College Students: Do you sell your geek talents on campus??

[randypj]

Actually, I might've found another way to phrase it.

Anyway, what I was getting at.....having been out of college for way too many years, is........can a computer geeky student make some change by fixin', tweakin', installin', teachin' the kind of geeky computer stuff that we do all the time?

I've got a couple nieces in college this year, and they are just un-geeky enough to get their pcs/themselves in trouble.

If so, how do you market your skills? Do they still have campus newspapers?
--Randy

 

[ProUser]

Well, here's what I did. It may not work on every campus - and I'm not sure if it would go against any school policies.

Basically, I worked for our school's student computing. Our campus sold network card's for about $30. Since the majority of the students (no offense, but the sorority girls were prime candidates) didn't know how to install them, they ended up taking them into the shop, and paying them to install the card. Then, the students would usually end up bringing the computer to us, to have it configured to work on the school network.

One day, I was bored, and figured I could make some money. Printed out a boatload of flyers, advertising network card + installation + campus hookup, $75 out the door.

I cannot tell you how many calls I started receiving. I bought nice Netgear cards in bulk, which ended up costing me like $5 a pop, and cat5 cables in bulk, about $1 a pop.

Approximately $70 cash profit in my pocket, for about 10 minutes of work. Plus, the majority of that was spent with new females to the campus, shooting the shit.

Truly shocking how much money I made during the first week of school. (When all the new students arrived). Unfortunately I graduated after that semester or I would have done it again the next!

 

[SerraYX]

Just make sure everything is set up to work before college starts, IE network cards and hardware. Any tech support they need will be provided for free on campus. Advise her to use them if she has any problems that aren't extremely minor. Most let you bring down your machine to the tech desk and they fix it there for you. But if it's any serious or hardware-based parts/labor then she will get charged.

 

[bizmark]

well, the thing that ProUser said would have worked very well... about 3 years ago. Nowadays almost every computer sold has a built-in NIC, regardless of whether it's necessary. Also WinXP makes networking so much easier -- Win98 required a reboot for every little change in IP or DNS, leading to huge waits if you were just trying to troubleshoot the network.

 

[Anubis]

im a junior and i give my services away

this is because its usially the hot girls that dont know squat about computers and need you help. and hot makin them pay is a good way to get in with them.

 

[Scarpozzi]

In the Fall of 1998 I started installing NICs for people on campus as a favor in my apartment complex. I got a call a week later from the Network Services Dept and they offered me a job because I knew how to install NICs. Now I'm a Server Admin here and they're paying for the rest of my tuition....(I think I'm gonna get my masters after my undergrad).

The moral of the story is, working around a university can pay off.

 

[Turin39789]

give the computer services away free

sell the body

 

[integratrix]

During my freshman year, I was basically the only girl in my all-female dorm who knew how to install hardware and configure stuff, so I did so for free for a bunch of my neighbors.

 

[0roo0roo]

i'm sure most people can handle their computers now. girls that don't know will get free help from guys. guys that don't know... well screw em

 

[amnesiac]

My neighbor sends his sorority girl friends over to me when they have compter troubles. Help out good lookin' damsels in distress AND get paid.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Everyone at UTexas seems to know how to install a network card or has a friend who does.
I did have to install a SBLive that I lent to a friend.. but she knows at least 10 other guys who could do the same thing.

 

[milagro]

maybe i'm gettin too geeky...but i have to admit i'm surprised at how little college students in general today know about computers...at work, I do a lot of break/fix etc for people over 40 which isn't surprising, but I used to just assume anyone in college today running w2k/xp could install a nic themselves...but in reality, this probably is only true at Caltech and MIT....guess there's more money to be made out there...

 

[Orsorum]

I should, next year, though. Don't have time this year.

 

[randypj]

i'm sure most people can handle their computers now.

Yeah.......right......

When my fairly lame niece tells me she quit calling her campus support people cause she knows more than they do......someone, somewhere, doesn't know squat about pcs. Hey, at least she was able to upgrade her POS WinME install to XP with only a couple calls to me.

IME, most people cannot handle their computers when they run into problems. They are usually the people that have a life.
--Randy

 

[bmacd]

Originally posted by: randypj

IME, most people cannot handle their computers when they run into problems. They are usually the people that have a life.
--Randy

sooo true

-=bmacd=-

 

[MercenaryForHire]

You'd think at the best Comp-Sci university in Canada, people would be able to install a god damned NIC, given two pages of campus-written instructions "Installation For Total #@$!ing Morons" - but nooooooo ...

It's mostly the people who are like "Dude, I bought a Dell!*" or "Think Different, buy Mac!**" who are this type - and even worse, they manage to botch a USB NIC install. How the hell do you do that?

- M4H

* For about twice as much as I paid for my system, and it still sucks.
** See above - but four times the price.

 

[ElFenix]

you visit a lot of people doing it, but you're not much different than the exterminator. except that maybe you smell better.