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Confessions of an IT Pro: My Nine Biggest Professional Blunders

techrepublic.com.com — Over the past 16 years of being paid to make computers and people work together in perfect harmony, I have collected a number of incidents that make me wince and blush in embarrassment when I think of them. The mistakes I've made fall roughly into three categories: technical, political, and career management.

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  • foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -72/+4Sorta Off Topic. But the Paralyzed man's comments page is giving a "Page not found". Just saying
    • ywong137, on 10/12/2007, -3/+40On the first one, the VP was probably relieved that the evidence of his porn habit had been wiped out.
    • spamzor, on 10/12/2007, -32/+2What is a VP? PM?

      I've run into problems with emails in the work place where people can't see your tone or facial expression or whatever, it sucks haha
    • wicked9, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9vice president
    • karch, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10& project manager
    • Zero82z, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8There ARE ways of getting data back after a format, and every IT professional should always have a good data recovery program on hand. I learned this the hard way after a partitioning incident where I lost 100GB of data, though I was able to recover it.
    • Torqued, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29re: Deleting the VP's porn...

      True Story: We had a VP that had a well known porn habit. He was having issues with his PC and when the desktop support guys went to work on it, they found over 2 gigs of porn. They burned a CD of the best stuff. The "strangest" file they found was one called "*****.avi".

      We also had short period of time where people were getting new PC's with porn on them! Turns out the problems was that the desktop support guys had taken an image of the VP's PC since he had all the "management applications" loaded on it.. and were using that image for the new PC's coming in for the managers.

      The really sad thing is that ***** eventually became the CIO, did a crappy job for a couple of years, and then got a sweet severence package.
    • lame_duck, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4I got a blunder everyone should know about: Taking the place of you bosses brother.

      I started working for a guy that had employed his brother before. This brother told him he could get a online store, complete with 3000 produces, up and running within a month. After waiting months, he fired him and excepted me to meet what his brother had set. I told him that with no previous files, I couldn't do it in that time. I told him no one could do it and have it look professional. He tells me to just put pictures and item numbers. One month and 1000 produces into it, his brother decides he wants to work on it again. I get downgraded and a new boss. He bust my chops saying it isn't done right and asked why I didn't use his files he left. I told him that there were no files and I was doing what his brother had told me to.

      Long story short, I got fired for "not doing my job" and he put up the store with full descriptions and prices, like I wanted to do in the first place. Funny thing is this guys site had a accident, someone didn't back it up and the server crashed hard. He comes begging to me and I just laughed. I laughed and told him I wouldn't work for him if he payed me 30 bucks and hour. It took him another 3 months to get the site back up.

      Moral: Never take the place of family if your boss is an idiot.
  • terrya64, on 10/12/2007, -2/+28Very interesting read, lots of good points made.
    • daedalus01, on 10/12/2007, -19/+3To above: a PM is a Project Manager.
    • jlabs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5the first one could have been resolved. I have recovered drives using various utilities out there..after a person has reformatted/re-partitioned. As long as the data has not been touched, it's still possible to get most if not all the data back
    • TylerDurden0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Care to expand on the utilities? Which did you use? I'd like to know which these are as this error will almost certainly occur someday.
    • scsnoballs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think everyone in IT can relate to at least one of those topics. Nice warning for the issues that haven't come up yet too.
    • canadiense, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1He didn't give any dates, and way back when the utilities available for data recover AFTER you had started formatting weren't available.
  • WermerSkoch, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Heh heh, is there such a thing as a "professional" blunder? ;)
    • liquidrums, on 10/12/2007, -0/+33A "professional blunder" is different to the "amateur blunder" in that you can potentially bring the whole company to it's knees with your mistake :)
    • jweinraub, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1So does pulling the plug on a web nameserver count as amateur or professional blunder? I was given a server name but apparently it was in the wrong rack.
  • adml_shake, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Lol, I've seen some of these done where I work. The back up blunder being the main one. Lucky for us that our boss did an internal audit on all that stuff on a whim and found out that our backups for the past 2 months were missing important files. Glad that wasn't my job...
    • WinterSolstice, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I work at a company that had similar issues - everything was peachy until we did a re-directed restore (system copy). Then we just happened to hit a bad log. Then another one. Then, we realized to our horror that nearly 20% of our database logs (and some full db images) were corrupt.

      It took 3 mos with the backup vendor and shifting strategies entirely to fix. Amazingly enough, just about when we felt it was solid, we lost a SAN volume containing 2/3rds of the production database. The DR system was 20 hours behind, and the restore was our only choice.

      It worked. A gruelling 48 hours later we knew that backups were serious. We never play fast and loose with those anymore.

      -WS
    • covertbadger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It's interesting how many comments here (as well as TFA) mention that it takes a backup disaster to really appreciate why backups are important. I think people aren't being taught properly. If I was teaching, I'd give everyone a term-long project to maintain a wiki page on the importance of backups, and then trash the server the day before the deadline. See how many people took my lessons to heart.
    • WinterSolstice, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Well, I know in our case we simply believed the logs the backup program generated. What *Really* happened was some kind of corruption was being introduced into the files. Unfortunately, it's one of those things that can only be tested with spare hardware (big hardware) and time. It's too easy to believe what you wish were true.

      -WS
  • cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -44/+5This guy is the Forest Gump of the IT world.
    • 5thfreedom, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18How can you say that? People learn by making mistakes. The only way to get around having to make the mistakes yourself is if you are wise enough to learn from the mistakes of other people. Don't tell me that you are one of those horrid IT nerds that thinks he's perfect and everybody else is stupid.
    • JDines, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20... well, no cliffzdude ... but you have shown yourself to be the Forest Gump of the reading comprehension world, since it states explicitly in the first paragraph on the page that *Becky Roberts* is a woman ... ROTFL. As they say: "People in glass houses ...."
    • karch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11well, it WAS over _16_ years.
    • joeblough2005, on 10/12/2007, -14/+0Ha! JDines, I gave you a "Thumbs up" but I wanted to give you a "high-five". Well said.
    • panique, on 10/12/2007, -14/+7@5thfreedom - "How can you say that? People learn by making mistakes. The only way to get around having to make the mistakes yourself is if you are wise enough to learn from the mistakes of other people."

      That's a little narrow-minded. You can make the mistakes on your own computers first, so you can learn from them, AND not destroy anyone else's data or code. Why does that seem like such an obscure idea to everyone (including the blogger)?
    • ramsinks.com, on 10/12/2007, -5/+11@Panique.
      It's evident you are not in the IT industry, or have just started your journey.
      Any big boy IT pro, knows better.

      sh.


    • cmiz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I'd agree that although these are 'rookie mistakes', every IT worker makes a few of them.

      One time I locked the key to the server room in the server room... boy was that a headdesk moment! (There was no backup key on site, the VP had to run home to grab one. At least nothing was lost/damaged/broken though, and no, I haven't been in the industry for too long.)
    • HarryBauzonia, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5@ramsinks.com
      "Any big boy IT pro, knows better."

      Wrong. Any big boy IT pro has some kind of network setup at home that he can test stuff on before giving it a go at work. It's better to screw up your own test system than the one owned by the guy who signs your checks.
    • cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2Forest gump was not too smart, but lucky as *****. War hero, because he thought something had bit his butt. Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, got rich as *****, due to luck.

      Did you SEE Forest Gump?

      The author made some doozeys, but seems to have survived; like Forest Gump.

      Those who commented to the contrary, about my missing the author is a woman, glass houses, et all.

      I am a pro computer geek. I've made mistakes, but have proven to be far less lucky than the author. As such, I backup my backups. I RTFM before I install the product. I'm not a Forest Gump, if I installed a demo software package the time-out would come 30 days early, because I am no Forest Gump.

      Now to the JDines who is kind enough to point out that I referred to a woman as a guy. Glad to have met you, aren't you the one who always reminded the teacher on Friday afternoon @ one minute before the bell was to ring, that she hadn't assigned any homework yet? Ya, thought so.
    • JDines, on 10/12/2007, -10/+0 ... as opposed to which other JDines? I can only ask cliffzdude ... did *YOU* see Forest Gump? I don't doubt that you did; most likely your audio/visual comprehension parallels your reading comprehension. To say Forest Gump was "not too smart" is a pretty absurd euphemism at best. When you make the statement "This 'guy' is the Forest Gump of the IT industry" you insult the woman twice. If you cannot see that, then you are beyond help in this regard. Good luck in the future, but trying to insult me is futile. Move along now ... nothing to reply to here ... (unless it is an acknowlegement of *YOUR* errors - do you have the same strength of character that the articles author has?)
    • mrfunktastic, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3JDines... cliffzdude's reply was solid. Yours was weak. Admit defeat honorably and walk off the field.
    • cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Regarding Forest's IQ, from Wikipedia:
      "Despite his low I.Q., which would normally have necessitated special education, his mother arranges to have him enrolled in public school by having an affair with the school's principal."

      I have more, so continue if you wish. Maybe I will point how the article never states explicitly in the first paragraph on the page that *Becky Roberts* is a woman. It mentions her name, and refers to her as a "her", but never explicitly says "Becky Roberts is a WOMAN", which is what stating explicitly is.

      My comment was obtuse and easy to mistake, no bfd. Modd the comment down, I couldn't care less. Enjoy modding it down! We have to have a reason to hit the red down thumb once in a while.

      Now, what's next Bubba? (That is a Forest Gump reference JDines, not one of your imaginary references)


    • JDines, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0.... trying to explain this to you turns out to be a lot like trying to educate Forest Gump. I concede that I claimed that it was stated explicitly that the author of the article was a woman, when I merely meant it was blatantly obvious to anyone who had a reading comprehension level that was at least as good as Forest Gump's. 'nuff said.
    • TylerDurden0, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Here's Nick Burns, the IT guy!!

      Cliffzdude you're an *****. Oh, oh, and a moron, too.
  • mcdevcom, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0TOTALLY agree w/ #9. Good article...
  • 5thfreedom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14This is a fantastic list. I am going to condense it and print it out to tape up in a prominent place in my office. Some of his mistakes give me chills, because they sound like mistakes I would make. Very good digg.
    • creepyman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I've performed, witnessed, or been burned by all of these mistakes too, although not all of them are mistakes.

      The sensitive email problem is an issue with statements as well. Some people will take anything you say, verbally or written, in the worst possible way. Verbally, they have to have witnesses, but at least written text won't necessarily burn you as bad. The blunder in that one was giving the passive aggressive user any ammunition at all. If she had really wondered if Becky was being mean, she could have asked if Becky had meant before going to the boss to complain. This wasn't an overly sensitive employee. She was someone looking to find something to bitch about to the boss.

      #9 isn't really a blunder, IMO. I consider it merely a lost opportunity.

      But the only problem I have with the article is that it's written too preachy. This wasn't a description of her blunders. It was a description of common blunders IT people make and how to react. I have a feeling that Becky isn't really a single person, and her reactions to them are simply what the editors decided are what the perfect IT person would do.

      Note there was no personal information about Becky other than she is a female IT person who has worked in IT for 16 years.

      BTW, I finally am able to post to digg, I think. I had to install firefox to do it, but I can finally see the code image and text field for submitting posts.
    • TylerDurden0, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Creepyman,

      The point of the column is not "Get to know Becky a little better." It's common IT blunders and examples of such. It does not matter if Becky is a fictional character. This column makes good points about what should be done in advance, how to avoid them, and how to react when mistakes inevitably happen. Get a clue.

      Lost opportunities are still blunders. Apparently you reading this column and nitpicking it to death was a lost opportunity.
  • rockyrobins, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Actually a serious read. I was hoping for more funny and entertaining stories. But a good read for the more serious
    • creepyman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6How about one of mine?

      Happened long long ago to me. Small company. 3 IT people, one is the IT boss. 6 year guy (our boss) was on a trip to a client. I'd been there for 2 months. Third guy had been there for one week.

      My boss called. He needed a disk sent out with some updates on it stat and send via overnight. I was out of disks, so stuck a floppy in and ran Del *.*. Yep, forgot the A: and didn't notice when it prompted "are you sure?". Worse, because the default network drive was also the database directory, I'd wiped out all the files not currently being used.

      Unfortunately, I was rushed and didn't realize. Started trying to copy my files to the disk when I started getting calls about database errors.

      I was in full on panic mode, didn't think about the network maybe having an undelete utility, I came up with a "quick" fix, or so I thought. We'd just spent the previous few days copying database files from our old network into our new server, but we were doing them individually. So I just copied the old database directory to the directory I'd run delete.

      Yep, it stomped on most of the files that the delete process hadn't. 5 minutes later the qa person asked me why I hadn't just run undelete. (it was my first job out of college, basically not even 2 months into the job yet.)

      On top of this, the database file format was such that each database table was actually stored in 2 disk files. If either one is corrupted, the database table is corrupt too. So I'd managed to step on pretty much every data file we had.

      Our backups consisted of copying, once a week, the biggest files to the boss's 160 meg d: partition. The rest were backed up to tape, but the tape couldn't handle files over 10 meg or so. (this was LONG ago.)

      So basically I spent the rest of the night trying to fix the database so that the database could be used. I came in late the next morning after only getting half done because I was so tired.

      The best part though was coming in to people telling me the system was down, and that the new guy was working on it. Remember, he'd been there only about a week. I found him sitting in the boss's chair with the database user's manual open to page 1, while scratching his head and trying to deduce what was wrong.

      Ever since, I've been hellacareful.
    • hurfydurfur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3How about mine? Unplugging a Sun keyboard on a production database cluster. Hey, some Sun/Solaris keyboards aren't hot-swap! Who knew! *crash* Then Sun goes to USB keyboards.

      Live and learn, that's the short version.
  • foshizol, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15"#6: Creating inadequate self-documentation. "

    This is my f@#king problem also. I know I should , but I never do. I always tell users backup, Backup, BACKUP!.
    I'm going to hang a sign over my desk document, Document, DOCUMENT.
    • oyourmom, on 10/12/2007, -47/+5Aw the little pussy cant say *****. Say it with me now, *****...*****...*****
  • joeblough2005, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think a lot of these lessons can be applied to almost any career. As a project manager in a non-IT related career, I can see a lot of lessons to be learned in this article. I definitely agree with the email lesson; we take a lot of our body language and tone for granted when we speak face-to-face; email does not include those important aspects of communication. I’ve also found it’s best to just “play it straight” in email.

    Frankly, I’d like to see a web collection of personal blunders and the lessons learned. Anybody know of such a place? If there isn’t one, there should be, I’d much rather learn from somebody else’s mistakes!
    • Bullsnot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I've also found that sarcasm never translates well in instant messaging. :) Little smileys always work though.
  • aphexcoil, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Excellent article. He covers a lot of the technical but also (and probably more importantly) a lot of the moral and politcal aspects of the IT job. This is a well rounded list and everyone in this field should read and reread it a few times and let it sink in.

    I remember swapping backup tapes out for a month without ever checking the logs. Come to find out, nothing was getting backed up. Don't think that because you are doing the mindless physical aspect of an IT job that you are fully covered. Logs are extremely important and exist for a reason.

    1) You can never have too many backups
    2) Go over your entire system and run scenerios for each box. Ask yourself, "what would happen if this server went down?" and write up a contingency plan.
    3) Work smart, not hard -- a lot of hard work in the beginning will yield huge paybacks when something does go wrong.
    4) Know exactly where your most important tools are and keep them near you or with you at all times -- especially if you are a WAN director (multiple office locations like I have to deal with on a daily basis)
    5) M A K E F R I E N D S ! ! This is so amazing. Don't be an arrogant *****. Nobody in IT is a God of all things. Remain humble but confident in your abilities and learn to network with other like-minded IT professionals. The old "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" is amazingly powerful when you need a helping hand after the ***** hits the fan.
    6) Never lie. If you made a mistake, admit to it. If you get fired for it then learn from your mistake and move on. Every time I've been fired or laid off I've gotten a job that pays much better and I've received more opportunities from the experience.

    The last thing I can think of that isn't necessarily a major point is to remember to keep a diverse lifestyle. Don't let computers and networks rule your life because you'll find yourself eventually going wacko. The craziest thing I ever did was take up landscaping and construction on the side and it is amazingly theraputic to work with your hands after spending an entire week working with your brain.

    Thanks!
    • natebuff, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3>>He covers a lot of the technical ...

      Umm the article is written by a she.

      Becky shows more guts with her self-examination than most IT guys I've worked with.
  • tfogarty, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5This is a fantastic article on what I would consider common mistakes in businesses. This is like looking at the source code to someone else's life, you can see the errors and try to avoid them when coding your own.
    Oh, and I can definitely vouch for having emails totally misunderstood when I was trying to make light conversation.
  • BillDoE, on 10/12/2007, -6/+0Lesson #1 Back up & GetDataBack ;)
  • i440, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Eh. Mistakes happen. Just learn from them.
    • lolwtfhaha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0or learn from other people's mistakes before you make them?
  • grungyhamster, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Good read.
  • ChewyBass, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I think we've all blundered in our haste. I once admin downed an ATM circuit remotely to fix a problem, it worked locally so why not, then I suddenly realized that I'm 55 miles away and it's not going to let me in to up it again. Needless to say I'm glad there were no troopers on the interstate that day.
    • aphexcoil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5hahaha! I've been down that road. I was working on some Cisco 1721 Routers and took down an interface for testing. As soon as I hit enter to take the interface down, my ssh connection was terminated. Once the logical impasse set into my head, I screamed and made a phone call to the remote office and had the receptionist power-cycle the router.
    • lovedaddy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I did something similar - except I was in the UK, and the remote server was our up coming out sources asset database, In HK. Moment of madness whilst upgrading a linux kernel, I used the shutdown cmd rather than the reboot command.

      I wasn't the most popular, as the site was vacient and it needed setting up before they arrived. Was a flight out for me later that day (along with a massive slap from management). Even simple stuff, think about what your actually doing!
    • mirek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've done this before too. This is now why I installed a remote power switch in our data center :)
  • Crypty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Ahhh the IT business. I had a go at it in my earlier days, fixing peoples computers in my town for money. One lady told me her CD drive wouldn't open. I popped the case off the PC and would you know it? There was a cinnamon raisin cookie lodged in the drive. The thing was also full of ants.
    To make things more amusing, she scolded her 4 year old right there on the spot.
  • Jomwilli, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Amen brother, I'll send this to my entire team.
  • Zanneth, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3I accidentally reformatted my friend's mom's computer. I blamed it on a fake virus! I felt kinda bad after that.
    • panique, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6They got a special section in hell for guys like you. At least fess up and own your *****...how are you to learn if you avoid the pain of making the mistake?
  • returnofmalv, on 10/12/2007, -16/+2Top 9 lessons I've learned from reading this article:

    1.) Don't hire this guy.
    2.) Don't hire this guy.
    ...
    • panique, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Unless you actually want someone who over-represents their skill level.
    • Litespeed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's written by a woman.
    • returnofmalv, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I guess the ***** have weighed in their opinion.
    • returnofmalv, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4"It's written by a woman."

      That explains a lot. =)
    • Snuffkin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Um, everybody makes mistakes. It's not like he did all of these in the same week.
  • panique, on 10/12/2007, -16/+1I'm sorry dude, but items 1-4 give me the impression that you should seek a different career. Those are all rookie mistakes, the kind of mistakes you should have made on your own gear before you ever set foot in a "professional" environment. And if you're one of the "good pointers" out here, you should probably be spending more time in your own sandbox taking lessons with stuff before you act like you know what you're doing on the job.

    Nothing like having to punch in I/O drivers via front panel when one's disk crashes to teach one to backup I guess.
    • gafasiesornivek, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Awful lot of posting there panique. You're outta there!
    • ramsinks.com, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Please, as if it's never happened to you.
      If you pretend they have not or do not - you would not be a desired IT candidate.
    • lb3ll, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2She did say it was sixteen years of mistakes.
    • JDines, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Panique - Why do you keep going on insisting that you have never made these mistakes and never will? It merely flags you as someone who has minimal experience with such matters. There isn't a truly competant and highly experienced technology guru on the planet who hasn't commited similar blunders, I assure you. It is clear to me from your posts (and to others as well, I assure you) that you are a rank amateur!
    • stoanhart, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I think 1) and 2) are definately the type of things that just shouldn't happen.

      1) Deleting someone's files and formatting the drive, without ever even considering to ask the person if they needed the files, or if they had copies? Come on.

      2) Deploying a program without testing it - what did you expect.

      The rest are all honest mistakes though. Just those first two...
  • kingkilr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"we take a lot of our body language and tone for granted when we speak face-to-face; email does not include those important aspects of communication."

    maybe you should use more smileys :P
    • resplence, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Actually, smiles are agravating; they will just reinforce whatever the stranger first got from your text.

      For example: I'm not sure if you were being ironic, sarcastic, a smartass or just plain dumb.
  • ramsinks.com, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2A couple of those are associated to being trapped into a corporate environment.
    But a few of those are good lessons we all could learn from.
  • Litespeed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Lesson #10: Never assume that only guys work in I.T.
    "Becky Roberts decided to come clean and share her worst career moments".
  • tekmage3000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Great read and I have been there for a few of the mistakes myself. Got in trouble while working on a disk and had no backup. Recovered it all by using a disk tool but it was a VERY near thing. I learned from it and started stocking a nice set of disk tools and recovery software.

    My backup plan when I'm transferring data on a new machine.

    1) Normal daily backup to the server ( I don't control it so I don't trust it, but it's there )
    2) Total disk backup to my logitech sonic Hd duplicator, which I move to a external hard drive to archive for a few months.
    3) After building the new system I leave a backup file from the old computer. You never know when a user is going to ask for a file they forgot. I just do a quick restore and I'm all set. If they managed to delete the backup file see step 2.

    Test all of your backups, never assume it's going to work.. make sure! It's a small amount of extra work that pays off.

    This works for me and ever since I have not been caught without access to a working backup. It builds your rep among the users and makes life a bit more easy.
    Now I get called org wide for data recovery, and it's been a great chance to make friends out of very worried people. Even if I fail I win since people are happy just to see someone really trying help them out of a bad place. Making friends is so damn important in IT, yet I see so few people doing it. We all see lots of problems which I know the user/IT person are to blame. You don't need to rub it in , just work with them and help guide them to some better habits. Make the users your friends, it never hurts to have people saying good things about you.

    Great comments and a great article!
    Dugg!
  • ruprecht, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2A list that made me cringe in recognition several times. However, I somewhat disagree with the "roll over and take it" response in several of these situations. Take #8 - Don't send insensitive emails. Sure, good rule - but the email in question didn't seem insensitive, the recipient seemed oversensitive. People can be just as oversensitive to totally straight-laced and businesslike email. It's not your problem, it's theirs and I wouldn't have suggested transforming yourself into a corporate automaton to avoid these misunderstandings.
    • Istari6, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2ruprecht

      I disagree that it's a matter of 'rolling over and taking it'. I think the point that tekmage3000 just above you makes is right in that when looking at careers, it's always better to be the guy people like and respect than the guy who's always right.

      While the colleague was no doubt overly sensitive, making a big deal out of a misunderstanding makes you look petty and small. Apologizing immediately deflates the overly sensitive hag and gets you the respect of any decent boss. Half the battle is knowing how to pick your battles.
  • garethevans, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I completely concur with all of this, especially the notes regarding backups. Luckily, the engineering company I'm employed with is quite paranoid regarding backups and has recently invested a large sum of money in a completely redundant off-site disaster scenario backup plan, which includes a full mirror of all servers (including domain controllers, file servers and our exchange server)

    I'm guessing this has something to do with a recent exchange sever crash we had - we lost two drives concurrently in a RAID 5 array. It was funny, in a really "oh my god we are so screwed" sort of way.
  • geronimo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I liked the part about taking advantage of free training. That has helped me a lot in non-technical ways. Business courses can teach you about groups, leadership, dealing with different types of people, organizational structures(authoritative vs open), how to manage people, project management. Even if you don't become a manager, such courses will help you professionally, in a corporate environment or even when starting your own company. If you're stuck at your current level, such courses can take you to the next level.
  • thexder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"It was funny, in a really "oh my god we are so screwed" sort of way. "

    Isn't that such a liberating feeling? LIke all the stress that comes along with IT just flushes out of your system. You just assume you're getting fired and it doesn't matter anymore. Once someone teaching me about a SAN unbound the LUN containing all the Lotus Notes email. Oh did I mention my first task on my new IT job was to get the tape library up and running so they hadn't had a backup in 3 months. Imagine losing 3 months of Black and Decker's email...
  • hreamer, on 10/12/2007, -11/+0Sorry, but if you think this is "good info" it is because you don't work in IT. You might love your job in the Lawn and Garden dept. at Wal-Mart, but to say it like Jerry Macguire... "You were fired at 'Hello'". There are no good tips in this article unless you are trying to teach the Best Buy computer salesman how to actually get a job in computers. To even categorize this as entry level advice is insulting to people that are smart enough to breath on their own.
    • ekstasis16, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3wow, someone thinks their ***** don't stink. i got a news flash for ya buddy...
  • popltree2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I work for a local home tech support company. You would be surprised how many home users don't have ANY backup system in place. It's ridiculous. Pictures of their kids, their music, important documents, all of it could be gone in a flash if a hard drive goes out! No more pics of little Billy on his 2nd birthday cause you were too lazy or cheap to get a $130 backup drive or even just burn them to CD!
    • purplegrog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1while it can be frustrating to see situations like this, it can often be attributed to people simply not being aware of why they need such a thing. Considering you work for a "local home tech support company" that not only keeps you in business, but also gives you an opportunity to preemptively educate users when you see situations like that. In some (most) cases, people won't listen to you, but then at least they can't blame anyone but themselves if/when it happens.
    • popltree2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is very true, purple. On each appointment we are at, we make sure that the client either a) has a backup system in place or b) at the very least is aware that they need one.
  • ZackMorris, on 10/12/2007, -21/+3No suprise that this dunce is a woman. Females just don't belong in IT.
    • illegalamigo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6zm, you're an idiot.
    • ekstasis16, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1so....you prefer a sausage-fest in the workplace I take it.
    • retnull, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2zm, where do you work -- in the 18th century?
  • hawkiz2005, on 10/12/2007, -19/+1After reading items 1-4, I gotta think your REAL #1 is getting into IT. You're no Pro.
    • awhiteflame, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6You missed the point. The article is not, "Nine things I did at my job ! ^_^", it's "Nine Biggest Professional Blunders". They're mistakes over the course of SIXTEEN years. It seems like the IT people are looking at this and going, Wow, I hope I never do that, and taking the article's advice, while everyone else is going "Man, this person SUCKS!"
  • sanza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Refreshingly honest through and through. And it proves that no matter how much you know, Murphy's Law can still bite you on the ass when you least expect it.

    I have to say that I think Becky is a real upstanding employee. Too many other people would try to run from their mistake or blame someone else.
  • davemeister, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1I'm not saying I'm perfect but this article struck me as more evidence that the workplace is replete with incompetence. After working in IT for nearly a decade, I made a few mistakes but I can't think of any that got me in as much trouble as that list. I credit my relatively successful record free of major blunders to education: I had an MBA focused on IT and a graduate-level academic certificate in technology before I even went professional in the field. While I was a professional, I acquired multiple advanced vendor certifications. I learned every lesson the author relates in the lab so I didn't need to suffer learning them in production. They're important lessons to learn but I'd have to take a close look at keeping someone with a track record like the author's on my staff.
    • Skas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Davemeister "I learned every lesson the author relates in the lab"

      Doesn't that mean that you still made the mistakes? We all make them, and trying to come off as though you're better because you made them in a lab instead of a live environment is mighty foolish. It's ok to admit to your mistakes, or did they not teach you that while getting your *BS*?

      Regarding the article, wonderful read filled with some good info everyone in my IT department will be sure to see.
    • buck09, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1After reading your comment, I am convinced that you are in desperate need of a cockpunch.
  • slimasian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This was definitely a good read, it's always good to note mistakes others have made, even though one may think to have a better skillset -- what I've found over the course of my IT career is us tech workers seem to take things for granted. I've worked Helpdesk, Desktop Support, Applications Development, Database Admin, et al for the past 8 years, and one commonality I found among my peers in this time span is really just a lack of "crossing your T's and dotting your I's" in terms of preventive maintenance. As IT professionals, I suppose it comes down to a) the technology we work with does spoil us a bit [e.g. "Eh I'll worry about it when it happens -- worse come to worst I'll search the Internet"
    • slimasian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0and b) Workgroup logistics and dynamics, the whole thing of lying in the extreme lands of 1) Underworked and overmanned (no time to check details, because of the million other things left to do) or 2) Overworked and undermanned (complacency)
  • monkeymagik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Awesome article... my God some tools comment on this site.

    Only one I disagree with is number 8. ffs get a grip, people are too sensitive with email.
  • drforster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Rookie Mistake:

    Way back in the NT 4 days (and 2 servers) I went into the office on the weekend to tighten up security and low and behold the C: had a share for everyone so I removed that share and rebooted. Well a blue screen of death and 24 hours later I had the server rebuilt and running. That is when I learned about administrative shares.

    I was lucky/unlucky because I worked for my father and there is nothing worse than your dad coming in on Monday morning and saying do you know what you did so this doesn't happen again and walk out of your office.

    • mrcan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I would guess you just sat in the corner and cried until someone else fixed it for you.
  • i386, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Now hes a fry cook at the local Mungy Burger. He specialises in Tutrial.
  • lolwtfhaha, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Here's one:
    I went to reinstall a program for the president of our college. I deleted the directory out of program files manually rather than letting it install over it. Doesn't matter, I should have made a disk image of the entire machine before I touched it.

    Turned out the program organized bibliography and endnotes information FOR HER PHD DISSERTATION, and she had saved all the files INSIDE the program files/whatever directory. Aiiiiighhhh.

    I fessed up but also *carefully* mentioned that data files shouldn't be mixed with program files... In fact I tried to make it sound like it was the programmers fault for defaulting the location to there. Fortunately she is very computer literate and I think she realized it was a bad idea to keep the files there.

    So yeah, MAKE A DISK IMAGE of the president's machine before you touch it!
  • signal15, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've been in the industry for about 12 years, and after reading this, I tried to think of something that I seriously screwed up, and I can't really think of anything. Some of the people I worked with made some pretty serious mistakes, like stuff that got the attention of high-level govt officials.

    About the only think I can relate to is not writing sufficient self documentation. I keep thinking I'm going to set up a private wiki where I can put things like that, but I never get around to it. If I have something I need to remember, I just send myself an email. Oh, and I'm definitely not a "yes man". If I see a problem or a way to make things more efficient or reliable, I'll speak up. My manager at a previous job HATED me for it, but I think that's his problem, not mine. It's not my problem that some people are fine with mediocrity.
  • aerotive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Worst IT mistake I've ever made was a Lotus Notes client that I FUBARed. The user was a VP and I was nervous just being in his office. His Notes Client was redscreening (ie displaying a red box then crashing) all the time. Now whenever this happened and the usual fixes didn't work, we had a documented checklist of things to do to that particular client. Regen the ID, compact the DB, many others.

    Well one of the other is that we were supposed to do was empty out the user's trash within Notes (or whatever Trash was called back then--this is Notes 4.0). All of this company's Notes clients had various crazy hacks to get around some Notes limitations. Having too much data in the trash could and often did screw up these hacks and then corrupt the DB.

    So I go about and do all the various fixes, including emptying the Trash. Got the regenned ID and after that his copy of Notes started working perfectly. Ten
    minutes later he calls me up screaming that his Trash is empty and he had vital files in there. Turns out he was using the Trash folder to store most anything, not just stuff that would soon be deleted. Vital business documents and emails.

    We got some of the data back from the server copy of his Notes DB, though he was still enraged. The only thing that saved my job was the fact that what I did was documented and precisely what I should've done.

    I haven't worked with Notes for 5+ years and don't miss it to this day.
  • dkla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0#9 was my biggest mistake -- I've been with some pretty big corporations which offered free training and I passed it up. Now that I'm an independent consultant, those training courses are quite expensive!!! :)
  • zabouth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://techrepublic.com.com/5171-22-1043705.html more articles by Becky Roberts and s bio
  • dumbnutz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Interesting list.
    What I see through the whole list of blunders is that the person did not seem to get a professional outlook to work over the course of time.
    If the first time I was working and I ended up destroying data, the lesson learned is not just about backing up data but more importantly the lesson learned should have been developing a process for tackling problems faced in the IT environment.
    If one were to just put into the mind that one shall develop a process for solving problems be it help desk issues or Data migration or any other task related to technology.
    If one is going to be working with Technology, one needs to also develop logical thinking skills.
    Most of the people commenting out here are also talking about how to solve specific problems the person encountered.
    It is more important to understand that if one is going to be involved with Technology one has to be more logical in thought process.
  • zenn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Second week at a new job. Hooking up a switch at my desk so I can have multiple network connections for ghosting. See 2 patch cable under my desk, plug them both into the switch. It creates a loop and kills the network for half the building, IT staff and managers running everywhere to locate the source, in the meantime I'm plugging the patch cables in and out wondering why the network keeps connecting then dropping, This goes on for almost 1/2 and hour before I realise what I did. Thankfuly Instead of getting fired we had a good laugh over it. Still with the company more than a year later
  • 2obvious4you, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I've also found that sarcasm never translates well in instant messaging. :) Little smileys always work though."

    Wait, is this a sarcastic comment? It is preceded by a smiley so I would assume so, but wouldn't that make the statement false? So a smiley wouldn't ALWAYS work? Point in case. :)
  • Seng, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My worst was when I was upgrading a customer's server to a new box with more RAM, faster CPU, etc. This was back in the days when you could get away with Ghost'ing an old drive to a new drive and put it in the new machine and all would work fine after loading a few missing drivers.

    I hooked up the new HDD to the spare IDE connector on the motherboard, fired up a Ghost floppy, Copy Drive-to-drive, Drive 0 source, Drive 1 destination, begin copying...

    The "copy" finished in about 5 minutes - way too fast for what should've taken 30-40 minutes.

    It turned out whoever had built that server to start with had the system hard drive plugged into the secondary IDE controller and was booting off of it... What started as a simple drive clone ended up me overwriting all of their system with a blank hard drive.

    Lucky for me (and the company I worked for!) I had done a complete recovery tape backup prior to this, but it took a couple extra hours of time to restore it before continuing with the job.
  • gchance, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0> Turns out he was using the Trash folder to store most anything,
    > not just stuff that would soon be deleted. Vital business documents
    > and emails.

    Welcome to IT. The owner of my company does this. No matter how much we tell him it's a bad idea, he still does it. Yes, he has problems sometimes as a result, but the way he sees it, that's "IT's problem" and has us restore his trashcan from time to time. I just did it a few months ago, as a matter of fact.

    To my credit, however, I have never casually emptied his Trash. Thank God.
  • waveking, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i'd say this was one of my most ponderable digg till date. Quite generic points, which I or my peers can experience, if not already. Worth putting in my office cube with credit :)

    I myself remember once in my school days wanting to empty drive D:, and hence gave del *.* , on drive C:, without the prefix for d:

    Also, for backups I quite agree with the thought which says that ironically, the people who best plan and implement their backups, are least hit by data losses, because they already know how to manage their data well :)
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