Friday, March 21, 2008

Tips from an IT guy..

I have been in the IT field for about 8 years now, and I have dealt with novices, experts, novices who thinks they're experts, and everything in between. In this article, I'm going to lay it out all on the table about dealing with an IT. If you find that one of those points applies/applied to you at once point or another. I apologize in advance, but sometimes it's better to be blunt than to beat around the bush .
  1. If you ask me a technical question, please do not argue with me when I give you an answer. When I give a definite answer, it is because I am absolutely positive about it. If you are a lawyer, and you have my case, I will not argue about what you tell me regarding the law related to my case. If I didn't know the answer to your question, I will tell you that I don't know, or that I will research it and get back to you. Please do not come to me with the question if you just want to argue about it. 
  2. When I have to guide you step by step through a process that usually would take me about 2 minutes if I do it myself, but takes you 1 hour because you don't know what you are doing. Please don't get impatient with me, or act like you don't have time to waste on fixing your issue. Remember, I am the one spending my time trying to help you with your problem. If you have to go because you have something to do, I would understand of course. There is always an 80% chance that the problem that you are having is usually extremely simple to resolve, and becomes complicated due to your impatience to go through the steps. 
  3. If I ask you what you have done to your equipment prior to it breaking, please don't lie to me, and say "nothing". In most cases, you must have done something. I am ok with you making mistakes, but not ok with you lying about it. this only makes the process longer and longer to troubleshoot, as I'd have to guide you through investigating up until we reach the point of finding the change you made that caused your equipment or software to break. this COULD be the starting point of the conversation ... Imagine the time saved. 
  4. If I tell you that I can't fix something, or that you have to recreate a document because it has been permanently lost, please don't get mad at me. it is not my fault, nor am I a magician. (though some people seem to think I am ... :) ). I will do my best to help you resolve whatever issue you have. Sometimes, I won't be able to, or it'll be simply impossible, or very costly to the point where it's not even worth it for you.
  5. Please don't insult yourself before you ask a question (i.e: I'm such an idiot) ... that'll not only make you really sound like an idiot, but it'll make me not want to help you. Just because you don't know the resolution to a problem doesn't make you an idiot. 
  6. Don't be afraid to ask questions. I am aware that people's knowledge skills in technology vary greatly, no question is a dumb question. I'd rather answer questions to teach you how to do things, than to answer support calls to fix things you've broken.
I hope these few pointers will be some eye openers to some. again, I apologize for the bluntness, but these are truths about IT support. Look at all the humor sites that are built around IT support, that should tell you something about the lives we live in our IT world :)

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