My signature now said Director of Information Technology. The message above it still said “test.”
Another short message went between my personal account and Beatport February 27. The reply confirmed that it had arrived and carried the new title. Earlier signatures had called me Network Administrator. The promotion changed the scope of the job, but it did not create a separate person to handle every small technical problem.
I think that is useful evidence about leadership inside a young company. A larger title can mean more strategy, planning, hiring, and budget responsibility without removing the queue, server, storage, or account that needs attention that afternoon. Somebody still has to reproduce the behavior and confirm the fix.
The testing was not new. I had spent the fall checking IMAP access, direct delivery, outside routes, mailing lists, shared addresses, and vacation responders. In February the same habits continued under a different signature. The system had grown, and my responsibility for it had widened.
The danger in a fast promotion is believing the title replaces the foundation that earned it. I knew how to operate systems directly. I was less experienced at building a team and deciding how much of that direct work I should keep. Beatport was going to force me to learn both.
There is also some twenty-two-year-old confidence preserved in the replies. They are blunt, casual, and certain. I did not write a formal incident summary when a one-line answer would close the loop. That voice would change as the team and the consequences grew.
For now, the technical feedback loop remained small. Send the message. Watch the system. Check the other inbox. Reply that it arrived. Move to the next problem.
The promotion was real, and so was the work underneath it. On February 27 both fit in one email: Director of Information Technology, still testing the mail himself.