I currently work for a health care underwriting company though truth be told I’m not exactly sure what that is. I am the IT Systems Specialist and have had that role for about 5 years now while I was previously an IT Technician for 4 years. My job usually consists of maintaining the network, managing the hardware, and assisting users with multiple issues though this description is very broad.
I used to want to be a programmer but college sort of soured me when it came to programming. When I make programs for myself, it’s fun and I get to experiment but when I have to do it for a living, it takes all of the joy out of it. I sort of stumbled into doing more hardware, network, and software work as opposed to programming and found that I really enjoyed it. I remember a few years ago a co-worker asked me what job I was striving for and I told him that I already had it. It confused him since he was still trying to rise in the organization but I had already found what I wanted to do.
When the previous IT Manager retired, they asked me if I was interested in the position. I told them that I wasn’t since it would be more bureaucracy and inter-office politics which I definitely wasn’t interested in. My position changed mostly in title and I became the IT Systems Specialist. The pandemic had two primary effects on my work which are both negative and positive. The first was that since everyone was working remotely, I had the entire office building to myself save a few people here and there so I got my preferred work environment. The downside was that the company decided to keep most people remote so that swapping out a mouse became a trial in itself to troubleshoot an issue over the phone, ship them the replacement hardware, and to maintain a more robust hardware tracking system. This sort of added complexity has become the norm throughout all aspects of my job.
We’ve started providing IT services to other organizations in the area and I have to say that so far it has been a headache to say the least. It increases the amount of bureaucracy once more since instead of swapping out a mouse, or shipping one, I have to put in multiple requisitions, justify the purchase, and even then they might be denied so the user ends up without a mouse making our company look bad. It’s very stressful and frustrating but I’m hoping that with time and a clearer understanding of the processes involved by the higher-ups, things will smooth out.
