On-call and it feels so good

Let me start by saying that I am a web developer for CNN News. I am on a team of individuals who are responsible for the tools that are used to publish CNN.com. We develop, enhance, and maintain the software that the editors/writers use to create their stories for the website. We have rotations, in which each developer will be on-call for 4-5 days at a time every 6 weeks or so. Our cellphone will get a text message outlining the issue at hand, and we have 30 minutes to triage the issue. My August rotation began Tuesday morning at 11am.

At precisely 11am, one of my technical managers hand-carried a note to me with a description of an issue that was in progress. I was on it! Except, not really. I had NO idea how to get to the bottom of it! There is a senior-level developer here that I really trust and look up to, so I went to his desk to get some guidance. Together we walked through the steps of eliminating all of the obvious issues until we finally got to the bottom of it some 3 hours later. This did two major things for me: 1) It gave me a lot of guidance on how to take on tasks of this magnitude from beginning to end, and 2)it boosted my confidence in my abilites; if the senior-level developer took 3 hours to figure it out after working here for almost 6 years, the situation was definitely a tricky one and not a bad reflection of my skills.

Later that evening at 10:15pm, I received a phone call from the on-call developer of another group describing an issue to me. I would spend the next 3 hours running around, pulling at my hair, chewing on my nails, and on the brink of tears (mostly from a lack of sleep) as I beat myself up for not being able to wrap my brain around how to figure this issue out. As it turns out, one of the resources that I had been calling for help during this 3 hours of trauma was actually supposed to have been able to resolve the issue! This did two major things for me: 1) I was struck with the realization that I wasn't the only person that found the issue confusing, and 2)it boosted my confidence in my abilities; if the sole person who was trained to resolve an issues such as the one I describe didn't have a clue, then I shouldn't beat myself up for not being able to figure it out.

Notice a pattern? The next 3 days would be this way. Issue after issue were being sent to my cellphone. With the resolution of each issue, my confidence grew stronger. I became less panicky with each situation, and even started welcoming the issues with open arms! My on-call rotation for August ended yesterday at 2pm. I celebrated by eating a chocolate and peanut butter protein bar with 32 ounces of water. (I'm a weirdo sometimes) I don't have another rotation until late September...Bring it ON! :-)