A techie finds career potential in a paper clip

My IT career began in a rather unexpected way, but the experience taught me to never underestimate even the tiniest details — a lesson that has proved helpful on many occasions since.

Early in the 2000s, I was in school for computer science but had run out of money for tuition. I took a job at a mail-order retailer/wholesaler with clients ranging from a large and well-known international franchise (we were the company’s only supplier for one type of product) down to direct customers that could call or email after finding us online.

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My job was fairly standard at the company and involved doing a bit of everything; at the time, there was no departmentalization at all. When an employee took a sales call, that person processed the entire order from the call to billing to picking, packing, shipping, and follow-up questions.

As demands on the company grew, the executives recognized the need to make IT more of a priority. “Jean,” whose primary role was graphics designer, got tasked as the “network administrator,” since the graphics experience had been an adequate qualification at the time. But there was still more to be done.

The computer “network” consisted of about 10 out-of-date PCs using 10 independent dialup accounts to send files back and forth over email to another PC three feet away all via WAN — no domain, no workgroup, not even a LAN. Inventory was managed on paper and was always out of date; employees had to make constant customer callbacks to correct shipping estimates and inform of back orders. The shipping system required the call center to bump the shipper off their machine to look up tracking numbers.

For me, it was a full-time summer job going to part-time in fall. It did bother me to see so many ways to improve things, but not having earned my tech stripes yet, I hadn’t found a good way to tactfully make any suggestions. I focused on it being a job to pay for my education but made mental notes to myself.

However, one day, there was a crisis. Little did I know it would be the beginning of a career.

Jean had gotten a ZIP disk stuck in the drive and couldn’t read or eject the disk. The disk had some very important information on it, so even the company president was involved. The buddy of mine who helped get me hired found me in the warehouse packing a shipment and asked if I could help. I said I’d give it my best shot.

When I arrived at the scene, there was one nervous network administrator, one nervous general manager, one nervous owner/president, and many curious onlookers. At first, I too was nervous with all eyes on me, but surveyed the situation and tried not to say much.

“Can you fix it?”

“I don’t know yet.”

The disk was not spun up, so I looked around and found a paper clip, unfolded it, inserted it into the hole on the front of the drive, and ejected the disk. The problem was the drive, not the disk, thankfully, so I put the disk into another drive and recovered the information. Crisis averted.

Apparently, the news of what happened spread because the next day, everyone was asking me about all sorts of tech-related matters: fax, phone, email, PC, printer, postage machine, security alarm system, whatever.

The boss was pleased. An all-hands meeting was called, and I was named the new “network administrator.” The former network administrator was moved to a different position in the company, one that Jean was much better suited for and excelled at. Everyone came out a winner with no hard feelings.

I stayed there for six years as the go-to person for anything tech-related, suggested and made a lot of improvements, learned a lot technically, and grew as a professional (office politics, theory vs. practice, test vs. production).

In less than a week, I went from packing boxes as a summer job to making strategic decisions involving five-figure price tags or more for a small business with an eight-figure annual revenue, all because of a 1-cent paperclip and, of course, the alignment of a few stars.

This story, “A techie finds career potential in a paper clip,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more crazy-but-true stories in the anonymous Off the Record blog at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.