Furthering yourself, "gettin' more edge-a-ma-cated"

[jacktheripper88]

Not really sure if this is the right section for this, I thought I'd seen an education section on here before.

So I work at a small computer repair in a small rural town, I've been in this line of work for 11 years now and to be honest I'm getting a bit wore out from my current work environment. I've been keeping an eye on different jobs available in my area but haven't found anything that really lines up with my current set of skills and qualifications, so I'm curious as to what suggestions you guys have.

I currently have my A+ in hardware and software (got this back in 2007), MCDST, and got the certificate from the college for Desktop Support tech. I continued on with the second year option that dealt more with servers (Server 2003 at the time) and Cisco networking (N+), but didn't end up getting my certs for those due to runing out of money on my student loans. Lucky me.

I started as a support technician for Xplornet, but quickly grew tired of the shitty management and jumped ship to an electronics store that also serviced computers. I worked at this place for almost 7 years and during my time there my experience branched out into many different things such as retail, Satellite TV cable installations, network installs, security camera systems, home theater setup, car audio, small electronics repair, and other odds and ends that ended up in my lap.

Not to toot my own horn too much, but I was pretty damn good at what I did. I had clients that would request for me to work on their items because they knew I would do it right and do it much faster than the other tech and manager.

I decided to leave this place for numerous reason, bad pay, lazy aggressive manager, toxic employer. I then went to work for their only retail competitor in town and have been here for almost 5 years.
Started out as a good place to work, much better pay, my day to day work actually centered around what I was hired for. I even began offering my skills in security camera installs to my new employer and expanded the shop's realm of work into some small electronics repairs and a few other things his previous technicians would refuse to do (like anything to do with climbing a step ladder, I know weird bunch). A number of my previous clients also followed me to the new place as well.

Now my current place isn't without its draw backs. Current employer is a bit of a micromanager and can be quiet passive aggressive at times, new guy that got hired isn't someone I feel is knowledgeable enough for me to rely on, now that I have more businesses as clients their demands are pretty urgent and its a challenge balancing them with the home users I have on the bench.

Now I'm a hardworking guy, I really don't view any task as beneath me, if I see something that needs done I do it. When I have a client my focus is on the service I can provide, not what I can sell them.
Not to insult anyone that is a salesperson, but I can't bring myself to be one. It never seems like those guys are off the job, it seems like they're always looking to sell you on something.

So aside from my work experience I'm also a Captain in the CAF (for Cadets, its part of the reserves), I'm currently the CO for the local cadet unit. Through my part-time military career I've taken numerous courses they've needed me to take such as the Admin, QM, Training officer courses, as well as the basic, environmental, and intermediate officer courses. So I've got that under my belt as well.


Sorry for the long spiel, just wanted to let you know where I'm coming from so let me get to the point. I'm hoping to get advice from someone whose been in a similar situation, are there any types of courses you would suggest I look into?

 

[Tweak155]

Decent history, but seems like you should detail more about what you WANT to do? What are you looking to get into?

 

[Thebobo]

Are you in the position to start your own repair/service business?

 

[jacktheripper88]

Thats just the thing, I'm not really sure what to go over to next. I was hoping to hear what others had done in a similar situation. It would be nice to be the in house IT guy for a company but there are only a few places big enough in my area that have their own in house guys. Bit burned out right now so I'm not really sure what I'd like to get into. I like working with my hands.
I've had friends and family tell me I should go out on my own, but I'm pretty cautious I don't like doing things without some sort of a safety net. I've had to deal with a few of the independent guys in my area, those guys seemed to have more stress related health issues than you could shake a stick at.
Honestly, perfect word I'd do one of two things, either Cadets full time (about 1.5 hours one way, but real hard to get a contract) or a repair depot. No people to deal with just computers.
Currently I can do in warranty Lenovo repairs and we use to contracted to do Dell in warranty repair, but the company dispatching to us got overly demanding and the boss thought he wasn't making enough off of those calls.

 

[Kaido]

Some standard questions:

1. Are you willing to move?

2. Are you willing to pursue further education after work hours?

3. How much money to do you want to make? (either hourly or annually - pick a number that would enable you to live the life you want to live, ex. be comfortable or be rich or whatever)

4. What would you really like to do for a job, on a day to day basis?

 

[jacktheripper88]

Sorry for go AWOL on this post, ended up having a super busy month with a bit of a let down last Friday. My boss, the owner, called us together and informed us he was closing the store at the end of the month.

So my direction and priorities have had to change gears. I've had a number of residential and business clients in a bit of a panic with us closing down so I'm heavily leaning towards continuing to do this independently.

So with that being said, does anyone have some tips and recommendations for someone just starting out on their own?
I've never really been into the financial side of things, but I think with the continued support of my business clients and the residential customers I take care of I should be able to make a decent go of this.

 

[whm1974]

Sorry for go AWOL on this post, ended up having a super busy month with a bit of a let down last Friday. My boss, the owner, called us together and informed us he was closing the store at the end of the month.

So my direction and priorities have had to change gears. I've had a number of residential and business clients in a bit of a panic with us closing down so I'm heavily leaning towards continuing to do this independently.

So with that being said, does anyone have some tips and recommendations for someone just starting out on their own?
I've never really been into the financial side of things, but I think with the continued support of my business clients and the residential customers I take care of I should be able to make a decent go of this.

If you do go with starting your own business of providing tech support I would first take some business classes first and also hire someone who can deal with the financial side. This will leave you dealing with the your customers first and foremost, but I would still keep an eye on the books.

 

[mistercrabby]

Go for it. Here are some ideas off the top. If you want more details, post the questions here or pm me and we can talk on the phone.

1. Get some help setting up your books. It doesn’t have to be an expensive package. You can get quickbooks or similar for a few hundred bucks. You don’t want to work for a year and find out you owe the gumint back taxes. Plus it makes it easy to invoice, make adjustments and track accounts. Most important you will know if and how much you are making. For gods sake don’t let someone talk you into excel!

2. Network and advertise like crazy. Let everyone know you are taking the plunge. Social media! Give clients a little sugar on their next invoice for referrals. Lots of ideas on the web.

3. Work, work, work. No job too small or big.

4. Longer term, get some good reliable sub contractors.

Good luck

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Make sure you're fully insured. Don't be afraid to charge A Lot Of Goddamn Money™ for your services. Geek Squad charges >$100 an hour. Don't even bother undercutting them - you're better than they are, because you're not some 20 year old dweeb. You're a 32 year old dweeb and experience has a real tangible value. If you can do something in half the time, charge twice as much per hour.

As far as expanding your skill set, you probably need to do it. Not really because of the running-a-business part of things (Just keep all your receipts and let your tax guy deal with it.) but because you'll probably want/need to expand and diversify the sorts of services you offer your customers.

12 years ago, I also was puttering away doing desktop support, fixing cell phones under the table in exchange for baked good, running wires, and having a grand old time. I liked the company (a nonprofit), loved what we did, liked my coworkers, etc. I was honestly, truly happy for a minute there.

But despite busting my ass and being probably the best tech they had, I repeatedly I got passed up for promotions and generally ignored or taken for granted by management. So I had my little "super-villain origin story" moment, turned merc, finished a BS, networked, got extremely lucky a couple times, and now I'm doing this kind of shit.

Sometimes I miss the social interaction with users, the enthusiastic thank-yous, the satisfaction of fixing something for way less than replacement cost... but then I get my pay stub.

Also when I automate somebody out of a job I get a bonus.

Muhwahahaha.

 

[Scarpozzi]

If you have no wife/kids and are trying to get started in a business, you can consider moonlighting as you build your customer base up.

I understand you're in a small rural town. Look for jobs you can snag that allow you to work 5-10pm to supplement your income and run regular business hours in your support job. That way you're guaranteed some income to get through the slow times....save every penny you can. Most businesses hit seasonal lulls and the only way to get through them without accruing debt is to have a stack of cash on hand.

 

[squirrel dog]

Open a bbq joint , smoke the change .

 

[ultimatebob]

Make sure you're fully insured. Don't be afraid to charge A Lot Of Goddamn Money™ for your services. Geek Squad charges >$100 an hour. Don't even bother undercutting them - you're better than they are, because you're not some 20 year old dweeb. You're a 32 year old dweeb and experience has a real tangible value. If you can do something in half the time, charge twice as much per hour.

As far as expanding your skill set, you probably need to do it. Not really because of the running-a-business part of things (Just keep all your receipts and let your tax guy deal with it.) but because you'll probably want/need to expand and diversify the sorts of services you offer your customers.

12 years ago, I also was puttering away doing desktop support, fixing cell phones under the table in exchange for baked good, running wires, and having a grand old time. I liked the company (a nonprofit), loved what we did, liked my coworkers, etc. I was honestly, truly happy for a minute there.

But despite busting my ass and being probably the best tech they had, I repeatedly I got passed up for promotions and generally ignored or taken for granted by management. So I had my little "super-villain origin story" moment, turned merc, finished a BS, networked, got extremely lucky a couple times, and now I'm doing this kind of shit.

Sometimes I miss the social interaction with users, the enthusiastic thank-yous, the satisfaction of fixing something for way less than replacement cost... but then I get my pay stub.

Also when I automate somebody out of a job I get a bonus.

Muhwahahaha.

It's kind of a big jump to get from desktop tech support to a six figure paying DevOps IT role. I did something similar, but you kinda have to go back to school for that one.

 

[robphelan]

you say most places in your area aren't large enough to have an in-house dedicated person... so why not contract out to several of them as their concierge IT person. instead of being in-house to 1, you're in-house to several.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It's kind of a big jump to get from desktop tech support to a six figure paying DevOps IT role. I did something similar, but you kinda have to go back to school for that one.

Yeah, but OP said he was in school and ran out of money, not that he was having trouble with classes. I bet he could do that part easy.

Although in rural areas, access to four-year schools is sometimes tough, and I lucked out big-time living in a state with a bunch of really solid community colleges, and a short hop away from a university with a solid program and super-cheap tuition.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

After reading your posts, I’m still not sure what it is you’re looking to do. I’d be surprised if you could support yourself running a computer repair shop in a small rural area. On the other hand, if you want to move into IT, you’d probably need to move to a larger job market. As a consultant and 25 year IT veteran, if I had it to do all over again, I would never have gone into IT. IT was a blast in the 90s and early 2000s, but it sucks now.

As a consultant, I’m fortunate that I don’t have to deal with a lot of the corporate bureaucracy and red tape which has infiltrated IT at every level, but I do have the unique perspective of having seen how IT operates at companies all over the country. It isn’t pretty. I’m not a fan of the whole ITIL-based “service management” methodology which has spread like the plague. Yes, some of it is good, but too many companies take it way too far and it results in a miserable tangle of red tape for you to even blow your nose, let alone do your job.

Two examples of how bad it can get:

1. At my last corporate gig, we had a “service management team” which was composed of completely non-technical people who monitored changes, requests, etc. I put through a SharePoint change - I don’t remember the specific change, but I think it was backing up a database and restoring it or something of that nature. Anyway, I had a business justification listed and all of that info. Suddenly, I get an email from one of the service management people asking me to explain what a backup is and why it was necessary. I gave a quick explanation like “It’s making a copy of the database.” That wasn’t good enough and she emailed back for more detail. Before I could respond, my friend (who was copied on the email) responded and told her we’re the technical experts and it wasn’t our jobs to train her, so she needed to STFU, approve the change, and take some classes. It was awesome!

2. I had a change going in during a time I was on vacation. I thought a coworker was handling it, but she dropped the ball and it didn’t get done. Our brilliant change management folks failed the change. Fine, whatever. But then, they started making me fill out a bunch of forms and attend meetings to “analyze” why the change failed. The idiot service management person I mentioned above was my liaison. She came up to me one day wanting me to attend yet another meeting, and I blew up at her - I told her this was a waste of my time, there was no “analysis” to be done, and I wasn’t attending any more meetings or filling out any additional forms. I told her if she didn’t like it, send her VP my way (I also reported through him) and I’d tell him the same thing.

If you can’t tell from my examples above, corporate IT has been invaded by unskilled bureaucrats whose sole existence is to push paper and add no value. An academic recently discussed what he terms “bullshit jobs,” and these are perfect examples. I am sure I probably offended someone here but I don’t care - if you’re like the service management person I described above, go flip burgers - you’ll add more value to society that way.

 

[ultimatebob]

After reading your posts, I’m still not sure what it is you’re looking to do. I’d be surprised if you could support yourself running a computer repair shop in a small rural area. On the other hand, if you want to move into IT, you’d probably need to move to a larger job market. As a consultant and 25 year IT veteran, if I had it to do all over again, I would never have gone into IT. IT was a blast in the 90s and early 2000s, but it sucks now.

He's right, you know. IT used to be interesting, now it's an endless slog of security patches and regulatory compliance work.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

He's right, you know. IT used to be interesting, now it's an endless slog of security patches and regulatory compliance work.

I was in charge of interfacing with auditors at a job many years ago. They were auditing our IT environment and practices. I could’ve made up anything and they would’ve believed me - it was just box checking for them and it makes you wonder how valid audits really are sometimes.

 

[jacktheripper88]

So far I'm getting some pretty good success on collecting a list of companies and contacts I can stay in touch with and keep on working with. One of my regulars is fairly needy so I can see myself out there a number of times per week, but I'm going to work with them to get a vacation/maintenance schedule setup so I can have a bit more control on when I go out there.
I've had my fair share of seeing the un-technical and mediocre be in positions doing things they really shouldn't. First job I had out of college was as L2 support at an ISP whose main target base was rural communities that usually only had access to dial up. There was a girl I graduated high school with who was there as a manager, the whole lot of the managers were lazy and no where skilled enough to be in their position.

I'm hoping to make a decent go of this, there are a few independent guys in this area but feed back I've gotten from people who were/had used their services found them to be difficult to work with and usually refused to actually go on-site when requested to. Even when the issue required their physical presence. Not sure how those guys are able to keep going but I think I've got a leg up in motivation.

So odd question for you fellas. The area I'm in I do find fairly odd compared to a number of other areas, what state/province do you guys hail from?

 

[ultimatebob]

I was in charge of interfacing with auditors at a job many years ago. They were auditing our IT environment and practices. I could’ve made up anything and they would’ve believed me - it was just box checking for them and it makes you wonder how valid audits really are sometimes.

I wish that it was that easy where I work. The auditors give us a sampling of our servers and say "prove that they meet the guidelines for X, Y, and Z". They have a knack for finding at least one server where logging broke and I can't provide the evidence they want

 

[IndyColtsFan]

So far I'm getting some pretty good success on collecting a list of companies and contacts I can stay in touch with and keep on working with. One of my regulars is fairly needy so I can see myself out there a number of times per week, but I'm going to work with them to get a vacation/maintenance schedule setup so I can have a bit more control on when I go out there.
I've had my fair share of seeing the un-technical and mediocre be in positions doing things they really shouldn't. First job I had out of college was as L2 support at an ISP whose main target base was rural communities that usually only had access to dial up. There was a girl I graduated high school with who was there as a manager, the whole lot of the managers were lazy and no where skilled enough to be in their position.

I'm hoping to make a decent go of this, there are a few independent guys in this area but feed back I've gotten from people who were/had used their services found them to be difficult to work with and usually refused to actually go on-site when requested to. Even when the issue required their physical presence. Not sure how those guys are able to keep going but I think I've got a leg up in motivation.

So odd question for you fellas. The area I'm in I do find fairly odd compared to a number of other areas, what state/province do you guys hail from?

Don't make the mistake of taking work you don't know how to do, hoping you'll figure it out on the fly. That's a recipe for a disaster. I have a friend who started his own IT consulting business and he was always taking work he had zero clue how to do - I know, because he would hit me up to clean up his messes. He was always setting up networks with external access and he didn't fully understand VPN, firewalls, split DNS, etc. and I always had to fix his crap.

 

[jacktheripper88]

I'm pretty cautious when it come to taking on weird/complex issues and projects, so hopefully I'll continue to keep me rearend out of those situations.