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Be optimistic about potential hardware failure. Even the worst of hardware only has a failure rate of 5%. I’ve found that of all the components I may get back, only 40% of them are actually bad. Of those, it is easy to speculate that over ¼ of that product no longer works due to misuse or neglect from customers. Unfortunately, most people do not know how to handle computer components. What is also unfortunate is that it is difficult to prove when a customer is actually the reason behind a failure. This brings us to our next rule…
If you’re in retail, think of your customers as your immediate supervisor. Listen to them and try to help them as best as possible. If things boil down to an arrogant customer that refuses to listen or insists that they are right, that customer needs to talk to someone else, preferably outside of the company, or needs to be told, “Sir, thank you for choosing Such and Such. Have a nice day.” The customer has been informed at birth that they are always right and sometimes it is only counter productive to attempt to change this.
Other than the customer, remember who your boss is. If you are a system administrator or an IT for example, the fact that your boss is an ignorant moron should not be a down side to your job, but an upshot. Use it as an opportunity to educate your immediate supervisor. If you openly suggest things to him, with an angle on how much your suggestion will help productivity including his own, he will appreciate this. If your work atmosphere is one where you cannot contact your immediate supervisor for these types of suggestions, then your problem is deeper than something that has anything to do with “tech support” or computers.
Work well with your coworkers. Don’t step on the toes of the guys you have to work with every day. If you have a suggestion for the boss, it’s going to float much better if you’ve checked with the guys first. If you put Norton’s Network Anti-Virus on all of the stations without checking with the other techs and the tech that’s been there for five years longer than you have prefers McAfee, be rest assured that that individual is going to make your life a living hell.
Always remember that there will always be compatibility issues. Not every part is going to work in every platform and when combined with any other part. It doesn’t matter even if the parts made by the same company. Many companies sell parts made by other companies. If you can accept that there may be a compatibility issue at hand when you are troubleshooting an item, by using a process of elimination, then you will save yourself a lot of troubleshooting time in the future.
Keep in mind that you WILL be wrong and you WILL screw up. It’s bound to happen, and when it does, it’ll hurt, but LEARN FROM IT. Get your head out of your ass, inhale and say, “I screwed up” and LEARN FROM IT. Didn’t have the fan on the CPU correctly and the CPU fried? LEARN. Dropped a hard drive? LEARN. Sold the guy with the HPUX a standard VGA monitor? LEARN. When you start REALIZING you make mistakes, and then begin to learn from these mistakes, you will grow in a way that books can not help you.
Keep in mind that people around you WILL be wrong and WILL screw up. It’s bound to happen, and when it does, point and laugh very loudly because deep inside, you know, that they would do the same to you. This will make you feel better about yourself, but don’t forget to LEARN from this person’s mistake so you are not pointed at and laughed at some time down the road. If you can not learn from other’s mistakes AS WELL AS your own, then I’m sad to tell you that the planet you forgot to get off at has MORE OXYGEN in it’s atmosphere than this one, to help you with your thinking processes and you should not amount to more than an eggplant on THIS PLANET.
The final thing I can tell you to do that will help to make you a better tech…. Learn to RANT!
…And trust me on the sunscreen…
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