full image - Repost: Performing under pressure. (from Reddit.com, Performing under pressure.)
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I was just on the phone with /u/fullinversion82 shooting the shit, and this story came up. It is one of my prouder moments.A few years out of college, I was working as a network engineer for a VoIP startup before it was really blowing up around the world. I was the only network engineer. My job was to configure the Cicso routers to route their VoIP protocols correctly and keep the phone calls open. I was also somewhat well versed in UNIX and Linux, so some of our work was done on the mainframes as well, setting up routing information and ports and such. My final task was to make new cables for these mainframes as they came in. Not just the regular ones for Ethernet, but the really big ones that mainframes used. It was meticulous work. One day I'm in my office working on something, getting ready for a trade show in Las Vegas. The owner of the company (an engineer himself and a pretty decent guy) came in and told me I had to go "spin up" the new mainframe that just arrived. "Where's our sys admin?""Home with the flu. The mainframe ships tomorrow morning, first thing. You have to have it up and running with the OS and our software by then. You are still flying to the trade show the day after as usual with the rest of us."Again, I knew UNIX very well. But I had NEVER touched one of these mainframes beyond logging into it remotely or directly with a laptop. I knew jack shit about "spinning up" a mainframe. Guess it is time to find out.It took me the better part of six hours, but I got it unboxed from the wood crate it shipped in, unbolted from the pallet, moved to a spot in our data room, and finally plugged in. Next I had to make another giant fucking ethernet cable to put it on our network. After that, a long and detailed process in the user manual to bring it to full life took place. These machines were tens of thousands of dollars. Do the wrong thing and it's a problem.I had the thing spun up finally. Then I got to load the VoIP stuff and make sure the router that was going to the trade show was talking to the mainframe and passing traffic. Then I had to pass actual phone calls from our network to an outside line that wasn't VoIP enabled, as well as one of our office numbers that were all on the local network with the box. Once all that checked out, I finally got help from the other to turn it off, unplug it from the phones, network and power, and bolt it back onto a pallet before boxing it all up to ship to Vegas.Working like that, you are always under a deadline and pressure. The money was fucking amazing, and I was very good at what I did. Getting Cicso certified was hard, and another of my proudest achievements. However much pride I had in doing a kick ass job though, teaching has been far more rewarding for me.
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