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dunno guys, i am enjoying my job, i work for a company that supports a wide range of office product so i work on a varity of stuff, mainly digital and anloge copiers, along with pc printers and fax machines.
the is a saying the goes "if you enjoy your job, you will never work a day in your life", now that is not entierly true, but if you have a good company to work for and enjoy you job. life is pretty good.
BTW i do make heap of $$$ either
Most complaints here seem to be the "working for
someone else" kind. Hmmm. How about working just
for the person you see in the mirror? Start by
moonlighting for friends. No freebies. As soon as
you do a freebie you are finished. Charge something. Go to people's homes, businesses and
do the "repairs" on the spot. Lug the thing home
if it is too time-consuming or complex a task.
Build a reputation. Once you have that, you are
in good shape. I have a "job" this morning (Saturday) and one tomorrow (Sunday) at the client's place. Who else is going to do that? Your big plus here is no "down time". If you can
complete a job on the weekend the SOHO can be
back in business on Monday. They appreciate that.
Charge mostly by the job, not by the hour. You'd
be surprised how that works out. Answer your phone
messages as promptly as possible. Get ready for
some folks who want "free advice" on the phone, but you can turn that into a service call. All in
all it is nothing but fun every day. Make a rule
that folks will talk about which defines you. All
my clients know if they don't have good coffee ready, I will not come over. Nice to enter a
referral job and the folks you have never seen
hand you a cup on arrival. Just some thoughts.
I've considered working freelance, but I enjoy having most of my weekends to myself. I enjoy having a large company to buy me replacement gear if it breaks. I enjoy working with other useful people.
At the moment, it outweighs the need to be self employed.
I work freelance , NO go , the punters want u at 9.30 at night , sat aft , sun morning ,,, " how much for the XXX" , i could have got one for XXX$ ,,
last night 10.30 pm sat in pub with wife (sat night - why not) ,,,$illock ringing me up ,just like a shop "my internet is,nt working " "ok , what about mon morn" sorry i,m at work , it will have to be 7.00pm monday ,,,,what a life !!!!!
o for a 9-5 job , 5 days a week with a wage cheque EVERY week.
oh it,s quiet now ,,,11.00 am sunday ,,,,i,m on the phone/internet nobody can ring me !!!!!!!
FtF
Last month a company came to my garden to remove a large ash tree. I helped out as much as I could. Well I can tell you it really opened my eyes. These guys were laughing all day long, never stopped joking with each other, were always smiling and did a fantastic job. They were happy doing what they were doing and it showed. When they left I felt quite sad, as I'd really enjoyed the day too, and i felt jealous too. Jealous that I feel unhappy coming to work, that I never seem to smile all day, that I work with miserable ****s all day. It made me realise that it's not the money, it's all about enjoying what you do. I don't anymore! :( :( <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" />
Yep, having a good group of people can mean the world. My favorite jobs have been when I liked and had fun with the people. Those have always been the hardest to leave, yet I always knew I had too.
I think the biggest reason I hate my current job is that I don't really mix with anybody here. Crap, it is 100 females and 30 males, all the males are on the super exec trac and at least 10 years if not significantly older than me. Nothing against the women, but I have nothing in common with most of them, and I really can't let loose at all. Not to mention my coworker who has probably the worst attitude of any tech I have ever met, yet somehow is loved by the important 3 people for our jobs, while everyone else in the co.(CEO, COO, CFO, all the exec VP's, the secretaries, the sales staff, and so on) can't stand her.
Of course, I am also hoping, that sense the bubble(the tech support side) is still bursting all over, that in not too long, things will change. Hopefully, a lot of people will have left the side of the industry, jobs will open up again, and someone like me with some good exp. will be prime choice USDA beef ready to be picked up by the best (not just highest $) bidder.
Technically, for me, there is no such thing as a job that I would *love*. A job is a job; I wouldn't have one if I didn't need one to make money to live. :rolleyes: I would much rather be able to do what I want, when I want, be it sleep, eat, play, work, whatever. An 8 to 5 job doesn't allow that.
Mind you, certain jobs are more tolerable than others. My current job is pretty good. I fix and administrate the PCs and network for an aluminum foundry. The working conditions out in the plant kind of suck right now (HOT!) but I'm mostly in AC'ed offices.
Cons:
Wear business casual when I sometimes need grubbies.
No budget; everything must be approved by on high.
Lots of old equipment.
Pay is less than I'd like.
Pros:
I am respected by my co-workers (gotta like it when upper management consults with you and takes advice to heart).
No real idiots, jackasses, or PC-phobics work here.
My own office. :)
No sick leave; if I'm sick, I stay home and get better. If my kid is sick, I stay home with him. If I need a doctor or dentist appointment, I go. If I need to leave early to pick up my son from daycare, I go. No questions asked.
I think I'll be here for a while. :)
Been a local retail shop tech for two years now. Since this is my first real tech job, i have little to compare it to in that respect.
I used drive a Tug at the UPS hub in Ontario, CA, taking air containers to the planes.. that wasn't so bad... I also plowed snow one winter (that was cool too).
Every other job I've ever had has sucked: Best Buy (i am embarrased to say i even worked there), lots of waiting tables, lots of painting... all kinds of thankless sweaty labor...
Here it is great, I would like to quadruple my income, but I guess I get a fair wage for what i do, so no whining there. I work with 3 dudes: the owner and 2 sales guys, and we have a pretty good time together. So no whining there...
The only drag is dealing with the customers, like the (l)users who keep doing stupid stuff despite your warnings, then blame you beause they got KLEZ [again!!!!!] even though you told them you would be happy to install and update NAV if they wanted to buy it.
But you take the good with the bad. I like what I do, and save alot of money being my own tech, not to mention I have a wide base of music and software sources, so I'm saving money there too...
Being a tech is cool.
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Then I remember working outside shoveling and pushing a wheelbarrow for $7.50/hr and no benefits or 401k when it was 101 degrees with 90% humidity. After that, I shrug, smile, and get up to change the backup tape on the server.
It's much lighter than wheelbarrow full of gravel.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I just finnished spreading 3 cubic yards of gravel in my side yard and along the back yard. It is not fun this manual labor. On a side note I have a house for sale north of San Francisco...cheap
Well, I'm taking a break from teching, gone back to working a supervisor's job in a conveinience store. I have a laugh, get paid, stop workign when I walk out the door till tommorrow. It's so much easier. Pay ain't great, but I've never really cared about money that much.
Oh, by the way, did I mention I'm suspended on full pay? :D :D :D
Paid holidays, love 'em! :D :D :D
I'm doin the tech thing for a company of about 220ish users. It was MUCH worse before they hired me some help. It was getting pretty exhausting supporting them all on my own.
We are a small enuff shop that I get to do some networking stuff (which is where I want to end up)..but big enuff that we are doing alot of upgrading and trying new things. So I am getting experience that I know I wouldn't in a large shop.
Most days I like what I do, but like any job, it has its moments! :rolleyes:
Heh, later on this week I'm applying for a PT job at Borders (Books & CDs) for fun.Quote:
Originally posted by Outcoded
Well, I'm taking a break from teching, gone back to working a supervisor's job in a conveinience store. I have a laugh, get paid, stop workign when I walk out the door till tommorrow. It's so much easier. Pay ain't great, but I've never really cared about money that much.
OK, I'm back at work, it's starting to stop being fun here. Back to techingQuote:
Originally posted by Outcoded
Well, I'm taking a break from teching, gone back to working a supervisor's job in a conveinience store. I have a laugh, get paid, stop workign when I walk out the door till tommorrow. It's so much easier. Pay ain't great, but I've never really cared about money that much.
Oh, by the way, did I mention I'm suspended on full pay? :D :D :D
Paid holidays, love 'em! :D :D :D
ah , well new job ,it,s killing me ,,,,,,,,,in charge of a "off-licence" ,,,,,,i think u call um drug stores ,,,,2pm - 10.30pm ,,,wines bears cigarettes ,,,toffees , about 25% above minimum wage ,would,nt be so bad , apart from kids buying there penny toffees (singularly) with £5 notes ,, but get a lie in (or tommy-puter work ) in the mornings ,,,,wife (as of 4mths) is,nt happy ,,,,I need a new car ,,and bills keep piling up .
Its all dog eat dog in the UK ,,,,u try to do an honest job and charge an honest fee ,,,,but some $ick head will under price u ,,,,then someone will underprice him ,,,etc etc ,,,,and you feel like a monkey , getting paid peanuts.
PS the boss (at work) ,known him a long time ,,,lends me his spare car (and fuel) ,,,,untill i,m sorted
11.50pm now , just had my tea (dinner) ,,,and am drinking a glass (bottle) of paul masson , califonian red wine , knowing that I can relax till about 10.30 - 11.00 am tommorrow.
but at least a wage packet ,,,,,,,,,
FtF
To say this job is thankless is an understatement. I guess it goes back to that old thing known as 'fear of the unknown'.
At the tech place, people love to yell at us because they think we got something up our sleve only because they don't understand. When we tell them what was really wrong and why, they usually don't want to hear it, because hey, all those programs on startup, they didn't install it. They call 3 times in 5 days asking if its done yet, and its not due for another 4 days.
At the office, its "why is my excel slow", "what does (enter really really long, useless error message here) mean?", "why doesn't this work like it use to?" (maybe, just maybe because you bitched constantly about your computer running like crap, so we got you a new one, installed a more reliable OS so you'd shut up and quit crying, but no, you still piss and moan), "when you get a minute, can you (do a 5 hour job)?" -- Sure, of course, we have nothing better to do than to look at a monitor all day, nope, no projects, no data migration, no one else having any kind of problems.........:mad:
Its a lot like the electric company, they don't say a word when it works, but completely raise hell, kick and scream when it doesn't.