Where the Rubber Meets the Road

It's after 5:30 on a Friday afternoon. We're sitting in a cramped closet space, one by one replacing a set of CAT-5 lines on a misbehaving Netgear switch. I'm hungry and tired, I want to get onto the social event I had lined up for after work.

It's at this point and time that I need to make a run to Fry's to buy a crossover cable for this switch and it gives me an opportunity to pause and reflect. In past jobs, I'd experience the frustration and not-quite-panic that comes from seeing your fun stuff slip away because of a last-minute technical issue. I found myself getting snappish - taking it out on people. I felt myself getting the same kind of 'oh no, my beautiful Friday night is ruined and we got a sitter, ohnoohnoohnoohno!' feeling...I stopped and took a breath.

It is true what they say when they say: "attitude is everything". How you approach the problem, how you approach a situation you don't want to be in - these things are core to the business of IT and the business of being you. Are you the guy they can rely on when it's a matter of life-or-death (literally or figuratively)? Are you the guy who can get the tough assignments and see them through - even when they involve a number of problems you didn't see at the start (the age-old "The resources have been cut in half but the requirements are the same" problem)?

What time and experience have revealed to me is that you don't get the cool job, cool gig or cool project up front. You get those opportunities after you've put the time in on a lot of jobs that prove your ability to handle the mundane, the difficult, the detail-oriented. It's suicide to keep saying "I didn't do my best because that project or job didn't matter. When it matters...then I'll do my best!"

If you can't handle the small stuff, why should they trust you with something big?

We saw the network problem through. It did involve some scheduling changes, but ultimately I had the after-work fun I was hoping to have. I checked back in with the client...they're sailing along. Seeing it through, making sure the client is 100% was worth more than being able to start my weekend on time. It sure makes Monday morning a lot easier.