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The curse of having worked in PC repair for a living: whenever you have to fix your computer it sucks just as much as it does for everyone else, but you have that nagging voice in the back of your head saying why the fuck aren't I getting paid for this.

 

What grades would I need exactly. Im staying on at school to take IT anyway but what A levels etc...

 

Even worse is people you know constantly bugging you to fix their stuff, for free.

 

I do it for some Peri Peri chicken or GTFO

 

At the moment I ask family for pizza money when I fix theres (Bimonthly pretty much) :thumbsup:

 

Meh do a better fix and they won't bug you for months! I joke I set them up to fail to my m8s though as I just can't get enough of Chunky Chicken, Chicken Cottage or even Nandos (under protest.) FYI Nandos extra hot isn't that hot, it is way too overpriced and the fillet is more like a nugget = lame.

The biggest problem I have is most of the time I have nothing to fix, but all of a sudden once one person chases me everything everywhere seems to fail and they are all at it!

I don't mind doing it but I really can't be arsed any more =/ Mostly because I tell people what they did wrong and how to fix it and 6 - 12 months later they are back with exactly the same fucking problem!

 

Yeah I'm not a tight arse or anything, its just when people repeatedly make the same mistakes and you end up doing the same thing again and again despite telling them not to. Such people should be bashing rocks together.

 

If it's just PC repair, none are needed per se, though obviously any relevant qualifications will help. Cast iron proof of experience in the field is far more important. Having a degree will help at higher levels (network admin etc) though again, field experience is the essential bit.

Since you've got the chicken/egg problem of needing experience to get in, look at other means of getting your foot in the door. If you've got a particular place in mind, and are still doing work experience at school, see if you can get a placement there (my previous workplace had a fairly regular volley of kids doing work experience from the highschool). If not, see if they have internship schemes or similar, and if they don't, ask if there's any chance of informal volunteer work. A lot of places may be too bureaucratic and inflexible but some should find time for someone who already seems to have applicable skills and is eager. Third way in is to get lucky - I got a chance opening thanks to personal contacts and got edged in on the sly as some kind of off-the-books summer placement. It was on minimum wage to begin with but it pretty quickly became apparent that I was doing the job same as everyone else, so they hired me properly. I'd guess this is fairly common.

So yeah, computers will always need fixing, which means if you want to do that as a job it's just about making it happen one way or another. All that said... recession. Good luck.

For friends I don't mind, I actually enjoy it. Acquaintances, well, they have to pay up

 

1 word. Limewire. And she keeps doing it again and again

Thanks for the info! I have Work experience sometime In sixth form so i'll find a placement then!

 

I can't stand that except for close family and really good friends, the rest get charged for my time and effort (if it was more than a simple task) as well as any parts i have to buy.

Recently had a friend ask for advice on a system on a £500 budget but then wanting it to be amazing or as he put it a "BEAST and Blow him away" for him to then decide the system i spec'd him wasn't good enough so he now is upping his budget by quite a lot and thinking he can easily get like 64gb of ram just because the motherboard i showed him shows that it can support it or doesn't want to get a cheaper CPU that performs almost the same as the more expensive one just because it's cheaper therefore he assumes it won't be as good or whatever his reason is.

 

64GBs of ram? I aren't the most uptodate on Computers but fuck? Most I've heard of people using is 24!

 

I used to go extreme. Empty wallet afterwards and m8 building a PC almost as good for a fraction of the cost going for the 2nd best components taught me to change my ways

 

Cyantist, I did DiDA and had to literally screenshot every click I made. Fucking annoying. Guess whats even better, You get to do that for Sixth form too! I dropped out and did Open Uni, Best choice I have ever made.

 

Oh you are fucking kidding me.

The school website says they offer:

Year 12 / 13
BTEC National ICT (Award & Certificate)
Programme of Study 2010-2011
Students can choose to study either a 6 or 12 unit course covering a variety of ICT areas giving them a single or double A level award. Whilst the units of study are subject to change, students can expect to study the following:
Computer Systems;
Communication Skills;
Database Design;
Advanced Spreadsheet Skills;
Database Design;
Web Design; and
E-Commerce.

If it ends up being DiDA all over again I won't even bother with Sixth Form or will find another course I have interests in.

 

Just go see one of the teachers and ask what the course will be like. If you get lucky they'll be a a decent teacher and be happy to make time for someone who's motivated enough to ask.

 

It also depends on whether the teacher is simply trying to fill numbers in a class. Me and a few other more...'academically active' people were persuaded into one of those double vocational A-levels and weren't told employers and universities made a (negative) distinction between them and regular A-levels. Apart from me and the previously mentioned few people the classes were full of, well, not particularly bright students. I was fortunate in that I had taken 4 A-levels and an AS (double business, geog, history and Biology AS) so I managed to get into a good uni due to that.

I don't know if the IT course Cyantist mentions is one of those though. Just airing some bitter gripes :lol:

To show how much of a dick the teacher who recommended me the course was he abandoned a group of kids while on a school trip to New York, and went on a cocaine binge. Not surprisingly he got sacked.

 

Noting my last post:

I drank so much alcohol so consistently over the past few days, that yesterday it felt like my chest was on fire. My stomach was not pleased. Felt sick, got sick, couldn't eat.

Be careful binging. I'm doing much better today.

 

Any time, mate. I've been in these awful situations, man. Hope things are looking up.

 

I'm the official PC guy in my family and circle of friends. Even my students come to me with fucked up computers every once in a while (which is fucked up, because I teach language and Literature, and Academic writing for the more advanced ones).

I gladly do it for free for close family and friends. Everyone else gets one "lesson". I teach them ONCE how they fucked up and how they fix it. If they come back with the same shit, I charge them, at the very least 100 pesos. Few ever come back after that.

... and they get charged like 600 pesos from unscrupulous technicians who wipe their data or rob them with unnecessary shit.

But they deserve that for not keeping their shit in shape. Who the fuck gets all that Spyware or Malware so many times???

 

Some Dell laptops will do 32 GB (4x8GB).