Tag: advice

More advice for new computer technicians

Paul
Photo by Dmitriy on Pixabay

Job Searching is outdated!

In My previous post, Some advice for computer technicians, I did talk about what a technician usually has to do to fix or repair a system.  He even has to deal with some very difficult customers.

Now with that said I wanted to change directions and talk about the job search area and what you should expect.  Being a computer technician that has the educational background but not the experience of actually being a computer technician, can be quite frustrating sometimes when it comes to job searching.  It can just make me scratch my head when they require a 1 to 2 or even 5 years of experience to even start doing the job we went to school to get the education to do the job.  How is any employer going to over a entry-level job and still require some sort of experience that shouldn’t even be a requirement to get the job.

This just seems like someone is not understanding what the word entry-level means and why it shouldn’t require much to get that job or position.

Don’t Apply for every job

This one just seems like it needs to be said.  Just because you have the education, don’t apply to all the jobs that you are interested in before doing a little research.  Figure out what you want to do and how much you are worth.   Use places like Glassdoor and indeed to make sure the company you are considering applying for has a good reputation or at least got some good reviews by previous employees.  You know you will have to deal with bad bosses from time to time, so you can figure out if you want to apply for a job that has a bad boss or if you might just hold of on taking that job or applying for that job.

You are worth more

This one is even better because some people will take these low paying jobs because they want to get their foot in the door or get the experience.   I say don’t do it, find an employer who will pay what you are worth.   I could go down the street and get paid to bag groceries than maybe an employer who only wants to pay me 12 or 13 dollars to start off on.   That just boggles me, that I went to get an education and still can get a job that pays more than what I got my education for.   If we stopped allowing them to do this by not applying or accepting those jobs, the pay will eventually go up but we must be able to say no.

Don’t expect that Dream job

I say this with some trepidation that we shouldn’t expect to find that dream job right away.   In fact, we will probably have to work at a dead end job for a year or two at the very least to be able to have the requirements to get that dream job.   In truthfulness, you could easily find that dream job right after getting your education but the chances on that are slim to none, I’d say.  This is something, I’ve seen time and time again that people loss hope right after getting their education to be stuck in a dead end job.   This is the time to keep looking for a better job and create notifications to help keep you looking for a  better job down the road.

Avoid Job text Bots

This one seems quite common.  You get the text that says you’d be a great fit or something along the lines and you ask a question in text and it says “Perfect . . . .“.  These are just bots that I have come across, this is how lazy recruiters are trying to recruit people for their job.  If anything, his means the job might not be all that it is worth and they are having people quite left and right and this is the easiest way to try to find people to fill the job position.   Seems kind of a catch 22 in my book, if they aren’t going to actually read my question and answer it then the job isn’t for me.  I’ve turned them off by texting stop when I find out it was bot that answered me or when I get the perfect or some other way to say we want to talk to you before they even read your text.

These are just what I’ve seen in the job market as of late and thought I would talk about some of these and others ways to find a job in the computer repair or a technician jobs.  You can even figure out how much a computer technician should make by using Glassdoor or even Indeed to find out the salary rages someone would be making in your area.

What are some things you’ve seen that makes you cringe when looking for a job as a computer technician?  Have you seen some of this?  Leave a comment below and tell me your experiences as a job seeker.  If this post has helped you consider using my affiliate links to say thank you for this great post.

Some advice for new computer technicians

Paul

Computer network technician training offered in Vancouver

We can’t do this alone!

This is the most important idea that you should understand. Most computer technicians think that they have to do it alone when it comes to problem solving an issue.  It is because  no one can ever know how to fix every possible problems that may arise.   Those are the times we should ask question and ask for help from other technicians.   This will help you even more than you might imagine because some other technician might know how to solve the issue or problem that you are having.    We might never really understand what someone else might know.   This also includes customers, because what one customer might not know another one might.

Research is everything

Sometimes even other technicians might not know what is causing the problem.  So use everything at your fingertips.   Don’t underestimate the power of word search in Google, Bing, and Yahoo.  It isn’t like one search engine is better than another.  Each search engine has some information that some others might not have.  Don’t just use one but should always use all of them.   Sometimes one search engine will not have the answers, so I will always go and check out two or more search engines for a possible fix for the issues.

You will have angry customers!

No one tells you this but no matter how nice or good you are, you’ll have those angry customers. You should be prepared to deal with them. I say this with some experience, no matter what you’ll do for a customer there will always be those who know nothing about computers and then get mad at you for some reason or another. You’ll need to learn to be patient with an angry customer. Learn to come up with ways to alleviate the stress or anger from the customer. My go to phrase when a customer is angry or stressed is “Here’s what I can do for you . . . “.   If you tell the customer that you can do something for the customer even if it is something small, it helps with making the customer feel like they are being heard.   Also learn to active listen to the customer and make sure you hear what they say by repeating back to them the problems they are having.   Also sometimes the customer is going to just need to vent and be angry.  Technicians should learn to just be there for the customers.

Computers will break!

This is the next thing you will learn being a technician, that no matter how careful you are going to be with a computer, You’ll break a system just by doing something you’ve done a billion times.   If it can be broken, it will be broken.  Murphy just likes to make people’s life harder, and we will always have those days.   I can say with certainty that no one will ever be perfect at solving problems or fixing the issues.   I’ve seen motherboards break or CMOS fail at the most unusual times.  So you should be prepared to always apologize to the customers or say your sorry and make it right, even if it’s not your fault.   Sometimes customers will want to feel like they are important to you and that helps keeps the customers coming back.

No technical jargon

No matter how much you know or think you know, keep the technical jargon to a minimum with customers.   Most of them aren’t even going to know what you are talking about if you don’t relate the problem to the customer.  I can remember several times when I heard someone tell a customers about a command or hardware and the customers eyes just glaze over because they just don’t understand.   Only tell the customer what they need to know, if it’s a customer error, teach the customer and try to prevent them from creating the problem again.

I’ve been in the computer world a long time and I am sure the old and new a like will agree that these are some valuable tips for those who might be interested in being a technician.  Nothing I’ve said here will stop angry customers but it might help.   What’s some things you’ve learned to help with customers not getting angry or make the customer happy?  I’d love to here what helped you with customers and I am sure others will too.