subject: The Would Be World Of It [print this page] In April 2005 I got a job working in a small technology companies IT department. My friends step father owned and operated the company. I had just been let go from my previous job and I specialized in the areas of computer hardware and software. My last job didn't really use my skills in those areas, so I was looking to work somewhere that I could expand those skills and make more money.
The position I was hired for was IT advisor. Basically I would be assisting my friend who was the IT department, in handling day to day tasks with workstations and servers. This was the type of work I wanted to do. Now there was plenty of IT work coming, but what I didn't know was that the president intended to have me trained on Project Server, Share Point and related software. This software is used for Project Management, something I knew very little about. He wanted to get me trained so I could go out and deploy this software for companies and train their staff how to use it.
I have social anxiety. It makes it hard for me to go out and deal with people that I am not already familiar with. Now this guy was talking about how he wanted me to go do 3 day training classes for groups of admins and I was pretty worried about it. I had envisioned working down in a basement room all by myself, working on computers and not having to interact or train large groups of people. I was definitely worried.
As time went on, I would go out on deployments and trainings with my co-worker. He knew the software very well but couldn't train well at all. It was boring and people rarely paid attention. I tried to learn the best I could, but eventually my friend got another job and left. I was now the only IT person and the only Project Server guy.
Every job that came up after that I had to do the deployment and the training. It was very awkward for me, having no formal training. I stumbled quite a bit and had to call Microsoft support to save me many times. It was not fun at all. My true passion had always been with IT and now I was doing something that I had never planned on doing.
I eventually got decent at that software and I learned to get through the 3-5 training courses. I had to fly out to Michigan, Seattle and California several times to do deployments and training. It was always very nerve racking for me, but I did enjoy the traveling. I finally got to the a point where I could handle the training classes.
I think it was a good experience, being forced to do things that I was afraid of. I learned a lot and gained some new skills a long the way. I have since left that company and started my own internet marketing company, but it leaves me with many experiences I will not soon forget.
