I was in Lexington this week for a software migration. It was a nice visit, three days. Fly in on Monday. Work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Fly home on Friday. Easy peasy.
Not so much.
The last time I was in Lexington was back in February. I was here for a security audit. That was also a short trip. In fact, back in February, we flew in on a Monday. Worked on Tuesday and flew home on Wednesday. But, the two visits were very different.
I’ve travelled a lot in my career. I travelled for WordPerfect as the one of the very first on-site technical reps. I travelled all over the world for Microsoft as a trainer. I travelled to various rafting companies as president of a small company making software for the rafting industry. In my current job I travel for security meetings and for IT projects.
Over the past three days not a day has started later than 8:00am. Most ended well after midnight. It’s about par for a technical visit. In fact, it was our visitors from the client who suggested we start at 7:30AM and that we come back at 10:30PM to catch the night shift.
Lexington is one of my favorite cities. And yet, this trip, I’ve not seen anything outside of the client and my hotel. IT visits are typically hard work. Or at least, long work. My local engineers worked even more hours than I did.
Security visits, on the other hand are very different. Generally we will meet at 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning. We are typically done by 3:00pm. Sometimes, if we have to hold an extra long debrief, we might work until 4:30.
On the security visits I’ve had a chance to explore some of the exciting attractions around Lexington.
Each visit has its place and purpose. But, the IT ones require a lot more time to accomplish that purpose.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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