In the latest installment of Who, Me?, a reader named Kane shares a harrowing experience from his IT career while working at a global hardware vendor. Tasked with resolving a virtual LAN issue for a hesitant customer, Kane was unprepared as his training focused on new servers rather than existing problematic switches. His attempt to use a buggy graphical user interface resulted in a catastrophic network failure, prompting fears about the future of the customer's ERP system. The ordeal underscores the challenges of working in IT and the unforeseen consequences of technical errors.
"If I wasn't already taking blood pressure meds, I'm sure I would not have survived," Kane stated, describing the stress of his most challenging IT job.
Kane revealed that he was well-trained on new server systems but not on the problematic switches, revealing a gap in his preparation.
"I'd never been told not to use the GUI so I saw no problems with using it," he explained, unaware of the GUI's bugs that would lead to disaster.
Kane reflected on the moment he caused a Layer 2 broadcast storm: "I imagined that I had wrecked their ERP and there was no telling how long it would take to fix."
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