber channel switches, and virtual servers sharing a pool of a few hundred GHz of CPU power (I have been tempted to sneak a Steem Witness Node on it, but..... still thinking about this one).

I keep the engines running

I do enjoy the scope I have where I work, instead of being boxed into a specific skill area, which you sometimes find in a large enterprise environment. That also means that I am the go-to guy when things go wrong, and am in charge of keeping the wheels turning, so everyone else can get their work done. When the lights go out, the spotlight turns to me.

I also have a degree of flexibility, which allows me to work around other areas of my life, like coaching basketball, and attending events which my kids are involved in. The work-life balance I have is really good in that respect, and something I value highly at this stage in my life. Working for a smaller company has broadened my arsenal skills in various areas of IT to some level, but it also means that I am not a fully-fledged expert at anything in particular, although I can probably pick something up fairly quickly and work my way through it. I do like that my company is not scared of changing with technology, for the most part, and I get to explore opportunities which may help to streamline the way we work. Sometimes the old-fashioned way is still best for some...

I have had to deal with all kinds of people on a regular basis, and throughout my career have dealt with people in all positions from a clerk in a small business to the CEO of a multinational company. Some have been easy to please, and some downright rude, but in almost all cases, treating them with respect, and them knowing that I am there to help them make their work a bit easier, or solve a problem for them, I found that that respect was reciprocated, and we could often have a good conversation running while I was working in their space.

I do love what I do. The pay could be better.... we all say that, but money isn't always everything. And that, folks, is my job.

In the interests of helping the #intriduceyourjob tag spread a little, I would like to nominate Hive account@armshippie, Hive account@fates and Hive account@enginewitty to take up the challenge to #introduceyourjob.