Well...OK once. But I didn't think it would actually do it...
The problem with throwing your trust into a completely man-made machination is that it'll eventually go wrong at some point - as stuff always does. Computers simply aren't reliable, and the thought that they're taking over society terrifies me because my vision of the future is one where nothing works as it should. Which brings me nicely to my current employment.
Despite having a degree, the job market still hates my guts. In fact, it hates me even more since I spent my time at university actually getting a degree instead of simultaneously managing a major firm. It's an anomaly in society: having a job in an office for a year gives your CV more merit than spending three years of mental torment getting a degree. Employers these days only care about 'proper work' - forgetting that a degree itself is about ten years worth of work.
And as it turns out, 'proper work' means slave labor. Internships. Apprenticeships. Work experience. Anything that doesn't end with a paycheck. It's amazing that the government is of the attitude that if you want the state to give you anything then you have to work all your life for it - but you can't get anything in life now without working for nothing at all.
So here I am in a secondary school's IT department, because I happen to know a bit about computers despite hating them. This is like if Indiana Jones worked as a snake-charmer.
I'm not saying this just in case my colleagues find this: but I am in all honesty very happy to be working where I am. This being said; I'm English, so complaining is second nature...and by god do I have some complaints.
You know how shows like The IT Crowd make fun of how work-shy technicians dismiss problems with the question: "have you tried turning it off and on again?" People are quick to moan at us for stating the obvious and being unhelpful by suggesting such a banal solution when the problem is clearly of galactic proportions.
But...well....about 50% of the problems I've dealt with these past two weeks have been solved by doing just that. Turning it off and on again. Sometimes it doesn't seem obvious, or it seems so obvious that no-ones bothered trying it. Once a computer got stuck on the BIOS screen and was asking for a password. I luckily knew the password because I'd spend the past two hours (no, really) hacking into a laptop's motherboard so I could find the password to re-build the machine. But, whilst I typed this password in and faffed around for a bit before declaring the problem solved - the whole thing could've been fixed by turning it off and on again, thus exiting the BIOS screen and allowing windows to restart normally.
Sigh.
Often, I find myself using the BIOS - not to actually fix the machine - but to make it look like I'm a pro. Fiddling with the BIOS makes you feel like a hacker from an 80's movie as you rapidly key your way through pages of jargon written in 8-bit text with a dark blue background. One time, I'd actually already solved the problem as soon as I'd walked in by disconnecting and reconnecting the network cable, but I wanted everyone in the vicinity to gawk at my godlike powers.
Also, it's really awkward if someone comes running to the office begging you to fix their problem and it's just a mouse unplugged or something. The majority of people I've helped are really nice and so feel awful when they realise they've wasted my time. And that makes me feel awful because I don't want to ever upset someone unless they deserve it...and these people don't. They've just made a mistake. We've all done that, and I'm happy to fix other peoples mistakes if it brings them comfort in life. Just a 'thank you' is enough to remove any bitterness I might feel towards a person.
Since I'm just a trainee, I'm usually made to do what I call 'sidequests' - because I'm a nerd. These are simple, non-essential tasks my department assigns me to do, and I go off to do them. Usually there's no-one in the classroom or office so I'm able to get on with the job quietly before returning to my workstation and awaiting my next task. I do this so I may one day be experienced enough to do the major quests that advances the story and has proper voice actors.
Sometimes though, the side-quest turns out to be far beyond my level and I'm forced to pull back and either ask one of my colleagues for help or google the solution. (Yes, even IT technicians google their problems.) Or I'm on track to solving the problem when suddenly something else messes up. Once I was re-building a computer. It's much simpler than it sounds and hopefully re-doing the computer would allow it to properly connect to the printer when BAM! The whole printer network decided to shut down and I was forced to run back to my colleagues like the first person on the Titanic to spot the iceberg.
The worst is when the solution is so insultingly simple the whole time but I assume there has been a complete failure of everything and the only way to solve this is by hitting the universe reset button. Turns out I merely needed to hit another button: the 'on' button.
So that's been my life for the past two weeks. I still hate computers, I'm tired from having to get up at 6:30am and go home at 5:00pm, I'm still broke, and the job market still hates me...just slightly less now. Oh, and I'm having a good time. Honest.
No comments:
Post a Comment