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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.
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
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.
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
$5 an hour with free cookies and milk to boot.
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.
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!
[Knock Knock Knock]
Customer: Who is it?
Techie: Tech support.
Customer: I didn't call for any tech support!
Techie: Yes sir, I know. I am in the door to door tech support business. Can I interest you in some high quality tech support? My rates are very reasonable!
Customer: No, thanks. Goodb...
Techie: Are you sure you don't have bugs to troubleshoot?
Customer: No, really, thanks for coming, but....
Techie: Perhaps I could install some peripherals for you?
Customer: No!
Techie: Maybe I could run anti-virus software and defrag your hard drive. That's the special of the day!
Customer: No!
Techie: Any mysterious crashes I can diagnose, and then tell you you need to put in some more RAM and reinstall your operating system?
Customer: Well... wait, NO!
Techie: Maybe I could just open and close all your windows. I offer that service for only a dollar!
Customer: Go away or I'm calling the cops!
-- I Am Not A Terrorist.
I had a friend of mine, genius he wasn't, who tried this. His website is full of typos and grammar errors. That would fill me with confidence as a client.
My fave consulting story: he begs me once that he needs me to help fix someone's printer. Mac couldn't print. After some convincing (I was jealous he was doing it and I knew i was too lazy to get off my ass) I went over. Tried some basic stuff, didn't work. Went to core simple things:
Printer plugged in? yep, light on and everything.
Cable plugged into Mac? yep.
AppleTalk turned off on serial port? yep.
Printer cable plugged into printer? ummm, nope.
The kid also had a PowerCD, essentially a CD player you could use as a portable or hook to the Mac (i told you this was years ago). Kid wanted to show me some games, so to show me, he shut the computer down, removed the CD and restarted it. My jaw dropped slightly. "Umm, you know you can drag the CD to the trash can to eject it". "Wow, just like a floppy?" "yeah," I said "just like a floppy". I asked my 'consultant' friend why didn't he teach the kid that. He said "well, I didn't want to confuse him." Oh, so to not confuse him, you show him an alternate way of ejecting a CD instead of showing its just like all removable media. Umm, OK.
Hmm, then again this is the same guy who's car was on fire, didn't notice it, and when a cop pulls him over to kill the flames, pulls into a gas station.
Silly thing is, he got a lot of clients, including one of The Kennedys. He's going to her house, in her car, and she says "I have to stop by work for a second." Pulls up to the Merchandise Mart, at one time the only commercial building in the US with it's own ZIP code (they've since sold off their interests). he goes "wow, you work there?" "Kind of, I own it." Goes to show, sometimes you don't need to be smart, just have to look smart to the people paying you.
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 :)
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
"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
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.
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 that what boobs that are a few credits short of a Community College degree and badly printed business cards have been trying to do for years?
That's me.
Except that some of my clients have grown, and my business has grown with it. In 7 years we went from
Me - fixing windows 95 CD-ROM drivers.
to
Me and four other people - making accounting packages with PostgreSQL and XUL, installing OpenBSD firewalls/WAN, FreeBSD file-servers, making KDE apps that are served with Linux, and all sorts of other fun stuff.
All the while making a shit-load of money.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
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
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!
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?