Working in a projects based company in a team is very hard, and to me it is the hardest job a person can ever have. Because it is a team work, you cannot complete a task or a project without the interaction or help form another team member… but sometimes a person can make a great mistake by taking a job in a team without researching on that team, or put an expectation to how that team might evolve with time while he is with that team.

A friend of mine who is working in an IT field, similar to my job is suffering like hell in his role… and it because of himself… HE as a whole is the reason of his issues…

He is the most senior in his team, he can do a lot of things, he is specialized in a special role, but he is talented in many other roles, his most great gift is the ability to research and learn new things, manage tight situations where he is required to work with absolutely new areas that he never worked with before… And that was his bane.

I’ve met him few days ago, and he just started to rant about his work, and I could never stop him, nor had the willing to actually stop him!

They want to do the work I do… or part of it…

But I have to waste my time TEACHING them the BASICS.

They DON’T KNOW how to make a DNS query.

I have to stop my OWN TASKS, and do their own homework and tasks.

They CANNOT write a TECHNICAL DOCUMENT, whether it was a documentation, design, guide, or anything an ENGINEER SUPPOSED TO WRITE.

They don’t know the difference between Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2.

They don’t know what Active Directory actually is.

They want to do the scripting and the PowerShell work I do on Exchange Server while they don’t even know the basics to write a one line PowerShell script.

They don’t even know the basics to create a user on Exchange Server.

They don’t have what it takes to be initiative and self-motivated. They always come to me to ask me questions like “Should I send this email to one person or 2”. “Should I write ‘image’ or ‘screenshot’ in the message?”!

They originally work as Network Engineer, and they come to me and ASK ME ABOUT NETWORK LOGIC, ROUTING, PORTS AND FIREWALL questions…!

They are Network Engineer, and they CANNOT DO A PROPER RESEARCH on a NETWORK PROBLEM, so they ASK ME TO DO THEIR RESEARCH FOR THEM.

They cannot write proper English, and I am there to fix their email wording for them.

They cannot communicate well with customers, and they don’t know that we should satisfy the customer, NOT the customer should satisfy us!

When they talk to me I HAVE TO ANSWER them even if I was sunk in some critical task and my mind is all in that task. Otherwise I’ll be arrogant and emo to them.

But still, I am bound to do all the above because if I don’t do it, they will call me selfish, careless, arrogant, closed on myself, emo, temperamental, grouchy, and selfish again.

I cannot find words to explain my feelings about this guy… What he is talking about is real, and that situation is happening a lot in many places… All I can say is researching the company/team you want to join is really really really an important task even more than preparing to the job interview you are about to get in that company.

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