If I were an IT guy...

[Czar]

learning google is the most important part of being in IT

knowing everything is just impossible

 

[bleeb]

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech
1) Use whatever resources you can to resolve the issue - even asking for assistance in on-line forums.
2) Nobody knows *all* the answers. However, your boss will just usually expect you to know where to look to find the answers.

 

[rudder]

I am an IT guy. Google is my savior. I can figure out that a server won't turn on because the power is unplugged, but anything deeper than that, I need google.

 

[saxophonoia]

After dealing with problems for awhile you eventually start seeing the same ones and fix them quickly, but every once in a while you get a new problem that you have to do your research on. Even the people in my dept. who are extremely good still look problems up, you can't possibly know everything.

 

[Ausm]

:music:If I were a rich man:music:




Ausm

 

[skace]

Working in the IT field is not about knowing every answer, but being able to find the answer or tackle a problem in which you might not know anything about going into it. A big part is being able to admit when you don't know the answer also, too many people like to try to make up an answer on the spot because they simply don't know, this usually puts them in a hole twice as deep.

 

[saxophonoia]

Originally posted by: skace
Working in the IT field is not about knowing every answer, but being able to find the answer or tackle a problem in which you might not know anything about going into it. A big part is being able to admit when you don't know the answer also, too many people like to try to make up an answer on the spot because they simply don't know, this usually puts them in a hole twice as deep.

I agree....I see this all the time. Someone will try to make an answer on the spot which is usually bs....just tell them you don't know, usually they'll understand completely.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

As an IT guy, of course I don't have all the answers. Sure I can find any answer on the web since I'm great at searching. But I'd say the actual greatest trait of an IT guy is proper planning and proactive research. If you spend time like I do, exhaustivly researching a process before engaging in it, you drastically reduce the potential for problems and limit the scope of the ones that do pop up.

 

[CChaos]

Learning new things and solving problems is 99% of my joy with my job. If there were simply easy answers I knew off the top of my head for everything, I could just write a program to replace myself.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: Jero

Originally posted by: DaiShan

Originally posted by: Jero

Originally posted by: YoYoBabyYo
ditto with what everyone said above, but an IT person should know most of the solutions (i would say about 60%, perhaps too low).

not really. at the speed things change.....no one can even know 60 percent.

Even if you said you know 50 percent I'd say your full of it....

In all computer related things...i MIGHT know 20 percent TOPS (and that is probably pushing it)

The trick is, you research things, you learn things, you increase your knowledge, and write things down.

you forget things, you go back to research

You should know how to fix the majority of problems that are likely to occur in your situation. There is an almost limitless list of possibilities for things that could go wrong, but the list is significantly narrowed by what will normally happen. For instance I'd say I can fix 90% or so of the problems that I encounter. I wouldn't say I know 90% of everthing there is to know about computers but in the scope of my employment I'd say I'm about 90% on.

I agree, given some research, I'll fix anything eventually. However, that wasn't my point. My point was, it's impossible to know 60 percent of EVERYTHING regarding to computers. If i'm given a job to do, i'll eventually be competent to do everything required of me 100 percent. And then...maybe it's time to move on to something else, unless the tasks are constantly changing and making me learn more and more.

You say you can fix 90 percent of the problems you encounter, well, that's probably 5-10 percent (tops) of all computer related things in the world.

I agree. The more I learn, the less I realize I know. I was told in a training class that W2k took ~10,000 people 5 years to write (10k over 5 years, not 10k all 5 years). Oh, and that's just the OS, I'm sure your also running 3rd party drivers and software. Who knows how many people developed all that. How the fvck could 1 person possible know 60% of 10,000 people's input? You can't, no one does. When some asks me, why did that happen, I'm generaly thinking "how the fvck would I know?" and I have been doing this a while.

You need to know how to find the answer, in that you will learn the common stuff.

I'd also say that knowing how to fix 90% of the problems in you environment is probably less than 5% of all problems. Think about the MILLIONS of ways you could screw something up. Each OS file=1 or more problems if it were corrupted or missing, then there's the registry, drivers, hardware...

 

[Tremulant]

Originally posted by: skace
Working in the IT field is not about knowing every answer, but being able to find the answer or tackle a problem in which you might not know anything about going into it. A big part is being able to admit when you don't know the answer also, too many people like to try to make up an answer on the spot because they simply don't know, this usually puts them in a hole twice as deep.

Agreed.

I work in the IT field. I'm tech support. I don't know all the answers, but no one does. There are some problems in which you know the solution, but most of the time you have to find a solution. Whether it's researching on the internet, asking a co-worker, or finding the solution on your own, the important part is being able to find a solution.

 

[Winchester]

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech
1) Use whatever resources you can to resolve the issue - even asking for assistance in on-line forums.
2) Nobody knows *all* the answers. However, your boss will just usually expect you to know where to look to find the answers.

I concur. I am a network admin and used Technet, AT, and google all the time. Who cares how you solve the problem as long as you do solve it.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech
1) Use whatever resources you can to resolve the issue - even asking for assistance in on-line forums.
2) Nobody knows *all* the answers. However, your boss will just usually expect you to know where to look to find the answers.

yup, you shouldn't have to ask for help much, and if you designed the setup right (assuming you got to do the original design) you shouldn't have that much maintenance to do anyway.

 

[AnMig]

"as the two posters mentioned, no one is ever expected to know everything.

but a successful IT person knows how to do research! "

Succesful IT should be able to blame USERS as the cause of the problem, while he researches the answer. (he would be right 90% of the time)

 

[rh71]

In addition to knowing how to arrive at answers you may not have known, you should also know when you use the ID10T code to explain users' problems.

 

[FoBoT]

nobody knows it all. part of a good skill set for IT guys is knowing how to find the answers quickly and implement them well

 

[CaptainGoodnight]

Once the problem is solved, you store that infomation away for the future, and the next time you need it you look like a total genuis. Being resourceful and being able to know where to look to solve problems is a good trait that many people don't have.

 

[Philippine Mango]

Well for example I'm fixing some one's computer and I don't know EXACTALLY what to do to fix it so I first troubleshoot it and do a little research while I'm on the computer infront of the user and I can't understand why they can't do the same. Some times its blatently obvious to how to fix it, for example premiere is having problems so when I realise that I can't just search through the menus to figure it out I go into the help and search for it. I'm telling my sister, "Why can't you do the same?" She says, "I don't want to waste my time", but its like your wasting your time anyways because you still have to wait for me to figure it out... It just seems like since IT people don't have all the info on computers and they simply do research when it's a difficult problem, wouldn't that mean anybody could do it? Maybe I have been working too long with computers to be able to see THEIR prospective which is why I guess it gets irritating when they ask me how to do something I have shown them how to do for the 10th time!

Another thing that is annoying is that when I say "I don't know/ I'm not exactally sure how long it will take" I get the answer, "What do you mean "you dont know"?"! I know that I'm very bad at estimating how long it will take to fix a computer so I say I don't know so get that reply... If and when you guys do get a reply like this, how do you respond? Or how would you say it if your not absolutely sure how long it will take to defragment their drive, or scan etc..

I mean right now I am having this problem with a particular DCOM Event code on my desktop machine and yes it hasn't been slowing down the machine (I think) but it would be nice to see the message not pop up when I'm reading the logs... Event 10005 (twice) (here is one error)

DCOM got error "The service database is locked.: attempting to start the service ccevtmgr with arguments "" in order to run the server: {8e543426-9c98-4938-96e4-d7d314950ae8}

Looked it up on google and everything, saw that other people have that problem but it looks like they weren't able to solve it...

 

[EyeMWing]

The most common IT problems are those that can't be fixed by an IT staff, or Google, or even forums.

They are called "users"

 

[spidey07]

well....

Back in the old days we had to figure everything out ourselves. Want a driver for a printer? Well pick up the phone, call the company and get a floppy disk delivered.

Then came self service BBS to get said driver, log on, select model, download printer driver.

Then came the complexity of being ever connected, and more troubles.

Then came NOCmonkey's who didn't have to think and just simply looked stuff up on google.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: spidey07
well....

Back in the old days we had to figure everything out ourselves. Want a driver for a printer? Well pick up the phone, call the company and get a floppy disk delivered.

Then came self service BBS to get said driver, log on, select model, download printer driver.

Then came the complexity of being ever connected, and more troubles.

Then came NOCmonkey's who didn't have to think and just simply looked stuff up on google.

I do believe that was the sound of a glove being slapped across a face, duel-style. :Q

- M4H

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: spidey07
well....

Back in the old days we had to figure everything out ourselves. Want a driver for a printer? Well pick up the phone, call the company and get a floppy disk delivered.

Then came self service BBS to get said driver, log on, select model, download printer driver.

Then came the complexity of being ever connected, and more troubles.

Then came NOCmonkey's who didn't have to think and just simply looked stuff up on google.

I do believe that was the sound of a glove being slapped across a face, duel-style. :Q

- M4H

Maybe I'm just a little miffed at techs who will spend hours googling for something vs. actually doing anything.

 

[djheater]

Part of the job is being resourceful enought to figure out problems.

The way I look at it, most users regard their machines as a magic box, much like most people regard cars. They don't want to know how they work, they just want them to work, oh sure occasionally you'll meet someone who changes their own oil or puts in a new video card, but when it gets down tothe fine details they would rather "trust a professional". In the end, you have to appear to be that guy. It may be that you did just look it up on Google, but don't tell the user that or they'll be insulted.

I think the difference between a good tech and a degree'd\certified moron is the ability to reason out the solution by virtue of insight and previous experience.

 

[spidey07]

Actually IT is sometimes viewed about the same as the janitor/maintenance guy.

Its broke, now fix it.

 

[StageLeft]

I can barely write a line of code without looking up a book or something that's already been written. If you're not using something like google to find the answer to questions and instead spending 15 hours figuring out something you could find solved in 5 min, well that's silly.