Somebody help me.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

This help may come in the form of a clue brick, proper application of a LART, or just plain shoot me now (and yes, there's more than a few of you who could provide that service), but hear this one out.

I'm thinking of getting back in the business. Why?

Maybe I'm a masochist. I left to finish my Business degree. It's only a two-year, but it's something. I'll be done in the fall, and the school thing just isn't sitting so well with me as I thought it would. I did two years, some part-time, as I worked on that degree. I'm one of those people everyone loves to hate, one of those upstarts that maybe really doesn't know the world over but comes with some clue, yet not enough clue to avoid the pain and misery that I see posted here all the time.

I was a consumer help desk monkey. The work sucked and I got it because they needed warm bodies. The standard went down as time went on - hell, we were hiring graphics designers and people who had heard of a computer before it was over. Realistically, what's my odds of being able to go back even if I wanted to? The ranting of the community aside, why would I want to? Maybe I have to answer that for myself. I'm not going to be in the same part of the world so I can't go back to my old job, nor would I want to. Working a phone again all day would get to me. I need to have my hands on the equipment.

So, pray tell me, how hard is it to find something filling tickets fixing desktops, servicing IP phones, or doing NT admin stuff? Are those days gone, filled with people getting paid the same as me on commission to sell parts to Grandma on behalf of a big box?

Or is my time out of the field a golden opportunity to run while I can?

Comments

[jecook]

I can provide the "shoot me" service. >:)

But seriously, there are openings for field people, if you want back in. You just have to look, and almost be in the right place at the right time.

Frankly, I count myself lucky that I manage to land a 90 day to perm contract in only 7 weeks after being fired. That, and several leads came through after the fact, including one that I was not expecting.

The 7 weeks off also gave me an oppurtunity to get the bile out of my system and also to re-evaluate my opinion toward the true lusers in the world.

[inahandbasket]

the trick is to find a smaller company, fifty to a few hundred people, and do internal support. You'll have plenty to do, and it'll be all over the range of IT stuff. Frankly I love my job, I get to do a bit of everything.

[flainn.livejournal.com]

++
I gotta agree, I do pretty much the same thing (three-person IT dept) and there's lots of variety.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

You're only so kind - that's why we call you anytime hardware needs to bite the bullet :).

It's been at least six months out for me and that's really been needed for a lot of reasons as the work was driving me nuts. I was ready to swear off the whole business. But... I suppose once a tech, always a tech. This line of work grows on ya.

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

Totally understandable. In the service, I was both an aircraft mechanic and a medic. Turns out it's very similar; evaluating the situation, gathering data, trying something out, and wuh-lah! It's fixed. Computers are the same thing as well.

Also, there's a certain problem solving mindset that techs have that a lot of otherwise bright people don't have. I see this time and time again, after working both a college, Honeywell (supporting real rocket scientists) and now my lab job. Very smart people that just can't seem to figure out how to figure out things on the computer. Weird!