question for anybody working on computers for main source of income

[scarson79]

i was laid off eleven weeks ago from a position i hadfor seven years. the position required the use of windows and excel and ocasionally powerpoint and my use of each of those is at best above basic but a little below intermediate (espc. in excel). in other words i have never worked on computer hardware other than basic instalation (pulling a computer out of the box and putting it together). i have never networked printers or set one up to a networked printer or even updated something such as word ina new version even though i hear that is pretty straigt forward.

i interviewed twice for a helpdesk job and have been offered the job. i hear it will be basic installations at first but my best guess is that i will have to learn a great deal within the first few months. and i would totally want to be able to do that.

my question is for anybody that might have had to make a chagne such as this and the difficulty of learning a new trade. im excited to learn something new and have always sort of wanted to know how to put a computer together. can an old dog with skills in something else learn some new tricks? have any of you had dificulty learning computer software and hardware and how easy is it to diagnose problesm?

 

[scarson79]

im at 36 years old and middle aged and have only worked in office or administration jobs since being in and getting out of college.

 

[Van]

Well as with anything it will depend on your desire to learn something new which nobody can answer but you. I spent 6 years installing satellite tv systems only to find myself without a job so I had to change though it wasn't to anything that required formal education ( read manual labor mostly ) but in three weeks I'm starting classes in structural and maritime welding and as such will be learning three types of welding plus blue print reading and other things that are required for properly doing the job to insure that what ever ship I work on floats instead of sinks. At 39 it could be said that I'm to old but a friend of an ex started medical school at 35 and finished to become a doctor so no I don't think I'm to old though my body would say otherwise once in a while.

If your going to be on the help desk end of things then the first thing I would do is get you A+ certification which will mean that you know how to build a computer and diagnose one that's not running on the hardware end and a bit on the OS end of things. Get your networking cert and you can move away from the help desk to better things and better pay and as your certs grow so does your paycheck and opportunities.

From what I know the downfalls to the IT world is a bit of saturation of the market of left overs from the dot com bubble pop and new ones from the recession. Another is jobs that have been outsourced to India so that David Hockalockahekalachoy can be paid $2.00 hour to do what someone here in the states did for $25 - $35 hr. A third one is the age issue that a few people I've met has said is a problem but I don't know. The last one is one I've heard of a few times now and its a dirty trick by the company. Basically you as the IT expert get tricked into writing a manual or teaching a back up A+ tech how to get the system back up and running should something happen on your day off and the company fires you and pays him a quarter of your salary or highers someone for a quarter of your salary and gives them your manual.

An area to look into that I'm hearing good news about is the game development arena so if your good with foreign languages then you might be good with program languages and should give it a consideration. An article I recently read had the writer interviewing the top 10 game design companies and from what I read it would be a dream job for anyone based on the working environment to the benefits ( beer and pizza and some killer parties and vacations to name a few ) so keep this in mind, I would do it but I sucked at German in high school and only figured it out in my last month of school.

 

[Ramy]

Everybody thinks that help desk work is easy. It isn't easy at all to tell someone that knows nothing about computers how to do something and put it into words that the person on the other end of the line can understand.

If I were you I would get online and look up stuff for simple hardware tech and try to learn how to put that information into easy to understand words for anybody to understand.

 

[navychop]

I would not worry too much- they probably understand where you are at better than you. You'll likely start off reading from scripts once you've figured out their problem, matching it to a provided list. Later you may move up to 2nd level support, etc.

 

[Paradox-SJ]

IT (no pun intended) will be an easy transition aslong as you have a thirst and hunger for learning new things. You will have to do lots of studying on your own time, by a lot of your own books and maybe even have to pay for a class or two out of your on pocket. Do not forget though it is an investment and it will pay for itself in the long run.

Also, do not underestimate the importance of delievering GREAT customer service with a constant smile. THIS is the single most important part of what you do...we call it the 51% factor. i.e. The smartest tech isn't always the tech you keep...but its the one that understand the service side of the business AND is ready willing and able to do and learn anything you toss at them.