Wondering what a technician job is like

[RileyTheFox]

So. Gonna throw this out there, because YOLO. I'm 11. I can hear your cries and moans that a little kid is here.

 

But, since about 2 years ago. I've basically fallen in love with building computers and stuff (even though I apparently have anxiety to computers crashing over at this thread) So, this has made my dream job to be a technician. Now I'm already thinking "Do technicians get enough customers to keep going" And by technician I mean, have your own store on a street and people walk in and need help etc. But it's becoming more common to see people getting more and more knowledgeable in technology, which makes the technician not needed as much. So, with this happening, I want technicians here at the LTT Forums to kindly give info on how many customers a week and (this is optional) a really bad estimation to how much money you would roughly earn in a week (say you got £2000 in a week, reply saying you earned £1382)

 

Obviously in the years to come the job of a technician will become less and less depended on but I'd just like to know if it's a job worth putting my life towards.

 

Additional things you could add: Mention if you sell off PC parts to customers and if you think the time it takes to repair a PC/build one is worth the money you get out of it.

 

I'd like to note that I don't want exact details on what you earn, I'm not someone looking to steal your credit card  

[Samtell]

Oh well they sit at the computer at home and answer people in their inaudible accent while eating curry. Then they rest while playing on their graphing calculator. 

[RileyTheFox]

3 minutes ago, Samtell said:

Oh well they sit at the computer at home and answer people in their inaudible accent while eating curry. Then they rest while playing on their graphing calculator. 

Oh yea I forgot I could just become a scammer  in all seriousness I am actually looking for answers to this 

[manikyath]

well, the "store with people walking in" folks... look at louis rossmann on youtube if you want to know how "fun" that can be

 

if you're part of the IT team, forget all the things you learn about ideals, because they dont exist in the real world.

 

the third option is being a "service after sale" person at a tech store, which *can* be fun, or has the high likelyhood of being a nightmare.

[RileyTheFox]

3 minutes ago, manikyath said:

well, the "store with people walking in" folks... look at louis rossmann on youtube if you want to know how "fun" that can be

 

if you're part of the IT team, forget all the things you learn about ideals, because they dont exist in the real world.

 

the third option is being a "service after sale" person at a tech store, which *can* be fun, or has the high likelyhood of being a nightmare.

And I thought my cables were bad in my PC.

 

What's a "service after sale" person?

[desertcomputer]

Well first try paying for your own living such as power/water/internet, better of starting at home because the cost of opening a store front is alot up front money which you prob dont have and not able to get loan from the bank. If your shop is located at shit place you won't get any business which mean you won't able to pay for your bill and result in losing money. I would suggest helping your family and friends, first few time is gonna have to be free of charge but after a while you can start asking for small amount of your time. I have setup basically a "safe' backdoor into all my computer i have built (with their agreement ofc) which allows me to remote access and fix most common problem without leaving my home and driving for 20+ mins to fix a problem that could be fix my closing the program....

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, EvilCat70 said:

What's a "service after sale" person?

essentially, like this:

- store sells you a boxed graphics card

- you go home, it doesnt work

- you return

- the "service after sale" person helps you out, and either concludes you made a mistake installing it and helps you with doing that correctly, they either conclude its broken and get you a new one, or they conclude that you're trying to trick them somehow (seriously, it happens, paulshardware shared a story where someone returned a "super high end processor" that he then tossed into a test rig and showed up as a "quite a bit cheaper" processor)

 

its essentially the person that either disappoints, or makes customers happy, when they have unforeseen problems. and as a result you'll either love your job, or want to stab yourself every day.

[RileyTheFox]

2 minutes ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

Well first try paying for your own living such as power/water/internet, better of starting at home because the cost of opening a store front is alot up front money which you prob dont have and not able to get loan from the bank. If your shop is located at shit place you won't get any business which mean you won't able to pay for your bill and result in losing money. I would suggest helping your family and friends, first few time is gonna have to be free of charge but after a while you can start asking for small amount of your time. I have setup basically a "safe' backdoor into all my computer i have built (with their agreement ofc) which allows me to remote access and fix most common problem without leaving my home and driving for 20+ mins to fix a problem that could be fix my closing the program....

Yea gotta pay for some water and electric  Would also applying to a small tech store on a busy street also work (based on the fact if it's still open by the time I start working) as a temporary? 

[_JohnB330ci]

So I work as a full time IT Technician, 40 Hours a week, 8 Hours a day, and it's a shit job, I don't encourage anyone to do it. IT Technicians don't often get paid a huge amount, and its often minimum wage. The work in itself is fine, it can get repetitive and normally things revolving around desktops are less common, because the mass market of buyers is focused around Laptops, Tablets, Phones, and All-in-ones. 

 

I'm starting as an IT Technician in Laptops so that I can get the training and experience to go onto a better job, however decent paying jobs are a lot harder to find due to the amount of people that look for them. It's hard to live off of the wage I get £15k a year (UK minimum) and certainly is no glamorous lifestyle. If I was in your position I'd put your education towards something more involved like Circuitry or something based around coding. Jobs revolving around soldering with electronics can be easier to find as it's often they're looking for people with qualifications in electrical engineering/oe, software based jobs can pay a lot more.

 

ALSO if you want to run your own business you need a lot of workers on cheap wages with pre determined places to buy and sell goods, and then go customer repairs on the side, because you wont get enough to make a decent living. IT Technicians focusing on hardware nowadays, fix broken to shit laptops, and then resell them, in bulk, a lot of god damn bulk. We get around 400 Laptops in every Wednesday, and test them, then fix, then install, then resell.

[snagals]

Well the amount of customers depends a lot of where you are. In big cities you have way more people but more shops too. Don`t expect earning a lot when you start. I am doing this for 13 years now and  the first 6 were building my name and earning not bad but not good too. Now I am earning about 3-4 times more than the average people in the region in the slow months but I deal mostly with companies. 

 

I don`t like the idea for a shop on the street. I have an office but I mostly work onsite with the clients (Its a pain but better paid). 

 

Our job changes all the time so its hard to plan it in the future. As an owner of a PC shop I know said: "Its quite possible after 5 years we will be TV technicians whit the changes in computers. "

 

In my case I am both a tech and a sysadmin of a company. Get into software support, Selling computers has limits, but the users stupidity is infinite

[RileyTheFox]

2 minutes ago, SherifsDog22 said:

So I work as a full time IT Technician, 40 Hours a week, 8 Hours a day, and it's a shit job, I don't encourage anyone to do it. IT Technicians don't often get paid a huge amount, and its often minimum wage. The work in itself is fine, it can get repetitive and normally things revolving around desktops are less common, because the mass market of buyers is focused around Laptops, Tablets, Phones, and All-in-ones. 

 

I'm starting as an IT Technician in Laptops so that I can get the training and experience to go onto a better job, however decent paying jobs are a lot harder to find due to the amount of people that look for them. It's hard to live off of the wage I get £15k a year (UK minimum) and certainly is no glamorous lifestyle. If I was in your position I'd put your education towards something more involved like Circuitry or something based around coding. Jobs revolving around soldering with electronics can be easier to find as it's often they're looking for people with qualifications in electrical engineering/oe, software based jobs can pay a lot more.

I was going to do all the programming but I find myself not being able to find any resources to learn from. I started to do things like Java for Minecraft servers and I did very small C++ programs. It's a shame my school doesn't offer any extra classes to be able to learn programming because if they did I'd take it in a heartbeat 

[_JohnB330ci]

1 minute ago, EvilCat70 said:

I was going to do all the programming but I find myself not being able to find any resources to learn from. I started to do things like Java for Minecraft servers and I did very small C++ programs. It's a shame my school doesn't offer any extra classes to be able to learn programming because if they did I'd take it in a heartbeat 

if you school doesn't offer it, do them online, there are free and paid courses that are provided by universities, this is in order to get qualifications you may need to take classes at certain universities, not all of your grades have to be gained within a physical school, you can do a lot of learning at home.

[RileyTheFox]

4 minutes ago, snagals said:

Well the amount of customers depends a lot of where you are. In big cities you have way more people but more shops too. Don`t expect earning a lot when you start. I am doing this for 13 years now and  the first 6 were building my name and earning not bad but not good too. Now I am earning about 3-4 times more than the average people in the region in the slow months but I deal mostly with companies. 

 

I don`t like the idea for a shop on the street. I have an office but I mostly work onsite with the clients (Its a pain but better paid). 

 

Our job changes all the time so its hard to plan it in the future. As an owner of a PC shop I know said: "Its quite possible after 5 years we will be TV technicians whit the changes in computers. "

 

In my case I am both a tech and a sysadmin of a company. Get into software support, Selling computers has limits, but the users stupidity is infinite

Hhm, onsite does seem better (get to ask for a cup of tea etc)

[_JohnB330ci]

1 minute ago, EvilCat70 said:

Hhm, onsite does seem better (get to ask for a cup of tea etc)

With onsite there is a lot more to consider don't forget, if you're working for yourself you have to think about fuel costs, vehicles, distances, equipment you'll need, finding clients etc. 

[RileyTheFox]

2 minutes ago, SherifsDog22 said:

if you school doesn't offer it, do them online, there are free and paid courses that are provided by universities, this is in order to get qualifications you may need to take classes at certain universities, not all of your grades have to be gained within a physical school, you can do a lot of learning at home.

Yea I tried that Codeacademy but I found that a lot of the courses are just premium stuff which I don't have the money to put towards 

[SCHISCHKA]

7 minutes ago, SherifsDog22 said:

So I work as a full time IT Technician, 40 Hours a week, 8 Hours a day, and it's a shit job, I don't encourage anyone to do it. IT Technicians don't often get paid a huge amount, and its often minimum wage.

this is what i was going to say. in NZ its done by immigrants

[RileyTheFox]

1 minute ago, SherifsDog22 said:

With onsite there is a lot more to consider don't forget, if you're working for yourself you have to think about fuel costs, vehicles, distances, equipment you'll need, finding clients etc. 

You've got a point. Equipment not hard to find really, I picked up a full bag of PC case screw for like £1 on eBay. If the client is nearby, I'd just walk there  

[_JohnB330ci]

2 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

this is what i was going to say. in NZ its done by immigrants

Practically the same in the UK, I'm only there due to finishing an apprenticeship so I wont be there forever, I will be moving on eventually, probably soon.

[desertcomputer]

13 minutes ago, EvilCat70 said:

Yea gotta pay for some water and electric  Would also applying to a small tech store on a busy street also work (based on the fact if it's still open by the time I start working) as a temporary? 

Don't expect been earning 2k a week if going to work for someone. More like 10-15 dollars a hour MAX, if you can find work at IT, i don't think at your age you can open up a store without parent/guardian anyways.

 

9 minutes ago, EvilCat70 said:

I was going to do all the programming but I find myself not being able to find any resources to learn from. I started to do things like Java for Minecraft servers and I did very small C++ programs. It's a shame my school doesn't offer any extra classes to be able to learn programming because if they did I'd take it in a heartbeat 

Do it outside of school, you don't need learn everything at school. All the useful thing i have learnt regarding living in "real world" has not come from teaching from classroom but with own experiences and stuff you learn on the way. I learnt HTML/C++ on my own, by going online and researching and actually making something such as creating websites and maintaining website for friends/family. I learn shit all in my IT class at school, i learn everything from midnight assessment rushes. 

Edited February 5, 2017 by MrUnknownEMC

[_JohnB330ci]

1 minute ago, EvilCat70 said:

You've got a point. Equipment not hard to find really, I picked up a full bag of PC case screw for like £1 on eBay. If the client is nearby, I'd just walk there  

It's more, having all the equipment you need for the job ready to go, and the possibility to transport it, and you wont find many if any clients nearby, businesses that need IT support are often spread out, so you'll need a car or van.

[desertcomputer]

1 minute ago, SherifsDog22 said:

It's more, having all the equipment you need for the job ready to go, and the possibility to transport it, and you wont find many if any clients nearby, businesses that need IT support are often spread out, so you'll need a car or van.

As far as i know 13 year old can't drive legally, plus you have count in upkeep of that car which is ~5k+ a year.  

[knightslugger]

sounds like you're after some life advice here... and i'ma give it to you straight.

 

love what you do, but don't make your hobby a job.

 

Learn a craftsman's trade. Learn to weld. learn to machine. learn to swing a hammer or wire a complicated electrical circuit.  they are infinitely more useful in the real world than building computers EVER will be.

[_JohnB330ci]

1 minute ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

As far as i know 13 year old can't drive legally, plus you have count in upkeep of that car which is ~5k+ a year.  

Yeah, this is what I mean, an offsite technician job is impossible for someone under the legal driving age. 

 

He'd be best off setting up a small fb group to do repairs for people for cheap prices

[_JohnB330ci]

1 minute ago, knightslugger said:

sounds like you're after some life advice here... and i'ma give it to you straight.

 

love what you do, but don't make your hobby a job.

 

Learn a craftsman's trade. Learn to weld. learn to machine. learn to swing a hammer or wire a complicated electrical circuit.  they are infinitely more useful in the real world than building computers EVER will be.

This is damn true lmao 

[RileyTheFox]

2 minutes ago, MrUnknownEMC said:

Don't expect been earning 2k a week if going to work for someone. More like 10-15 dollars a hour MAX, if you can find work at IT, i don't at your age you can open up a store without parent/guardian.  

 

Do it outside of school, you don't need learn everything at school. All the useful thing i have learnt regarding living in "real world" has not come from teaching from classroom but with own experiences and stuff you learn on the way. I learnt HTML/C++ on my own, by going online and researching and actually making something such as creating websites and maintaining website for friends/family. I learn shit all in my IT class at school, i learn everything from midnight assessment rushes. 

Not planning to open anything now. I'm just watching out for the future.

 

I really need to focus on the programming I started doing in HTML and C++. My IT classes are all complete garbage and wastes an hour of my life