and that's no problem. i was new to comp field when i got my job.
my 2nd day, networking collapsed, so the only thing we could use were local apps and pbx phones. ooh joy! that's an idea of how my network was in a mess (and to some extent still is).
if you're not in charge of it budgeting and if you are, follow the first guy's post. upper mgmt loves to see return on investment. us IT ppl, we don't like the budgetting.
plus, you need to prioritize, and this may not always coincide with the best ROE. small fires will always happen and determine if they are an emergency (which would be defined as someone's inability to produce). sometimes the small fires take up the whole day(s) and you may not get back to the priority list. but you need to keep it in the back of your head.
one great thing is that you seem to have an IT team. NO ONE knows everything but a conglomerate of ppl means if one person doesn't know something, the second person might, and vice versa. don't become a know-it-all IT guy b/c when that person winds up needing help, no one is will to give it.
i work at a small company, and one of the things i like is that when i do something IT-related, i feel like i made a significant company-wide contribution that will inevitably lead to better profits and bigger bonuses/raises. if your boss isn't dumb, than he'll realize IT's importance.
we are part of the very few career fields that affect every aspect of a company. and here's a simple fact that can't be disputed:
people will hate IT. not everyone, though. and the reason is is that since we are needed everywhere in the company, someone is going to feel that you are not satisfying their needs. took me a while to deal with it, but i do. and it's not b/c you're not doing your job, it's b/c that person you can't help at that exact moment they have a problem thinks you aren't doing your job. that's an unfortunate reality of our profession.
good luck!
