What random non-IT jobs have you been roped into, while officially holding an IT role?
This question might seem absurd to anyone with a corporate job, but to us SMB jacks-of-all-asses I bet its par for the course. We have a reputation as problem solvers, so if we can fix a computer, we can do anything, right?
I'll go first.
At the height of the chaos, and while IT was my responsibility, I was also:
Service engineer for a construction equipment service center- I've been elbow deep in the guts of machines from Caterpillar, JCB, Genie and a few others. My role was mostly on the technical literature/back office side of things, but in a pinch I went out on service calls and hooked up a laptop loaded with questionably acquired diagnostic software to a foreign government owned wheel loader in the middle of nowhere. Good times.
International supply chain manager- "Hey, u/nowildstuff_192, you goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus, our artificial turf supplier is screwing us. Get us a container from China." 4 months later, by some miracle, a Chinese container loaded with artificial turf arrived at our loading dock. This was 5 years ago and we still use the logistics chain I set up. I had no idea what the fuck I was doing, but I since succeeded in doing the same with machine parts from Italy, ceramic tiles from India, fasteners from Taiwan and pipe fittings from Turkey. On a related note, shoutout to customs brokers, they are a special breed.
As stressful as IT is, the importing stuff took years off my life. I can joke about it now but at the time I hated dealing with that shit.
As time went on and my IT role evolved, most of these side projects were taken on by more appropriate people. Once in a while though, they call me in to put out a fire.
How about you guys?
EDIT: Just got done ordering $1K worth of excavator parts over Ebay because we're having a spat with a supplier. Such is life, is potato.