If I were an IT guy...

[Gravity]

You should be able to answer questions like this guy. He always knows what to say.

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
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.

Actually in my experience there only needs to be one guy in the office who can look it up. I think there's a certain skill for searching that's required, and not everybody develops it.

 

[mikebb]

Originally posted by: 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?...

I think you're oversimplifying the world of IT work. Using your logic: In theory, I could grow my own food to eat, because with "a little research" I would be able to learn and do the job of a farmer. However, that doesn't mean that I care to, or that it's worth my time to grow my own food. I'd rather have someone else do it for me and pay them for it, so my time can be spent doing other things. Same theory applys to the IT world: it isn't worth the company's time or money to pay someone in the HR dept to do their own computer troubleshooting, that's why they pay the the IT staff.

 

[mugs]

My company pays for ExpertsExchange for us... sure we COULD figure out most problems on our own eventually, but it saves a lot of time and MONEY if we get the answer from someone who's already had the problem. No one knows everything.

 

[myusername]

Originally posted by: djheater

Originally posted by: Skoorb
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.

Actually in my experience there only needs to be one guy in the office who can look it up. I think there's a certain skill for searching that's required, and not everybody develops it.

Truth. My theory is that it's more innate wiring than a learned skill though.