Some updates

First I want to apologize for not being around much. I’m going to tell you about that.

I’m sure you remember the car crash I got into last summer. Well, that really led to some changes. My knee still doesn’t work right which pretty much takes me out of my previous career.

While I was laid up on the sofa after the crash, I put in an application with a web-hosting company. I’ve never worked in the IT field and in fact have never worked in an office building. With no relevant work history and no certifications or documentation proving I know my stuff, I didn’t expect much.

Well, the next morning I got a call asking me when would be a good time to come in for an interview. Hey, I thought, maybe I’ll get a chance to explain how I know what I know. Well, it turned out that the “interview” was a hands-on test. They simply sat me down in front of a terminal and gave me a list of tasks to perform. It wasn’t much of a difficulty.

When I was done, I was asked the basic questions: If you were hired, when could you start? What shift would you be comfortable working? and then …. How much would you expect to be paid?

Fuck. The money question.

Fortunately, I currently had a job so I simply told them how much I was making at my current job and that they would have to get damned close to that to get me to leave it. It was still too early to know that my knee was not going to get much better. I’d have been much more nervous about the whole thing if I’d known I was not going to be able to go back to my previous job.

So that’s how it ended. They said I’d hear something by the end of the week.

I got a call the very next morning. I was asked if I was still interested in coming to work for [COMPANY] at a pay rate of [EXACTLY WHAT I ASKED FOR] working [THE SHIFT I ASKED FOR].

I said, Uh, yeah, ok. Sounds good.

It turns out that this is pretty much just the way this company does things. It is worth the money to them to pay someone for two weeks of training to see if they’re worth a damn. I guess since you can’t really tell much from a job interview, they just make the interview two weeks long.

So, I knocked out the two weeks training and started on the floor.

I was terrified.

A gift for those that read this far

After about a week of getting the feel for things, I started to make numbers. After a couple of weeks I was hitting quota. About the same time I started hitting the bonus range for my ratings. I hit bonus three pay periods in a row.

I now realize that the bonus is a mechanism for determining who needs to be doing harder work.

I was rather innocently told to go sit with another admin to get some training in another area. Harder tickets. It didn’t take long before I was working those harder tickets exclusively. A short while later and I was told to start “cherry picking” out of the Level 2 tickets. “Just look around in there and pick the ones you can do.” “Sure, no problem.”

Then it happened.

I got an email from the boss telling me I’d been approved for Level 2 training and that I’d get my “checklist” and expanded access later in the week.

So that’s where I’ve been.

Monday morning I was informed that my training checklist was 100% complete (including the tests) and that now its in the hands of the higher-ups to decide whether or not to promote me.

Wednesday marks six months with the company. Six months of work in the IT field. Six months of work as a Linux System Administrator.

Some of you know the name of the company I work for, but I’d rather it not be said here. I do owe them. They gave me a shot at proving myself with no experience, no education and no certifications. They just owe me a bigger paycheck. I’ve worked my ass off for them.

So, there is the story of where the hell I’ve been.

In other news, H&B Football is done. While myself and a few others fell out during the season, I have to hand it to those who kept their picks going and really did put up some impressive numbers.

Congratulations to the botnet and really for all the leaders on that board.