Interesting article on the changing role of the computer repairman

[timeshifter]

Could you imagine if there were equivalent codes for our work? Shudder.

 

[ell]

its all about "I can't get my wife's iphone pictures to sync with my AOL photos and my charger won't stay plugged in cuz the hole is loose. Pretty sure you can just fix this in a couple minutes remotely but I have to tether to my nokia flip phone"

 

[JoeTech]

My biggest problem in this area is that some new customers expect me to know every setting in every program ever made and not only that, but teach them how to do accounting in QuckBooks or TurboTax or relational tab/page lookup in Excel or the fine details of other obscure programs they've latched onto.

I have had people expect me to sit down with them and set up their facebook marketing campaign and design a website for that as well. Also been asked to get their website ranked higher which has nothing to do with PC repair either. They just seem to think that since you use a pc to do that, that we must be able to do that for them as well.

 

[timeshifter]

Yeah, I get that too sometimes. I explain it with a medical analogy. I’m a general practitioner. There are cardiologists and obstetricians and pathologists, specialist in my line of work too.

 

[GreyWolf]

Well I had this on hand might be useful for some of you https://panoramaphotographer.com/software/exiffixer/ it's a tool to fix a panoramic image so that you can do a 360 on facebook.

@Diggs with some of my clients I have to know more about the program than the person who made it.

 

[smithbyrne]

i often wonder as time goes by and more and more people are born into an IT world that the general level of competence within the general population will grow? A lot of my customers are elderly or middle-aged and were born into and brought up without (modern computers)

 

[Joep]

i often wonder as time goes by and more and more people are born into an IT world that the general level of competence within the general population will grow? A lot of my customers are elderly or middle-aged and were born into and brought up without (modern computers)

You mean kids being 'computer smart'?

I don't see this happening. I see teenagers that know everything about cosmetics like changing wallpapers but it's skin deep. As soon as they have an actual problem with the PC/laptop they ask the guy next door (me) because they're clueless. Basic trouble shooting (turn it off and on again) is missing.

I grew up when MS-DOS 5 was a thing. To get a PC working you kinda had to know what you were doing or have some one set it up for you and have him write batch files for what not. Every KB of memory was precious. Every MB of disk space was precious. You had to dig into it to make it work. My first computer had 1 KB of memory which I at some point upgraded to 16 KB (Sinclair 1000 / ZX-81).

 

[smithbyrne]

You mean kids being 'computer smart'?

I don't see this happening. I see teenagers that know everything about cosmetics like changing wallpapers but it's skin deep. As soon as they have an actual problem with the PC/laptop they ask the guy next door (me) because they're clueless. Basic trouble shooting (turn it off and on again) is missing.

I grew up when MS-DOS 5 was a thing. To get a PC working you kinda had to know what you were doing or have some one set it up for you and have him write batch files for what not. Every KB of memory was precious. Every MB of disk space was precious. You had to dig into it to make it work. My first computer had 1 KB of memory which I at some point upgraded to 16 KB (Sinclair 1000 / ZX-81).

yeah you're probably right , although my customer base is still in the majority or older people (when it comes to laptops) when it comes to smartphones it's the other way round, as that's hardware, fixing screens etc

 

[Abramsgunner]

My biggest problem in this area is that some new customers expect me to know every setting in every program ever made and not only that, but teach them how to do accounting in QuckBooks or TurboTax or relational tab/page lookup in Excel or the fine details of other obscure programs they've latched onto.

I just explain it to them this way... "On a race team, there are people that drive the car, and people that fix the car..... I'm the guy that fixes the car"... LOL

Truth is, I do very little work with computers... meaning I don't use them to produce much of anything. The main skill that has kept me afloat in this business for the last 20 years is a knack for troubleshooting complex issues and being able to search for information and effectively apply it to solve technical problems.

That said... I'm feeling the pressure as the world gets more and more complex, and my brain gets older and fuzzier. I'm going to have to start narrowing my scope and pick an area to specialize in, as there is just too much detail and too fast a rate of change these days.

 

[timeshifter]

You mean kids being 'computer smart'?

This one really annoys me. Lots of older people think that because someone is "young" it automatically makes them tech savvy.

 

[Abramsgunner]

I've always had quite a logical mind and like troubleshooting. It frustrates me when i cant find the answer.
I've never been asked to prove any qualifications, i've been asked where i learnt things and i say self taught, which is mostly true. I learn best by doing and can quickly pick things up. Nobody has ever walked away because i say self taught, in fact i get the nod of approval/admiration. I do some work for a fairly big company, they have never asked what qualifications i have, they are happy with the work i do. I have admitted to them when i dont know how to do something and quite often they are happy for me to give it a try anyway.

I dont believe a technician needs any qualifications, experience is the best form of learning, if i need anything fixing i'd much rather someone with years of experience than someone fresh out of education.

I dont really think our role has changed or that we have more respect from others, if anything in some cases i think we can get less respect because computers are now used by almost everyone and they demand and expect answers immediately. Users do not often understand "this is going to take some time" or "i need to do a bit of research on this particular problem", they want it fixed yesterday and often cheaply. The cheap customers have never had respect for us, by the very nature of wanting something cheap they are undermining our experience and worth.

I've been asked where I learned a time or two. I tell them I have a B.S Degree in Biology... and about 50,000 hours of hands on experience troubleshooting computers (which is probably light by 10k or 20k...LOL)

I feel lucky that most of my customers seem to understand that sometimes things don't want to be fixed and take some time to sort out. I've had a few get short with me when things weren't progressing fast enough, but those situations have been few.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Lol just look at my kids. There are tens of thousands of dollars in equipment in this house, they all have their own desktops. Those kids can't even solve a basic browser issue on their own... I run the IT department here just like I do for my clients.