currently im working on my project at riau site..
from just 5 days plan became 3 weeks.. hahahha.. this is 1st time i have problem that cant be solved fast.. :p
it doesnt matter how long i’ll stay here,, but it matters how the trouble should solved.. not much,, but need extra attention.. really works under presure for me..
i feel so useless, capable of doing nothing and almost crazy… feel like this trouble is the worst i ever had.. but..
2 nights ago.. i read an email to indocisco mailing list.. a world class senior network engineer from indonesia share one of his experience there (indocisco mailing list)..
weww.. i dunno he can read my mind or just coincidence.. but wut he wrote totaly change my point of view bout my project.. thax to you himawan..
below,, i copy it and share with you guys.. read it and re define by yourself about “works under pressure”
” Himawan Nugroho to indocisco
Saturday, January 15, 2011 Define Under Pressure During my life as engineer
and consultant I have been dealing with many different types of customer in
many different types of engagement and project, in many different countries.
There are some good customers and challenging customers. Good customers are
those who know their network very well, know many technology options
available and the most important is they know what they want. So they are
just looking for advices and best practices from a networking vendor like
Cisco. Once the customers get those, most of the times they even implement
the solution themselves. Tough and challenging customers usually are those
who don’t know their network, who don’t have proper documentation of their
setup, and most of the time they don’t know what they want. It’s not a bad
thing for someone who works in professional services organization like me,
as part of my responsibility is to become technical advisor to provide
guidance and direction for such customers.
Some other customers just don’t make sense, in term of considering the
timeframe to do the tasks or projects. They want the project to be done
overnight. Some don’t want to listen to technical explanation of why some
tasks can’t be done in short time. Others don’t understand how to put
priority to the tasks in the project so they just put unnecessary pressure
to complete some non-important task and don’t bother with critical task.
Some put very high expectation and demand the vendor to deliver everything,
within short time, despite the scope of work agreement has mentioned and
limit the deliverables during the project.
For some other customers, they are just acting the way they think they
should be. Several years ago one government and powerful customer told me
they couldn’t accept any failure in the project and they would cancel my
working permit and kick me out from the country if I make any mistake during
the migration. And they showed they mean it by asking me to bring my
passport during one critical migration night. One high rank officer from
different government customer said he would put me in prison if someone was
able to break the WPA mechanism that I enabled to secure his wireless
network. Other customer (yes I know, I got lucky I had chance to deal with
many different government customers ?) mentioned he would send police
officer to pick me up from home if I don’t show up for the meeting.
So after dealing with many good, tough, challenging and weird customers
above I thought I have seen it all. I thought I knew the meaning of work
under pressure. Until one day I had a chance to interview one guy from Iraq,
later became my colleague and friend, for a network engineer position in my
previous company. The time was around a couple of years after the US Army
invasion of Iraq and they were probably still looking for the Weapon of Mass
Destruction just like in Green Zone movie.
After asking series of technical questions, I came to a normal question that
I always ask to every candidate I interview: can you work under pressure? He
threw funny look to me and started laughing. I didn’t quite understand. Then
he said: Himawan, define under pressure. I just came to Dubai from Iraq 2
weeks ago. For many years I worked there, everyday on my way to work I heard
the explosions. I have seen shooting actions. And just week before I came
here I was driving to go back home and didn’t realize there was a US Army
checkpoint so I was a bit too fast when approaching them. Everybody was
pointing his machine gun and yelling me to stop and they might have started
shooting if I didn’t push the break as hard as I could. I may not know the
technology as much as other network engineer does, but I can tell you that
Dubai is like Heaven compare to where I came from. In Iraq, every morning to
wake up and find yourself still alive is a privilege.
I was surprised to hear his answer. Next thing I know I put my highest
recommendation to hire him immediately. He was a mere CCNP at that time so
from technical skills he lacks several things required for the job but it
doesn’t matter. Lack of technical skill can be improved. But the attitude
and the ability to handle the situation, especially if you have to deal with
funny customers (please read the third paragraph again), is what matters. I
know someone like him would be successful some day. And after working with
him for few years he proved that I was right.
So next time you feel like you are working under pressure, there are just
too many loads to handle, you think you are in the worst project ever, you
have to deal with a very bad customer and the world is completely unfair to
you, please remember this:
define under pressure.
Regards,
Himawan Nugroho
Network Consulting Engineer
WWSP IP NGN CoE – Emerging Markets
Cisco Systems International B.V
CCIE#8171 (R&S, Security, SP)
–
http://brokenpipes.blogspot.com
http://inevitable.smugmug.com ”