Lots of Paperwork

On Wednesday, I went over to my new employer to fill out all the necessary paperwork. I was handed a stack of paperwork at least an inch thick. As it turned out, most it was the employee handbook and safety training. Still, I did have about a dozen papers to sign. Strange thing was that probably 4 of the agreements involved me acknowledging that I’m an “at will” employee. They all said basically the same thing with slightly different wording. It must have been “lawyers gone wild” at some point to end up with this. The hiring manager acknowledged that it was probably overkill and that he’s going to look at streamlining it.

Aside from that, I got to meet several of the employees. They are excited to get a full-time IT person that they can call and get assistance from. They have been using an outside contractor that they have to call and then wait for him to find the time to drop by.

I’m excited to get started. These next several weeks can’t pass fast enough.

My New Adventure

18 years ago I was a starry-eyed intern working in the IT department of a Fortune 500 company. I absolutely loved my summer working there and learned a ton. I enjoyed it so much that I joined the company full time the next spring. My intention had been to spend my entire career with the company. I guess that I’m just loyal like that.

Unfortunately it was not to be. I found out in October of last year that I (along with about half of my department) would be losing my job to outsourcing. This week I was offered an IT Administrator position with a small manufacturing company. I will basically be the one man IT shop for the company. They were looking for a heavy emphasis on database and software skills (my areas of expertise), but also network and workstation support skills (areas of weakness for me). Thankfully they are willing to allow me to endure the learning curve in my weak areas to gain my skills that are my strong suite.

This is going to be quite an adventure. It’s a pretty radical change to go from a very specialized position in a sprawling global company to the jack of all trades in a mom-and-pop company. I am simultaneously excited and nervous. I am looking forward to working in a company where I’ll actually know everyone. I also cannot wait to soak up lots of new knowledge and broaden my skill set.

I intend to chronicle my journey here at “One Man IT Shop”. I hope you enjoy sharing the journey with me. I’d love to hear any comments you have along the way.