Online trainings and online meetings

It's been a while since I posted something here.
I've been busy with meetings and trainings.

It's a good feeling learning a new technology. This is very different than what I am supporting on my previous job. I seem to have mastered the SMTP and HTTP protocols (that's what I think, :D) and the other "gateway" protocols already that I need to learn something new, ooops, correction, that should be the different products that uses those protocols. Now, I am learning a new set of technologies, and of course, a new set of products as well. And mind you, where I am living, this skillset is very rare (well because of the so called 'brain-drain').

They are very different, compare them yourself, that is, Security products vs. Storage/Backup. We can say that Backup is part of Security. So that shouldn't be different at all. Hmmm. But I am talking about anti-malware products against SANs and backup software. One thing is for sure, having an experience with these products (in my first job) really helped me a lot with my previous job. I just hope that it will helped me on my current job too.

Going back to the online trainings/meetings...imagine, doing an online training (it's a hard time and the company I am working for is trying to save expenses on employee travels and trainings, I understand that) and at the same time attending a virtual meeting con conference. Whew, I've been doing that for 2 weeks now. There's a lot of things that need to be done and the target date to finalizing the project is drawing nearer.

I can now see myself parsing through a bunch of logs and troubleshooting problems determining what went wrong and what the solution would be (that's what I like). But on the other side, I also "should" see myself doing and conforming to the dreaded (and different) processes! That's the beauty of ITIL, hehehe. Oh by the way, I should not forget to attend the required and mandatory ITIL training. Oh well.

the process

I am still downloading the drivers for the Compaq EVO PC of one of my neighbours.
I can't seem to make the NIC card work, oh my.

Prior to this, I finished 2 online meetings in one day (whew!). Well I have more than 2 weeks of vacation from work, but I still need to attend these WHILE I AM ON VACATION.

The first one is for TOI (Transfer of Information OR Knowledge Transfer like what the others are calling it). While the second one is support transition for an account. Aargh! Talking about vacation. Nice.

Well, I've got a problem. You see, I am new to my current company and I still don't know the different processes and information required and needed in my work. So when the transition manager started asking for information that we may need during and after the transition, I didn't know what to tell her. I was thinking, since I worked as a technical support before, I should know that already. But I guess I still don't. Sure I know the technical side of it, but I don't know the PROCESS, the process of the team, of the department, and of the company. This PROCESS is what holding me back to do my work and also to CONTRIBUTE to my team.

For the past 2 jobs and the past years I worked as a technical support engineer, it is only now that I meet this so called PROCESS. Of course we also have different processes and policies on my previous jobs, but this is the only time that I have to really think about, and work with, the PROCESS. I guess I have to read, study, and 'really' learn ITIL this time. The work I had on my last job deals only with the Problem Management aspect of the ITIL. I don't care about the whole process before as I was focused more in dealing with the problem, finding the cause, and formulating a solution. After giving the solution, I don't care about the documentation. That part should be taken care of by the other engineers who escalated the case. Well, that will change now. I will not survive with only my technical skills. I will be posting why this is the case in my future posts as the download is already finish.

Let me end this entry for now and get the driver installed on the machine.
Let's save some stories on my next post.

P.S
You can look for ITIL in Wikipedia. :D

First post.

Welcome to my blog..and this post is my first one...hooray!

I just want to blog my daily mumblings about my work.
Yes my dear reader, I am working as a technical support. And currently this is my third job as a tech support. I will not be telling you what company I am working for (as I would like to keep it secret). From time to time I will be telling you stories of my previous work experiences in addition to my daily adventures. Who knows, I could as well help someone with his/her "tech questions" here.

For the record, let me tell you some facts about my work.

I am working for a help desk provider company. To make it short, my work is to keep the customer's systems in top shape. The systems are a combination of different platforms (Windows, Unix, Linux, etc...) which depends on the customer's environment. With this, you may be guessing that I am 'supporting' a number of customers...well yeah right.

And I am not 'really' doing the platforms part but the technology part. Well, for non-techies, the platforms part I am calling can be define as the Operating System. The technology part would be the application and/or the hardware side. I am maintaining the storage and backup systems.

For the meantime, this would be as far as I can tell you as I have started last December 1 (whew!). Expect that my stories and adventures will be jumping from my current job to my past jobs and back. And I hope that would be one hell of a ride and will keep you entertained. :D

So please do return to my blog if you have the time and if there is something on your mind, please do post OR tell me about it. I hope we can have a conversation or two.

See you!