Slashdot Mirror
Growth Job Sector: Freelance Technical Support
An anonymous reader wrotes: "Over at World New York, they've posted excellent advice to the geek masses: If you're out of work and know how to use a computer, you can make a killing doing freelance technical support." Update: 07/25 20:00 GMT by M : The author has asked that we link to the article on homepage.mac.com due to server overload. :)
It'll probably work.. until everyone's doing it.. I guess the real question is, "Is there enough idiots out there to support all the 'geeks'?"
I'm not the devil.. just his advocate.
I'd rather lay bricks in oklahoma in august, it's less frustrating, more consistant and pays just as well.
no one makes money doing freelance technical work.
judging by the quick slashdotting, there must be a lot of unemployed geeks out there.
"I don't need a compass to tell me which way the wind shines." - Mr. Furious, Mystery Men
The goldmine is services for people who wish to make money or find jobs.
...hitting that refresh button tryng to get a FP on /.
Dh'o!!
It's too much of a liability. Trust me, I know. I almost got sued because some ladies drive physically crashed after I worked on her Windowz problems (spyware locking up PC). So even if you have them sign a before and after contract, just the rigamaroll of having to go through all that is a pain in the ass. No thank you, I would have to be incorporated with a few other people. This is NOT something you want to do by yourself.
Life is not for the lazy.
That market is saturated pretty bad if you ask me.
deserve's got nothing to do with it...
While overall this is a pretty well drawn-out argument for striking out on your own, there are of course extra difficulties along the way, like:
1) Health Insurance
2) Liability
3) Accounting
Not that these factors can't be dealt with, but they are, amongst other things, stuff you normally don't have to worry about as an employee of a company.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
N00b : how do I use reiserfs on redhat?
Geek : Pay me $10 for me to RTFM for you.
and after 6 months, i was on the brink of insanity and would take my anger out on friends and family. mom: why isnt sound coming out? me: you stupid cunt, you have the sound muted, dont you see the red circle with the slash going through it on the speaker icon? jesus you are so stupid..
$5 an hour with free cookies and milk to boot.
That's how I got my current job ~2 years ago. Configuring 2 Cisco PIX firewalls on a contract basis. Now I'm full time and love it.
Trolling is a art,
I'm a little confused about the premise behind this article on slashdot. It's presentation could be summed up as 'Hey - if you're a tech saavy geek with no job ---- you could get a job!!!!'. Wow, a real news flash... somebody call Slashdot... oh wait...
I've done some of this freelancing myself when I got bored...but unfortunately, some of the not-yet-graduated-from-college dolts end up in "official" positions and think they actually know something.
I mean, heck, just take a page from AT&T... (actual call!)
...
Me: Yeah, hi, I have a cable modem through you and...
Drone: You have a what?
Me: I have a cable modem, its not
Drone: You have a what?
Me: I. Have. A. Cable. Modem. High. Speed. Internet. You. Know? Its out, flashing lights...
Drone: Oh, you have broadband. Unplug your modem for 5 seconds, and then plug the network cable directly into your computer if you have a hub/router (obvious they have no clue what either is, its probably just in their script as such).
Me: I've already done that, and no, its not the hub, the hub works fine.
Drone: Let me send out a technician.
Me: ARGH!!!!
God I hate them. Thank you Speakeasy! At least they laugh when I tell them how much I hate the cable companies!
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
What a great opportunity to meet bored and lonely housewives.
IT is done, toast in this country. The best way to make money is to open a firm in india and have an IT sweatshop. You would be better off opening a typewriter repair shop, at least its a noble way to starve yourself to death.
I would see signs/ads, everywhere (literally), begging to have people hire them at prices that reached into the hundreds per hour. I'm a simple guy, without too many expenses, I buy a ton of games, and for me, $20 dollars an hour was great. I got to choose my own hours, and make myself profitable.
As for the "idiots to techs" ratio question, some people obviously haven't worked in the tech field [long enough]. Until the day they make a computer completely crash/idiot-proof, there will always be a need for a technician.
My two cents...
You couldn't pay me enough to deal with that crap. I used to do freelance tech work, and you know, it was quite possibly the worse job I've ever done. There were far too many miles put on my car, and having to do your own customer service calls really sucks. I don't think I was ever at a point of higher stress. Its not that it didn't pay, but trying to fix and teach the common person how to deal with everyday computer problems gets repetitive and grueling. I think if I'm ever in a situation where I was when I did freelance work, Ill sell sperm instead... at least Id get some sense of satisfaction out of it.
With so many thousands of fellow geeks out of work already for the last couple of years, this market is already saturated.
Besides, people aren't willing to pay the amount of money it takes to take care of stoopid Windoze problems- a reload on an average system can take 4-6 hours (with backups, new drivers, etc.)
Hard to get more than a couple systems a day through, then you've got to figure on all the time and energy spent on trying to get clients.
I'm making more money (sadly enough) as a convenience store manager than as a geek nowadays.
And now, as well, with even programming jobs being shopped overseas, the market for geek skills is even tougher.
Changing careers may be a better option than chasing after elusive (and non-existant) tech money.
peace,
r.
Aiieee! Death from above!
...you can make a killing doing freelance technical support.
How about making a living?
So I get to personally experience the story where a person thought their CD-ROM was a coffee holder.
I have them too and they are great. Whenever they do have to put you on hold, their music is awesome...
Don't know about the US, but in the uk the way to go is just to retrain as a plumber or electrician. Average pay in the uk for support has dropped to well under 20 pounds an hour with a lot of basic support jobs paying just over minimum wage. Bear in mind that a freelance plumber or sparky can probably make 30-50 ukp an hour... I know what I do if I lose this job....
Working for the (other) man
What make you think you vote counts, or more accurately, will be counted?
Well anyway, how much does an idiot charge me for some help tweaking some shell scripts, or a little bit of perl programming?
They don't charge you anything, you charge them, ideally by the hour.
You can set your own hours! Work over the phone! Pay no money up front! Buy from the safety of your own home! Live the life you've always dreamed of!
Herbal viagra has nothing on this get rich quick scheme. Where do I sign up? :-P
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
A buddy of mine has a growing business doing house calls and on-site service. He loves it.
I used to do service calls as an employee of another business. I truly miss it. You get to leave the office instead of sit in a cubicle, work on problems that are all a little different and -- here's the best part -- when you're done, people are GRATEFUL. They're always ecstatically happy that you've fixed their computer problems. If they're not, they're just assholes that aren't worth repeat business.
I've been doing technical support since I got out of school with a brand spankin' new BS in Computer Science. Tech Support was all I could find and the only killing going on my poor, battered spirit.
:(
What, me Tweet?
Im sure the majority of /. readers have done something like this, but the difference is that my spare wanderings supply the *majority* of my income. Simply by bringing up computers, or speaking to people at bars of cool technologies, ive found myself doing work for a reasonably large crowd. Once you've done work for someone, they almost ALWAYS have a friend that needs something, and that friend has a friend, and so forth. While its not the most stable work in the world, i always seem to do alright. (I would put it on par with waiting tables, the numbers always seem to end up partially in your favor). The best part? You can charge $50/hour showing some nitwit how to install kazaa, and hes all the happier. And they love you :)
Any chance of them hiring one of us to tell them how to get the server back up?
I do technical support as a full-time job, making a living. Maybe there is some spin in this article (that I can't read, because their servers are on fire), but I don't see how throwing out the things that I get by working for a real company will make me rich. I'm certainly not rich now.
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
Suppose I want to be a freelance tech support / Windows Superman who can swoop into peoples homes and repair their neglected boxes. By the letter of the MS law...errr...license....what can I actually do?
/i386 stuff, cabs and infs.
Will the typical user be able to produce any OS media whatsoever? Full version (ha!) Upgrade? (possibly)... recovery cd?
If not what am I left with? Windows Update? perhaps. The admins in my office carry a pack labeled "CDs to Fix Most Anything" and these include our corporate ver of various MS products.
If I went to Staples and purchased a full ver of XP Pro, could I use it to repair existing broken installations. I do not mean a complete reinstallation, rather, I suppose it would be the
This article by the New York Times suggests that people are becoming technically adept by necessity, and that, as happened with radios and automobiles, eventually all technology will take care of itself and be as mindless to operate as toasters are today.
I see that day as decades off. Computers are still complex to make, complex to learn, complex to integrate with other gadgets. More importantly, they still have more than one knob or lever. Until that day of machine self-reliance, I see a golden opportunity: an under-served market waiting for the ambitious to step in.
The following is a small excerpt of a manuscript, modified to suit this topic.
...
Technical Self-Employment Is A Fat Paycheck Waiting to Be Pocketed
Last year, at a Christmas party held by a client of mine at a very nice restaurant in Manhattan, I ran into a friend of a friend. I dont know him well, but weve socialized once or twice, and have had solid geek conversations in the past. He does Active Directory management for big corporations.
I should say, he used to do that. Hes been unemployed now for more than a year.
After we shook hands I could see his face change from a friendly howdy-do. He dropped down into commiseration mode: the corners of his mouth drooped, his head ducked, he took a Hapsburg stancehis feet angled, his left foot perpendicular to his right, heel against arch, his torso yawed a few degrees off center, his hands lightly on his hipsand waited expectantly.
I knew what he wanted. I make my living with private computer consulting: client-site tech support, mostly, but pretty much any of the little computer-related tasks small businesses have. I knew he wanted to talk about the tech business. And he wanted me to start, so I complied. Hows business? I asked.
He jumped in according to the script. Oh, its not been going well at all. Awful. Ive been out of work. I cant find anything. Howre you doing? He anticipated a long bitch session of headhunter mistreatment, interview mishaps, finicky clients, resume failure. He relished the chance.
Its great, I said. Ive got more business than I can handle. Im giving it away. Ive probably handed off or turned down enough business in the last six months to employ another person full-time. In fact, Ive just turned over a second $30,000-a-year piece of business to another tech so I could concentrate on other clients.
He looked at me in amazement. His eyes bugged out. I saw doubt, then self-doubt, there, and eventually he just walked away.
My theory: If you are reasonably adept at using or setting up a computer, theres no good reason to be unemployed.
Forget the boom-time Nineties. Theyre gone. Im sorry. I really am. It was a fun ride, but the roller coaster is closed and the you must be this tall sign has been replaced with Tornado fencing topped with razor wire.
This is a hard lesson to learn, even this far into the recession and this long past the bubble. In posts on Slashdot, in discussions on Usenet, in many conversations with professional peers, particularly those in New York, London and San Francisco, I find again and again that the main barrier to re-entry in the work force for many peoplenot just technically-oriented folksis a reluctance to admit that things will never be quite what they were. Its pride, mostly: they have difficulty reducing their expectations.
Boom-time paychecks are no longer. They were gold-rush prices in a sellers market and bear no relationship to the current reality. If you want to work for a large corporation, you will have to take a sizable pay cut. You are not being cheated: the prices go according to the market, and the market is awash with qualified candidates.
When working full-time for companies, you can no longer expect to learn part of your job after being hired. You need to know it before. Technical skills acquisition is now more somethin
Corporation will pick someone with certifications and job experience over someone fresh out of college. That's a fact! But...if you have both a degree and the same experience, then your in great shape.
Life is not for the lazy.
If you're out of work and know how to use a computer, you can make a killing doing freelance technical support.
In addition to making a decent wage and setting your own hours, you can decide how to respond to each customer without having to worry about what The Boss thinks of your approach:
Caller 1: "Hello? My computer won't work anymore!"
You: "When did you first notice the problem?"
Caller: "Oh right after I took it apart and washed all the components with warmy, soapy water. It was getting really dirty."
You: "You fuckin, fuckin, moron. No help for you!"
Caller 2: "Hello? I'm having trouble getting the floor pedal to work. How hard am I supposed to be stepping on it?"
You: "Floor pedal? What the fuck?"
Caller: "You know. That hand-shaped device with the rubber ball imbedded in it!"
You: *click*
Caller 3: "Hello? I can't get Microsoft Outlook Express to work with my AOL account."
You: "Well, Dude, it sucks to be you. If you were using pine on a Linux box I might be inclined to help you. But nooooo, you wanted to help Microshaft and AOHell strengthen their monopoly. Well, have fun with their tech support lines 'cause I sure as hell ain't gonna help your monopoly-strengthening lazy ass!" *click*
Yeah, I can see the freedom to provide the appropriate response a real bonus to this job!
GMD
watch this
start a plumbing business. That is what I am contemplating.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
I have SpeakEasy as well, and they are spectacular. You pay for the bandwidth, that's it. No port blocking, great tech support whenever you call.... I just wish they offered local phone service, so I could give them my $$$ instead of the decrepit Baby Bells.
--Mid
"Oh, hello, Jim. How're things at World New York? ...oh...I see...hmm...well, let's see what we can do.
"First off, what do you see on the screen? ...Nothing? Is the server plugged in? Mmm-hmm...it is? Okay, that's good. And the power is on? ... you press the little button, but nothing happens. OK. And are any lights on? No. Hmm.
"It sounds like you may have a hardware--what's that? Really? Well, that's not good...yes, it does smell rather bad when that happens. *laugh* Yes, I can see how having the extinguisher right there came in handy...
"Well, I'm afraid...huh? Your backup just went, too? That's odd. That only ever happens when--hang on. *clickity tappity clackety CLACK*
Oh.
"Jim, have you ever heard of a website called 'Slashdot'?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
I have done a little bit of work on the side doing this, usually when the normal guy is on vacation or something. I hate these jobs. Why? Because I'm always cleaning up messes left by the normal guy. Have you ever seen a network of 50 workstations, all without any centralized user/workstation management (ie: no domain or anything)? I have. It's scary. How do you make a printer avail on the network? Duh, printer sharing... the thought never occures to anyone to get a stand-alone print server. How do you deploy software? Over sneakernet. We won't even go into the horrible network security, the rampant viruses, or the spyware installed on every workstation (but hey, Outlook has color now!). Since i'm always just the fill-in guy, whatever I recommend falls on deaf ears. The icing on the cake? The usual guy makes $60/hour doing this. Before anyone says it, no, these shoddy networks are not the result of lack of funding... these companies have plasma screens on the walls, and very nice chairs.... it's not lack of funding, it's a lack of will on the part of the IT guy to improve the situation, and perhaps a lack of skill/knowledge. For someone who knows better, it's a very frustrating experience.
The reason that I hate doing any type of tech support for friends, co-workers, family, or anyone one else I know, is the golden rule of fixing computers. Which reads, if you fix it for them once, the next time anything goes wrong, they blame you, or want you to immediately come and fix it. Then somehow think a fixed computer comes with a 5 year repair warranty. They will call you all the time to "ask a quick question", as if your time means nothing. After this happened a couple of times, I won't touch anyone's computer.
If by "you can make a killing doing freelance technical support." you mean that you might be able to survive paying $600 for housing and not much more than that for food while still collecting unemployment and working under the table, then sure I agree with that statement.
Technical support is very labor intensive and sporadic, so that even if you charge a lot for a call or visit, then you won't likely make an equivalently good salary considering the volume of calls and the travel time between clients. It is possible to make decent money by keeping your overhead low (do everything yourself), but a "killing" it wouldn't be.
If anything this is a time for Geeks to start thinking outside the box and perhaps start some sort of other small business that isn't directly computer related, but just use your computer skills to make the business run more efficiently.
Freelance tech support is like opening your door and inviting all the world's idiots in. Everyone and their Grandma has a computer these days, and nobody (speaking of general population non-geeks) understands them.
From a business perspective, who do you think your customer base will be? Straight up, candidly speaking (I can't understate this), your customer base will be people who are FUCKING DUMB. =) You're going to get the poor ghetto trash with 8th grade educations that SOMEHOW managed to buy an incredibly outdated computer that won't run anything, and expect you to fix it for them. Like talking to brick walls? Maybe you should try that, instead of trying to fix a PC for a dumb irate redneck egomaniac know-it-all ignoramus who can't even figure out how to click his mouse or scroll the screen from left to right, and expect him to understand a word of non-urban slang gramatically correct English.
However, if you've got a masochistic craving for suffering at the hands of total idiots, this would be the perfect field for you. Personally, I'd rather be a janitor, because cleaning shit up would be preferable to this. =)
Here's an alternate link:
http://homepage.mac.com/monickels/techjob.html
And the full text:
By Grant Barrett @ World New York
This article by the New York Times suggests that people are becoming technically adept by necessity, and that, as happened with radios and automobiles, eventually all technology will take care of itself and be as mindless to operate as toasters are today.
I see that day as decades off. Computers are still complex to make, complex to learn, complex to integrate with other gadgets. More importantly, they still have more than one knob or lever. Until that day of machine self-reliance, I see a golden opportunity: an under-served market waiting for the ambitious to step in.
The following is a small excerpt of a manuscript, modified to suit this topic.
Technical Self-Employment Is A Fat Paycheck Waiting to Be PocketedBy Grant Barrett @ World New York
This article by the New York Times suggests that people are becoming technically adept by necessity, and that, as happened with radios and automobiles, eventually all technology will take care of itself and be as mindless to operate as toasters are today.
I see that day as decades off. Computers are still complex to make, complex to learn, complex to integrate with other gadgets. More importantly, they still have more than one knob or lever. Until that day of machine self-reliance, I see a golden opportunity: an under-served market waiting for the ambitious to step in.
The following is a small excerpt of a manuscript, modified to suit this topic.
Technical Self-Employment Is A Fat Paycheck Waiting to Be Pocketed
Last year, at a Christmas party held by a client of mine at a very nice restaurant in Manhattan, I ran into a friend of a friend. I don't know him well, but we've socialized once or twice, and have had solid geek conversations in the past. He does Active Directory management for big corporations.
I should say, he used to do that. He's been unemployed now for more than a year.
After we shook hands I could see his face change from a friendly howdy-do. He dropped down into commiseration mode: the corners of his mouth drooped, his head ducked, he took a Hapsburg stance--his feet angled, his left foot perpendicular to his right, heel against arch, his torso yawed a few degrees off center, his hands lightly on his hips--and waited expectantly.
I knew what he wanted. I make my living with private computer consulting: client-site tech support, mostly, but pretty much any of the little computer-related tasks small businesses have. I knew he wanted to talk about the tech business. And he wanted me to start, so I complied. "How's business?" I asked.
He jumped in according to the script. "Oh, it's not been going well at all. Awful. I've been out of work. I can't find anything. How're you doing?" He anticipated a long bitch session of headhunter mistreatment, interview mishaps, finicky clients, resume failure. He relished the chance.
"It's great," I said. "I've got more business than I can handle. I'm giving it away. I've probably handed off or turned down enough business in the last six months to employ another person full-time. In fact, I've just turned over a second $30,000-a-year piece of business to another tech so I could concentrate on other clients."
He looked at me in amazement. His eyes bugged out. I saw doubt, then self-doubt, there, and eventually he just walked away.
My theory: If you are reasonably adept at using or setting up a computer, there's no good reason to be unemployed.
Forget the boom-time Nineties. They're gone. I'm sorry.
Wordnik, a dictionary project which aims to collect
Isn't this also called "Consulting"?
-"I ate what?"
Looks like WorldNewYork.net could use some tech support right now after this slashdotting...
naked freelance support. and yes it is a new meaning of HARD drive.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
What make you think that "computer people" and "idiots" are mutually exclusive?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Don't forget to bring your video camera along and come up with a great come on using the words:
LARGE HARD DRIVE
Maybe this is the road to riches they are thinking about.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Gee, with a sig like that I can't imagine why you'd have a bunch of useless certifications and no degree. Here's a tip: get a certification in long term thinking, maybe they'll teach you why your hill-climbing algorithm makes you an asshat.
I know someone above noted the liability benefits of incorporating. Also know that Health Insurance rules have changed in recent years to accommodate self-employed individuals.
See some basic information here. An article I read a while back discussed how a loophole allowed 70% deduction of a spouse's insurance if they could be shown to be an employee. So bring your wife on as a partner and reap the benefits.
Jesus H. Christ! Someone already posted the entire article above and did it as an AC! Mod this redundant asshat into the ground!
Bump #3, except for me it's about PacBell, not cable :P
Of course, in all fairness, PacBell did at least try to solve my problem in a fairly intelligent manner when I *did* eventually get to a tech.
You don't need geeks to provide tech support. Actually geeks are just about the worst type of people to provide this service.
... why don't you just do x and leave me the alone". It's sufficient if you can understand what a customer is trying to ask and then read the correct answer from your screen.
What you need are people that have people-skills: they must be capable to talk to people, calm them down and get them to understand stuff. That's not going to work if your attitude is going to be along the lines of "you stupid
Don't misunderstand me and read that I'm saying that no geeks are capable of doing this. It's just that your average geek didn't become a geek by being big on people skills.
I have a photographic memory for numbers. I know almost a hundred of them.
Do what a local outfit does, which is carry legit OS/app software for resale. :)
Think like an auto mechanic, i.e. make money on "parts" AND labor.
Recently read a book saying that any sort of repair-related career does fine during a recession. Reason should be obvious: people can't afford to buy a "new" whatever, or are scared to put out that kind of money, so they spend money keeping up to speed whatever they already have.
Also, think about the huge demographic of baby-boomers retiring or about to retire. All those parents, grandmas and grandpas about to have a huge chunk of free time on their hands. Maybe they're not so mobile anymore and hanging out at home a great deat. Most likely they're going to be buying a computer and getting on-line, for email, to do their amateur photography, etc. A huge target market. Plus they may be sitting on a nice pile of retirement money.
So I'd propose starting a up a consultant type business where you repair people's computers, do tech support, maybe even help people pick out computers to purchase, and target older retirees. Focus on house calls, and of course, super friendly customer support (say "yes sir, no ma'am"). Oldsters eat that stuff up.
Just as long as I'm the boss and you do all the house calls...
Ok, i worked as a senior Technical Support, i had a team of 4 engineers, all well well trained and stuff.. I was well paid....I supported very complex multiple platform/database client server and web applications (i.e knowledge scope of our employees was quite amusing)...thats one part of the story
A friend of mine, was a freelancer support geek, he supported ppl with no idea of computers , install windows here, reconfigure a driver there, fix the Internet connection over here, stuff like that...
AND HE MADE TWICE AS MUCH MONEY AS I DID....
Move your guns away from my face,i am not complaining here, my point here, is that it is irrelevant...you can be doing really complex things in a very large firm and another guy with half the work load you have gets paid twice as much just because of his connections and ofcorse (his spare time being unemployed)..
The lunatic is in my head
Some people believe the purpose of a college degree is to teach you enough about reasoning that you'd never claim something was a fact without being able to back it up. Others believe that it's so you can actually get promoted after you get hired. Personally, I think they keep people from becoming dumbasses like you.
One way this could be really beneficial to people is to consider it an alternative and temporary source of income between job hunts. It doesn't take a -lot- of effort to put together a decent looking flyer, and a waiver form to limit or eliminate liability. A couple weeks ago I noticed such a flyer at a convenience store near where I work. Here are some things I noticed that were major signs to stay away.
1: 'Certified' was in italics on the lower left hand corner. All by itself. Alone. One word. Certified in WHAT? If you have applicable certifications, explain them genuinely. If you don't, describe your actual knowledge instead.
2: Let the prospective customer know you stand behind your work - but at the same time, don't put yourself in a bad position to be liable for anything. Say that your liabilty is limited to one free hour of additional service, should you determine that an oversight on the initial visit wasn't sufficient.
3: Offer what you know. This sign I saw in the store said they offered -computer detailing- service, anti-virus and OS installation... and that was about it. If this person knew more, they'd have said it.
4: If you have a logo... don't use stock clip-art. This sign used the lined-pyramid default image on every default MS Publisher template as his logo. Depressing.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
Unfortunately, due to my smelly nature, I don't leave the house much. We can arrange a party line, or VOIP using the latest H.232 technology, but I would prefer the phone since I'm very fat and would rather not be seen on the webcam. I hope you understand. I'm working on some new material loosely titled "M$ is teh suxor!!", I'm sure it'll be a big hit.
Sincerely,
A Smelly Linux Geek
1. Start home tech support business.
2. Be an asshole to the customers.
3. ????
4. Profit!
Sure, why not? This approach seems to work well for a lot of guys I know in getting hot babes that they don't deserve:
1. Manage to trick a gorgeous, witty, charming, caring, wonderful girl into going out with you.
2. Treat them like shit.
3. ????
4. For some reason, they'll end up falling in love with you big time.
Don't ask me to explain step 3. I don't even know if there's a step 3. All I know is that I'm tired of consoling women who fall for this shtick and I'm frustrated at seeing assholes snap up all the primo babeage.
GMD
watch this
Mod me down as off-topic, but I think this post is relevant to the nature of this thread. These forums are all doom and gloom these days. Is all of /.'s reader base unemployed? I guess this is what I get for reading in the middle of the work day, of course the only posters would be people who are out of work, or in school. ALL IT IS GOING OVERSEAS! NO GEEKS CAN MAKE MONEY! I'm not buying any of it. The numbers of returns for tech job searches on the likes of monster.com in the tech sector have never been higher than they are now. And I'm seeing jr. level programming positions advertising 60-70k/year. I'm in school and my programming internships (with 2 large companies) have paid better than what a lot of people are saying the average full-time salary is these days. Both companies have asked me to return after I graduate for full time positions starting at nice comfortable salaries. I'm no super genius either, I'm a good programmer who works hard. And it's not location, because I've worked in 3 states already. I dunno, maybe I'm young and stupid and not seeing the big picture.
Okay, time for an anecdote.
Picture this, four or five small companies all targetting the same small area. There's enough for all of them to get slim pickings - enough to keep the geeks in hardware and everybody paid on time.
Now, add a few freelancers. They come in, promise the earth, delivery is usually substandard and comeback is absolutely nil. There are a few of them, lone rangers, about but they're not doing terribly well. It's great for a slump in the day job, a period of redundancy or a bit of extra pocket money, but for long term, it bites because customers want culpability, they want guarantees and they want someone who can come in at the drop of a hat.
I don't mind though. The freelancers end up giving us more work. They're like a sales team. They do so well at their job that people are phoning us to help them recover. Most freelancers have no concept of "tax" or "insurance" because a lot of them were working for big dot-boom companies and they had a legion of pen-pushers handling that for them.
I've been doing this for years. I fix my grandmother's computer and she feeds me dinner while I'm there.
Really I prefer that people just keep on repeating what their parents told them growing up, as it keeps fewer people out there to compete with my self-owned business. Sure it gets frustrating sometimes, but it's my business and I call the shots, so if I need a break, I take one. I would much rather run my own show, then sit around complaining about working for "the Man". No matter where you are, you run into frustrating idiots, I just price myself out of their range, or don't go back if they drive me nuts - it's my call. If I deal with any idiots, it's beacuse they pay good money for me to deal with their crap, and they tend to keep breaking things on a regular basis(can you say, "repeat business"?). My favorite thing is to go in to fix a computer "problem" only to have it be a cord uplugged or printer out of toner. 10 minute fix equals one hour billed - fine by me! It's not for everybody (as seen in the other posts), but for me, there is nothing like the freedom of being your own boss. To those who prefer to work for someone else, they are just going to have to wait for the economy to pick up.
As a disclaimer, IT consulting is not my only source of income. I'm also a musician, but it boils down to the same thing. It still involves running your own business, and working with idiots sometimes - it just happens to involve beer more often.
Wine, music and cinema are the three great creations of humanity. -T'Ian Han
They don't deserve my time or respect. That's why they have to pay to talk to me. "
I sure hope your doctor doesn't have that attitude. Or maybe I do...
([*] cite for It's turtles, all the way down)
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Sonofabitch! Anyone that is smart enough to do contractual work is already out here doing it. The last thing we need is all the unemployed folks that are too stupid to figure this out by now, to start contracting.
Not like it was a killing, either. Sure, it's decent, but to make a killing you need huge time investments.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
And I'm on the verge of exceeding my income from the Help Desk job I lost a year ago. No one's blamed me for anything that's gone bad; in fact the word of mouth business I've generated has been outstanding. Yes, there are times when I'm called back to the same house umpteen times and I don't charge. Yes, there are times when people are sticker-shocked and haggle me down. But by and large I love being totally independent, not having a boss or partner (save myself and the government, respectively), and being able to make my own hours. Why have things worked out so well for me? I wonder about that, and I think there are several answers: 1. I have a very professional, yet friendly and approchable attitude. 2. I'm polite in people's homes and I don't fit the stereotypical "geek" profile people are expecting. 3. The clientele I serve are in a densely populated, tightly knit and affluent part of the country. Word of mouth spreads quickly, and these people are willing to pay. They have multiple computers, so they want DSL/cable hooked up and shared. And even when their Dells need fixing and are within warranty, they are so frustrated by hold times and first-level overseas tech that aren't trained - just reading from a troubleshooting script - that they're willing to pay someone to make a housecall 4. I'm willing to come over as early or as late as they want me, weekends included. Too many people think of their freelance business as a nine to five job, instead of a business. All in all, it's been a great development in my life, but I hope not too many people read that article in my area and get the same idea!
That those two years of college "under your belt" are from a community college. If you obtained credits from a bonafide college, then I fear for our future. You might not have been at the top of your class, but it's obvious that you're an A grade twit.
I run into this alot at my job - I've found recently that customers _rarely_ have legal copies of their OS. Sometimes, it is a legal copy, but having no way to prove it, and no disk to reinstall from, they end up having to pay me for a new copy, or an upgrade at the least. Many times I've gotten to a customer's site, tallied the probable time, parts, and software needed, and turned around saying simply "buy a new computer. It'll be cheaper." Does this hurt my business? Not at all. Customers love honesty, and that statement (and explanation if necessary) will almost always get me more business in the long run.
I work in tech support, we have Nextel phone with the direct connect, whenever we come across a true idiot we anounce over the radio..."Rob, came you come over to Johns' desk we have an possible ID-10T issue here. All you SMS gurus should be able to figure that one out.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
The main problem of outsourced IT is that I've rarely seen two different consultants agree on anything!
...repeat as necessary with *every* piece of software/hardware in the environment, each time a new consultant comes by.
Consultant one: Well, you have a small shop and don't want a dedicated IT guy, so I'll set up Microsoft SBS (Small Business Server) so you'll have any function you can possibly need.
Consultant two: I don't know what that other guy was thinking, but it's pointless! You could have just bought (insert single application here) and saved a TON of money!
Something broken? Obviously the guy who worked on it last/set it up was a moron. Needless to say that this gets much worse depending on how many different guys you use. And not having a company-to-company relationship can really hurt when the e-mail server is down and John won't return phone calls.
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
" Or you can marry an accountant like I did."
I don't think she'll like marrying a room full of geeks.
The thing is, these guys are much more attractive then you. This is the answer to all your questions, and the explanation as to why you will never be with a hot chick.
It's called being a Contractor n00b.
Dolemite
_______________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
I, myself, now get blamed for all the Microsoft Windows Protection errors and Microsoft Windows Illegal Instruction errors.
What started as a noble charity to help a family member now becomes an endless complaint of being alive.
"You damn whippersnapper! You did somthing illegal on my computer--looky, ILL-EG-AL__IN-STR-UCT-ION ERR! Fix it or I'll put you back in the Family Will(TM)!"
You make a truly valid and clear explanation of your situation. I hope you keep going and succeed even further.
As for competition, you shouldn't worry to much, you describe a set of qualities that most people don't have. For example, the multiple repeat visits with no charge (that's called good customer service and knowing when to just bite your lip and suffer through it) a lot of people lose their cool in this type of tech work and can't take it.
"I think if I'm ever in a situation where I was when I did freelance work, Ill sell sperm instead... at least Id get some sense of satisfaction out of it."
Unfortunately QA and liability issues will force a recall of that product.
Actually, I'm working on getting a master's in accounting, now that the job market for software engineers is shot to hell.
Warning: India is gearing up its "billion accountants" edu-cannons. Gotta keep an eye on that.
Table-ized A.I.
Well, if you dont mind doing tech support for $5 per hr, you can certainly find work.
Anywhere that can afford to pay for the services already have a IT dept., everyone else is going to bicker "well, ABCTech always comes out for $15 + $5 per hr, cant you give a better price?"
Not exactly a great opportunity I'd say.
Having complete control of your work life is a great thing compared to being a cog in a larger company. It is also fraught with perils. If you are a technical wizard with little people skills, stay out of this business. In freelance technical support the 'technical' part is rarely challenging and is often a minor part of your job. You will act as an explainer, camp counselor, big brother, hand holder, accountant, and buck stopper as much as a propeller head.
Customers won't be calling you with blue skies and singing birdies. They will call you at the last minute when some problem has their entire business on the line. They have come to depend on you, so that often means they will piss and shit on you and blame you for the problems of the world. Don't take it personally. They are just trying to transfer the stress. That is partly what they are paying you for, even if they don't know it.
If you can deal with this social stuff, freelance technical support can provide a long and fruitful career where people treat you like a hero when the problem gets solved. If you are not the people type, this career will seem an endless hell.
The upside was that I could make a bunch of tax deductions for running a home business and get some of my money back from the government.
The downside was that it was a money-losing vebture from the start. A small ad in the weekly paper ran me about $90/month.. unless I got 5 calls in a month (which was rare) I was already in the hole.
Friends would ask me "man why arent you charging way more money?"... the simple explanation was that no one would ever pay it. When everyone has "a friend who knows lots about computers" why would they pay someone $75+/hr to come over when they could get it for free? I gave it up when the costs kept rising and the calls got scarce, even raising my price to $25/hr wasnt enough to pay any bills. I guess the population base isnt high enough to provide enough computer-idiots to make a living on. Now I see at least 3 other people around here trying to do the same thing.
I've been unemployed for almost 7 months now and I've enrolled in the military to get a steady job. Granted I'm in Canada but it's gotta be pretty similar in the US. Dont you just love IT?
Step 3... 11 inches.
That is all.
If you knew half of what you are talking about, you wouldn't need to login to slashdot. Anonymous Cowards don't have a slashdot userID because they know the secret, they have the babes and don't need the extra keystrokes to login to a slashdot story to post an intelligent article. Meanwhile, JoeFriday402, bsd troll, and Scht00pinWilly13 are arguing why they aren't getting the girls. HELLO! Is it not obvious? Having a slashdot userID means you are intelligent, thus login many times to post replies to other slashdot users. Meanwhile, all the fucking moronic trolls, ! bsd troll, I mean all the people as Anonymous Coward posters; they are the unintelligent pretty boys that don't want a Slashdot userID because it will take away their priceless time! They're the pattons of the internet; keep moving, don't dig in, keep fucking them ladies in the ass! Your enemy isn't GuyManDude; your enemy is yourself...and all those fucking pretty-boy troll Anonymous Cowards! Look at the fucking Anonymous Coward trollware! They are bragging about being Gay Niggers as well as goatse people; they're getting their babes, although same-sex, but nonetheless. You should be more like them. I have a girlfriend; she is a barely-legal teen....hehe
Well that's intuitive. NOT!
You'd think it'd delete the files on the
medium!!!!!
No joke. Talk on the phone and help people with technical problems.
The nice thing about tech support is when people call, they want help with something and are very focued on getting a solution, so they're nice to work with.
Not sure how much you get in OK stacking bricks.
I can't RTFA (since it's /.ed) but I am doing freelance tech support. I setup home wirless and wired LANs, setup NAT/Firewall boxes for cable/DSL subscribers, apply patches, re-installs, and some general security tweaks and basic security training with each customer. I also help with any problem my customer's has (yes any, I get some dumb emails) for free, if they can handle it through email. If I have to go to their house (or call them), they get charged. I charge a reasonable rate (depending on the job up to $15 an hour plus gas, and travel time). I am not getting rich by any means, but I make a decent living and can schedule work around time for my kids, and being a single parent, that is very important to me.
Honestly, I couldn't ask for a better job, sure it has it's headaches, and some weeks the work is sparse, but I wouldn't trade the flexability it gives me with my kids for anything.
For the single healthy under-25 male living in cheap rented accomodation with a paid off car, no pension plan, and a false name, who only takes cash and who changes his phone number every week. Depending on your exact situation and how lucky you get with your customers, you may find yourself better off on welfare.
I did this for a year or so when I was young and eager, and enjoyed it up until the point where I had a critical mass of customers calling me up at all hours (and I mean all hours) demanding to know what I'd done to their Win95 machines that made them crash 3 months later. No, give me the safe hidey hole of a cube job any day.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
No, the interesting part of it is that you're BOTH full of ass.
Definition of "To Live Decently in NYC on 52K a year"
1. You don't live in NYC. Your cardboard box on 131st & 5th doesn't count
2. You can't work more than 20 hours a week because your eating frugally (ie out of garbage cans and meals on wheels leftovers, and your customers refiges) and have prefected the art of chimping change from the "take a penny, leave a penny" jar.
3. You've mastered the art of "wow, this is a major problem, it's going to take ALLL night to fix" and convienently crash on the customers couch until morining.
Maybe I missed the key point in this quote and your "sharp tax advisor" means something I'm unfamiliar with and is the real key to your success.
Quote: "Do the math for a minute: Let's say you work 20 hours a week and charge $50 an hour. That's a $1000 a week. That's $52,000 a year. Now, you'll pay taxes out of that, perhaps up to 40% depending upon where you live, and your own insurance, and other costs, but it's still a respectable income. If you itemize your deductions and hire a sharp tax advisor, you can avoid an unnecessary tax burden. Even in New York City, one of the most expensive towns on the planet, you can live decently on that money."
They have an image and attitude. Their company cars bear a "Geek Squad" logo. Their people wear white shirts and ties and pocket protectors. They even have a black SWAT van for major problems.
It's too bad they're still a small company. They should be everywhere, like Roto-Rooter(tm).
They're hiring.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Does that work for you?
A customer called and said:
The software doesn't work. All I keep getting is the options: Repair or Remove, when I click on it.
Turns out he was executing setup.exe again and again rather then the software itself.
After talking him very slowly (9 mins. in all on our 800 no) through Start->Programs etc. he said:
That's the first time I'm seeing the program!
Exactly!
It is amazing what the truth will do.
If an Induhvidual needs to run MicroShaft2004 software then they should have the licenses and media. If they do not, and you install your keys etc. YOU will be held liable.
However, If you politely explain that you cannot install anything that they cannot provide adequate proof of license you will either a) have less work to do OR b) have a new customer who respects the law.
As long as you are upfront that you need proof of license and/or original media then go to it.
comment directly in my journal
But the reason why it is interesting is because that is essentially what it costs to outsource programming work to India, and Russia....
But almost nobody is going to HIRE you to work for $20/hr for programming if you are a citizen. You don't "look" cheap. They suspect something. They don't realize that the market for programming is shit dead, and thus ignore beggars.
Table-ized A.I.
I'm a 20 year old computer geek and I'm great at computer troubleshooting, but this isn't as easy as they make it seem. Its hard to find clients. I handed out numbers of cards,flyers and put ads in the paper. I got about two calls.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
We have comprehensive disposal laws for things like used motor oil and leftover paint, but you don't see home users paying fees to dispose of _them_.
I take my used motor oil to the recycling center, but I do not pay a fee.
However, I no longer do my own radiator flushing the way I used to. Disposing of the antifreeze is a WAY bigger hassle to dispose of (because you are not just changing the antifreeze but flushing the entire system).
Now I need to incur a cost to the mechanic for this simple procedure.
50% of all people posses above average intelligence...
I'm a pretty smart guy, and for most problems, sure I can fix those. But every once in a while, you run into something that's been obfuscated by black-box-engineering. You can't figure out what the problem is, without seeing inside. In some cases, it's as simple as spending your money on an incredibly overpriced "xxx Unleashed" book. In other cases, you have to swap out bad hardware, and it could be one of a couple of dozen possible components.
Do you stock your own supply of spare parts? Can you purchase them at cost, or do you have to pay retail for them?
Finally - you'll always eventually hit some problem that you simply can't find answers for, either in expensive documentation - or PAID (cha-ching$$$) support calls to a vendor. Where you get endlessly jerked around. Personally, I could do every facet of this job, except this one, and love it. When I get stumped - and I know the answer's in there, but for a lack of good documentation, you're just plain stuck - as a freelancer.
Hell, even when I've worked for Big Software Company Dot Com, and we had clout with Microsoft - I would hit problems that even Microsoft developer support could not explain. That's a crappy position to be in, and exactly why I am a believer in Open Source. If you can't find someone who understands their own f0cking source code, then you can at least go in and look yourself.
I'm just saying - as a standalone freelance technical consultant, you don't have clout with the vendors, and you can't get the truly nasty problems fixed. Period.
On the other hand, getting $100/hr taking apart iMacs to get CD's out of froze-up slot-loading CD drives ain't a bad way to make a living.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Then don't deal with crap and take money for it. "Everyday computer problems" come from Microsft. If you don't use it at home, why would you recommend it to someone else? Your life is much easier when you get a package of free software together that works, and can administer it with your client's permission via ssh. Now that's worth some money and there is money to be made at it. The other stuff is not worth your time and you should just send it to CompUSA if they insist on M$. There they can understand just how "easy" the world of comercial software is.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
And worse yet, they don't even run ANY flavor of *BSD!
"3) Realization that MS Certification and/or 6-month diploma is NOT a meal ticket. (Note to readers: If you're unemployed and one of these, leave the real work to the pros, go run a convenience store or become a plumber instead)"
10 '---start program---
20 Print "Are you in my field?"; A$
30 '--start loop---
40 If A$="yes" then print "GET OUT!";
50 Print "Whew! Dodged a bullet there";
60 '---bask in the feeling that the field is your exclusive domain--
Although in this case if they don't know what they're doing, they're not stupid, just ignorant. And there's nothing wrong with that, so long as there are people there to step in and counter their ignorance.
However the only thing worse than ignorance is a misguided individual that thinks they know what they're talking about. And somehow these individuals end up in management.
-Look lively. LOOK LIVELY!!! --Mr. Shmallow
Are there enough geeks out there to support all the english tutors?
Too late now, everyones going to be doing it now that they read about it.
Is this the first time an entire job market has been slashdotted?
On the downside, you've just created alot of competition for yourself in NYC..... ;)
Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
gee how might one do this and compete with Indian tech support?
This article ignores the trends in IT currently so how might they infrom the it public then if they did not check their assumptions?
Don't Tread on OpenSource
Free if you can talk them into it.
On a small dish satellite receiver (DirectTV or Dish Network) there's a bit in the antenna (the LNB) that's switched between even and odd transponders by feeding a DC (one of tw voltage levels) signal from the reciever back to the antenna. The signal switches the LNB between clockwise and counterclockwise circular polarization. Even transponders use one polarization, and odd transponders use the other.
When you ran the switch test, you caused control signals to be sent to the relays that switch between two LNBs in your antenna (these are usually low frequency tone controls). The test repeatedly cycled the relays, which tends to clean the contacts. This then allowed the differetn DC signal levels to reach the antenna to switch the LNB to get odd transponders.
Odds are pretty good that you have one or more connectors in the coax running to the antenna that are not sealed and have a little corrosion in them, weakening the DC control signal. Less likely but possible causes include a marginal switch, or a long run of lower quality cable such as RG/59.
The problem with idiots is that if you touch their machine once then the next time something *unrelated* goes wrong they will blame you. I've seen it happen too many times.
I know someone who called a heating contractor to replace a broken furnace igniter. The contractor inspected the furnace, pointed out some potential problems that would have cost extra to have repaired (that the guy's wife declined), replaced the bad part and went on his way. Now, every time *anything* goes wrong with the furnce, the guy's wife gets mad at him for hiring the contractor!
I built a system for someone a year and a half ago - this person was really cheap - wanted the cheapest parts even if they were obsolete. I bit my tounge and built the system and installed Win2K on it. It was working great. Now after a year and a half I get an email complaing "the USB isn't as fast as it used to be, can you spend a Saturday looking at it?". No lie.
I could never do tech-support for idiots for a living....
The "no I won't fix your computer" t-shirt is now my favorite piece of clothing!
Maybe they should hire someone for tech support. Seems their server's not doing so well.
between your frustration tolerance level and the ability to do tech support. Since I'm a typical elitist software developer I cannot stand doing support. In fact, if that were the only job left in the area of computers, I would leave the industry.
;) in addition to my developer job.
I also build houses and have done about 1/2 the labor related jobs on building a house, now I'm a construction manager (connections and being italian help! lol...
I was wondering the same thing, are there really enough users needing tech support to support the entire slashdot community so I issued the following SQL query: SELECT * FROM USERS WHERE CLUE > 0 0 Records returned.... Yep, guess there are!
The Matrix is real... but I'm only visiting!
there is NO SUCH THING as a shortage of idiots. Anyone who doubts that obviously hasn't been reading /. for very long!
see subj .
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
I knew you Gnu Yawkers were nearly as intolerably arrogant and rude as the French, but apparently, you're also STUPIDER.
I was out of work for about 3 months in 2001. I got a job on the sales floor of Best Buy, an sold digital cameras part-time. I was passing out business cards to most of the people coming into Best Buy that wanted help hooking up their new kit charging $40 and hour for home and $80 for businesses. I didn't make tons, but it got me through for another 6 months until I got my latest sys admin job. Doing this is totally against Best Buy policy, so do it at your own risk. If you keep it on the low down like I did, you can really clean up.
I won't even suggest to people a better way of doing things on their computer. I don't touch their computer, and I don't mention anything to them about their computer. If they want to double-click a URL, I stay silent. It's too much of a pain in the ass explaining why they have to double-click "other stuff" and not URLs. If they want to navigate the OS in the clumbsiest manner ever, I don't care. They can right-click -> "Open" every single directory on their computer for all I care. Left-clicking might confuse them. If their screen is at 640x480, I say nothing.
You can't help the helpless; and that's true for a lot more than tech support.
There are plenty of great tools for freelance tech support people, as well as freelance designers. Studiometry is a good example: http://www.oranged.net/software/s/studiometry.html
Arround here, people sort their recyclables and take stuff like oil and paint to a reclamation center.
Blar.
Who in the world contracts Bruce Perens for making a corporate strategy for him? He must be totally out of mind.
You're new to tech/user support, I see...
This should have been at least 90% insightful..
Speak before you think
I have been doing tech support for 3.5 years now and counting. I still have all my marbles, just not always sure where they may be located. I understand people's frustration when dealing with a tier one support level. Where I work we started out with some very good selection of people with all kinds of qualifications and smarts. The hard part was our hands were tied, policy preventing us from doing the job in a way that we would prefer or go as far as we would like. Over time with turn over the quality of the people being brought in has declined significantly with more emphasis being placed on customer service skills than actually fixing the problem. That combined with working for an outsourced company which gets paid by the phone call, you can see that the emphasis is never about fixing the problem, it's all about answering as many calls as possible.
Like to do business with. :-O
Good idea, if the support costs don't kill you. I'd be happy to sign up my mother and mother-in-law...but supporting them might wipe out your profits right there. And you better have WINE on there, cuz the M-I-L needs to run PAF
Sony looked at doing something like this a couple years ago, but they either backed off or bailed out pretty quickly. But using open source and commodity hardware could keep your costs down. As for the disposal issue, don't throw out the case when you upgrade a customer. Slap in a new mobo/cpu, and send that to your next customer for his upgrade. Mobos take up a lot less landfill space than cases, or you can use them to make a huge Beowulf...nevermind. Anyway, being Earth friendly is good PR and could win you a few customers. Cheaper than buying new cases, too.
Might consider partnering with an ISP, so you can offer Joe Computerphobe the Whole Internet Package, with only one number to call when he has a problem. The downside being, you can't blame the other guy when things don't work, which seems to be SOP these days.
Hey, this sounds pretty good. You hiring?
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
I once had to extract cheese from a 5 inch floppy drive in a public computer. I have no idea by what logic it got in there...
The ENIAC Demo Competition
I recall almost two years ago being called by two separate businesses to do some simple computer repair/consulting. One was a non-profit organization where I met the director at a networking luncheon the summer before, and the other was a self-employed business owner that sold window blinds. The non-profit had a virus on a computer running Windows ME, which I purged, and the other needed help in setting up Quickbooks. I charged both people $20 per hour, and they were very happy with their service. Even today, I still look for customers because you never know what they may need. One person in church came in and said that they had computer problems with their computer at work. I handed her my card, and told her that my rate is $25/hour. She balked at that, but my rebuttal was that other places charge as much as $50/hour per incident. I haven't heard from her, so either they got the problem fixed, or they don't want to pay. And such is the cost of doing business, you can't win everybody over.
I'm sure anyone who does programming can agree with this.. I can't count the number of times I've spent adding tons and tons of debug information, trying to figure out why code isn't working, to eventually find out that I used a > instead a <, or misspelled a variable, or something along those lines.
Speak before you think
goddamn, how can you even suggest a union to a computer worker? do you know how they destroy industries?
Yes, it is a 40 hour a week root canal. i have to do it. got help me. the humanity, oh the gore.
ahahahahaha no kidding, it was the same way for me
Actualy Canada (Toronto specificaly) export garbage to the United States. I waiting for some pissed off Customs Agent to ask "Any Fruits or Vegitable back there?" and making the driver open it up for inspection.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
I thought this article is very depressing until I realized that this guy is NOT qualified for anything else.
I'd like to make a point that "household tech support" is a bearable job for someone who knows no more than how to fix a printing problem, because it is "slightly" challenging for him.
I'm not trying to be snobby, but I know for sure that good talents are still high in demand. But there's not a lot of ways to distinguish those from clueless people. Microsoft tries hard to do that in thier job interview, but people still have a database of thier questions. This, my friend, is the biggest problem I see in the industry.
There are too many clueless people with a "tech" title whinning about not getting a job. (HTML programmers, anyone? The writer does not have any credentials.) They should do freeland tech support. I also know really skilled people without a job, but it will be a waste of talent to do this.
One more thing: please don't vote for Bush next time. For one, the corporate tax break did nothing more than sending tech jobs overseas.
I have been doing freelance support, teaching old ladies how to email, setting up home networks, and installing drives and adapters into pc's for a couple years now. If you bust your ass and spend a lot of time and a reasonable amount of money advertising (flyers, newspaper ads, a radio commercial etc. then you can make a fair living at this. You can easily charge $60-$120 for an hours work and you charge even more when small businesses call and need emergency service. I charge 80 an hour at this point and for emergencies at night I have charged as much as 200 an hour. It definitely keeps me in the lunch money while I go to college full time.
Sounds like a bad idea to me. I did tech support for this mostly dial up ISP that covered every inch of missouri and some surrounding states. Every day at that job i grew to hate the phone people more and more, especially when squirrels would eat through their phone lines and they would blame us for connecting at 14.4. I think I would rather wait tables or make sandwiches if I was out of a job then do tech support.
I go to college. I've done IT jobs such as tech support and sysadmin forever, and am now an engineer. Got a broken computer? Case of beer!
I'll do anything for your computer depending on the beer :)
Berto
I got mine through State Farm, which acted as a broker for Fortis. Most independent insurance agents offer catastrophic health insurance policies from various companies. Golden Rule is supposedly one of the bigger insurers for individuals and small businesses. I chose what I did mostly because I get my other insurance from State Farm, who I've never filed a claim with. YMMV and all that.
Medical Savings Account plans are catastrophic insurance policies paired with a tax-deductable savings account. You use the account to pay your routine expenses. Golden Rule offers them. There's a substantial faction of the Republican Party that's pushed MSAs off and on over the past several years, but the Democrats have tied MSAs down with restrictions to the point that you probably don't qualify for them. If everyone could buy a MSA plan then there'd be a lot less demand for socialized medicine, and that would be bad for the nanny state. In the meantine, just get catastrophic insurance and put up with the tax hit you'll take paying routine expenses.
I've worked out a deal with my chiropractor to get adjustments and therapy in exchange for maintaining their office network. Keeps me nice & flexible.
I started freelancing a couple of years ago, and it has grown into a profitable little business. $45.00 an hour, flat rate. IT outsourcing, home users, etc.
I just started making money at it, and I was ready to give up until I got my first real paycheck in the mail last week ($3900.00 for 10 days of work).
I tried advertising in the paper, to no avail. It is a complete waste of money.
I joined the Chamber of Commerce, got some calls from that.
Had my business info pasted on the back of my truck, no calls from that.
I even tried having pens made up with my info, and business cards.
I got some calls from my website http://www.onsite-services.net, but the most work I get is from chasing it down. I have found that to be the best way, since work rarely bangs on my door.
Hope this helps anyone that is looking to get into this line of "work".
PS. It took me 2 years to finally make some decent money.
DISCLAIMER:
I don't believe what I write, and neither should you.
The boss got pointed to spybot S&D at Spybot-S&D by microsoft tech support! Works good for me, the Wife's Windows XP machine sure boots a lot faster after cleaning out 148 spyware programs trying to boot.
The only disadvantage is having to explain why the cute screensaver she downloaded won't intall because it's full of spyware. Same goes for KaZaa et. al. It's free as in beer but they'll take donations.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
for servicing an iLoo! :-D (Just don't ask what the S in BSOD for that one stands for...)
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
Actualy Canada (Toronto specificaly) export garbage to the United States. I waiting for some pissed off Customs Agent to ask "Any Fruits or Vegitable back there?" and making the driver open it up for inspection.
Heheh... I hadn't thought of that.
Here's something about that whole situation which strikes me as very stupid:
Now, you can't honestly tell me that a fleet of at least 20, if not 40, trucks doing endless day-night runs to Michigan is cheaper or more efficient than using rail?
Have the unions really blown the cost of rail transportation so high that it's not even suitable for bulk overland anymore? Why is a train operator (I refuse to call them engineers unless they know the pain of 4 years of differential equations) paid more than a truck driver, when the truck drivers have the added responsibility of steering?
Why is it that the most staunch pro-union activists are also the most militant environmentalists, and don't they see the folly of this situation?
I'm a common sense environmentalist (ie. low-flush toilets are a false economy because you have to flush them 6 times to dispose of the ...dark matter), and this just burns me up.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
Just take about a couple of months of plumbing adn carpentry classes down at the community college (cost about $500), buy a used truck, some tools, and build a website, start handing out cards, advertise a little. Do shower conversions, bathroom tile replacements, clogged toilets, leaky pipes, etc. Best to do extensive practice on your own plumbing first
If you can charge 50 an hour, who cares if you only work 20 hours a week......hell, I really like that idea.
And YOU CAN charge $50 an hour, at least here in Houston. Hell, I talked to a guy about pulling out and replacing some of the tile in my shower and replacing a valve behind the wall, and he wanted $75/hr! He has his own business doing bathroom tile.
Also, a little advantage to that kind of business, I can take off a couple of months at a time whenever I damn well please.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
Naive, my friend, very naive...
But let's explore this: At what point are you safe? What school? What degree? How much experience?
Are you really sure that you can't be replaced?
Once you find out the cupholder can play music, what else is there to know?
He dropped down into commiseration mode: the corners of his mouth drooped, his head ducked, he took a Hapsburg stance--his feet angled, his left foot perpendicular to his right, heel against arch, his torso yawed a few degrees off center, his hands lightly on his hips--
...A crowd gathered around him. The music starts. He starts dancing his infamous Geek Ramba. The crowd goes wild. In mid stride, he slings off his leather Lord of the Rings jacket revealing a homemade Bittorrent t-shirt, a fresh nametag from the latest Star Trek convention, and a platinum necklace with a giant emblem in the shape of a penguin...
The last part of the article talks about a machine that was supposedly going to die from dust. So, here's a true tech-support story about dust for the amusement of all who read here.
One of the schools in the district where I worked was putting things back together after the summer. They had been shut down for a few weeks while the contractors expanded and reworked their offices. A couple of the secretaries spotted me and another tech guy wandering around on other business and called us in. Drat.
Their system (an old P120/P133 era pizzabox Dell) wouldn't boot. It would do a little bit, but not all the way. It's been a few years, but I think it was one of those multiple-beep "I can't do video" POST failure situations.
The other guy picks up the phone and starts calling Dell. Meanwhile, I put it all together and start dismantling the setup, moving the monitor from the top of the machine to the floor. I had no screwdriver, but those machines had thumbscrews, so what I wanted to do would be simple.
Meanwhile, he's reading the ID numbers off the machine and starts giving the school address so they can start the RMA process. I unscrewed the thumbscrews, popped the lid, then motioned for the secretaries to back up. They did, then I sucked in a bunch of air and went WHOOOOOOOOSH, blowing a huge cloud of construction-related dust out. Then I put the case and monitor back on top, and hit the power button.
It booted. The other guy said "uhh, cancel" and hung up on the Dell technician. The secretaries were happy.
On the way out the door, they asked "how often should we do that?" They aren't geeks, but they can handle obvious things like that. When the box goes from broken to working and all I did was blow out the crap, the magic veil of technology is lifted.
There are some companies out there that look for freelance computer geeks, such as the likes of:
Support Freaks
Geeks On Time
And much more.
You've got to be VERY careful when you're working for these companies. Sometimes, you'll find out that they're either going to a) overwork you with little or no pay, or b) give you a completely different job than what you've bid on. Support Freaks in particular, they seem to be infamous for billing disputes and other oddities that don't get you paid. I've never really worked with geeks on time, however, I've had a friend who was dispatched to the wrong address, then was kicked out because he missed his appointment, when it was their fault. It's a tech beware market.
I disable sigs...do you?
I've been doing 'spare time' consulting for years - I choose my clients carefully and I've made a reasonable amount of extra money doing it and helped a lot of good people. Do it for a LIVING....? Hm. Let me think about thatNO. Too much fluctuation in demand, even the GOOD clients can make life miserable and, of course, there's just software/hardware weirdness sometimes. If you're VEEWWWY CAREFUL... you MIGHT be able to scrape up enough $$ for rent on a small apt.... but don't expect to live large.
Milk and cookies indeed.
Same here. I charge $25/hour and my clients love me to death. All you have to do is be polite and patient and an average call nets $50-$100 and they ALWAYS want to schedule more time. I can't count how many times I've sat and read the manual (LITERALLY!) to some clients. They apologize endlessly about 'being stupid'. I pat them on the shoulder and say 'You're not stupid'. Amazing how far that goes - specially with the over-60 crowd. They just want someone who will LISTEN and HELP and BE POLITE. I almost feel bad taking their money. Almost. But not quite. Compassion is definitely saleable and durable goods.
This wouldn't be nearly so funny if it weren't true!! Definitely. Telling AOL users "you PAID for support" tastes REALLY good. So does "I don't support Microsoft applications". I get a little glow inside after calls like that.
Thinkgeek is reporting that sales of one kind of t-shirt are markedly lower ...
Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
Considering probably 4 of 5 computers has spyware dribbling out of every orifice, I'd say there's plenty of business.
In fact, as long as MS is the market leader in OS and desktop "productivity" software, tech support should thrive.
.sigs are for post^Hers.
1. A+ certification may not be a bad idea. Idiotic as it may be, this "proves" you know how to work on PCs. Some computer vendors may actually void a warrenty if a PC isn't worked on by an A+ certified tech.
2. Have contracts. Doesn't need to be anything especially fancy, but have something to protect yourself. Often you can get legal forms from those "home attorny" software packages.
3. I would advertise in the phonebook, not newspapers. Quick, you have a computer issue, do you look through that old pile of newspapers?
4. Use name brand hardware only. No CompUSA rebate specials. In the likely event that something doesn't work with that special deal hardware, you could spend ten times as long. Forget about tech support, forget about taking it back.
5. Backup. Don't do anything you can't back out of. Don't forget that some users like hide important files - don't assume everything is in my documents. Don't assume users have installation cds for their software apps.
6. Very often the fastest way to fix a PC, is to back up what you can. Format the drive and re-install everything.
7. Bring as many tools as you can. It seems like the one thing you leave behind is always what you need.
That's about all I can think of right now. Can anybody else think of anything?
If you read all the posts from people who would never, ever, do this, because users are SUCH idiots...
How many of those posts do you think are from people whom the original author would have thought were idiots?
All the really *good* computer people I know cope just fine with tech support. It's basic professionalism; you have to do stuff like this occasionally, and it's really no skin off your nose to be polite to the people who are ignorant by comparison to you.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
"The ones that last past this burn out stage are the people who know how to deal with the customers, and not to take anything personally..."
3-1/2 years. And yes I was GLAD to be escorted out the door. What did me in wasn't so much the customers, as it was the constant rain of BS from above. Rock and a hard place.
"It could flood the harddrive with shit."
The machine came that way from Dell.
It's a LOT easier, and makes you look more the hero, to show up with the parts, and tools, you need, rather than sending the customer to Best Buy to purchase everything.
And, of course, there's less risk of them just having Best Buy install that new modem.
Just once, I'd like it if someone called me "Sir".
Without adding, "You're creating a scene."
Whenever someone calls me with a computer questions, or sends me an IM with a computer question, I send them to this link that I made specifically:
http://www.bertrandom.com/waifg/
Most (all?) Windows desktop machines sold since about 2000 have a 'sticker of authenticity' stuck on the back somewhere. As ever, IANAL, but I imagine that checking for that sticker would cover you for due diligence in checking that they are licenced. MS aren't going to be bothered by some freelancer who uses a licenced copy of Windows to repair a licenced installation.
In case anyone missed this, here's a slightly on-topic classic Onion article:
t ec hnology.html
http://www.theonion.com/onion3636/counterpoint_
--falz
You're aiming too low. Tackle the small-businesses in your area; offer to sell-lease a stack of K6-2s or other surplus machine as firewall, fileservers, etc. (Determine risk; a single OpenBSD box running both pf and SAMBA may still be more reliable/secure than a Win '95 machine wide open to the 'net.) More important than firewalling, offer a backup solution - a cheap software RAID, be it IDE or SCSI, and show up once a week to swap drives offsite, or manage it all over the network if they have a DSL link.
Yes, it's work - but if you don't know how to do it, you shouldn't be marketing GNU/Linux or *BSD at all.
My previous employer is already using a freelance geek ... used to be a Microsoft-only admin, but I corrupted him. Free samples of Windows vresions of the GIMP and OpenOffice got him hooked, then I switched him to the hard stuff. Knoppix and RedHat. Now he's mainlining SourceForge and just hired another freelance DB to set up open source MRP.
Yeah. And you can earn $16.00 to $24.00 an hour by stuffing envelopes in your house.
I do:
-----
- Hand-deliver leaflets about my service to local houses
- Put my land line phone number in my leaflet
- Mainly work only within my local phone area code
- Ask customers to sign my "Terms Of Service" and make them keep a copy
- Give away OpenOffice on CD at every opportunity
- Distribute the Opera web browser
- Distribute the Eudora email manager
- Use Knoppix for testing PCs
- Tell customers to leave me alone while I'm working ("Leave it with me... I'll call you when it's ready")
- Offer all money back if the customer is dissatisfied (very rarely happens)
- Encourage people to consider alternatives to Windows in order to get safe email
- Keep on good terms with my local computer shop as they are invaluable backup.
I don't
-------
- Work for anyone who quibbles my Terms Of Service
- Work for friends or family
- Work too cheap
- Have a web-site
- Promise too much
- Sell Windows XP
- Support Outlook anything
- Support Internet Explorer
- Support Kazaa, Instant Messenger anything, Grokster or any of those other annoying things.
To make a success of this job I think you have to be a 'lifer'. That means, started with computers in childhood, always been willing to help people with their computer problems, always done computer jobs.
I think customers are not stupid. They can instantly tell the difference between a long time expert (a 'lifer') and a wannabe who doesn't really know what he is talking about.
In the first six months I was sometimes in tears because things had gone wrong and this is where a supportive girlfriend or wife or family is essential. After a year I have taken the worst the job can give me and I don't get upset when things go wrong any more.
I think the key qualifications are:
- Started with computers in childhood
- Always been willing to help people with computers
- Always done computer jobs.
In my opinion it is not something you can go to school to learn. In my case I'm happy to say it's the best job I've ever done and also ironically the only secure job I've ever had.
Everyone who uses Windows comes to this point because it stops working and must be "rebuilt" to "clean" it. Still, I don't do windows because other people do that better than me. I send them on their way. I will set people up to dual boot, because that way nothing is lost, but I don't try to fix Windows problems. This is a solution I use myself and recomend to everyone.
Seems like that kind of user would benefit more from the UI research that Microsoft has put into Windows than they would from the stability of Linux.
What UI research? Most M$ "innovations" come from aquiring them and they state publicly that they won't get into a "market" before it has "matured". Microsoft UIs are no exception to this rule. Derivative at best and little changed since their quick and dirty beginings at their worst. I prefer the substantial effort put into the Next desktop, which is available from many fine free window managers, Window Maker and Afterstep. For those corrupted by M$ thinking and habits, KDE provides a superior interface. Nothing is wrong with using other people's ideas unless you consistently pick the worst implementations. The absolute worst thing to do is maintain some kind of consistency with an interface that never was very good.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
All you will become doing that is a glorified hi-tech Janitor - you stop creating things and just clean up others messes (Microsofts, the user's or some previous consultant's.)
I've done it, it sucks. Sure it may pay good at times but what are YOU really accomplishing by doing it?
- Learning the tricks to Windows Troubleshooting?
- Installing x program for the XXXth time?
- Learning the hard way how bad computer xxx is or program yyy is?
What you are doing is mucking around cleaning up after someone else with a "real job," that's what. Not much better then saying "Would you like some fries with that?" If you know you are better than that, you should not lower yourself into it too deeply (if at all) and get trapped!
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
When I was in my undergraduate program, I found the best way to make a ton of fast cash at the beginning of the semester.
Charge freshmen to setup their computers on the internet. At the time I was working for the school IT department, seting up faculty and staff computers. The IT dept had a "free setup evening" which was about 5 days after the freshmen showed up for classes. People would have to haul their computer across campus and wait in line for over three hours. I showed up at their dorm rooms, charged them $10/hr or a pizza and 2L coke. Either one, their choice. I hung up some flyers and VOILA! Profit.
Trust me, Freshmen are LOADED in the first weeks of school. Do you remember how much money you got for graduating from high school?
"One touch of Darwin makes the whole world kin." George Bernard Shaw
Have you ever wanted to have a 1-900 type number and charge people by the min for helping them with there computer problems I do it and I found that its a great web site for helping people and getting help *this isnt a ad this is just what i do*
Linux is like living in a teepee. No Windows, no Gates, Apache in house.
I use Keen.com for tech support I also call some of the people there it works like a 1-900 number *this is not a ad im just telling people what I use*
Linux is like living in a teepee. No Windows, no Gates, Apache in house.
Judging by the number of responses, this looks like a hot topic that hits a nerve.
/.'ed and they're likely to have informational/pamphlet type websites that take up a few hundred Kbytes.
Hopefully someone reads this...
First off, The Rant:
Home users are not often a cinch. Neither are many small businesses. I also find particularaly that medical offices can be a pain.
Reason being is that many in the above mentioned group buy the cheapest computers featuring the lowest of low quality components. Drivers that aren't available on upgrading to another OS or drivers that can't be found without spending hours browsing the web.
Even if you have all the drivers, some really cheap clones can take much longer than an equivalent computer with quality parts to install the O/S. HD grinding away for god knows what reason. (no, not smardisk.exe)
Then there is the matter of laptop/notebook computers. I decided to take one home to work on (a compaq Presario 1400 series one). It's apparently not fully compatable (NIC card) with Windows XP (which the client bought for it). And to top it all off, on the final reboot, the laptop hung. The only way to power it down was to pull the battery and PSU. When I put everything back in, the green LED indicating that an external PSU was connected but it wouldn't turn back on.
Apparently I need a new motherboard. I don't have insurance for this and I'm saving up to buy a new mobo for this laptop.
Where does responsibility start and end????
End Rant.
Otherwise, freelance work is great. No corporate know nothing IT manager breathing down your back wondering why you're taking so much time holding a customer's hand, no politics, ability to fire your customers should they become unreasonable (more by way of raising rates).
For a perpetual source of income, alot of the small companies you service tend to need websites and e-mail. If you have the technical know-how, find some cheap moderate bandwidth co-location, setup your favourite flavour of *nix and host away. Be selective about who you take on as a client. Most of these small businesses won't likely get
Or, you could do the obvious thing: click on the CD to select it, then choose "Eject Disk" from the "Special" menu.
Honestly, I can't believe how many wankers are STILL on Apple's case about the trash-eject shortcut.
"Mein Name ist Karl, ich bin expert!"
:)
"Beaver... you mean vagina?"
LOL everybody should see "The Big Lebowski!" I love that movie. Of course, if the word "fuck" bothers you, then never mind. (or did you mean "coitus"?)
I recently joined a three-person IT services/web developer shop, and I'm starting to do much of the tech support for existing clients. Prior to this gig, I worked with a team to refresh 1500+ PCs at a major oil and gas company (six month contract) -- using ZenWORKS to reimage the PCs and install custom applications at $30 per hour, and each PC took from two to four hours to complete (laptops could take a whole day). Yeah, during the boom I was deploying NT4 servers and stuff like that, and I've also worked on a large Sybase data migration, but now it's mostly PC tech support at $85 per hour (some clients pre-purchase a support contract of x hours per month, because they get a lower rate and we get guaranteed income). I'm making more money than ever. I even get to use my iBook 500 to Remote Desktop Connect to Win2K Dell servers to manage them (sometimes over WiFi from my backyard deck). And installing Windows security patches is a dependable source of billable hours. Woo-hoo! Thank you, Bill Gates! LOL
Usually if there is money to be made in something, larger companies that have organized infrastructure, insurance, marketing, etc. will swamp the little guy.
So, where is the Roto Rooter of custom computer support?
Table-ized A.I.
since I'm unemployed.
I checked out Craigslist and found about 150 ads from people doing the same thing.
This means two things:
1) There's a lot of competition.
2) There's a lot of business.
Which is what the article said.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
n/m
Those "oldsters" are the ones that broke with many stereotypes and conventions in the 60s.
Treat them as you would treat the previous generations and they will feel you are patronizing them.
As you actually do in your post.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
to know that there are only two possibilities. A) You're gay. B) You're full of shit.
Freelancing is good if you have time, patience, a running vehicle, a source for medical insurance (a family memeber that can provide you with it or something like that), and lack of private life. The last one is really important: how much does your free time cost?
I could not survive through college without doing something on the side, so I started freelancing. I had some decent jobs for $60+/hr and I really enjoyed them. That was until I realized that I had my health insurance paid for (thanks mom!) and that freelancing was not the job that I wanted to do until the retirement. It was a decent source of income until I had clients calling me at 9 p.m. during my vacation time in Maine. Moreover there were several issues that bothered me the most.
First of all, there were clients that wanted more for less all the time. They were pain in my neck and I could not handle them anymore. Secondly, my moral values kicked in: I could not charge an old lady $60/hr for fixing her background or moving menu items around. I knew some people who made $400/night for performing really easy stuff, like setting up an email account in Mac OS X and playing with the dock; unfortunately, I could not do it. Most of the people that I delt with were not smart enough to figure out how to do simple tasks and I felt bad for making them pay for their own stupidity. Additionally, I did felt frustrated whenever I had to explain how Internet worked for the tenth time.
When I graduated from college freelancing was not an option anymore: I had to have medical insurance and some stability. A freelancing job could offer none. Plus, none of the freelancing jobs that I have ever seen seemed to be challenging and that is what I disliked the most. With the economy down the crapper, I chose to be a manager at a local company. It pays my bills and allows me to take advanced computer science and business classes. I'd rather learn something cool and apply it in my future open source projects than play with somebody's 'home page.'
Please do not judge me hard, that is my own opinion and I do not claim that everybody who does freelancing feels the same way. The better question to post is whether unemployed IT professionals should storm the White House and demand job security rather than settle for freelancing and instability.
I did house call tech support for a summer in my neighborhood. I charged 30$ an hour to drive to peoples houses and fix their comp. When you have someone comp in front of you, you don't have to explain anything to them, they just want to to see it working again.
But even then idiots always manage to find a way of causing problems. Another problem is people always call up on the phone and try to get free tech support. They think it's like calling the manufacturer of a product. The pay was decent but all the driving and dumb problems weren't worth it.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
The author quoted you in his story.
I have been doing this very thing for 6.5 years, and you hit the nail on the head in both articles!!