This weekend I had some time to think while I was working on a laptop that just wouldn’t work right. Surprisingly my thoughts were not on this laptop but on my general situation at work. I had agreed to come in on a Saturday because a group renting out our conference room needed IT support. So I thought why not work on the machine that is being such a problem child. This got me thinking and when I get thinking boy oh boy it’s hard to stop sometimes.

My official role here is Systems Administrator for the company I work for. As systems administrator my job entails everything from rebuilding a PC to configuring a switch to setting up and checking backups.

I have unofficial roles like systems administrator for a spun off company. My role there is just about the same although I don’t rebuild computers as much as I do for my primary company. I also have become an unofficial CMS asset for our company. By unofficial I mean they ask and I answer and that’s the end of that for a while. I am also an unofficial social media asset for our company.

The amount of time I spend doing any of these roles varies from day to day. Take today for example. This morning I setup a new computer for a new employee as part of my primary role. I then went into the all staff meeting and found out I am the go to person for people who don’t have Facebook accounts in the company per marketing proclamation. Then I had a short meeting about some events taking on later this week at the spun off company. Finally I scheduled time to work on a Drupal training for marketing at 1 this afternoon.

In contrast last Friday I had planned on doing to Drupal training and working on a few sites. That all went out the window and I spent 6 hours working on PCI compliance checklists for the spun off company. Both of which allotted me next to nothing time wise to focus on my primary role. The scary thing was I enjoyed not focusing on my primary role.
Again I thought about this. Why is it that I seem to enjoy the two unofficial roles that lean towards marketing more than the one official and one unofficial role that is straight IT. Well the only two things I can come up with is farming & the Marine Corp.

Yes you read that right FARMING & the Marine Corps. Organic Farming to be more precise. See I spent about 6 months working for a CSA called Fresh Earth Farms before I started working where I am currently working. I worked at the CSA because I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something so different that it would be almost like a shock to my system. Well I got the shock I was looking for and then some. Best part is I wouldn’t trade that feeling for anything else in the world.

The Marine Corps was the same. I was a introvert through and through when I joined the Marine Corps. I was also a nerd through and through. At that point in time I decided against the urging of my family to do something drastic. I went for the heart of the Marine Corps. I joined as an Infantryman. I was a hard charging, ground pounding Grunt. Again I did this because I needed a shock to my system. I needed something to break through to me. Those Drill Instructors sure know how to break through. They are like artists or surgeons.

I received the training and the discipline I was looking for. I also received one other thing that I wasn’t looking for; a fractured hip. This unfortunately got me a one way ticket out of the Marine Corps.

My point is this. If I wanted to be a systems administrator all my life why would I take time off to become a Organic Farmer or a US Marine. I wouldn’t really. So I looked at this a bit.

When I was a Organic Farmer I noticed I was still thinking about Social Media and Content Management. I was still thinking about the web. When I thought about it while farming I was thinking of how to incorporate Social Media and Farming.

I was thinking about Fresh Earth Farms and how to use the web to assist in the core business functions. I thought about how to create a CMS for the farm. I thought about app’s that could be helpful to the farm. I thought about Facebook, YouTube & twitter for the farm. I did one thing that I didn’t like though I kept all of this to myself. It wasn’t mentioned to the owner. It wasn’t mentioned to the other farm hands.

I still think about Fresh Earth Farms and the Marine Corps but now I also think about Meet Minneapolis & Social Media as well. It’s one of the few high points of working here.