Senior IT manager with 25-years of experience humbles an arrogant new intern by letting him repeatedly fumble in front of the big boss: 'He pretty much humbled himself'

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Dec 9, 2024 10:00 AM EST

This seasoned IT troubleshooter was no stranger to solving problems in the workplace—even when the 'problems' were the recently graduated interns who thought they new the industry better than he did. And those are the types of issues that will iron themselves out in a jiffy without a clever guide at your side. But when these rogue cowboys come rushing into the workplace, someone's gotta teach 'em who's boss…

There's something to be said about experience vs. education. And when you've been in the IT industry for nearly 3 decades, you've certainly been around the block (or around the servers) long enough to know every little thing about technology. That's why, when this senior IT manager was perpetually paired with novice recently graduated interns, he found a way to silently and effectively put them in their place. Read on for the details of how this seasoned pro made arrogant kids look silly in the workplace. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10438466560
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    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    You need me for a lot more than you realize Back in the day, I was an IT manager for a design group for 25 yrs. The group designed
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    integrated circuits, bunch of very smart people. It also takes smarts to keep the computers, networks, and design software running for 400 people (my job). At least once a year we'd get a
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    new college grad in who made my life hard with their demands. I gave them 3 months to get settled in and get "normalized". Less, time for trying to make me look bad to their boss for ridiculous demands.
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    One specific newbie outdid himself, and at the 3 month mark I flatly told him he'd reached my limit of patience, and to run everything by his boss before asking for ANYTHING else (hardware, software, how-to's, hand holding).
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    After that, the boss would cc me on his responses, which were mostly "No", or "Ask one of the more experienced designers to show you". I walked by a few times where he was complaining and getting laughed at by his more experienced team mates.
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    It took about 9 more months before he pretty much humbled himself and apologized to me. It was very satisfying. We became friends and he's had a lot of great design successes.
    via ratherBwarm
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    Zoreb1 "I am new here so let me tell you how to do stuff you've been doing for decades." LOL Arrogance seems to be a submajor for many degrees.
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    The Sanch1128 And many schools. "My parents inherited great gobs of money from my grandparents, which they mostly spent on vacation homes and sending me and my sister to fancy East Coast schools. Therefore, I am
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    from a superior breed of human beings and you are beneath my notice except as it behooves me to speak to mere mortals."
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    ratherBwarm OP Oh god, yes. The CAD dept dependent on my HW&SW hired just such a manager. He spend 10 yrs writing the definitive manual on integrated circuit layout best practices. We never saw a page. No one missed him when he finally scuttled away.
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    Terrkas Well, there are people who do their job badly for decades and a new hire who did the same elsewhere might know some ways to optimize the work.
    via Terrkas

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