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A question for those in the IT field

B

bluestrobe

Platinum Member
How many have been in the tech field for some time hate dealing with computers on your own time? As in building your own computer or tweaking your home setup? I've just entered the field and most people I work with shake their heads when I mention I like dealing with computer hardware and working on older systems. They mention they are burnt out on computers and don't like dealing with them at home except to use them for gaming or surfing the net.

Is this a common thing with long term or experienced people in the computer field?
 
I make smalltalk sometimes at work about how once I'm off I don't like to go home and sit in front of the computer, but that's a flat out lie. First thing I do when I get home is fire it up, check email, and load oblivion. Or ATOT to see the threads I didn't dare open while at work.
 
Work and Play... It more irritating when your friends/family know your good at what you do and in the big picture they all get computer stupid because they rely on you so much.
 
Originally posted by: RelaxTheMind
Work and Play... It more irritating when your friends/family know your good at what you do and in the big picture they all get computer stupid because they rely on you so much.
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I just hate it when they volunteer me to other people without first letting me know. They always say "oh you're really smart with computers, it'll be so easy for you." Umm yeah sure of course. But do I want to help everyone especially people I don't know? Hell no!
 
Like most have said... It's not so much working with my own computers... I love working on my own. It's when friends and family ask you for help.. thats why you must capitalize on the situation!

I die a little bit inside a family member asks for help... especially when they call me at 9am when I was at work until 1 the night before :disgust:
 
I worked in IT for 6 months and I couldn't wait to get out. I was in a data center working with Solaris systems. The job wasn't bad, but it made me really hate computers.
 
The only bad thing in the IT field is you're workday never ends. As soon as your friends find out you know about computers, they call and call and call. Kinda like doin' a fat chick, it's fun until your friends catch ya doin' it!.

:beer:
Cheers,
TZ
 
if i got tired of it, then i couldn't do my job as well
i have been a computer geek since 1980, i think i can hang on a few more years and getting paid for it is sweet
 
I'd say once I got out of college I stopped caring about my home computers. I can still appreciate a tri-core processor with ddr8 memory, but I have better things to spend my money on now. It actually works out to my advantage. Though I did just upgrade my media center to 3TB of storage, so maybe I haven't totally stopped caring! I've been doing IT for about 8 years.
 
Been workin IT for 14 years now.

I gave up on my home machines long ago... I don't really do anything on them other than surf/email/chat/etc. I couldn't justify the $$ on them anymore.

I don't mind working on other people's PCs, if I can work on my own terms, and without them standing there and watching.

I don't like people assuming I'll help, or volunteering me to help others.

Sometimes I think it's time to switch fields, but what else to do?
 
Nope, I still love messing around with computers. I went through a phase or two when I first started IT work where I really got sick of non-work-related computer stuff. I mean really, really sick of it. It's nice to be needed, but you have to learn when to say no to things. It bothered me that I was always getting volunteered for computer-related stuff for friends and family, but again, learn how to control the things you let into your life and you will be much happier. At first it bugged me a lot, but I discovered that most people's questions were things that I could answer fairly quickly and help them through, and could then apply to work. Plus everyone has their own specialty...it's like having a buddy who's a car guy whine about how people always bug him to look at their engines and recommend what to get fixed. The car guys I know are always more than happy to take a look and seemed to enjoy doing it. If you are generous with your talents, others will be generous with yours. Eventually you learn to separate what you do at work with what you enjoy at home. Probably over 50% of my personal activities involve being on the computer - video games, communication (emails, IMs, voice/video chats, IRC, forums), personal website development, graphics/photography, surfing the web, and so on.

Plus once you master hardware and the common computer programs, there is still so much more to learn. I enjoy computers because it's an endless pursuit...there's always new stuff coming out, new stuff to learn. I'm at the point where I've owned just about every kind of gizmo out there and I instinctively understand how any newly-released hardware works from cell phones to UMPCs. But there are so many other avenues to purse...websites, software programming, databases, smart homes, carputers, PDAs/smartphones. I haven't gotten board yet 😀
 
Originally posted by: bluestrobe
How many have been in the tech field for some time hate dealing with computers on your own time? As in building your own computer or tweaking your home setup? I've just entered the field and most people I work with shake their heads when I mention I like dealing with computer hardware and working on older systems. They mention they are burnt out on computers and don't like dealing with them at home except to use them for gaming or surfing the net.

Is this a common thing with long term or experienced people in the computer field?
Click to expand...

I also think you have to have a love of computers to begin with. The people I know who get sick of computers are the ones who pretty much only do it for a job and not necessarily because they enjoy it as a hobby. I have friends in both situations. I have a buddy who works on server hardware and software support all day long at a big company and is on call all the time for emergencies, but still loves to talk shop whenever he or I get a new gadget to play with. For us, the job is more of an extension of our personal fields of enjoyment. Then again I know some people who only got into computers because jobs were readily available at the time and the pay was pretty good. They're the kind of people for whom reading through a networking or software book is like reading a textbook instead of reading something fun. There's nothing wrong with that - everybody's different.

One thing I've noticed is that you really, really have to like computers if you are going to do it for both a job and a hobby. And I think that holds true for anything. I worked at Pizza Hut for a long time and I got real sick of eating pizza. It used to be something I did for fun with my friends on the weekend, but after I quit that job I couldn't enjoy pizza for 2 or 3 years.
 
The only thing I get sick of are:

1) The same people asking the same questions over and over and over and over....

2) My In-Laws not listening to what I say when I'm doing the telephone "family tech support"

Edit: Definately not sick of fiddling around with my home machines. I recently bought one of the company's old servers to use as a test bed/learning center at home.
 
I used to play PC games, etc.. when I was at home all the time. Now that I spend my day on the computer at work, I have no desire to spend my free time using one.

I dont like to spend time in front of any screens when im at home. Usually I just end up watching an hour of TV before bed.
 
been working about 6 months now = but all my jobs in college and high school were computer related, overall since getting out of college i've spent less time on the PC at home - and less time modding it up, however i still build my own rigs, still do work for neighbors and family friends because it pays well and typically they are easy fixes. Since I generally bill at least $50 and its tax free..its still worth my time to deal with other people's POS's.

Computers are a huge chunk of my life - and until i have enough money to skip away on a sailboat and do nothing they will remain that way...
 
Originally posted by: bignateyk
I used to play PC games, etc.. when I was at home all the time. Now that I spend my day on the computer at work, I have no desire to spend my free time using one.

I dont like to spend time in front of any screens when im at home. Usually I just end up watching an hour of TV before bed.
Click to expand...

I don't game like I used to but I still find it an enjoyable diversion from reality for a bit (just bought the LotRO pre-order).
 
Originally posted by: Feldenak
Originally posted by: rdubbz420
what is this free time you speak of?😕 I just work then go home and work more.
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Sometimes I can feel the Blackberry taunting me behind my back. 😉
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Assuming I'm not on-call, I pimpslap it into the laptop bag as soon as my shift ends. 😛

- M4H
 
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