The cyclical nature of the IT field, or ...

Holy Crap I've gotten a ton of recruiter/headhunter calls in the last two weeks!

     OK, so I've been working in the IT arena for going on twenty years now; and like a lot of fields it is cyclical in nature.  However in IT it seems to be a complete and total personification of the "feast or famine" saying.  What I mean is, I can go 6 months at a time without hearing from any aspiring recruiter/headhunter looking for fresh meat to chum the waters of the Internet job pool with; and then there are the times like I've had for the past couple of weeks... Recruiters with actual positions in mind that are tailored to me.. honestly a couple of them look like they looked at my resume and matched up their job description line for line!  The even more surprising thing is that every one of them to this point is at a higher pay rate, and better benefits package level than what I am currently "enjoying"! 

     *Note* to make my wife feel better (hi honey!) I am now knocking on simulated, wood-like, substance!

Bitching about work!

This post is basically me bitching about work.  I know I shouldn't bitch, I have a job, it pays reasonably well, and hell, I have a job!  But, as this is my blog, so I'm going to bitch anyway!

I work for an IT consulting firm, and with that comes the understanding that, at times, you are going to be dumped in an assignment last minute.  I get that, I've been in IT for going on two decades, I'm used to it; what I am not used to, and what drives me bat shit crazy, is when I'm dumped at a site, with little to no knowledge of the environment, for an undetermined amount of time, with no guidance other than, you are fulfilling a contractual obligation!  Now, as I post this, I am literally sitting at my "desk"

Now, as you can probably tell, it's not much of a desk, and it really wasn't ever meant for a man who is 6'7", and a disturbing 360+ pounds.  My current tasks are to assist one of my coworkers with any "build requests".  What this entails is when the Desktop Services group gets a request from some employee for a new PC, we have to "build" it.  This means that we take a (hopefully) new PC and install the "blessed" Operating system and base applications on the computer.  Then we begin the wonderful task of installing the countless bazillion other programs that ever user seems to have, and not be able to function without.  Now for those of you that are not in the IT industry this may sound difficult, complicated, and, dare I say it, challenging.  In reality it is the most boring task in IT.  Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, can do this task; It really only involves the ability to double-click on the install file or batch script and click next a few times; well for some of the programs you get to click next, a lot of them are what is known as silent installs, meaning double click, wait a few minutes, and move on to the next program without ever touching it beyond that.  This may sound like a dream gig, no real work, responsibilities, etc... however when you are titled "Enterprise Engineer" this shit will drive you insane in the matter of a few hours!  Which brings me back to my initial bitch about this assignment; I have no idea how long I'm stuck in IT purgatory!  So instead of learning new technologies, playing with new hardware and Operating systems, I'm stuck pressing F12 to boot from the network, and selecting which install image is dumped on the computer.  Ah the glamor of the IT field up close and personal.  And I drive two and a half hours a day for this fun!