Friday 13th - Goodbye to Comcast

Friday the 13^th will be my last day as a Comcast employee. I joined the Comcast IT team in October of 2006, after a very unhappy stint with ACS/Nike. Looking back at my tenure here at Comcast, it all started on a day where I was introduced to my Supervisor, Brad, who reported to the Director, Dave. There was an IT Manager who was over the Telecom and Operations Teams, who we only had a dotted line to him. I was surprised that the IT department was as small as it was for being such a large territory, Oregon/SW Washington Market. Shortly after my start, Brad took a IT Manager position in Florida and I was left hanging in the wind for about a year. In that time, I gained some great experience regarding networking, budgeting, and being the go-to guy. Who are we kidding, I was the IT Infrastructure Department. I was able to shape things according to my own design and vision with very little input from anyone. I would bounce ideas off of Corporate, the IT Supervisor of Operations, and my Director. But, for the most part, I was able to make things happen according to the plan in my head. Some of them worked out. Other times, I was even like – “What were you thinking??” But, it all worked out in the end. There was no shortage of projects and I was able to start doing them once I received some help from my Number 2 guy, Ian. When he started he was a bit green and not sure of himself, but he came eager to learn and had the dedication/drive to do what needed to be done. I do have to say that he is totally awesome and would love to work with him again. Here is a guy that would be handed a project, not sure how to do it, would do the research, come back with questions, and Go Do! I love that. I still remained the person involved in the decision making, budgeting aspect of the two man team, even after we were placed under the IT Supervisor over the applications team. We really never had the tools, budget or personnel to accomplish the goals that were set down. But, we made due somehow. I have never worked for a company that expected its IT department to do so much with so little. And over the past year it just seemed to get worse and worse. The budget keeps getting cut down and the equipment keeps being put on the back burner for replacement. It really shows that the company does not value the IT department or the contributions that are being made in order for the company to continue to do business. It even shows in the attitude of upper management when they say, you should be proud to have a job. But, that is no longer my problem. I do have to say that this is the best team that I have ever worked with. They are dedicated, skilled, and fun loving group of individuals that I have every had the pleasure to work with.

The only other criticism I have is, for being a communications company, people need to learn how to better communicate. Groups come up with these great projects, never include IT until the project is due and then expect to be able to pull a series of switches or servers out of our asses. I guess my complaint is that IT is never involved in projects that clearly affect IT. There were a number of occasions of other groups that would have a project, due tomorrow, and expected IT just to be able to cover it. It would be like a group wanting to add the IT network to a site or some number of locations, without any funding for the project. They expected us to just be able to pull switches out of our ass and be able to installed them within a day. I think not! It is not like they woke up one day and decided to do this. There was planning and several conversations, why not involve IT from the beginning. Maybe I am asking too much! Apparently…

So, I am moving positions to a company called Vesta, who are the worldwide leader in electronic payment solutions. I will be joining them as a Sr. Production..blah..blah.. Server Monkey. Yesterday, my wife asked me how it is going to feel to be the FNG again. But, wait.. I am senior.. DOH! I will be the FNG! Damn.