Taking On Side Work

I'm employed full time doing IT work, so I don't need another job, but a friend called me to help out his relative with an issue at his company. After I got them fixed the guy was asking me to be their IT guy. It is not a full time gig, just on call. The issue I have is going in blind. They have no idea what they have going on there from the few questions I asked. From what I've seen it is pretty messy. They must of had some IT consultant at one point - they have a domain controller for 5 desktop PCs - there is a 'tech company' admin account setup, that no one recognizes. While I wouldn't mind helping them out, it seems like a lot of time and taking on responsibility for systems no one can tell me anything about.
Have you had this experience? Did you take the job?

 

Well, all you need to request is total system access, password wise.

Access the network, check the logs for IP's connected and go from there.

Rebuild the infrastructure to how you would set up
Its hard saying no to mates.

Booking your time for friends depends on how much sleep you lose.

 

Yes, they have a sheet with some passwords - I can get on the DC. That was my first call, they had someone's account get locked out. The second call was a PC fell off the domain - trickier - the only admin was that tech consultant no one seems to know.

 

I did something similar 17 years ago I came in to pick up the pieces for a National Company after they had a disagreement with their IT contractors and I took over as IT Admin and looked after all IT and network matters with their showrooms in every Australian state and head office in Melbourne.
When I started there it was on the basis of all care but no responsibility for what my predecessors had done and going forward would build them a robust, stable, secure and fast IT network. Slowly and over several years I upgraded pc hardware and also made major network changes to improve stability, reduce latency, speed up communication and introduce world's best security practices for our online sales outlets and websites so we could be confident any customer credit data and personal information was safe. Later on we added several international VPNs direct connecting to our many supplier's servers in the USA, London, France, Italy and Sweden so our sales teams could have immediate stock levels at our suppliers warehouses and also know their delivery times and manufacturing schedule for restocking timings. Because I did a good job getting their IT systems working they also asked me to take over their PABX phone system and also take over he purchasing and implementation of all mobile phones and have them in later times as well as IPADs, included for access to all our networks and servers so the sales staff had full access whilst visiting their clients so they could have immediate answers to any client questions.
Tied in with the IT Systems was the company accounting, sales, stock control and logistics software package as well as software for government tax audits and other regulatory requirements for reports to other government agencies relating to import tariffs and customs duties so this all ended up being quite a lot of ongoing work.

A chance encounter for a one off job became a permanent 2 days per week part time job which lasted 16 years until I retired last year. BTW I did most of the IT Admin work from my home office using TeamViewer and only went into the company office when there was a hardware issue or to do physical backups onto optical media. When I handed over to the new guy last year there was a 2 month hand over period where everything was explained and the reasons for doing things were also explained.

This might be a good side project for you but be sure they have to understand you can't be held responsible for what the previous IT people did and as Replicator says change things to how you would want it to be.........I did the same thing 17 years ago and for a part time job it earned me about AU$40,000 per year for 16 years and sure it had many challenges along the way but still well worth the effort.........so have a crack and grab this opportunity and see if you can turn it into something
Good luck