Tell HN: I'm nervous and don't know where else to go | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: I'm nervous and don't know where else to go

92 pointsdbtonez89 comments

hello void,

i am an IT Support Intern at a manufacturing company. My company makes precision parts for a variety of customers. my company uses a program called Epicor, and on Monday we are scheduled to update to the newest version. The problem here is that my boss has left this in my very... "capable"... hands and is jetting off for the week.

I have not been prepped, I have not even recieved a login for Epicor, and I am panicking.

Does anybody in the void have any experience running through a large feature update such as this for a company with around 150 workstations with this software loaded onto it?

I assume my boss has left the process to be automated, but I am concerned that I will be completely unable to troubleshoot in the event of a catastrophe. maybe i am overthinking. maybe i am anxious for no reason. i guess i just need someone to tell me to calm down haha.

thanks everyone. have a good weekend!

-db

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Yes, calm down.

I wish someone could have told me that when I was an intern. Many times.

If the upgrade blows up, it won't be your fault because you're just an intern. There are multiple people making way more money than you are who are responsible for running the company. If those people leave an intern in charge of a mission-critical system and it breaks, it's their fault. If you do end up in the soup and you're able to save the day by calling Epicor support, you'll end up with some very nice letters of reference.

If it doesn't blow up, great, it means your advisor trusts you to keep the plates spinning while he's out. Keep doing what you're doing and you'll have a bright future.

Next time get trained before the guy with the knowledge disappears :)

well i like soup but don't know that i want to be swimming in it XD

thanks for your advice, i think i have been trying to prove myself by spinning my wheels instead of taking a step back and evaluating the situations that get presented before me.

appreciate it again, hope you enjoy your weekend

Remember that “officially asking for help” is a very valid step to take. If it all blows up, you can at least point to the several unanswered requests that you sent off to various people. If they reply, and you are able to help it not blow up, you can all share some credit!

If you somehow end up getting blamed for it anyway, I guarantee this is not a company you want to work for even as an intern. Find the one or two good people who might serve as references for jobs later, explain the situation you were put in, and I am confident you will be able to look back at this as a small road bump at the beginning of a successful career in the general industry

Asking for help also shows you're a team player that can reach out to get help in areas you're not an expert in. This is a good pattern to develop and can help you in the future.

And to echo/rephrase the grandparent's words, if asking for help is the kind of thing that people in this company would look down on you for, then this is absolutely not the kind of company you want to work for... not just "even" as an intern, but especially as an intern. Interns are supposed to have questions!

Following the thread, make sure you do have the support's contact number.

This.

And this is true for reasons I didn't understand when I was soley technical and younger.

At the end of the day people - _teams_ - want people they can trust in. That doesn't mean you handle things flawlessly, or that your boss can necessarily "set it and forget it" with you. Being trustworthy and responsible means acting out of good intent. Take a breath, keep your head on straight, look at the slightly bigger picture, and make reasonable choices. Communicate. Act as if the world isn't on your shoulders - because it isn't.

Take a step back, realize that we're all people, trying to make good decisions, and we're responsible to work with the outcomes and address problems as they arise.

I've found I grow by leaps and bounds when I embrace this.

>> Being trustworthy and responsible means acting out of good intent.

This is a great comment. It reveals the truth about how we grow into roles of higher and higher responsibility. I believe I was on the lucky side, though, that most of my bosses understood this about me. Part of it actually is the fact that they know you will take the world on your shoulders in their absence if the situation demands it. It's a test. If it goes off the rails, they're basically saying they can afford it and they don't care, but they want to know who stayed up all night trying to fix it. It sounds paradoxical and maybe jaded, but it's actually better for OP if the upgrade breaks shit all over the place and he's sleeping under a table 36 hours later responsible for managing the failure state. If everything goes off without a hitch, the boss won't even notice. That said, hope for the best, plan for the worst and go in with the best of intentions - but just like if you're an honorable person, you'd never take credit for something you didn't do, you should never take blame for something you warned people about.

People who see ahead and are capable to intervene and mitigate other people's disasters are literally priceless, and OP will go far just by having the attitude of foreseeing and managing crises created by other people's lack of engagement or imagination. This is also the origin story of every superhero and mob boss.

Exactly.

In the case anything blows up, repeat after me, "I don't know, I'm just the intern".

The key part about surviving corporate life is learning to cover your ass smartly by documenting stuff.

Maybe send a casual email. "Hey Bob, enjoy your vacation! No rush, but how are we maintaining this upcoming Epicor upgrade going forward? As you know I have no training and login information to the new system, but am excited to learn whatever is needed to help the company. If you have any suggestions or advice on good resources to learn this system, please let me know anytime."

It'll be your bosses screwup, not yours, if something goes wrong.

> If you have any suggestions or advice on good resources to learn this system, please let me know anytime.

Their reply:

> Just have a look at www.epicor-blahblah.com/documentation. You will find everything you need to know!

Nice answer! I see you've been on both sides of the fence.

Always try to predict the answer to your questions and the outcome of your queries: you might get what you asked for.

Try (or pretend to :-)) the "obvious" things that might get answered and state you've tried them (and reasonably failed).

It'd be weird for an ERP system to go through an upgrade without consultants from the vendor (Epicor) or a 3rd party systems integrator to handle the hands-on-keyboard part of the work. In a normal situation I'd expect your role to be that of a smart phone directory, able to get hold of the right people when the Epicor techs need to talk to someone.

It's also strange that you haven't been involved in calls with the vendor or any of the planning meetings that should have been going on over the last few months. See if you can find out what the actual plan for the upgrade is.

Maybe there isn't one. This could be a seat of the pants operation and you could be about to walk into a total clusterfuck. That said, DO NOT LEAVE! There are no repercussions for you, the intern. You could walk over and pull the plug out mid install and it'd still be your bosses fault for leaving an intern in full charge of anything more important than the spare coffee maker. You have a ringside seat to a fantastic learning opportunity here - you cannot lose. Enjoy the ride, keep a diary, use your head, do your best. Best case: you're a savior (enjoy the $5 Arbees gift voucher). Worst case: the upgrade is delayed by a week, your lazy boss gets canned, and everyone else views you with a mixture of sympathy and respect and you get onto a new team.

i'm leaning toward there isn't one and that whatever my boss has cooked up is going to go fine, or go haywire and i am the warm body to get beat up on when production goes down.

they already gave me a gas card, i think Arby's might be asking for too much... XD

I've been in this kind of situation a fair amount.

Like everyone else says, breathe, and make sure there's visibility up your management chain. Make it clear you haven't been given the tools, and have full transparency when you talk to support. If I am reading this right, everyone - including the vendor - is going to try and nail you. Don't give them an in with dishonesty. You've done nothing wrong, and although it's heresy among techbros, not knowing some random computer thing isn't a moral failing.

Unfortunately I also agree with the point about the resume. This won't be the first time your org does this kind of thing. In fact, it might be the standard way they do everything. I've seen that movie before, too. You get lucky, you can even get lucky many times, and luck combined with ability can take you places. But eventually luck runs out, and the situation goes down that toxic orgs always want it go down: with you in the toilet. Then they can go back to fingering each other or whatever it is orgs like this do when they run out of competent staff.

Right now, I sort of have a gig like this, but it's a bit more informal, everyone having entered this with eyes open. I told them up front I have zero idea what I'm doing (front end dev), but they seemed alright with that, and I'm picking it up, albeit slowly (NgRx, that is). For my part, I wanted to learn this stuff anyway; functional programming has always been a giant blank spot in my know-how. It's not like my boss dropped down from heaven and said "Add these features to this strange codebase you've never seen before without talking to the developer" then disappeared.

This is the time to get your resume ready. If you've not been involved in the upgrade planning and you've not been given a detailed MOP to execute and you've not even been given a login for the software... And the person who I assume has been planning the upgrade is going on vacation then it's time for you go as well.

Alternatively raise your concerns with your bosses boss.. Since I would also assume your bosses boss approved his vacation knowing that this upgrade was coming they may be less then helpful. Or they could have been lied to by being told you are comfortable with all aspects of the project.

If you're not comfortable, get them to postpone, or ignore it all and get you resume in order. This is one of those red flags for bad companies.

i appreciate your candor. i think you may be right. in my current position, i feel at a loss. i think sometimes people, like me in this case, can feel almost indebted to a company that took a chance on them. i have no professional experience in this field and this was known at time of interview. i feel like i am not being utilized in a fashion where i could actually LEARN instead, but then again i struggle with my own head telling me "well, am i really not prepared to be in this field?". it almost feels like imposter syndrome and i know i am ranting now.

all in all, thank you for mentioning this - i definitely have things to consider.

Alternatively this is one of those things that, maybe, if it all goes well, you could leverage for a promotion and pay raise.

Of course, there's a lot of context that we don't really have access to but that's another thing to consider.

OP is an intern, at most companies promotions and job offers are literally impossible. Of course they might be able to swing a permanent job, but I'm not convinced this place would be great for learning or for career.

Ah, I glossed over the "intern" word.

right and i read back my post and i leave out some context and do not mean to disparage my boss or the company i work for. and i think you may be right, instead of being afraid and, lack of a better term, paranoid about this situation i could instead embrace the challenge, and communicate better what i do know and what i don't know.

you had me at "pay raise" hehe..

I missed you were an intern, that does change things a bit. I'd say embrace the challenge, get some experience working in a high-stress environment where you're complete out of your depth, and then sooner or later try to find a job at another company that won't do this to you.

that is okay, i notice i left context out of my post as i hastily wrote it.

thank you for your kind words, i think it is definitely best to look at this situation from the angle of "learning opportunity".

> i think sometimes people, like me in this case, can feel almost indebted to a company that took a chance on them

What does giving you that chance cost them, versus you? If you fail, they'll likely fire you and move on to the next person. If you succeed, they will likely get credit for picking a good one, then they get to utilize you for years, potentially. During that time, they likely will make multiples of your salary on your work. There is very little real risk to the company for 'giving you a chance'.

In some bad companies, you have little input into shaping the expectations into something reasonable. In those companies, you can easily be expected to do something that just isn't feasible, and it is no fault of yours.

From your story, it sounds like you may be in one of the companies that expect what they expect, and never ask if it is reasonable from people who know. I also wonder if your boss is taking vacation to distance themselves from an expected meltdown that they were unable to manage away. Hard to tell reality single point of view on the internet, but it wouldn't surprise me.

i think you're right and in my rambling i forget that i work for THEM and the company will always be concerened about THEM.

it has happened to me before. i think i am just feeling a bit... imposter-y. i have put my nose to the ground to get where i am, but i must bring my nose back up and assess before i get myself into a place i don't want to be.

thanks for the reminder.

> raise your concerns with your bosses boss.

100% this. "I would love to help with this but I honestly don't think it is safe for me to try."

If your boss hasn't left yet, talk to them. Ask if there's a runbook and what credentials you'll need. Both aren't just reasonable questions, they're required to be known to complete the task.

If boss is gone, go to their supervisor.

Do this today. Assuming you're in the US, you have most of the workday to figure out what you know and what you don't.

And, as somebody else posted, calm down. Either your boss trusts you, or your boss is an arsehole. Either way, that's a good thing to know now. In the first case, great. In the second, no great, but you know you don't want to work for him beyond this internship.

thanks for the advice.

to add some context, i have been voicing concerns and i just feel that i may be in a position where i have to take the silence and work it out for myself - i must remember all the resources i have available to me (including you kind folk here at HN) and work with what i have been given.

i have gotten myself this far, and only i can make it better for myself. time to nut up or shut up i suppose and stand up for myself.

You're being fucked and scapegoated. Get your resume ready and figure out a way to make this into an amusing story for your next interview.

>Yeah, so my direct supervisor left for a vacation the day before a major update and left me to do it with 12 hours notice. Didn't even give me login credentials haha.

Your intuition is correct. Generally, I would not have an intern deploy major version upgrade -- or do anything in prod at all, really -- without:

1. proven familiarity with the process,

2. thorough instructions, and

3. an on-call that is available and familiar with the intern's specific push.

That said: maybe these upgrades are always straight forward. Maybe your boss plans to be available in case something goes wrong (despite not being on site). Maybe he's treating this as a sort of final interview for your internship before suggesting a full-time offer. Maybe there's a safety net underneath you that your boss knows about but you don't, since operating with poise under pressure is an important thing to test for in an IT candidate.

I suggest you proceed with poise. Prior to the upgrade, ensure that you have documentation about the process, any other necessary information, etc. It is your job to make sure you have what you need! Also make sure that you have a point of contact who will be on-call during the upgrade process (this should be your boss). During the upgrade, immediately escalate any issues to that on-call.

Finally, prior to your boss leaving, let him know that you are happy to take on this task but want to make sure that there's a full time employee ready in the wings in case something goes wrong because you do not have a long history with this product and because the product is so mission-critical to the company.

i do think that i have fallen into a mental trap of thinking this might be way bigger than it actually is. if he is not concerned, why should i?

poise is an excellent way to describe what i need moving forward. i never though about it that way.

thank you for the notes.

yw; good luck!

Hi! Many good suggestions on the thread already. Talk to your boss if things are really automated. Gather your support contact methods including how to escalate with Epicor. When issues arrive, then document bugs super well including steps to reproduce if you can (speeds things up). Have an open bug list and triage with the support team. Communicate frequently, and cleanly with all stakeholders. Also, it will be ok! You got it!

yes I am very pleasantly surprised to find the support i've gotten back so far. it has already put me at ease.

i also really appreciate your outlining what i can do. document document document, communicate communicate communicate.

thank you for your kind words.

I once had to attend a parked but running helicopter in a wind storm while the pilot went the bathroom. He said "If anything goes wrong, hit the lit up button." Do you know how many lit buttons there are on a running helicopter?

People early in their career tend to take the weight of the world on their shoulders. You, as an intern are the very definition of a person early in their career. You are not responsible for the outcome of your boss's decision. You are responsible for your communication if something goes wrong. Keep a work log.

Communicate often and widely. Ask for help early. Get tech support on the line. Document your work log and keep your written communications.

You can do this. Document, communicate, breathe deep and realize you're not getting paid to be the throat to choke if something goes wrong.

If you haven't received a login for Epicor, then if it doesn't work, I don't know that you're going to be able to do anything. So, you probably want to just think through what you're going to say, and to whom, if it blows up.

What you DON'T want to try to do, if it blows up (or seems to be), is some Hail Mary hack-in-somehow-and-try-to-save-the-day. If the update doesn't work and you weren't given the login, you have an eminently reasonable excuse for why you could not save the day.

On the other hand, if you somehow mess with things in a desperate attempt to fix it, and somehow make matters worse, you could be considered to have made a mistake.

Either way, if things blow up, you will have to go to your boss's boss and explain that you don't know how to fix it and don't have a login to attempt to do it even if you did. You will want to do this calmly and professionally, not going out of your way to make anyone else look worse (not that this would be necessary anyway, from the sound of it), but being clear about the actual situation.

Your boss apparently thinks this update is trivial, and will require nothing of you. Perhaps he is right. If he is not, then if you have not been prepared to troubleshoot you could easily make things worse, so be plain and clear about your inability to fix something you haven't been briefed on. They will have to either get hold of your boss, or else call the company who makes the software, and perhaps in that case they may be able to walk you through what to do. If not, don't pretend to knowledge you don't have.

Have a good weekend, you have done what you can do by voicing concern.

he must, and i noted on another comment that if he is proceeding in this manner and is calm about it, then i should follow his lead and feel the same. no sense getting myself worked up and dreading an outcome that may never even come to fruition. i think what this post's replies have really opened my eyes to is that the burden of change rests on my shoulders and mine alone. i can take this scenario for what it is - an opportunity. maybe i won't have to troubleshoot, but at least i was there.

Without a login you can do nothing - so do that.

Even if you have a login, if they've only given you that and nothing else, then you cannot reasonably be expected to complete the update on a Friday with no oversight and no support from a team.

So don't, if it seems prudent not to. Another commenter mentioned that hopefully you're in a US timezone since that means you'll have the rest of the day to figure things out.

So start figuring - compile a text document with links to information about the upgrade process. Cross-reference this with what you know about how the current system operates. Do a solid hour's worth of research and try to determine how the process will go. Identify potential pitfalls: are you going to get stuck behind a prompt for additional credentials, or asked for a license key that you don't have? If the upgrade process fails catastrophically, what's your easiest route to restoring from backup? Is there something you can take snapshots of, as an insurance policy?

Call the vendor (hopefully your org has an active support contract) and level with them: you're a support guy too, you're out of your depth (or so you think, anyway) and you need a sanity check and some advice. Perhaps you have internal team members who could help in similar ways (probably not, since you're asking here).

If it seems too risky, I just wouldn't do it. Type up a nice note about the research you did, and how you foresee the process being executed. Then notate why you're uncomfortable hitting the big red button, and what you'd need in order to more forward.

Then, update your ticket with that note, place it on next week's schedule, go home, and enjoy your weekend.

Best of luck.

Honesty and transparency can be incredibly powerful. At a good workplace they will be valued. If your workplace is not a good one, better to find that out as soon as possible.

Talk to your boss if he is still around, or talk to your boss' boss if not.

Try to be open about your emotions. "I am feeling nervous about the Epicor upgrade". Paradoxically, you should confidently express what your anxieties are. Explain as much as you can about why: "I think I need more information to understand if this is something I can do, and what to do if something goes wrong".

If you are in a junior role and you're feeling like this, it's almost certainly not your fault. Your only responsibility is to speak up about how you're feeling. Realising this can be liberating.

Calm down, haha

Do you know anyone there that uses this software? Can you ask them what the experience was like the last time this happened (from their point of view)? Maybe you don't need a login, maybe they just push the update out and you pretend to be involved!

this is where i get stuck - the operators on the shop floor use the program to print their labels, whereas a sales person in the office is using the program to draft purchase orders. it is an absolute beast software and i think i am just getting... in my head.

thanks for the "calm down" it sincerely helps. i will continue to ask around here, as communication is probably the best tool i have at my disposal right now.

thanks again -

> communication is probably the best tool I have

Without a doubt. Just make sure you are not being a whiny complainer about getting dumped on. Everyone you talk to will already know you've been thrown to the wolves - you don't have to remind them of it. But on the other hand, they will also see that you are trying and preparing and taking the job seriously: If things blow up on Monday they will blame your boss for leaving. If things go smoothly they will think it's because you took charge and made it happen.

(But also, spend some time thinking about a new job, because there is always a small chance you get screwed. The business world is cold and heartless sometimes).

PPS - it is entirely possible that the users do not yet know about the scheduled upgrade, either because they were never told or because they ignored the email or whatever. They might have some major thing going on Monday and can't have any downtime. Talking to them and asking about experiences and concerns will surface that. If it is the case, they will voices on your side in a call for delay. And! It will look good on your resume: "Improved inter-department communication, saving company $$$$/increasing revenue $$$$ by optimizing software update schedule"

Does this Epicor does not have a support department you can call in case of trouble?

And: "I assume my boss has left the process to be automated", that would be something to check with said boss. Assumptions are the mother of all f-ups ;)

yes i agree that assumptions make asses out of people... i like my boss, he seems to have confidence in me but let's say he is a man of few words. maybe i just needed to get this off my chest haha.

excellent point, though, about the support. in my haze i seem to have forgotten that support systems exist... thanks for your advice

Share your concerns. You're an intern, so unless the process is entirely automated with zero chance of failure, your supervisor is a goddamn maniac for leaving you to handle it. You're not trained, you're not paid enough to accept responsibility, and it's an idiot thing to do and a shitty thing to put on you.

Polish your resume no matter what, because you're working for people who should rightfully make their living biting the heads off chickens out back of a circus tent for a nickel admission fee, not managing anything that matters.

In this situation, just keep in mind that if something goes wrong, it's not your fault. Do the best you can with the training you've received. You can use your creativity and pro-active skills but you can't work miracles.

Here's a personal story that might help: many years ago in the beginning of my career I was assigned to install a software client on various machines (about 50 workstations), using a CD. It was a Friday, worked until late but had to leave to continue next day (Saturday!!). When I arrived I noticed the CD was cracked. Either me or the cleaners accidentally put something on it. I then called the IT admin (who was on a holiday) and told him the CD was cracked, I needed another one. He said we didn't have it. I then called the software supplier (Sybase Inc) to ask about a replacement media. Obviously we had the licence, it was just a matter of getting the binaries, right? Wrong, they said we had to purchase a new licence. I then tought I should pay for it since I felt responsible for the damage. The price was really high (can't remember, something like x thousand dollars - I would have to work for many years to pay that with my junior salary). I tried finding people around and on the internet with the same software version so I could clone their CD but there were too many minor releases and none matched the same as our licence. This is Monday already and I had no choice but tell the boss what happened (over the phone). She asked how much it was, I told her. After the longest 5 seconds of silence she said "OK, it was not your fault, we should have made backups. And we were outdated anyway, it was time to upgrade, please tell the finance I authorise the purchase and tell them to invoice us". Phew! Many lessons learned on that weekend.

it really did help. thank you for sharing an experience you had.

sometimes its nice to know that you aren't alone, even if you feel like you are. i never expected so much support from all of you guys but it has filled me with a lot of confidence and generally good vibes that i didn't know i needed.

thanks again

I think it is the job of your boss to provide you with access. That should obviously happened sooner but I would still enjoy the weekend. It may be your last one.

Kidding, wouldn't worry too much. If your boss works in IT he is probably used to getting called when not in the office. Maybe just tell him you are nervous because of the update. But I very much doubt anyone would blame you if there are any difficulties.

hahaha thanks for the laugh, i needed it...

and i think you are right. i need to remember my place/position.

First, thanks for caring and taking your job seriously even though you are an "intern". You are already miles ahead of many people who couldn't care less. You will do great in your career with this attitude

Now, may be it will go smooth, may be it won't. Either way, it won't be your fault because you are an intern and the worst they can do is to fire you which is not so bad even though you may think that it is. Best, your boss probably has done this before and knows that its no biggie. If shit hits the fan, other people will get involved.

In case that you are the one "Responsible", use that as an opportunity to shine and show it to senior management. If things go bad, tell management "This is a great learning experience for me as an intern". When people find out that you are an inter, expectations will change.

One lesson learned for you: When your boss leaves something in your "capable" hands, ask these questions BEFORE they leave. Make sure you understand what's expected of you especially if things go wrong (they usually do with major updates).

You will do fine.

i think what is most important to me at the end of the day is knowing i put in the time and effort to do a good job, no matter what it is.

i am old enough now to have experience in all sorts of things. i was a construction estimator, a retail store manager, a property manager/maintenance man... about a year and a half ago i decided that i wanted to follow my passion and that lied in the world of computing.

i know i am just an intern, but to me when you accept responsibility you do all you can to do a good job. regardless of the tools or information you aren't given.

i may not know anything right now, but i will know something eventually.

thanks for your kind words. i WILL be fine.

Hello db, I’m sorry you were put in this uncomfortable situation. Ideally, you would have received all the documentation, resources and training necessary to mitigate your feelings of stress. Unfortunately, the reality in our industry is that you’ll often find yourself in these uncomfortable situations. Good news is that you will grow from them.

The propensity to quickly learn and adapt to new situations is a critical skill in IT. Knowing when to apply your skills, however, is also critical. I advise you hone these skill.

Regarding your situation, you have a few options:

1. You can say “No”. It took me a really long time to realize that “No” is a valid (and often necessary) answer. If you don’t feel comfortable or able to take on this task, don’t. You wouldn’t pour gasoline on a forrest fire. Sometimes you are the gasoline and need to know when to say no.

2. As others have pointed out, candidly communicate your feelings around being uncomfortable but willing to take the time to learn. This will show that you are honest, can recognize your short-comings, but are also willing to grow.

3. You can smile, act confident and pray that nothing will go wrong. If things go well, either you’ll be a hero or no one will notice, but if things go wrong… people will notice. There’s a lot of comments here suggesting that being an intern is a get out jail free card… I don’t think it is. Yes, people more senior to you should know better; often they don’t, but you should (if you recognize it) know better and communicate.

Like others, I would recommend documenting your communications with your boss. If they happen over a call or in person, take notes during or promptly after the call.

Ultimately, I think there’s a difference between doing something you “think” you can do and it going wrong, and doing something you’re not comfortable doing and it going wrong.

Best of luck!

How did this situation even arise?

I'm not suggesting this is your fault, but why didn't you ask for the process before your boss left if you weren't clear?

If I were to guess, I suspect this update is either not as important as you think it is - hence the lack of process or guidance from your boss. If it really is as important as you think then this isn't your fault. Your boss has responsibility to ensure there are processes in place to ensure this kind of stuff doesn't happen... If a junior dev is working under me and they merge some crappy code that blows up then that's my fault for not reviewing the code and it's also my problem to fix.

All you can do is your best. Send an email to your boss to confirm if you understand the process. If you don't hear back from him then ask around and see if anyone else can help you. Like I say, you can only do your best. If that's not good enough then that's not your problem.

Intern is a very low-stakes job. Nobody expects an intern to be in charge. Try to do your best, to the best of your ability, and let whatever happens happen. Is it possible that something goes wrong and you get blamed for it? Yes, it is, people screw up and blame others for it. If you did your best - you're ok. Even if the management doesn't recognize that fact - ok, maybe you'll get fired. That's the absolutely worst that can happen. But you're an intern. There are tens of thousands of intern positions around, and many of them aren't managed by jerks that blame others for their failures, so you'd come out better off if that happens. But as likely, nothing bad happens and you'll leans something. Just relax, be ready to do what you can do, prepare as much as you can and if something is out of your hands and you can't do anything about it - don't worry about it.

Epicor is an ERP program, and from my limited time working with a different one, I think it's a bit unfair for them to expect you to handle this whole thing on your own, and on such short notice. I've only seen ERP software be big and clunky.

So, don't calm down, but feel a bit justified in being worried all of a sudden.

Be very clear that you need to have login sorted out before you can begin work on the project. Write down all of your concerns in a text document, and save them to be raised the internal kickoff meeting (There should be one. If not, ask for one).

Meanwhile, search their documentation as best you can, and see if you can get an idea of what the actual work would entail. Research can count as productivity, and you may find more questions that need to be raised.

Relax, take it one hour/day at a time. Try to build a list of people you can contact for support if needed, I imagine you and your boss aren't the entire IT team. If something happens and you get stuck call someone, its ok (especially as an intern) to say 'I don't know I need some help' especially if something is on fire. Try to find or define a plan of what's going to happen, eg at X time someone will start the roll out then x & y should happen and finally z means success.

Above all else: If your boss knowingly left a junior employee to do something with 0 training or guidance, any fuckups are on the boss. Don't beat yourself up about it, life will happen and you will get through it.

we are... XD

thanks for the kind words. helps a lot.

Also don't let imposter syndrome get you. A manager's job is to make sure that those they manage have the tools they need to do their job. One of those 'tools' includes your comfort level. The fact that you are not comfortable is not a failing on your part or of your capabilities, but a failure of your manager to give you the tools you need to be comfortable.

You aren't an imposter posing as an IT person. You are an IT person who has not been given the tools or time needed to do a potentially high impact, high visibility task. So yeah, just another day in IT :) You can do this.

Remember how you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.

Monday might suck, but literally everyone in the company will blame your boss, not you. Who in the world goes on vacation the day a major upgrade is happening and leaves the intern in charge? I mean, no offense, but interns know nothing by design, they're there to learn how to be employees, that's the whole point. So you won't get fired if things go badly, but he might.

>i am an IT Support Intern at a manufacturing company

Oh, you're fine lol

If anything goes wrong that is 1000% on the boss. I know that probably doesn't help because you're more worried about what could happen in within the scope of your job/company... but you and everyone else will be fine.

Even if it somehow takes down the computers, it happens. Ofc, not a "good thing" but it is a thing that happens.

I have no experience with Epicor but similarily work in IT support and regularly get scheduled to "oversee" updates like this as well. Don't panic, get in contact with a couple of chill guys or galls that use Epicor that can help you test out the app so you can at least confirm whether the update was succefull or not. Anything else really isn't your problem.

thanks for sharing. don't panic is the theme of this thread and just hearing that helps. i have to remember my position in this whole scenario is to just be available and take whatever problems as they come.

I used epicor for years and I’m honestly still surprised it exists. It is such a bad program from a terrible company. The updates generally broke the system every time and required a company rep to come out and fix it. Seemed like a total scam. I would not expect any upgrade to go well and I’m pretty sure it is by design.

the bits i have learned so far leads me to believe you are right. but oh well, take what you are given...

I wouldn't do it. It doesn't sound like this upgrade is urgent so why rush into it without having everything you need?

Your boss has delegated this task to you. That means you have the authority to decide how/if it should be done. When they return just explain that you would rather get it right the first time.

I just want to say, document everything, all the process, nothing must ti be left in the air, ask, ask and ask again, be clear and honest with the company, nothing must be left in the air (I told you that..) and relax.

I want to read an update of this upgrade and share a beer or whatever after all.

Enjoy the rollercoaster ride and good luck!

i could use a beer right now! haha. thank you for the well wishes.

i am not a big fan of rollercoasters but i guess i'll ride this one XD

Lots of nice comments here.

If I may add, when your peers (or managers) take some time off and hand over work to you, write a hand-over document. Always. It's crucial for smooth handovers.

- Task to handover

- Description

- Actions at stake

- Target / Desired Outcome

- Timelines

If you missed an action / task that isn't in that document, then it's really not your fault.

i think this is something that is very very important and never thought about until now.

i will actually bring this up ASAP because i think it will be beneficial for me and for my boss.

i appreciate your insight

Is it possible that your boss actually didn't leave this whole thing in your hands? Are he and you the only IT people in the entire company? Is it possible he just didn't give you the details because other people are handling it?

ah, i reread my post and it lacks a lot of context and i apologize for that.

yes he and I are the only nerds in the company.

i believe the feature update gets doled out through a third party, and i am in the position to ensure that our workstations receive the feature update and troubleshoot should any issues arise. problem is, i cannot even access the program in question and am responsible to ensure a smooth transition. i just don't know where to even begin.

sorry if i had confused anybody, i myself didn't/don't understand the actions i may have to take in the case of a catastrophe.

Is there anything preventing a staged upgrade? What's the roll back option like?

As others have said raise concerns with your boss/their boss. But if you have concerns do something to lower that risk and discuss options with higher ups.

Mistakes with software installation can take seconds to make but days to repair... At least that has been my experience at times. Go slow when the circumstances call for caution.

My 2c

i wanted to take the time out and say to everyone that has responded to this post that i deeply appreciate all the words of wisdom and support.

in a time when i didn't know what else to do other than throw a post up on HN, the community came back and helped me temper my emotions and fill me with the confidence i needed to take stressful situations in stride... this will be a post i look back on with great, heartfelt emotion because i know you guys got my back and i know i got yours.

see you all on the other side... i've got some documentation to study up on

Myself, and I'm sure many others, would love to hear which advice you took from the HN community and how things are going.

hi esterly,

i survived. the greatest piece of advice i took from the community was to calm the hell down. i am certain when i crafted this submission that i was in the middle of a panic attack and just let myself be consumed. Monday came, and my boss was there remotely with me. I am not sure why i let myself believe he wouldn't be, or that i was supposed to carry this cross all by my lonesome. a couple errors occured with a few custom reports, but i was able to troubleshoot!

so, in all honesty, i may have written up and pleaded for help a bit too hastily but what i received back from the community i will never forget. it has been a long time since i have felt comfortable putting myself back out there on the web and for me to make this desperate-sounding post and to receive the support i did is, quite frankly, crazy to me. i thank you all from the bottom of my heart. sounds sappy but true.

always remember CTHD - calm the hell down

EDIT: fixed typo

Before doing anything, make 100% sure your disaster recovery plan is fully ready. It is much easier diving in if you are sure you can roll back.

I would advise to send an email to your boss now with cc'ing another manager about the login to document

Roll it out to 1 station, if that works, then 5 more. If that works, insert some earplugs and do the rest.

Void here.

Have faith, no one will be completely able to troubleshoot in the event of a catastrophe.

One fun story from a buddy of mine when he was a (civil) engineering intern might shed some light on expectations here.

He was under 2 bosses for the summer on a construction site, and together, they were (1) the engineers responsible for construction & (2) project managers responsible for "make sure things don't go wrong."

Halfway through the summer, he's doing a great job. The bosses trust him to handle things for a day or two, and are off on other sites. This is the first time he's the only 'engineer' there.

Of course, disaster strikes - I never got the full details, but apparently there was a LOT of water, flooding a half dozen residences next to the site. Called his bosses - no answer.

He knew nothing, of course, but was nominally "in charge" so just did what he could think to do: made sure the foreman was on top of fixing the problem; knocked on the residence doors to make sure everyone nearby knew what was happening; got in touch with emergency-water-damage folks listed somewhere in the company's directory; and wrote up an email to his bosses documenting what happened, why, and what's been tried to fix it.

The way he tells it, when his boss finally called, my friend opened up with "I know you're probably gonna fire me, but I'm just doing what I can to fix this." His boss responded "fire you? I'm gonna offer you a f*cking full time job"

TLDR: it's not your job to launch this thing on your own. Other people are doing their jobs too. Just to be ready to contribute how you can, if & when you're needed.

i think an important part of my job that i overlooked when i first started was my availability. i do not have all the answers, half the time i don't even know what i am doing but i know that i am available to try. and i think that is really important. i will be the guy that is there to try.

thanks for sharing your friend's story, it has helped put a lot into perspective for me

Hello db. Let me try to help :)

You haven't provided a lot of info, but based on what you say, it seems that:

1) you are an intern, not a full-time employee (FTE)

2) Your boss seems to be the one supposedly in charge of the Epicor update, but it also seems that he felt you could be put in charge while he's away. Wait, though: in charge in case the automation he put in place doesn't work.

3) You feel the task it daunting, and you are panicking.

4) It seems you are mostly worrying about the case where the automated update process fails, and people would revert to you to ask for help.

If the above is correct, I'd suggest the following:

1) Use a written form of communication to tell your boss what makes you anxious. Written would help you in case of any legal issue, any wrongful termination, or simply in case your boss will try to blame you for any issue as a result of a failed update.

e.g. "Dear boss, I hope you will have a wonderful holiday next week. I am concerned about the Epicor update scheduled for Monday, Oct 17th, as I have no useful information to be able to support the company in case the update doesn't go as you planned. I just wanted to make sure that you were ok with this, and don't expect me to be able to intervene in case of issues. Of course, I will do my best if something happens, and I would appreciate if you could let me know what's expected of me during the update, or even in preparation for the update (e.g. would you need me to study anything during the weekend?) Thanks."

2) Do not assume that your goal now is to prep for the update, spend the weekend studying Epicor or whatever else. You might still want to do it, but again, it is not required. It seems your boss didn't tell you anything like that.

3) You might want to review your "contract", even if you are an intern and not a FTE. What did you sign when you started working with this company? Try to see if there's anything weird in the liabilities you incur for any wrongdoing. Probably nothing, though. Relax.

4) You're an intern, you're probably young, and this is a great learning opportunity for you. Your anxiety is a consequence of your inability to communicate with your boss properly, even if he might have made a mistake of leaving you alone in all of this. Analyze how the conversation went, and see if you could have done better.

5) Finally, do not listen to the others suggesting that you should polish your resume and run for the hill. It's too rushed. You gave us sparse information, and there's very little to suggest that this would be the best course of action.

Try, instead, to make the best of this situation. And don't panic. Panic is often anxiety, self-inflicted anxiety. You probably didn't do anything wrong; you might have a boss that is not fully aware of what's going on inside your brain, and that happens.

Good luck! Hope that this was helpful in some way.

you nailed it on the head. i did leave out some context and i see now this post is just the ranting of a madman.

i am an Intern, and my boss is the ERP Systems manager. My company is not large. Before I came along, it was just my boss. He is the heart, soul, and backbone of the IT department here. Now i am one of the limbs.

it is just us 2. i think you absolutely banged it on the head that i suffer from the inability to effectively communicate my anxieties/concerns with my superior, and i feel i have done him an injustice with this post and i wanted to say that you are right. My anxiety is coming from my inability to communicate properly. he may totally be under the impression that i can handle this, but i also want to say i don't really know WHY not because i don't think i can handle this if i were adequately prepared, but that i attempt to ask these questions and am sort of... left on read. i know that if this does go awry, i will not be the sole blame. but i am struggling with this like desire to make sure that my company is able to carry on production without a blip. vmaybe i am in la la land and care too much about the company that would replace me in a heartbeat, but i want to prove to myself i can be a part of this field, be a part of this industry.

thank you for your advice. i want you to know that i am genuinely taking all points made in this thread to heart.

I'm so glad you found my suggestions helpful.

Good luck with your life! I hope that the Epicor update will go smoothly after all :)

You may want to post this in /r/sysadmin.

Worked with Epicor in a similar situation in a past life. There are either consultants or Epicor itself doing the upgrade, it won't just upgrade. Are you on their cloud offering? Most of your internal teams should have already validated that they are good to go in a test environment. If you can list some kind of contact I'd be happy to walk you through some things.

Step one that I always told my teams. When something comes in on fire, step one after entering the ticket/basic information is getting a cup of coffee. This give you a second to calm down, start thinking about the issue instead of reacting to the issue. You are going to get frantic floor workers coming in saying 'XYZ gehimazoid isn't working'. If you catch their panic, then run to the floor, your hit. Gather info. Send them on their way and tell them you will come look into it shortly. Get a cup of coffee. Come back and without them staring over your shoulder Google 'WTF is a gehimazoid' or HOPEFULLY look it up in your internal IT knowledgebase.

Find out who the leads on the floor are going to be that first day. Try to set things up where they will come report issues to you, so you don't have 100 floor workers coming to you panicked. They are a huge line of breathing room for you and they are hopefully more understanding of the situation.

Immediately after upgrade I would prioritize that the factory floor can enter work into MES. You don't want 150 people and millions of dollars in machines sitting idle. So can they get to their work orders, can they get to their MBOMs, can they get to MES if you are using it.

I would prioritize that departments can run their key reports. Not every report, key ones.

Identify if you have a report writer, and what their level of capability is. They are going to be your best friend during this as reports are going to be one of the most visible potential issues. If you don't have report writers, you are going to have someone in finance who needed custom reports and learned it all on their own. See if you can find them and if they are friendly.

The system should be running a Microsoft SQL Server backend. If it is on Progress, than you need to scream tilt and ask for resources. Progress isn't hard or bad, but it is just niche enough that there aren't a lot of helpful resources.

Reports should be Epicors implementation of SSRS. Do you understand how SSRS reports run? There can be custom reports, so identify what departments use custom reports.

You will need to ensure the following minimal capabilities are working after the upgrade. Try to find out who is using custom reports to do any of this ahead of time. Once minimal functionality is working you can move on to the next level of fires.

Finance: They may have custom Crystal Reports because well, finance often can do what they want, so yeah. Don't yell at them like you would some production planner using custom Excel hooked into the system.

Production Planning: They use the system to generate future jobs/work orders. They will need to keep the floor fed with work orders so make sure they can print them along with MBOMs etc. While scheduling jobs out in the future is important, first focus on the floor so that current production doesn't stop. So that is picklists, work orders, MBOMs, etc.

Stockroom: Picklists Non reporting: Entry into MES if you use MES

Factory Floor: Jobs. MBOMs. Non reporting: Entry into MES if you use MES

Buyers: POs

Shipping/Receiving: Packslips

Hey buddy, first off, know that you're not alone and we've all been there at some point. You're going to get through this one way or another!

Two key little insights that have helped me through many a tough time in life and my career have nothing to do with technology but have made all the difference time and again. A few short stories...

When I was 16 I had a part time after school job at a local TV station that did live broadcasts. At one point I had a huge amount of pressure placed on my (very capable) shoulders - problem is, I didn't recognize the "very capable" part. Somebody pulled me aside one day, an older, wiser fella, and told me to stick to two rules:

1. Don't sweat the small stuff. 2. EVERYTHING is small stuff.

---

All my life everybody always told me I wasn't confident enough. "You just need to be more confident!" they'd say. But what the hell does that mean? What IS confidence, anyway? Is it the way you act? The way you walk, talk, dress? Your tone of voice? You can't fake it of course, so what does it MEAN to "be confident"? How do you just...BE that? It's not a damn light switch, and yet nobody could really explain that to me.

After decades of banging my head against the wall in futility, somewhere along the way (I can't remember where) I heard or read...something...that finally summed it up: confidence means TRUSTING YOURSELF. Trusting not only in your intent, your "goodness" as a person, but in your COMPETENCE, your ABILITY TO ADAPT AND OVERCOME. That you can think on your feet, that no matter what comes your way, that you'll survive, you'll adapt, you'll come out on top, that above all, YOU GOT THIS.

---

Come Monday, I guarantee you something unexpected is going to happen. An error is going to pop up, authentication is going to get denied, the proverbial shit will hit the fan.

Plan for that. Expect that.

Then realize: this is not the first time you've faced adversity, and you've won before. You can do it on Monday, too.

Follow rules one and two above, because believe me, YOU'VE GOT THIS if you just TRUST IN YOUR ABILITY TO ADAPT AND OVERCOME. If you do that, it really WILL be small stuff, because you can handle it and a hell of a lot more! Be smart - have a list of contacts at Epicor and internally handy for escalating issues ahead of time, have some links to kb documents available, manuals, etc., maybe some tools/downloads on a USB stick or something - be prepared, not arrogant of course - but stay focused on solving the problem. Any time you're feeling fear, redirect your mind to finding another solution for the problems you might face - find another potential problem and a prepare another solution for it ahead of time (to the extent you can).

Above all, BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

You got this!

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