On call week

May 4th, 2024 (9 months ago) • 2 minutes

For the past 2 week, I was assigned the on-call lead for my team. What this entails is responding to ad-hoc requests from analyst/engineers and helping out during incidents. For me I was also responsible for segregating the tasks and assigning them to my team.

It was exhausting but extremely fun. Part of the appeal for me was the adrenaline rush of being on call because everything is 'urgent' and the satisfaction of solving problems. These problems are usually predictable and can be solved with a bit of experience and knowledge of the system.

I also enjoyed the process of guiding my team throughout this time. S and W are both new joiners so inherently they did not have a full picture of the system. I took this opportunity to help them during their tasks and also to reinforce my own understanding when they asked questions.

I also begun advocating for people to push back and ask more questions when they are unsure. A part of being a good engineer is to be able to define a real problem and to ask the right questions. That said, not all problems require a technical solution and most of the time, just keep it simple solves them.

This is still something I am learning to do better.