new job worries

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So, I started my new job last week on Wednesday and on my first day I was informed that I would be shadowing one of the other technicians, as this is a 2nd line role.

I was shadowing him on Wednesday & Thursday, as well as Friday morning. By this point I had not been told how to use any of the systems, or who is responsible for what, and then in the afternoon I was provided with a login and 30 jobs that needed to be completed. The first of these being that I needed to diagnose what the fault is with a laptop. I diagnosed it fine, as the display would not come on, I plugged it in to an external monitor and still no display, no bios screen or anything, error light was coming on which I google'd to confirm it was a faulty battery, replaced the battery but still nothing coming on. tried to power on without battery, and only mains and still nothing coming on. reseated the ram, still no good. therefore diagnosed as being a system board fault. asked someone for assistance on what therefore needs to happen with the laptop, I checked the warranty which was out of date, so I put the laptop in the pile of other broken and filed the report off accordingly. I then found the file had been returned to me but was not informed why, on asking they said that I need to remove the hard drive and restore as much data as possible from it... maybe I should have thought of this anyway, but with them using roaming profiles (I presumed and was correct) then the data should already be on the network, although of course laptops are not often connected to the network so may be many offline files.

Am I panicking that I feel I have been thrown in the deep-end without any training too early, or is this all normal?

 

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Its all a process of learning the company standards. Asking questions will not hurt you. Most employers know that someone new will not have it down 100% for a while. They do expect you to be able to accomplish this as quickly as possible.

With roaming profiles the data is stored on the local machine too. When you log off the local data that changed it synced to the server. If you log on while not on the network you data wont be synced until your back on the network. So there could be important data that needs recovered.

 

You've summed it up yourself, just because they are using Roaming Profiles, doesn't mean they haven't been saving to the local machine this whole time.

If your company doesn't have these already, then invest in a SATA Docking Station and a USB to SATA/IDE Adapter Kit

Both are very handy for transferring data from old dead Desktop PCs and Laptops. You could of course get these cheaper, but it gives you a rough idea of what to look for.

Being thrown in the deep end is the best way to learn how the workplace operates. Give it some time, and you will be up to scratch in no time.

 

This is my first "proper" I.T job (which I have been in for just over a year now) and by the end of my first week I was just saying over and over in my head "I am SO not ready for this. What have I done?!", which faded within a few weeks out of necessity and now I wouldn't doubt in the slightest I am capable of the job. If you looked at the job spec and thought "Yeah, I can do that" you'll be fine , everything else is just acclimatising to your new work environment and currently being hard on yourself for the 1 or 2 things you don't know at first rather than focussing on the hundred things you could do the first time round

 

thanks guys for the confidence boost, and yes your right Stuzzle that I need to remember the good that I can do, for example the tech I was shadowing couldn't work out why a Windows 7 machine was logging in as TEMP profile each time, turns out it had dropped off the network, along with several other users also. Located the switch which had stalled, power-cycled the switch and once back online it resolved the TEMP issue. I also informed him that the best way to find this out was to try and ping an external source, and gave him the 8.8.8.8 example (google dns)

 

You'll be fine chap! Just ask questions and retain info! I used to work a 2nd line role and my motto was always that I would rather ask me a question a hundred times and get it right, than ask once and get it wrong a hundred times! Obviously in actual fact being asked the same question a hundred times by the same person would of wound me up, but the point was solid! Lol.

I only did a 2nd line role there because I learned the processes and standards to that company though, had very little in terms of certified knowledge. Still now have no real Certs to speak of but I've learned processes and job roles and have always done well out if it!

Give it a few weeks until you understand how your new business operates and what is expected and I'm sure it won't be an issue! Then you can start using some of your certified knowledge to suggest and create improvements, that's when the company will really start to see your worth etc IMO!

 

I agree with what others have said... Same for me, when I started a new job, I was pretty much thrown into the deep end as well... but that's where the experience comes in! I wouldn't worry about it, sometimes we miss a thing here and there, its happens, but you learn and move on!

 

Can't understand why some companies use roaming profiles especially for laptops.

Anyways as for the job yes it's normal to be thrown in at the deep end and find your way around the systems as you go. They should expect you to ask questions and look at documentation (the last point can be a pain as documentation is usually an afterthought or out of date). As pointed out this is where experience comes in. The more experience you have the easier it gets. Doing contract work for example really hammers this home as companies want someone to hit the ground running. I wouldn't worry about it as it still takes a little time to get used to their setup.

 

As said you'll be fine, the main thing when joining places is when they ask you to do something is to ask for their way/process of doing it.

You'll have the techy knowledge to do things, but it's just making sure you do the necessary things.

So with the laptop fault and data recovery, you just would ask 'I've got a dead laptop, what's the process/procedure, what is expected to be done' and you're away

And if they don't have anything documented or a standard procedure knock one up for them, earn some brownie points.

Always ask questions, all the time!