Good Job Experiences?

alexkj asks: "Do you remember a situation that made you feel good about your job? There's a lot of moaning and complaining going on about peoples jobs these days. It's probably no wonder with all the downsizing going on, but it still gets me down. So lets turn it around, and find all the good stories. Tell everybody else about a good experience on the job. Try to be specific, and relate an actual story of a situation that made you happy on the job."

Comments

Well.. one day at work...

[m0rph3us0]

Looking through /. I found Kuro5hin life was much better after that... Let the modding down begin...

One crazy night at work

[God_Retired]

She was the new girl and had all the right curves. I was a little embarrassed when she caught me checking out her ass, but relaxed when she smiled over her shoulder and gave a little wiggle.

Well, what do you know but we were both working late one night. Nobody else was in the building....

Oh wait, that never happened. And my job sucks.

Co-op position

[heldlikesound]

Uh, when I was 19 I needed three co-ops for college, I applied for a salaried position, not telling the firm that I was a co-op student. Made some good money, fufilled my credit hours and right before the start of the fall semester was ready to quit to continue school. So about ten minutes before I was about to walk into my bosses office and quit. He calls me in on his own:

Boss: "You know times are hard for us now..."'
Me: "Oh, definetly"
Boss: "I hate to do it, but we gotta let you go.."
Me: ::feigning sadness :: "Wow, I didn't see this coming"
Boss: "I'm sorry. but we've got unenployment all set up for you, and ready to go. as well as small severence package"
Me: ::trying to repress so much giddiness:: "Well... That helps a little at least"

Overall, it turned out very well....

Just having a job!

[moonboy]

Just having a job makes me feel good and happy! I hear more stories everyday of people being laid off, tech workers can't find jobs, etc. and I wonder how stable my position is. I am however very fortunate to work at a great company with a lot of great people. We're small with only about 100 people total, so everyone knows everyone and we all seem to get along great. I really couldn't ask for more.

As far a specific story about happiness on the job? I'll relate a bit about my first assignment with my current employer.

I had just started with the company (March 2000) and was doing a lot of boning up on Frame Relay
(which I had never even heard of before starting this job) and one month into working here, I'm in a meeting and we are told about a project in Africa (Ghana to be exact) and my manager is asking for volunteers. Surprisingly to me, people weren't jumping at the chance. Well, I did and it turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life! Myself and a senior engineer were going to go to Ghana and setup a WAN (over fiber) between to cities about 100 miles apart and then within the two cities setup MANs using line-of-sight microwave. ATM for the backbone. Frame for the MAN and IP running over the entire thing. We got to set up video conferencing and VoIP equipment to demonstrate the full capabilitiy of the network. It was the most amazing learning experience for me.

As great as this sounds, things were a little shaky for a bit. It turns out that the senior engineer had to return back to the states twice during the three months we were supposed to be there, which would have meant that I was to be left alone for a couple of weeks and have to carry on by myself. I was still very green of course and I had my doubts.

The first week he was gone was no big deal. I was basically to learn about the routers were going to use and get a frame relay circuit and IP connectivity over a T1 link during that week. I made that happen by mid-way through the week he was gone.

He returned and we spent the next month building this network. Just the two of us. I did most of the grunt work like making cables, etc. I also handled the routers I had just learned about which was cool, because he new nothing about them.

Well, we got the entire thing up and running in time for the demo that the company was putting on for local banks, govt. officials and other important people. The senior engineer then has to leave for his second trip back to the states. The only thing is, he doesn't return. No big deal right? Everything was setup and running well, right? Well, wrong of course.

The day after the demo, the customer tells me that they would like the network re-designed/installed/etc. for another demo. Well, this was Thrusday evening and I was to leave on Saturday afternoon. This meant that I had to travel once more to the other remote city, change shit all around on Friday and come back late Fri. night. Get a bit of sleep and then change everything around there in the local city and of course get it all running again.

Well, needless to say, I now had serious doubts. I called my manager and she was too fucking cool! She said, "Well, do your best, but whether it's working or not, you're coming home." (Remember, I had been there for 3 months by this time.) She also said, "It's on them for making changes last minute." (Too cool! A boss that's actually sticking up for me instead of "Whatever the customer wants." or "Well, you stay there until you get it done."

Well, Friday came and went. I got the remote city (three MAN sites there) setup and headed back to the capitol city. I woke up Saturday, got everything done by about 11:00 am. Now it all just had to work. Everything was pretty easy to get up except the damn video conf. system! It was what I had had the least amount of time and experience with too. Damn!

Well, as it turned out, I got it to working at the last minute with just enough time to get back to the hotel, grab my shit and get the hell outta there!!

Needless to say I was (and still am) very happy with my job. Things haven't been quite as exciting since and the travel hasn't been as exotic, but I love what I do and that's the most important part.