10 Perspectives that Have Changed Since Becoming a Tech

This is my nephew a couple of months ago - he's into technology already!

If you don't know, I recently got a job (about two months or so ago) in tech support. Here are ten perspectives that I had before becoming a technician that have now changed.

1. "Have you tried turning it off and back on again?" As cliché as this phrase is, it solves a lot of problems. I got praise on my first day for recommending "take the battery pack out and put it back in again" - which worked. If you have restarted your computer - then you can call tech support. =)
2. "Are you sure it's plugged in?" Another stupid question. Silly, but I have definitely spent two hours trying to troubleshoot why a client's printer wasn't working when it turns out it was just not plugged in. And  a co-worker of mine had a client and a bank representative on the phone at the same time to troubleshoot a check scanner (and hours of work had gone in before this point too), when it was simply unplugged. (When my co-worker had asked if it was plugged in, the customer responded with "yes, of course it is" without actually checking. The bank technician was smart and asked "have you tried it in another power outlet?", at which point the client had to go make sure the cord was plugged in.)
3. Windows 8 is not as bad as I thought it was. After given the opportunity to poke around with it, and being forced to use it on a daily basis, it's actually a pretty decent operating system. It just takes a little bit to get used to.
4. Windows 8.1 is worse than I thought it was. I have both regular (non IT) friends who have had trouble with it, and experienced IT professionals who have trouble with it too -just don’t upgrade! To be fair, I haven't upgraded yet, and some of my coworkers have no problem with 8.1, but I've heard enough to be warned against it.

5. Windows XP is awful. I'm sure it was great for its time, but if you are still running a computer with XP, it is probably time to replace it. Especially if you want it to be compatible with a lot of today's programs and features. Or if you want it to run at a decent speed.
6. Outlook is actually a pretty cool email program. I always hated it because it never worked out for me or wouldn't set up correctly for me, but it is a good program for business environments. From the server/administrator side, it is relatively easy to manage as well, and pretty flexible to different accommodations.

7. Macs are annoying. Don' t get me wrong, they're great for personal use and for creative fields, but they don't support a business environment very well. They have many random glitches and incompatibilities with many programs.
8. Google Chrome has disappointed me. I'm pretty loyal to Google and their services, especially since I discovered Chrome, but it sometimes fails on me while working IT - and I have to default to Firefox.

9. Internet Explorer isn't very reliable. As soon as any customer (or co-worker, for that matter) has an internet issue on Internet Explorer, we ask if they still have the problem on Firefox or Chrome. And sometimes that fixes the issue. Which is sad, but true. (Then again, sometimes Internet Explorer works when Chrome fails so…)

10. Tech support wait times are (usually) justified. Sometimes you just can't get to a problem in a decent amount of time. Or, more likely, the problem is actually much more complex than it appears and it takes a decent amount of troubleshooting to get the problem resolved.

I hope that's not super negative! I love my job and I love working with computers. I'm not super skilled yet, but I can't wait to grow and learn. As far as this blog goes, I'd love to try to answer your tech questions. Or, make a tutorial for something you're confused about. Leave a comment below. =D