So I work at Smarter Travel Media, LLC here in MA. Probably the coolest job I’ve ever had. To be fair, I’ve had four jobs in my life. But being a Systems Administration Intern and getting treated like a Jr. Systems Administrator is one of the greatest feelings I could get from a job. Of course, this is still just a coop and I have to go back to school in January. I’ve been up to my eyeballs in work since the day I started and I really wouldn’t have it any other way. I am responsible for the development environment and although it’s not the real world facing servers, if that stuff isn’t right, it’s time to drop everything and work.
Last night I went to Dethklok at the House of Blues in Boston. That was a very impressive concert. After the concert, I was going to buy tickets for another show a few weeks from now but had to check my voicemail first to see if anyone called me, wanting to go. Instead of getting the message I expected, I had a message from my boss telling me stuff was broken and people were slightly upset. So at midnight when I got home, I went to work. It was a quick fix and got things running for the people who needed them but it made me laugh because I was really playing the part of a sysadmin. I was up, tired, and thinking of different ways to test a config change because I didn’t have a VPN login.
The best though was the reaction I received today at work. My boss asked me what I was doing last night that prevented me from answering my phone at 1030 but allowed me to check my email at midnight. The people I fixed things for were surprised that when they woke up, everything was fine. It made me chuckle and truthfully, it was the right thing to do. I have a responsibility to keep the environment running and mistakes or broken configs must be changed not because someone asked but because it’s why they trust me.
And somehow, that makes me one happy dude.
So go out there, find a job you enjoy and perform every part of it to the fullest extent. Make it fun and make it count.
Next time, I’ll have more calendar pages. I had two ready but they are upstairs and I am not.