To answer everyone's question... YES the client was fully aware of my limitations. However, given the fact that there aren't many "knowledgeable" phone guys (I should add reputable to that as well) they asked me to move all the wiring closet hardware. This wasn't the first phone system I had moved, and far from the first that I had serviced. It was, however, the first Inter-Tel, so I suppose that is where my lack of experience shined through the most. Not knowing the vagaries of that particular manufacturer to know that they have a fail safe built in so if something goes wrong, it would go way wrong. Lesson learned.
I have also spent countless hours learning my trade as well. Perhaps I should offer a bit of a background, I started in machining and did my apprenticeship in that field. As the economy turned back in the mid 90's I found myself unemployed for almost a year before getting hired on at a small machine shop (less than 10 employees). It was owned by a couple not much older than myself, as well as another gentleman who was also about my age. Their philosophy was, and still is to this day, bring us what others say is impossible and we will figure out a way to get it done.
While working there in a machinist capacity, I had to have a minor surgery that took me off my feet for awhile. By this point they were up to maybe 50 employees. Upon returning to "light duty" work they placed me in the office doing purchasing. It was supposed to be temporary until I could stand out on the shop floor for a full shift. About this time the owner (who had been maintaining their network) decided he needed someone else to step in. I have always had a love, and a certain knack, for computers and all things technology, so I started taking care of it for him. At that point it was about 9 computers, a little over half of them were hooked up in a token ring network, the rest were sneaker net.
When I left that company a few years ago (to strike out on my own and get the HELL out of California! (-: We had built that network up to 60+ computers, 7 servers (Linux and Windows mixture there) and he became my first customer for my new business. There was also a 2nd "sister" company now in place that employs another 30+ employees with a network of 10+ computers and 2 servers which I was responsible (still am) for building and maintaining. I also worked with his "phone guy" (who was the most helpful and always willing to teach someone who was interested some of the trade, just by the way).
Working with phones/phonelines themselves... I consider it a very logical, and straightforward concept. For a single line, there is a single pair, you keep that pair grouped and run properly and you can place a phone wherever it is needed. When you place the hardware of a phone system into the mix things get a bit more complicated, but the concept is still logical. Phone lines enter the hardware, it processes whatever is happening, call coming in, extension putting it on hold or transferring, hung up, whatever, and it re-routes that pair to whichever handset(s) it is programmed to. Please don't tear apart that breakdown, it is VERY basic and I've left a lot of the details out.
The simple fact that I don't know one particular vendors quirks does not mean that I am incapable. In fact I proved otherwise in the fact that this client is now fully operational (along with a handful of others from the past). When the system was not booting as expected, I routed critical lines to the proper desks where we setup phones to accomodate (1/2/4 line phones). The customer was NEVER without phones (except during the actual move of course) and I didn't bill for every single moment I was on premises because I don't operate that way.
My "lack of technical knowledge" was not the issue. If you tell me that you NEVER had a card in a phone not seated properly, I will outright call you a liar. Maybe it wasn't a card not seated, but a connection that you've made a million times before, that wasn't as solid as it should have been, or a (fill in the blank). My point is everyone, at some point, no matter how much "technical knowledge" they have in that field, makes a mistake and has to backtrack to find it. To be honest, I most likely would have found my mistake of not having the card seated fully a day or more sooner if I wasn't sent on a wild goose chase about lost db's and dead batteries. Instead of asking if I had checked the battery fault light to verify that was the issue, I was told that was it (with quite a bit of certainty it seemed) so that was the path I was sent on attempting to find a solution. Not a lot of support around here to try to call on, so I was left to troubleshoot as well as I could.
I have written millions of lines of code, assembled thousands of PC's, and done all kinds of networking configurations. I don't know it all. I know when I need to seek out more help in a particular area. I've sent my programming buddy (as he has done to me as well) many different emails with code attached that one of us just couldn't get to work properly, more often than not the return email consisted of "You dumb@$$, you left out a semi-colon, or didn't set a declaration right", or some other minute detail. It get's difficult to see the forest for the trees sometimes and a new pair of eyes (or a new line of thinking) sometimes rattles you right back on track. I'm sure every one of you has encountered that one!
On a final note, about the countless hours learning your trade. Bravo. I applaud everyone who commits to learning something and does so. I have several friends who did the whole college route, and virtually EVERY one of them if I ask them how much of what they learned in school gets used regularly, they will reply "Almost none". It was all the after-hours, self studying that they use in their day to day lives.
Thank you for your candidness, and directness. I do appreciate that. But I refuse to go to one of my clients and tell them, sorry, you'll have to find someone else in this area that specializes in that. When it is so closely tied to my field already. I'm not going to run a new power drop for someone (though I'm sure I could learn how and do it without an issue) but when their choices are severely limited, my response always has been, and will continue to always be - "I'm not that experienced with exactly how ABC works. But I'll be back in a day or two and I'll have some answers." Sometimes that answer is "After reviewing it in more depth, this is a task we should probably call in someone else for, here is a list of people I've gotten personal recommendations for."
My customers hire me for answers, not for me to inform them that I'm sorry I can't do that, you'll have to find someone else. I am working towards becoming an expert in the fields I excel at, just because I hit a roadblock with one particular vendors hardware doesn't mean I now feel incapable. Rather I now feel more capable, I will definitely be researching the common pitfalls, and things to look for before moving anything. But I will find an answer and I will continue to push myself out of my comfort zone so I continue to learn and expand my knowledge.
Fortunately I have found a local telecom person, who is willing to share some knowledge with others. So I shouldn't have to bother this forum with my questions. I don't really see the purpose of this forum however, if everyone is only supposed to be working on what they are expertly skilled at. But I suppose that's just for me to ponder.
