My experiences leading up to this
Okay, so I'm struggling financially due to some poor decisions on someone hopeless. Recently I lost my first IT job with IBM as an Level II analyst and since this is a personal blog I will be open about what happened. I did not like my job and felt much better after I was done with it, I had been working hard to be a top level analyst and was looking for a promotion to engineer. I was becoming foundational to my section for ticket resolutions I took what was hard, easy, anything in front of me, often going beyond my scope to help resolve issues for the technicians I supported because I had the free time, helping them with their job was my job, and keeping future issues from arising. I made sure I was handling the most amount of tickets with as many difficult issues as I could get too and contributing as much knowledge and information as possible every week. I learned a couple valuable lessons from that job and only realized it when I started reflecting on it with other professionals while networking and hearing what they had to say. Maybe you already saw my mistake. I didn't play office politics and did not like most of my coworkers, I relied on an unreliable team lead and their sidekick the unstable engineer for escalation and secondary verification.
The week before my incident and documented everything because I knew it was trouble. Some backstory I wasn't well liked by my engineer because I believed everybody has the ability to learn, they liked to bully people for not knowing. I still don't regret standing up for my coworkers.
An ARP table hadn't been updated and unstable engineer was upset with me because they thought devices that were online where actually offline, as well as AP being down. Our center has tools so we can verify these things, but the NOC (network operations center) team handles updating the whole corporation on this kind of information. Both issues had started to be resolved by Network team while I was on the phone with the technician waiting for verification from my engineer. They are pissed off thinking I was lazy, messaging me expletives while I check whats going on, find out and explain what is happening, but it doesn't matter to them, they're upset telling me I wasted their time. Everything is online and working according to corporate tools, I verify there are no false positives, then request secondary verification again so we can let our field tech go. My engineer ignores me for over an hour and a half, upset over the first time I tried to have them verify my work. Without an SLA I was stuck on the phone for that entire time being at the top of the escalation chart and unable to ask them to call back due to policy. My engineer kept asking others "Who needs me to check their location!" and kept going from coworker to keep from resolving my location I had on the phone. I was in trouble for not helping clear the queue with managers because of that. I documented every word of that HR nightmare from the unmonitored chats in logs on my local profile in case any issues with my work, blame placed on myself an my coworkers, or otherwise, came into question. It was not the first time something like this happened and my attitude of not kissing ass for being treated this way definitely did not help me. One lesson learned, my work environment, my coworkers are more important than the job itself.I cannot work in a toxic environment and realized that I need to scrutinize the jobs I take on more so than just "for my resume".
Whatever had been reported to our manager in that scenario, I was never spoken too about. I only found out the engineer reported me after termination because this specific incident was listed as a contributing factor and I thought this was the time I had to hold onto those logs because I knew my engineer greatly overstepped professional boundaries, inadequate in their technical assessment, and I felt that they had purposefully violated the security of my job with their actions
I tried speaking with my team lead about this engineer after that and was told they are their second in command and I should not question it. That is his ex navy attitude. It was definitely not the first time we talked about this but it always ended like that and being told they would handle it but do not go to our PM because then corporate handles it. Resolve in house. Protecting the reputation of coworkers and a team lead I didn't like from being reported was a mistake. I should have escalated to a real manager after the I realized this would be consistent.About week later I had a 3rd party technician call, officially our operations center supported the issue they were having, however my team lead had us working on separate projects and this one was not mine. I asked a coworker in person for help, after being walked through and told everything was okay I waited. I asked my engineer for verification, nothing, a couple minutes go by. I ask again and get told to stop being impatient. After a little while I shoot off another message, silence. My call time hit's 45 minutes, so another message inquiry is sent, and a response being colorfully told that it's very busy and I need to wait and check my work over again, I bother my engineer about every 7 minutes after the first hour and of course get swearing and threats of being fired, getting yelled at IRL by my lead over being impatient and getting deferred back to the engineer. After a while I give up and check in every so often when the thought crosses my mind. When I saw my call time approaching the 5 hour mark I told my technician to go home and get some sleep, they were upset being ignored for so long, and wanted to report someone, I apologized but there was nothing within my power I could do.
I tried speaking to my team lead immediately after telling him to get a handle on this engineer, who was my escalation and I was told to go fuck myself (literally) which was normal, I had to wait until my PM was available. I get a message back from my lead in the last hour of my shift, asking what happened with that specific location, I looked at my notes and replied saying I checked everything over multiple times and never got the okay from my engineer after half a shift. Apparently a new switch hadn't been installed and I was responsible. The switch didn't arrive for another hour and luckily the location didn't need to close for the day.
I finish work, get a speeding ticket on the drive home, then a couple hours later I get a call saying my contract has been terminated over the previous incident with an engineer and letting a 3rd party technician go without approval. I'm upset that I'd been working so hard to become an engineer and worked hard to handle the highest volume tickets and difficult issues since my goal was to be the baseline of results our operations center. I decided to wait a week before interviewing at other jobs because I was already a bit emotional from external personal problems. A couple days go by and I remember I documented everything, I send a text to my PM apologizing and explaining I kept logs on everything to protect myself from that situation, but got no response.
I didn't want my workplace to burn and often went above and beyond to contribute, keep issues from arising, and operations running because I had the ability too and for that considered it a part of my job to contribute meaningfully. Proactively taking preventative steps for the center by reaching out to techs and resolving issues, trying to cut costs in the field with some small foresight as well as the excessive contribution in the operations center would hopefully result in a promotion to some other place. Ultimately this attitude of taking the matter into my own hands combined with frustration and conflict ended up causing my termination, which is fair in my opinion. I never really know if I had been able to clear up what happened, but regardless, as an employee I did the wrong thing.
I had spent 6 months studying for the CCNA R/S and could no longer afford to test. I learned a couple things, don't go beyond the scope of my work or job. My work environment is more important to me than the name of the company I work for. Don't sell myself short and accept a low paying job just because I want it on my resume. Helping the group and trying to keep my lead from getting burnt, ultimately, doesn't necesscarily help me. That engineer was vastly under qualified and no longer learning so I can forgive them for all the technical misunderstandings we had, I understand how they missed open tickets that affected us, however I can't excuse their abuse of power over me or my coworkers and jumping to an "I'm right, you're wrong" mentality without first verifying our claims. Luckily it's all in the past. I am happy that it's over with and I'm gone.
After all this I had nothing again, there was some money my grandmother had left me for college when she died that I didn't receive the first time I tried to attend. My father offered it, saying I could go back for a degree, but I'm 22, it's really late to take out loans and I must become successful before attending again. It comes out to 2,000$ in total. I had been looking at the OSCP for a while, since before I got my A+ in November last year. I have some experience coding, a lot of personal hands on experience with Linux and the command line, and a fairly in depth understanding of networks from the CCNA R/S and the CCENT. I don't have the experience in IT but between the prerequisites, looking over the curriculum so long it seems possible since I have some experience. I went to my local ISSA, Def Con, ISC2, ISACA, OWASP meetings. Talking to others about my experiences, I realize that a lot of what I put up with at IBM I definitely should not have allowed, as well as the large number of mistakes I made in my first IT job that is just bad practice on my behalf. Most importantly, I learned to never act beyond the scope of work I've been assigned, you don't get points for extra credit inside the work environment. I've improved, but, I do find value in pursuing more outside of my job and intend on continuing to do so.
The week before my incident and documented everything because I knew it was trouble. Some backstory I wasn't well liked by my engineer because I believed everybody has the ability to learn, they liked to bully people for not knowing. I still don't regret standing up for my coworkers.
An ARP table hadn't been updated and unstable engineer was upset with me because they thought devices that were online where actually offline, as well as AP being down. Our center has tools so we can verify these things, but the NOC (network operations center) team handles updating the whole corporation on this kind of information. Both issues had started to be resolved by Network team while I was on the phone with the technician waiting for verification from my engineer. They are pissed off thinking I was lazy, messaging me expletives while I check whats going on, find out and explain what is happening, but it doesn't matter to them, they're upset telling me I wasted their time. Everything is online and working according to corporate tools, I verify there are no false positives, then request secondary verification again so we can let our field tech go. My engineer ignores me for over an hour and a half, upset over the first time I tried to have them verify my work. Without an SLA I was stuck on the phone for that entire time being at the top of the escalation chart and unable to ask them to call back due to policy. My engineer kept asking others "Who needs me to check their location!" and kept going from coworker to keep from resolving my location I had on the phone. I was in trouble for not helping clear the queue with managers because of that. I documented every word of that HR nightmare from the unmonitored chats in logs on my local profile in case any issues with my work, blame placed on myself an my coworkers, or otherwise, came into question. It was not the first time something like this happened and my attitude of not kissing ass for being treated this way definitely did not help me. One lesson learned, my work environment, my coworkers are more important than the job itself.I cannot work in a toxic environment and realized that I need to scrutinize the jobs I take on more so than just "for my resume".
 |
| How I looked at my engineer |
Whatever had been reported to our manager in that scenario, I was never spoken too about. I only found out the engineer reported me after termination because this specific incident was listed as a contributing factor and I thought this was the time I had to hold onto those logs because I knew my engineer greatly overstepped professional boundaries, inadequate in their technical assessment, and I felt that they had purposefully violated the security of my job with their actions
I tried speaking with my team lead about this engineer after that and was told they are their second in command and I should not question it. That is his ex navy attitude. It was definitely not the first time we talked about this but it always ended like that and being told they would handle it but do not go to our PM because then corporate handles it. Resolve in house. Protecting the reputation of coworkers and a team lead I didn't like from being reported was a mistake. I should have escalated to a real manager after the I realized this would be consistent.About week later I had a 3rd party technician call, officially our operations center supported the issue they were having, however my team lead had us working on separate projects and this one was not mine. I asked a coworker in person for help, after being walked through and told everything was okay I waited. I asked my engineer for verification, nothing, a couple minutes go by. I ask again and get told to stop being impatient. After a little while I shoot off another message, silence. My call time hit's 45 minutes, so another message inquiry is sent, and a response being colorfully told that it's very busy and I need to wait and check my work over again, I bother my engineer about every 7 minutes after the first hour and of course get swearing and threats of being fired, getting yelled at IRL by my lead over being impatient and getting deferred back to the engineer. After a while I give up and check in every so often when the thought crosses my mind. When I saw my call time approaching the 5 hour mark I told my technician to go home and get some sleep, they were upset being ignored for so long, and wanted to report someone, I apologized but there was nothing within my power I could do.
I tried speaking to my team lead immediately after telling him to get a handle on this engineer, who was my escalation and I was told to go fuck myself (literally) which was normal, I had to wait until my PM was available. I get a message back from my lead in the last hour of my shift, asking what happened with that specific location, I looked at my notes and replied saying I checked everything over multiple times and never got the okay from my engineer after half a shift. Apparently a new switch hadn't been installed and I was responsible. The switch didn't arrive for another hour and luckily the location didn't need to close for the day.
I finish work, get a speeding ticket on the drive home, then a couple hours later I get a call saying my contract has been terminated over the previous incident with an engineer and letting a 3rd party technician go without approval. I'm upset that I'd been working so hard to become an engineer and worked hard to handle the highest volume tickets and difficult issues since my goal was to be the baseline of results our operations center. I decided to wait a week before interviewing at other jobs because I was already a bit emotional from external personal problems. A couple days go by and I remember I documented everything, I send a text to my PM apologizing and explaining I kept logs on everything to protect myself from that situation, but got no response.
I didn't want my workplace to burn and often went above and beyond to contribute, keep issues from arising, and operations running because I had the ability too and for that considered it a part of my job to contribute meaningfully. Proactively taking preventative steps for the center by reaching out to techs and resolving issues, trying to cut costs in the field with some small foresight as well as the excessive contribution in the operations center would hopefully result in a promotion to some other place. Ultimately this attitude of taking the matter into my own hands combined with frustration and conflict ended up causing my termination, which is fair in my opinion. I never really know if I had been able to clear up what happened, but regardless, as an employee I did the wrong thing.
I had spent 6 months studying for the CCNA R/S and could no longer afford to test. I learned a couple things, don't go beyond the scope of my work or job. My work environment is more important to me than the name of the company I work for. Don't sell myself short and accept a low paying job just because I want it on my resume. Helping the group and trying to keep my lead from getting burnt, ultimately, doesn't necesscarily help me. That engineer was vastly under qualified and no longer learning so I can forgive them for all the technical misunderstandings we had, I understand how they missed open tickets that affected us, however I can't excuse their abuse of power over me or my coworkers and jumping to an "I'm right, you're wrong" mentality without first verifying our claims. Luckily it's all in the past. I am happy that it's over with and I'm gone.
 | |
| My IBM experience condensed |
After all this I had nothing again, there was some money my grandmother had left me for college when she died that I didn't receive the first time I tried to attend. My father offered it, saying I could go back for a degree, but I'm 22, it's really late to take out loans and I must become successful before attending again. It comes out to 2,000$ in total. I had been looking at the OSCP for a while, since before I got my A+ in November last year. I have some experience coding, a lot of personal hands on experience with Linux and the command line, and a fairly in depth understanding of networks from the CCNA R/S and the CCENT. I don't have the experience in IT but between the prerequisites, looking over the curriculum so long it seems possible since I have some experience. I went to my local ISSA, Def Con, ISC2, ISACA, OWASP meetings. Talking to others about my experiences, I realize that a lot of what I put up with at IBM I definitely should not have allowed, as well as the large number of mistakes I made in my first IT job that is just bad practice on my behalf. Most importantly, I learned to never act beyond the scope of work I've been assigned, you don't get points for extra credit inside the work environment. I've improved, but, I do find value in pursuing more outside of my job and intend on continuing to do so.
Comments
Post a Comment