+1 ... why do brits call them engineers? On this side of the pond telecom techs can be plucked straight out of high school and (can) do an apprenticeship, although a diploma (2 years) is also quite common. Compare that to an actual engineer which is 4-6 years just for the undergrad degree with many going on to specialize more in masters or even PhD programs.
Thanks for your words bit-tech people Now, I get to do it all again as another day of turmoil unfolds
My most recent experience with Hospital IT (I try to minimise exposure, lest the tag on my lapel turns black) was after they authorised me to access a network drive and along the way disconnected a network mapped folder where I keep clinical files. They couldn't reconnect because they couldn't remember what it was called. I told them the name of the folder. The guy swore that you cannot search for a folder with a specific name on a server network. Can't be done, nope. You just have to memorise the whole tree, apparently, and pass this arcane knowledge on to your apprentices through the generations. So without knowing exactly in what branch that folder was, they couldn't reconnect. I asked to speak to his line manager. He then decided to "ask somebody, just in case", passed me over to another Idiot Technician (now you know what "IT" stands for in our place) who after a lot of prompting managed to find it.
God yes. Had that the other day when trying to show a new girl at another office how to use some software. Had to use Teamviewer thanks to a pre-existing issue that breaks terminal servs to her machine, and could she get it right? Could she bollocks. All she had to do was read out 13 numbers, but it was too much. For every stalwart bit-tech-worthy tech out there, another 2 cretinous arse-scratchers are out there pulling your patches and reconfiguring your ****.
What was the junior trying to achieve by looping patch cables through a switch like that? Must have been some reason? Or did he just want to fill up all the slots?
I know exactly what you're dealing with, Margon. I work for a small business supporting between 70 and 90 customers (Not all have servers, so my list doesn't match the actual number) in the local area and a few further afield. Most of them are fine, they don't bugger about with things. Ten or so, though, are complete jackasses for reasons you describe. They think they know something because they plugged a phone in one time, and 'how hard can it be'. The worst offenders have a guy from their website developer (Yes, a HTML monkey) go and do "routine visits" (We do fornightly, weekly, monthly etc at a knocked down cost, customers seem to hold onto little things until then, so.. Makes our life easier) because they're cheaper than we are - But the guy buggers about with something, and we end up going out to fix it anyway, usually taking twice as long as if we'd just been called in the first place because we have to undo the often wrong 'fix' first. I think the "No, we didn't touch it" is just their bruised ego trying to protect them from being laughed at. It never works, though, because someone always tells me the truth eventually.
This is what I want to know! they are still off today, not back until tomorrow, so hopefully tomorrow I will find out. I am in a bit of a bind as the wider business want's to know why those sites were out for 1.5 days, the IT manager doesn't want them to know yet, as he doesn't know what to do with the junior. This junior drives me up the wall anyway, they have no knowledge of anything, any single time they have to anything, literally anything, I have to write out instructions, or tell them step by step as they are doing it, and I bill them by the half hour every time. It's such a stupid waste of money. But it's not my place to say, because that is not what they pay my contract for. If they asked me I would give them my honest opinion but until they do I guess I have to bite my tongue! The IT manager is IT and Facilities manager, he is not technically minded, more organisational I guess, therefore the junior is supposed to be the tech, at least I guess that is the structure they had in mind. The problem is they never ask about this stuff, they ask for consultation on weird stuff, never important stuff, and there is never really a forum where we can give them better advice or suggestions.
Nice thread, read it with a slight grin across my face.. I work with some larger "enterprise" level clients and you do see things that sometimes you just have to giggle at... "waterfall" Ethernet cabs have to be the funniest thing I encounter, where I just have no idea how they have any idea what is going on at the physical level, I always think to myself, I just pray I never need to do a cable trace... luckily I don't have to work on the LAN side... Its great some of the things you see though, geeks paradise
I know that feeling but I'm out of that part of IT now. I'm just a tech working for a pretty small business, it's alll good.
Hmm... that's a pretty grey area. I would describe someone with a qualification and the proper necessary training to install, test and maintain enterprise level equipment as a Network Engineer. A Telecomms Engineer would be someone with a different qualification and training, who was capable of installing, maintaining and repairing phone equipment and lines. I wouldn't say someone who just manages a network is an engineer, and the same probably goes for your average low level BT/Openreach residential installer, although you'll find that quite a few of those guys are old hands and could happily make any of the younger installers look stupid with their knowledge of exchange wiring, enterprise size phone systems and superior troubleshooting abilities. The same goes for Sky installers. Sky installers are not engineers. I would say there are very few Sky installers in the country who have a degree in engineering, and even at that, their job title should not have the word engineer in it. So yes, the word Engineer is thrown around a lot on this side of the pond and often used to describe technicians and installers, but remember that some of them might be in a position well below what they're qualified to do just so they have a secure job. I haven't sig'd anything for absolutely ages, but that's going in right now! That's the hard part, biting your tongue and not saying something that might put your contract in jeopardy. It gets to a point where you just have to put your foot down and assert yourself as the more qualified and experienced mind in the situation. One of the things we all seem to struggle with the most is getting people to understand that what they've been doing in the past is wrong, that we're here to tell them how wrong they actually were, how we're going to put it right and what they need to do/not do in the future to stop it going down the toilet again. I also found out the hard way that people hate finding out that they've been screwed over in the past because I find a botched job and have to inform them before I commence work on the system. I lost a maintenance contract over this once, in an office full of what can only be described as old people and old computers, stuck using old, unproductive and inefficient methods. They asked me to come in and "revamp" the whole network, from the server cabinet to the workstations and laptops, and to cut an extremely long story short, I ended up "in the bad books" because I did my job. I didn't actually "lose" the contract, in the end I walked away from the job because I was wasting so much time explaining things to the MD which he should have just let me get on with because he'd agreed to the changes in the first place. He was completely computer illiterate. I mean, completely. This guy couldn't type his own name on a keyboard, he had an assistant who typed every single word for him. Enough said. I'll give you just one tiny example from that entire cluster**** of a job; I replaced an ancient computer which was not fit for purpose with the MDs permission - the Finance Director (who thought she ran the place) came in the next day and asked where her old computer was with all her work on it. I told her that she had a new computer, and that all her personal files from the old one were in her network folder on the server. She actually stormed out of the office and went home for the day, on her way demanding that the old computer be returned to her office and all the files be put back on it. They also demanded that I remove my remote assistance software from their network because it was invasive and unsafe. They hired me to overhaul a network and provide technical assistance, but refused to grant me remote access to it so that I could do my job without having to travel almost 20 miles every time something happened that they didn't understand. No amount of explaining would get through to them that my site call-outs for simple tech support were wasting them money when I could have provided the same support from a remote computer. That's not even the only time I've been ordered to remove remote access software from a system, it's happened a few times now Pants on head retarded? That's a complete understatement.
I am no historian but my understanding of it is that the title of Engineer is prestigious. Somewhere along the line of time technicians/maintainers decided to use it to promote themselves. Who would you hire? The "Boiler Technician" or the "Boiler Engineer"? Then it became widely cashed in on until it became common practice. Or rather the language. The improper use of "Chartered Engineer" is still illegal in the UK. It was looked at in the last decade to make the improper use of "Engineer" illegal like other countries too. But it was found to be impractical.
I remember an occasion, back when I was in IT, when I was called to a site because the network 'had just stopped working' - like no traffic whatsoever not working. Anyway - I toddled down to the site (I couldn't connect remotely, you'll see why in a bit...) to see what was going on. It turned out that the head of IT was out of the office (I should have smelled a rat here...) - found the chap from the IT team that reported the issue (who didn't really do support, but development) who told me that the Junior was in the Comms room, "trying to fix the problem". Anyway - I headed in to see what the problem was. I was greeted with a large patch panel with NO CABLES IN IT WHATSOEVER and an rather sheepish Junior. The exceptionally clever young fellow had decided to 'tidy up the cabling' as it 'was messy', and had proceeded to unplug every single patch cable. Now - he didn't even stop to think what unplugging EVERYTHING would do, least of all the possible consequence that everything would stop working. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I cancelled all of my plans for that afternoon and evening and set to work re-wiring the whole place... It WAS very tidy when I'd finished. I was also VERY CROSS.... PS I'm an actual Engineer. I've got a degree and everything. It makes me cross that the person who installed my satellite dish is called an Engineer...
That's rough Margo, get 'em billed through the teeth. last week I had someone try to pass blame on to me not realising it was me he was speaking to. in office communicator. with my name at the top of the window. i suppose change control has it's uses, but it is still one of the key banes of my life. This afternoon I have to fill in a change form (~500 lines, in a Vterm emulator where i can copy and paste 1 line at a time) to go and remove a software component that shouldn't have been installed, but is idling there using port 80. Then I have to do the same again to re-install the same component on another server. There's only so much you can automate with AHK.
Just one or two - I think I'm done amassing letters after my name now though - for instance, I hear that having a bit of free time is good fun!
I have a degree, but it's a BSc, so no being an engineer for me. I wonder if i could convince my employer to change my job title from Technical Analyst to Technical Scientist.
