srsly

work today just flew by. why? because we were so busy we didn’t have time to whine about how much longer the day is. i can’t say i’m surprised, it’s the beginning of the year and it’s monday. so not only are people in a rush to get things up and running for the start of the year they’re in a rush for the start of the week; double screwed! it’s nice to be busy again. once a lot of things were fixed it was smooth sailing for a couple months. it was nice, but it’s also nice to have a steady stream of things to do.

oh, but you have no idea what i do. there’s a little blurb on the about page but that’s about it. i know you probably shouldn’t talk about your job too much in places like this but there really isn’t anything i could say that anyone would find offensive. we’re all people, we all know we get on each other’s nerves now and then. that doesn’t mean we don’t like each other.

my official title is Applications Support Engineer. the title is apt because we’re not just phone jockeys. yes we answer the phone but we do that because it’s probably the best way to interface with a customer that has a problem. email is great, but sometimes it’s just better to talk to people. we also write code against our product to debug problems with it and write custom solutions for our customers that are too small for our pro-services team to deal with. there’s also some account/project management involved sometimes because as you talk to people and help them with their problems they come to rely on you and only you. you end up making friends. the product is a media management/publishing suite. it’s a fairly complex product and as such needs a bit of support. when i started two years ago everyone did support; developers, account managers, sales engineers, qa. they were really stoked when we got hired. so that’s it in a nutshell.

this is really my first “real job.” sure i did some contract work places but that doesn’t really count. i got in here my first year out of college and i gotta say it’s growed me up some. being in a professional environment teaches you a lot of things. you grow socially very quickly because you have to. i was fortunate enough to get to do that in a company full of very nice people. from the ceo on down everyone has a weird sense of humor and will absolutely give you the time of day. i’m not saying there aren’t other places where everyone is great, i’m just saying i’m happy i found one. you learn that while people are there to back you up, at the end of the day you’re responsible for yourself and the things you need to get done. woo responsibility. never saw that one coming.

working in the tech industry is a wild ride, let me tell you.- some days get so crammed and hectic you just wish you could quit.- but you don’t, because you like it.- you know it’s not always going to be like this.- you know when you pull through people are going to thank you for hanging in there and getting the job done.- you realize that without you some people couldn’t do their jobs.- by showing up every day and doing your best, you’re helping other people to do theirs.- it sounds like sappy crap but it’s true.- it also means that when your COO comes in your office and bets you a pizza that you can’t get something done by end of day, you know you’re getting pizza for lunch tomorrow.