I haven't seen the movie, but I'm assuming it's about an office IT person's day to day...
Somehow, I have been an IT Manager for almost 10 years. I've operated as a department of one, learning on the fly and putting out all kinds of fires. I get bored easily, and have always been obsessed with the "tech industry" so it's truly the perfect job for me.
Small business IT really is everything, everywhere, all at once.
But it's not at all like the industry that's written about in popular tech publications. The reality of working in IT for a lot of people has nothing to do with startups, the latest innovations, or the drama between Silicon Valley founders.
Working in IT is about people. It's about becoming a filter between the most complex parts of the business and turning it into approachable and flexible systems that get used every day. This takes a lot of invisible effort that happens behind the scenes, rapid task switching, and wildly unrealistic expectations (to be fair, most of these expectations are set by myself).
My experience ranges from your typical "Have you turned it off and turned it back on again?" support. Tracing a single ethernet cable through a rats nest of cables to figure out which one goes to the debit machine. Or my favorite - replacing RAM from 2003 in the middle of a production line's conveyor belt while fielding questions about A.I. and the imminent robot takeover.
This isn't going to be a tech newsletter with the tips, tricks, and me pretending like I know all of the answers.
This is about the human side of IT. The work happening behind the scenes, and the hidden effort on the ground as tech is more about the cloud than ever.
I'll share what I'm learning, reflecting on, and occasionally just cry for help from the LAN room.
Thanks for reading!
-Anthony
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Otherwise, I'm happy to be writing again and sharing it with my friends. I've missed the energy that comes with this.
