Thank you Tom!!! It's good to see your open-ness...I wish more were as honest as that...
That's good stuff Rick! Often people don't bring up these fears due to the misconception that it will make them seem weak. My opinion is quite the opposite. Being afraid isn't a bad thing at all in my mind and if I were to be completely honest I would say that I was quite nervous / scared when I started my position as an RRE (Rapid Response Engineer) here at Microsoft....and I loved that fear because it makes me push myself to learn / grow. I don't mean to get all psychological / philosophical but fear is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, motivation in life. Fear of losing something you have or not getting something you want drives us to do some of the strangest things. This fear can drive you over the edge or you can rise to the occasion and try to learn from every situation. I choose the latter. Sure there are times when I think "Am I worthy" or similar fears that there's just too much to learn and not enough lifetime to learn it all in. Some of us try to pretend that we know everything and are never wrong technically and when I come across these people I'm usually chuckling inside because everyone has to know that they cannot possibly know everything and it's rather comical that this simple fact escapes notice by some of these guys / gals. There's always more to learn so just keep on trying and you will be just fine. I actually want to NEVER know everything because there's no point to being alive if I won't be learning from the people, things, situations that surround me. Please don't misunderstand me...I don't ever claim to have everything figured out. I'm on a constant quest for knowledge that I'm hoping will not end until the last breath leaves my body. One simple thing that I tell myself from time to time when faced with something that is extremely difficult or that stretches my technical skills: "Do the best that you can do" As long as you are always trying, you can never fail. Nobody can realistically expect you to do better than trying your best since that's just not possible....and if you're doing your best, then you have no excuses to make for yourself since you're giving everything an honest effort. Sometimes you will not succeed in your efforts. I can't tell you how many times some person or another on the Microsoft team or some mailing list has got me out of jams. That's why we're all here anyway, right. We're network administrators because we want to be there when people have a problem with their computer so we can figure it out. That's been a driving force since I was a child...just to "figure it out". I love that stuff!! Integrity is another attribute that is often overlooked but could not be more important. Never say anything that you know is not true...bla...bla...bla...you know what I'm saying (Never, ever lie about anything...even non-technical stuff). So that's my $0.02 anyway. You know what they say about opinions...everyone has one and they all stink ;-) OK...enough of the non-technical, bleeding-heart stuff...GET THAT SERVER WORKING NOW!!! Have a great night / morning (depending on your time zone)!! Robert Williams, MCSE NT4/2K/2K3, Security+ Infrastructure Rapid Response Engineer Northeast Region Microsoft Corporation Global Solutions Support Center -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rick Kingslan Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 11:06 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] OT: new job Tom, Make no mistake - you are experiencing many of the same 'fears' that I am. I have a BIG responsibility as I take on assignments here for Microsoft. The first question that I asked myself is "Am I REALLY good enough?" The first thing that I was told by my boss was "You have some couple hundred to a few thousand folks to call on directly. If that's not good enough - I have a Company of 60,000 that are interested in your success. We aren't going to let you fail." Though that makes me FEEL better, it's still a lot to take in given that I was _THE_ source of knowledge and architecture at my last company. Now, I'm a minnow in a big pond. And, it's really OK. You may not directly have the resources that I have to call on, but WE are still going to be here for you. Good luck - now go get it! :O) Rick -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kern, Tom Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 1:40 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [ActiveDir] OT: new job Thanks for all your replies. This really helps. As I told Al offlist, I'm gonna start asking you guys for relationship advice. Also as Al pointed out,I'm most def a generalist. I'm the only engineer at my current job with 400 users. I do the DNS(Win and BIND) as well as the routers/switches,firewall,AV,DR,wan links,Blackberry server!on top of AD/Exchange. Pretty much everything but help desk. I'm a jack of all trades and master of none. My fear is that I hope I'm up to the AD/Exchange. In my current ebvoirment I never had to worry about unattended installs or RIS or security in a real specific way or object attributes and under the hood replications,etc. While I know a lot of this stuff in theory, thanks to books like Inside AD,2nd ed and Robbie Allen's cookbokks and screwing around at home(and sometimes with the live network:) ) We all know that's a far cry from really knowing it. I just hope I'm up to it. Thanks -------------------------- Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (www.BlackBerry.net) List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/ List info : http://www.activedir.org/List.aspx List FAQ : http://www.activedir.org/ListFAQ.aspx List archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/activedir%40mail.activedir.org/
