I'm assuming at least a few of you do computer repair or work with clients that know absolute shit about technology, so share your stories. I'm curious if the life of an IT guy is pretty much the same. Here is one that happened recently:
>get a client referred to me that accidentally installed upgraded to windows 10 from 8.1
>Dont have the option to revert back since its been more than 30 days
>Really dont want to spend half my Sunday backing up and reinstalling windows
>Install a theme to make it look like windows 8.1 and tell her I used a hack to revert it back so she might see that it still says Windows 10
>Make $80
>>55354569
*remove installed
man i need sleep
>>55354569
so what would be your grand plan if someone saw it for the bullshit it is?
>>55354721
I don't think getting caught was part of his plan...
>>55354569
If you were smart, you'd convince her Win10 was better and suggest a fresh install. Then heavily upsell a backup.
All in all, I could have made $220 on this lady. What a cuck.
>Upgrade a company's leftover server to make it their most powerful single box using less than $200 in order to help them unfuck their aging AD infrastructure
>their offsite IT guy tells them it won't be useful
>they listen to him because he has the certs
I really need to just get my A+ even though its fucking worthless, at least then companies will THINK I know what I'm doing.
how do you guys even get into this field? seems like all fun and games from my perspective
>>55357834
It is all fun and games for me, anyway. I just did it mostly to be nice and make a few bucks on CL, and it went from there; now people know and recommend me.
>>55357834
This. Im an IT admin for a small company. I play games all day.
>>55357896
>>55358101
sounds like you guys are living the dream.
what did you need to know before hand? What would you recommend to someone who wants to do the same thing?
>>55358271
The most important thing from a reputation-building standpoint was for me to realize my limits and be able to quickly tell people whether or not I had the skill necessary to fix their problems. This built trust and over time that paid off more than simply doing fixes anyone else could do slower because of inexperience. By being uncompetitive (if I didn't know I'd recommend a competitor who did), I became trusted and therefore competitive.
>>55358271
I make 70k hourly wage and I'm playing games on my laptop at home remoted into my desktop. Everyone else (even senior coworkers) are at the office slaving away because I volunteered to handle two cities on my own, and right now there ain't shit going on because it's summer.
>>553585
>gaming on a laptop
You're not quite in my dream situation yet
>visit parents for summer
>help dad install new radio-receiver modem (DSL through radio)
>has to go into browser to their webpage so that they can activate the subscription towards the receiver
>tell him to go into his web-browser
>he gets confused
>tell him to go to the internet
>he then opens internet explorer quickly then says "no no, of course not" then shuts it down
>I then point towards the chrome shortcut on his desktop and say "this one"
>he goes "ah, you mean google!"
At least he tries and he is nearing 70, god bless. He isn't handy with the software aspect of technology, but he is a classic jack of all trades when it comes to anything else such as woodworking and similar.
>>55354569
>convince everyone they have a "deep root virus"
>tell them it will take 2 weeks
>spend the time looking for noodz and reformatting
>"im sorry, the virus took your data"
>>55358353
what problems did you advertise you would fix? How does that still work in today's world when most things can be googled?
>>55358535
thats amazing. how can i be like you?
>>55358915
I advertised building PCs actually, and people came to me for repairs.
It still works in today's world because there is a huge fucking difference between knowing what to do and actually being able to do it IRL.
>>55358915
it's a bit of a read but here's how..
When I was hired on as a temp I went to my boss three weeks in and told him this was a great fit for me and I enjoyed working here; My boss is the kind that wants you to approach him first to show interest. Of course he didn't promise me anything but what he did do was test me with responsibility. After I worked with senior employees and closing their tickets for them faster than normal, he assigned me the location to handle about 700+ employees by myself (I did IT work for a college by myself so it wasn't too daunting).
Shortly after that I was thrown into the lion's den with a project where my boss and his second failed. I took the reigns and had conference calls with the director of IT, and after that the rest is basically history.
TL;DR
Work hard and show you care. My communication skills are what triumphed here, not so much my technical know-how.Users just want you to talk to them, even if they're asshole. Believe me having a raging asshole on your side who is best friends with VP's and executives is a good hand to hold.
>>55359159
>I advertised building PCs actually
so what did you do? put the pieces together for them?
>>55359255
>My communication skills are what triumphed here
nothing but a pipe dream for me then
>>55359981
I did lots of stuff, but mostly I designed their builds and shot their troubles
>>55360055
you mean you turned on antimalware and uninstalled their toolbars?
>>55360105
Sometimes. Other times I had to do stuff like replace broken components, repair their boot sector, reinstall windows, configure drivers, configure printers, networking, etc
>>55360577
sounds neat, best of luck
>>55358535
>>55357896
>>55358101
>>55358353
What sort of studies are needed to get into IT? I'm looking for some new career options.
>>55360667
Entry level jobs usually start in the US with a HS diploma and CompTIA A+ certification or equivalent work experience (e.g. working as an IT guy in the coast guard or whatever).
Not a story of my own work done, but if a HP tech. I worked in the IT dept. we would send laptops still under warranty to HP (obviously) got a system back, it had weird dents near the track pad. Me and my colleague are like wtf. Open it up to see why. The fucking HP tech used the wrong length screws, and tightened them down to the point that that were almost coming through the aluminum body. Sent it back, got a comepletely new badass model. My colleague got it though.
