Volunteering in tech building and fixing computers?

[CuriousBread]

Maybe I'm getting old, maybe it's something else but I've found I really don't enjoy video games as much as I used to. I still LOVE building and troubleshooting them! I could just buy lots of parts and build an awesome rig! But in the end of the day most of the time all I think I'd really use it for is to watch YouTube and browse the web save for the OCCASIONAL gaming. 

 

Is there some activity or volunteering thingy that would let me work on computer outside of my dayjob? I'll happily do it for free. I like doing this. I mean I could get CompTIA A+ if it comes to it. I like learning as is. Volunteering at a computer shop for free? Just walk in and ask if they need free help on the weekend lol? 

[RONOTHAN##]

You might find some sort of e-recycler that wants volunteers, or I have seen some refurbishers that works as a form of after school activity that are probably looking for some sort of help. The latter is not very common, the one I'm aware of was like an hour away in a not super great part of town (I bought a gaming machine from there before), but it's probably worth looking into seeing if there's some sort of program like that setup near you. It really just depends on what's available near you, you might have a great program close by, you might not.

 

The method you might find more fun though is just parting out old/slightly busted systems on FB Marketplace. Find systems people are selling for cheap with decent hardware in it, take it apart, clean it up, put it back together after trouble shooting it and flip it for a couple extra dollars. You get to play with a lot of cool hardware that way, you make a bit of lunch money, learn how to troubleshoot some really weird issues and incompatibilities, and then get it out of your basement. Again, this does depend a bit on how active your used market is, but it's a bit more consistently doable than trying to track down one of those above programs. 

 

As for the whole working for free thing at like an actual, for profit computer shop, there's almost certainly some issues with this (legal and ethical) that I'll let someone who can articulate it better explain. All I know is this probably isn't an option, you want to either find a non-profit and volunteer or do the FB marketplace route. 

[dilpickle]

When you have to troubleshoot PCs as a job you're probably not going to find it fun anymore. Especially if you are not getting paid. 

[Birblover12]

Sounds like you might like BestBuy's Geek Squad. They're pretty limited iirc on what they can do in terms of repairing (they have a strict list of things they can do/should do) but if you really want a job that involved repairing or doing PCs they're pretty good.

 

Otherwise, just ask around. Perhaps go to a community college or university and ask around and see if their IT Department needs any help, chances are you might find they need some extra hands. Networking is key (you've prob heard that a lot already) so just put yourself out there and see what happens!

[BobVonBob]

The only volunteer place I know that does this kind of thing is Free Geek. There are a few locations in cities around the US. If you don't live near one, I don't know of much else. In most countries a commercial entity can't let you help for free because of labor laws. (imagine, "oh no we don't have employees, they're all volunteers")

[CuriousBread]

20 hours ago, dilpickle said:

When you have to troubleshoot PCs as a job you're probably not going to find it fun anymore. Especially if you are not getting paid. 

19 hours ago, BobVonBob said:

The only volunteer place I know that does this kind of thing is Free Geek. There are a few locations in cities around the US. If you don't live near one, I don't know of much else. In most countries a commercial entity can't let you help for free because of labor laws. (imagine, "oh no we don't have employees, they're all volunteers")

Yeah the problem is FreeGeek shut down a few months ago. I found a few other recycling establishments as well but I don't want to be just used as like free-labour for some for-profit enterprise lol. FreeGeeks is now referring people to reBOOT Canada but they aren't looking for people unfortunately. 

19 hours ago, Birblover12 said:

Sounds like you might like BestBuy's Geek Squad. They're pretty limited iirc on what they can do in terms of repairing (they have a strict list of things they can do/should do) but if you really want a job that involved repairing or doing PCs they're pretty good.

 

Otherwise, just ask around. Perhaps go to a community college or university and ask around and see if their IT Department needs any help, chances are you might find they need some extra hands. Networking is key (you've prob heard that a lot already) so just put yourself out there and see what happens!

 

I'd like to do some GeekSquad stuff on the weekends! But they aren't looking for people right now in my area. Just like.... walk into the IT help-desk of my local college and go "hey...you guys looking for some extra hands? I'm a free guy." 

 

 

20 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

You might find some sort of e-recycler that wants volunteers, or I have seen some refurbishers that works as a form of after school activity that are probably looking for some sort of help. The latter is not very common, the one I'm aware of was like an hour away in a not super great part of town (I bought a gaming machine from there before), but it's probably worth looking into seeing if there's some sort of program like that setup near you. It really just depends on what's available near you, you might have a great program close by, you might not.

 

The method you might find more fun though is just parting out old/slightly busted systems on FB Marketplace. Find systems people are selling for cheap with decent hardware in it, take it apart, clean it up, put it back together after trouble shooting it and flip it for a couple extra dollars. You get to play with a lot of cool hardware that way, you make a bit of lunch money, learn how to troubleshoot some really weird issues and incompatibilities, and then get it out of your basement. Again, this does depend a bit on how active your used market is, but it's a bit more consistently doable than trying to track down one of those above programs. 

 

As for the whole working for free thing at like an actual, for profit computer shop, there's almost certainly some issues with this (legal and ethical) that I'll let someone who can articulate it better explain. All I know is this probably isn't an option, you want to either find a non-profit and volunteer or do the FB marketplace route. 

 

So basically like flipping computers? I see a lot of basically ANCIENT computers for sale in my area, not sure why'd anyone buy a Xeon E5-2630 in this day and age. Feels like if I bring it home I'm basically just gonna be hoarding e-waste. Have you done it before? 

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, CuriousBread said:

So basically like flipping computers? I see a lot of basically ANCIENT computers for sale in my area, not sure why'd anyone buy a Xeon E5-2630 in this day and age. Feels like if I bring it home I'm basically just gonna be hoarding e-waste. Have you done it before?

Yeah, I've done some flipping computers before. My used market is actually fairly competitive, so I can get some relatively new components that are still worth something, plus some more collectors edition items from time to time. There is some old e-waste type gear on there from time to time, as well as people who want insane amount of money for stuff (there's someone near me who wants $800 for a 9900KS), so you just need to get good at filtering it out and just getting what looks kind of interesting, then flipping it before it loses value (assuming it's not something collectors edition that will actually gain value somehow, say Rampage III Black Editions, Gigabyte GA-X58-A OC anything K|NGP|N Edition that's over 4 years old, Z170M OC Formula, etc.). Granted, if you don't live somewhere with a somewhat active used market, that might not be an option.