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| Thread ID: 116160 | 2011-02-19 10:17:00 | How to get my foot in the door? | 8ftmetalhaed (14526) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1179796 | 2011-02-19 10:17:00 | Hey all, in light of the employment threads and the fact that a number of you guys are currently involved in this - How does one start off being a computer technician. I know the usual suggestion is 'fix your friends stuff' and the like, but I've done a fair bit of that and wanted to get into the more 'I fix it, you pay me' deal with a few people, simply because money's tight and this was suggested as a way to help. So how did you guys go about it? |
8ftmetalhaed (14526) | ||
| 1179797 | 2011-02-19 10:44:00 | I started as a volunteer in a small not-for-profit org. Got a good reference from them, and the rest is history.... | jwil1 (65) | ||
| 1179798 | 2011-02-19 11:45:00 | Hey all, in light of the employment threads and the fact that a number of you guys are currently involved in this - How does one start off being a computer technician. I know the usual suggestion is 'fix your friends stuff' and the like, but I've done a fair bit of that and wanted to get into the more 'I fix it, you pay me' deal with a few people, simply because money's tight and this was suggested as a way to help. So how did you guys go about it? Its dog eat dog in the computer repair business, only way imo to make headway would be to go to polytech or university and get some some sort of course or degree in computing. (probaly get my ass ripped by some here) Then I guess you could get hired in IT jobs. I say this just because I have observed a multitude of signs around Western Auckland for computer repairs and setting them up. I use a lady who has a tiny car with boxes of bits in the back and a briefcase like toolbox but she doesn't charge much I guess because of the competition around here. |
prefect (6291) | ||
| 1179799 | 2011-02-19 11:56:00 | I only do friends' and neighbours' PCs. In Auckland it's almost impossible for young people like us to be even slightly competitive against the cowboys. Although recently I did apply for a technician job at Computer Lounge. They wanted to interview me but in my enthusiasm I skimped over the part in the job description that says full time only. Being a full time student, I obviously can't do full time at CL..... |
qazwsxokmijn (102) | ||
| 1179800 | 2011-02-19 12:12:00 | Its dog eat dog in the computer repair business, only way imo to make headway would be to go to polytech or university and get some some sort of course or degree in computing. (probaly get my ass ripped by some here) Then I guess you could get hired in IT jobs. I say this just because I have observed a multitude of signs around Western Auckland for computer repairs and setting them up. I use a lady who has a tiny car with boxes of bits in the back and a briefcase like toolbox but she doesn't charge much I guess because of the competition around here. I am actually studying a bachelor of computer science up at aut. Although I might have failed programming and maths sem 2, I did pretty well at the cisco stage 1 stuff, aswell as the hardware and software paper. But then as most here (as you say) will agree, there isn't much in the way of actual hardware and software interaction. Even in HW SW (in fact renamed Foundations of IT infrastructure due to this misconception) it pretty much covered 'this is a harddrive' 'this is how to dual boot linux and XP' 'this is a basic shell script' and 'this is numeracy in different bases'. I guess I might have to look for other ideas though, I did figure it might be a case of too many people doing too little for too much. Bah. |
8ftmetalhaed (14526) | ||
| 1179801 | 2011-02-19 19:04:00 | Longer term do you want to be a technician fixing computers all day, or do you want to be doing "something else"? | somebody (208) | ||
| 1179802 | 2011-02-19 19:18:00 | I know the usual suggestion is 'fix your friends stuff' and the like Is it? I wouldn't have said that. Do a proper course, IT at Polytech. Then try and get experience, Polytechs can be helpful with that - so long as you stand out from the crowd. And are you sure you want to be a tech?? Or specialise - network engineering perhaps? |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1179803 | 2011-02-19 19:56:00 | I have heard about an outfit called Hire a Nerd. I'd imagine that they carry their tools around in a car and call on people who need repairs or to have their computer system set up. | Bobh (5192) | ||
| 1179804 | 2011-02-19 21:31:00 | You could become an Indian and then ring people up offering to sort out their virus problem.:D | mikebartnz (21) | ||
| 1179805 | 2011-02-19 21:40:00 | I think that you don't really need educ because there are a few who take on school leavers but the competition is fierce. You need to know people. You can do courses but most of them do that anyway and tech jobs are v hard to come by unless you know some key people. From the people I know who went to the courses, most got into helpdesk roles, some also did a university degree prior to the technical college and some of them got v good marks in the IT certs, like 90% (the pass grade is 70%?). They did network engineering like Cisco stuff or the Microsoft Server stuff ... I think it is the minority but I have heard that some managers won't even consider you if you don't have network engineering, ie., if you just have the tech papers ... If you want the money coming in maybe looking at call centre or admin work for the time being .... |
Nomad (952) | ||
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