Favorite type of job

['putertutor]

What's you favorite job?

Personally I love password recoveries. Simple, quick, and relative to the time and effort they take, probably the most profitable. I don't charge much, ~$50, but it takes very little of my time, so that's a solid $50 in the coffers.

After that, I think I'll go with home and small business networking. My business customers are pretty small, so the difference between home and small business networks is almost nil. Not the most profitable work I do, but it pays the bills.

Malware is my bread and butter, but those jobs suck up bench space for hours, and can sometimes turn into a wild goose chase. It is most of what I do and the biggest slice of my revenue, but they are time-sucking sources of boring, boring, frustration (at times).

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

*Setting up server cabinets

*Taking workgroup/peer to peer networks and graduating them to small business server based networks

*Designing larger networks....starting with the wiring, having a server room..and seeing it all come together. Like when a client moves to a new larger office...and you plan the whole thing from the get go.

 

[cypress]

I do malware all the time. But diagnosing and fixing hardware issues are my favorite. I love finding out the issue to a problem.

 

[Moltuae]

Any job that I don't have to go out to.


Can't beat getting paid to solve problems while drinking coffee in comfort.

 

[Nerm]

*Designing larger networks....starting with the wiring, having a server room..and seeing it all come together. Like when a client moves to a new larger office...and you plan the whole thing from the get go.

Have to agree with this. There is just something enjoyable and satisfying about taking a network project from infancy to complete and humming along.

As for hands on physical work I would say installing network/server racks. I have always enjoyed building things so that type of work scratches that itch quite well.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Data recovery. Feels so good to save them from the grief of having lost their precious data because they didn't make backups.

 

[HawkinsPC]

Swapping out PSUs. When I worked for the school system, the custom builds would all fail after a big storm. We'd spend all day swapping them out. It's easy, fast, and strangely fun. I also like the dangle them and pretend I'm holding a Ghostbuster trap thing afterwards.

 

[altrenda]

I like visiting new or potential customers and seeing what a mess the owner or previous tech made with their network and cleaning it up. Nothing is more fun than pulling out mismatched cables, unnecessary desktop switches, devices hanging by their power cords, and making things neat and tidy. The average size of my clients is about 10 users, and many times are set up by the "computer guy" in the office who knows just enough to get everyone online.

P.S. Sometimes I see some really nice work, and try to learn from what I see.

 

['putertutor]

Swapping out PSUs. When I worked for the school system, the custom builds would all fail after a big storm. We'd spend all day swapping them out. It's easy, fast, and strangely fun. I also like the dangle them and pretend I'm holding a Ghostbuster trap thing afterwards.

This is perhaps the best reply to anything. Ever.

 

[Moltuae]

I also like the dangle them and pretend I'm holding a Ghostbuster trap thing afterwards.

lmao .... I thought it was just me who did that!

 

['putertutor]

I like visiting new or potential customers and seeing what a mess the owner or previous tech made with their network and cleaning it up. Nothing is more fun than pulling out mismatched cables, unnecessary desktop switches, devices hanging by their power cords, and making things neat and tidy. The average size of my clients is about 10 users, and many times are set up by the "computer guy" in the office who knows just enough to get everyone online.

P.S. Sometimes I see some really nice work, and try to learn from what I see.

Yep. I have to admit, cleaning up a rat's nest of wires and leaving a neatly tracked organized set up... it's neat to see the before and after. That type of physical work can leave a lasting feeling of accomplishment. I can't say I see much really nice work though. Bummer, because I'd like to learn from that as well.

 

[johnrobert]

It used to be replacing PSU but dont get many now. after that toolbar removal seeing more

 

[katz]

I seem to be getting a lot of laptop hardware work lately, so I enjoy that. After you do so many of them it gets to be a breeze...


Except for the Dell Inspiron M5030 that I recently had in for complete teardown. When you open the case on that one, there is about 3/4" working room because the ribbon cables are so short. Getting it apart is the easy part...

Since I'm mobile, I prefer to do laptops anymore since they're easier to transport.

 

[DBA]

Bread and butter, and most enjoyable is Custom Programming, or Custom SQL Work ($225/hr)


Easiest and most profitable (based on volume) is Virus and OS Optimization.
($55/hr) - Only because i automated the entire process and just required me to click a button to fix

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

My favorite would be planning/building out new infrastructure.

 

[MrMacca]

I love SD/Memory Stick Data recoveries. A holidays worth of photos Lost...and then brought back to life.

Always feels nice giving back something to someone that meant a lot to them.

I also like the weird, never seen before problems that require a wacky train of thought to actually work out.

 

[glennd]

Swapping out PSUs. When I worked for the school system, the custom builds would all fail after a big storm. We'd spend all day swapping them out. It's easy, fast, and strangely fun. I also like the dangle them and pretend I'm holding a Ghostbuster trap thing afterwards.

haha! the wife had a good laugh at this! "after my own heart"

 

[freedomit]

SBS2003 migrations to anything

 

[Krynn72]

As im just break/fix, I have to say when I get the chance to do a full work-over of a system, it just feels good knowing how you took a pc screaming for death and turned it into the leanest and meanest thing around, out performing other typical computers a couple years newer than it.

Had Dell Latitude laptop awhile ago where it had a broken dc jack, was infested with malware like mad, but the customer also wanted new thermal paste, ram upgrade, etc.

Man than thing flew when I was done with it. $250 and he didn't even blink, and called me up after a couple days to say it was working incredibly and quieter than he'd ever heard it.

So yeah, my favorite jobs are the ones where I can look at everything and know 100% than this computer could not possibly be in any better shape when im done with it.

 

[Martyn]

Replacing a hard drive with an SSD! I got one in yesterday that I did a year ago(got some malware) and it's still flying.