What do you guys do for a living

[clark33]

What do all you guys do for a living (the main posters of this site) - are most of you in IT jobs?

I am finding it difficult to get a job in IT and was thinking about starting a bit of Home Desktop Support - as there must be lots of PCs out there that could do with being tuned up. Could anyone advise me or give me any tips related to this?

 

[S0ULphIRE]

I'm an IT support/consultant/admin. I was looking for work in the IT field for about 4 months before I got this job. So no, there aren't that many jobs available, especially if you have limited IT experience in the workforce.

If you wanted to do that you'd have to decide on a few factors.

1. Would you drive out or would they bring the pc's to you?
2. Policies. Would you have a callout fee? Would you charge even if you didn't fix the problem? etc.
3. Advertising. how? where? for how much?

There is a market for desktop support, just be fair and treat your customers well, they'll remember you the next time they have a computer-related problem.

 

[Harper]

I work in a computer shop. I sell and repair PCs.

I am finding it difficult to get a job in IT and was thinking about starting a bit of Home Desktop Support - as there must be lots of PCs out there that could do with being tuned up. Could anyone advise me or give me any tips related to this?

The problem with home PC Desktop support is that the market is flooded with people that know how to fix computers. Like I am trying to make a living at $80 per hours. However guaranteed I get some punk that still living with his parents and completing his uni coursed that will do the same job for about half that.

My advise is this.

Specialise is something. Like I do PC repares, but I also do CCTV and Point of sales.

Public Liability insurance. Don't mess around. Get it. Last thing you need is a power supply with you fitted and installed causing a fire.

Don't under charge. You need to keep a car on the road, food in your face, and some thing extra on top.
Also, you will get some customers that are jerks. You will get stuck making return visit where you are not going to get paid. So you need to make this worth your while.

Service contracts. Make sure you have a service contact. Make sure you customer signs it before starting any work.
Firstly, to protect yourself from data lose or corrruption. I have a few people threaten in me with legal action over the years because data has been lost or corrupted some time between the computer screwing up in the first place and the you restoring the data.
Secondly, to get the customer to pay you. I have been known to be stuck out onsite backing and restoring data. Most of this involves me sitting at a computer stairing at a screen. And some times you get these jerk's of a customer thinking that they just paid a computer tech to do nothing. LIES. Backing up data, restoring data and installing windows onsite takes up time. And occasionly I have to take these people to court in order to them to pay me. However if you get them to sign off on aggreeing to pay you $X hour and they you started at Xpm and finished at Xpm, then courts normally have no problems in forcing the client to pay you (unless they claim bankruptted)

 

[S0ULphIRE]

owever guaranteed I get some punk that still living with his parents and completing his uni coursed that will do the same job for about half that.

HAHAHA, that's me! (well, college not uni but nehuz) well, it's what I used to do.

 

[NightSurge]

I'm an IT Admin/Technician/Consultant at my university for the entire math department. I also try to do a bit of work on the side, but really as others said, the side stuff is very difficult to get into. Basically the only side work I get is from friends/family.

 

[Lexluethar]

Very well put keyboard cowboy, i couldn't have put it better myself.

I'm an IT Support Analyst for the corporate headquarters of Applebee's. Took me 3 months of unemployment to get a job offer. I had some previous experience in IT but it was on a limited basis (meaning my main job was something else but I also did the companies IT support). So getting someone to give me a shot was difficult. I got phone interviews about once a week and personal interviews for positions about once every two weeks but nothing ever panned out until this job.

As for starting your own business, keyboard cowboy said it perfectly. If you are going to start a business you need to do it right. You have to charge the correct amount in order to run a business, cover expenses, pay yourself, but not too much where people will go elsewhere. Use creap squad as your gauge. If you are cheaper then them you can pull some business from them if you are intelligent about making contacts and conducting your work right. Meaning do the business under your company name, have them pay the company not you, have them sign a waiver saying they will pay you and that you did perform the work you say you did, etc.

The biggest mistakes I see people make are charging too little thinking they are making money, when in reality if they wanted to live off of that type of wage they couldn't. Sure 30 dollars an hour is nice, but add in costs, parts, labor, gas, admin fee of talking to them, writing up the bill, etc and you're really making about 4 dollars an hour if this was a true business.

Like keyboard i charge $75 an hour and also have my customers sign a waiver while i'm performing the work which pretty much says i performed what work i wrote on the invoice and they agree to pay the current rate.

 

[Trotter]

Currently unemployed. Never had an IT job, but I have been going to college for it recently (finished up my AA almost a year ago).

Most of what I do is for friends and family with some word-of-mouth clients. My own stuff is not a business-type endeavor, but mainly helping folks out. I violate the cardinal rule in what I charge... I let the customer decide what I get. Like I said, I am doing it to help people so keep your stones to yourself.

 

[oldskool]

I am an electrician at a shipyard that builds destroyers for the US Navy (Nukem once said that he now knows who to blame for any problems they might experience ! lol). Been working there for 20+ years (1988).

I am 5 classes away from my Associate in Applied Science - Computer Technology.

 

[carnageX]

I work at a franchise RadioShack (locally owned...they don't really have any say over what we do besides being one of our suppliers). I'm everything from sales, phone support, and repair (computers, radios, PowerWheels, etc).

I do PC repair jobs on the side for people; word has spread around about me since I live in a small town.

 

[veg1992]

I work at Immocur, its a place that does a lot of Biomedical Engineering things... but I will be doing some of the Technician/Support/Upgrading/Troubleshooting stuff there