Being Trusted

With the new job I’m actually finding myself in a fairly serious position of trust and responsibility – quite weird, for having only been with the company for two months.

For example, I’m completely responsible for the security of the data, a lot of which is seriously sensitive. That’s fine, I’ve been there before with other sets of information, but the sheer scale of this one is what makes it a bit intimidating. The stuff I’ve inherited from my predecessors is – to be polite – a bit shambolic, with what looks like a lot of “Oh, that’ll do” workarounds. So I’m getting to fix these things, and that can be a bit stressful.

This week has been (and still is, to some degree) a high point on the stress levels, because of two big jobs.

First, I’ve had to change all the encryption methods on the site, to bring it into accordance with some industry guidelines. That means de-crypting the existing data, re-encrypting it with the new method, then de-crypting it all again to make sure it matches the first set of de-crypted data. For 75,000 records. Suffice it to say, there were *lots* of backups in place, so I could roll it all back whenever.

Second – and this is due to be happening either tonight or tomorrow – we’re moving all the database stuff over to the new server. Again, having a seperate server for the database is a requirement of the industry standards but means a lot of work – killing the site, taking backups, copying them to the new server, and restoring the data. We could have used replication to copy one database to t’other, but to be honest I’m happier with the slower method which I’m familiar with in this case, rather than one I haven’t needed to use before.

Along the way, I’m also now a key-holder for the office – something else I don’t actually mind, and have done plenty of times before – but again it’s that responsibility, that trust which I still find surprising. I shouldn’t, but I do.

The final piece of this has started this week, as we’ve now got a new developer on board so I’m now in charge of a team of three developers, having to set up all the infrastructure for development areas, change control, training, documentation, everything. I’m responsible for two other people’s jobs as well as my own. That’s the scary bit – in the case of the new developer, I’ve been the one to interview him, I’m the one who’s said he’ll do the job. If I’m wrong, then he’s going to go, and won’t necessarily have anything to go to.

It’s all a bit of a leap into the – what? It’s not unknown, I’ve run small teams before, and run other businesses before I got back into IT and Web stuff. But it’s a big leap for me all the same, from where I was working last year as sole developer for one of the local councils, and now I’ve got a team, a set of plans, and a whole shitload of work.

Weird the way things work out sometimes, isn’t it?