Got a job

I sent my CV out randomly to a few places last week, and Friday I had gotten a new message on my machine that the owner of a Computer shop here wanted to talk to me, and today I finally decided to go ahead and call him back.

He told me what they do, and that he wasn't really a technical person, but more on the business end, and that he showed me CV to his current tech and that he was very impressed by me.

He asked me a bunch of questions and told me about his customers and the things he wanted out of me, and I knew already he was more business than tech when he asked me if I'd be able to repair hardware... Including HDs.. I was like wow you have a clean room?

I was like really if a HD breaks you slap in a new one.

Anyway, we talked for a few more minutes and he's like OK, well I have to talk to one more person about this job so I'll call you later will you be home?

I'm like well, for most of the day yes but we do have some things to do today but I have an answering machine.

He calls back 10 minutes later and asks me what I'd do with a personal friend / customer he has because "They have aLaptop he wants to get back online but his 13 year old daughter plays games on websites and it's slow".

I'm like "Well a 13 year old with unlimited access to the net and nothign to stop them is a problem, and the slow performance tells me it's probably loaded with a bunch of spyware and depending on sites she plays on, maybe some trojans even".

His next question was can I leave right now, come down there, and go fix two customers computers, and bring the laptop home with me to fix.

I said for the laptop I'd probably just back up whatever they wanted saved, reformat and reinstall, and then load it with anti virus and spyware scanners, scan the back ups, and let whatever is safe back on and consider it a finished project.

He seemed to like that and also said an older lady had trouble hooking up a USB cable and I'd be going to her house.

I was kind of shcoked this guy is willing to pay me to basically show some old lady how to hook in a USB cable and MAYBE be re-organizing the cables hooked up to be a little more clean and not a spyderweb of cables.

When he asked about me coming in today, I thought to myself about the whole thing; People say first impressions are everything, and if I jump to his command, I may pay for that later by being his call boy, and if I don't I may not get hired and he'd think maybe I'm an ass.

So I decided to go in the middle :

I said "Well, later on I'll be working on things here, is there any way I can do it later on in the afternoon, or tomorrow?".

Basically setting bait to see which type of person he wants (IE; a Tech, or a person to do his job for him so he can sleep in) he said if possible can I make it in tomorrow at 10 AM, and I said sure, and so, tomorrow, at 10 AM, I'm driving two cities away (small ones, takes about a half hour) and starting my new job as the Bastard tech from Michigan.

I don't expect it to pay my way into a new BMW, but a pay check is a pay check and experience on a CV looks good.

Maybe I can even talk him into opening an ISP for local users which, will serve two purposes; One being I can then put on my Resume I helped start an ISP and kept it running, and was the main admin for it, and the other being, I'll probably get a raise out of it. I've taken enough business classes to know how to operate in a building so I'm not worried about that end..

Anyway, should be pretty good. His current tech, left for the Air Force right out of high school and works on a base near here (I know because he told me his life story and the tech's) and the guy already turned down a job offer because they paid the same so the money should be at least decent.

Congrats. I hope it works out for you. Sounds like you got in on a business on the edge of blooming, and maybe the one to give it the push it needs. It'd be quite a bit of work, but if done right, worth it in the end.

Good luck and all.

Thanks :)

CONGRATS GORE!

Thanks. It's my first real computer based job. Heh, weird huh?

Windoze: "yes", Linux: "Noze"

Muhahahahahahahahahahahahaha:lildevil:

Congratulations old chap!.............. youze got a new business nick "Mr. A" :D

I will PM you with contact details............ if it hits the fan, I am there for you, as are a hell of a lot better people on this site!

Good luck bro!

Johnno

Thank you ;)

I know you appreciate my idea of keeping extra hardware around for "just in case" type things.

Congrats, big guy. Let me be the first to welcome you to mushroom city. Can't wait to hear about your first real corporate job.

Now something just doesn't seem right here. Gore + Computers + Customer Service? I'm telling ya, something isn't adding up.

Hell, just Gore + Service doesn't always add up quite right, butlet's see how it goes before making assumptions. Benefit of doubt, and all

Congrats. Repeat this over and over, the customer is always right and smile....

LOL damn it I do great with customer service. At my last in building job, there was one customer who'd ONLY deal with me. 47 year old Misfits fan :)

And thanks guys.

Well, first day today :)

I got there almost right one time (I got lost and ended up another city away and turned around, but I was only 1 minute late, it was because the road I have to go to doesn't have a sign telling you it's that road) so I got there and he sat down with me to talk about what happens and what he does.

he showed me how sometimes companies hire the people for advertising, so he was really happy I know how to do that too, since I took a class for that and know how to make little ads and things, and also he was impressed that I understand business.

Took a business course as well in college and he was really happy I understood that as well because according to him, the last 3 techs were just crap when it came to how much you charge and how you do things to run a business.

I'm sitting here right now charging a laptop up he wants me to fix up, gave me the ticket for the customer, and let me bring it home and a desktop which is a "Mystery" machine. It may or may not boot up and no one knows what's wrong.

Then later on I have to drive toa customer's house to basically set up a network, and decide MYSELF what to charge... I didn't let on that I specialize in setting up cable net connections and have friends at Comcast, that would just be rubbing it in.

I was in his store for 1 hour 30 minutes, I have a binder to look over, a laptop, a desktop, and I get paid per job I do, so I can probably get these done today + the on site call and blow his mind since apparently, the other techs he hired abuse his lack of know how in tech stuff and made it seem like it took longer.

I guess the load he gave me should be done soon but not all in one day or even 2. He basically said to me to try to at least do the drive out job tonight and go from there, but I have about 5 hours until then so if I can get this laptop rollin' and have both done I should have a nice chunk of change to work with ;)

Anyway just an update and a thanks for the support,

-gore

Well I had lunch and popped open that Dell Laptop.

The customer didn't leave ANY passwords... OK it's being used by a 13 year old girl, so it took me all of 2 minutes to get into one of the accounts so I could install Spybot after I burned a CD of AVG, Spybot, and Ad-Aware.

Ad-Aware I later find out was already installed but had been REMOVED....

I don't have admin rights yet (Downloading some CDs) which reminds me, does anyone here recommend any GOOD CDs I can boot this laptop with so I can get the admin password? I know a CD exists to do this because I used it in school but I Honestly don't recall which CD it was.

Anyway, right now I'm scanning it. Already got the thing online which they said they couldn't do.

I found that by plugging in a live Cat5 cable it seemed to fix that problem.

Next after this scan, I'm going to document what was on it from THIS scan, and then install AVG, update that, and scan again, and then I may get some clean up done with it and I should be done.

I'm keeping a documented log of ALL work I'm doing on it and what I'm finding and how long it's taking me. Seems like a good idea.

I've used this successfully many times

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gore

so it took me all of 2 minutes to get into one of the accounts so I could install Spybot after I burned a CD of AVG, Spybot, and Ad-Aware.

Next after this scan, I'm going to document what was on it from THIS scan, and then install AVG, update that, and scan again, and then I may get some clean up done with it and I should be done.

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just a recommendation if you haven't tried it: (better than any other free spyware detector I've used)

http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/

very nice scanner...give it a try, might detect what spybot and avg might miss

--oh, and congrats on the job gore:)

Quote:

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I've used this successfully many times

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

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No idea how to actually make the CD, Please give some newbie advice :)

EDIT Hmm is this a windows editor or just a linux one :)

Congrats Gore :)

The job sounds too "smallfry" for you ...

This is a linux bootable CD that allows you to edit the SAM and blank the administrator password.

Go to:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

Scroll towards the bottom, it has the downloads and explains how to make either the CD version or the Floppy version.

If you are wanting to get access to a linux box and you do not know the password and you have pysical access, you can boot to single user mode and edit the /etc/passwd file or remove the drive from the system and put into another linux box and mount it as a secondary drive and then edit /mountpoint/etc/passwd and remove the root passwd.

Thanks much.

Real quick about single user mode, if you try that on a SUSE box, it doesn't work to well. I did that one to test it on SUSE... I think it was 9.3 Professional, and once you do it, the root password doesn't work anymore. Not sure about newer versions but a few from then didn't allow this. just a heads up to be careful.

wait, this guy has a clean room?! Like a commercial one? Or one he made? Because I've always wondered if it would be possible to make your own that would actually be effective.

No he just doesn't know anything about computer repair and wanted to see if I was good or not.

Time for a noob Q:

Concerning the boot disk, can you make it in windows or just for LINUX?

Hi,
The linux boot disk i used you could make it in windows or linux. Worked very well at the time.
Gore as everyone else said congrats on the job. Just don't scare too many of the customers :)

you can make it with any OS as long as you have image burning software that supports the ISO format

Cider > the easiest way to burn the (ISO) disk in Windows is probably ISO Recorder: http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm . It's free, and it adds a "Copy image to CD" option to the right-click menu (so it's easy, too).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MURACU

Hi,
The linux boot disk i used you could make it in windows or linux. Worked very well at the time.
Gore as everyone else said congrats on the job. Just don't scare too many of the customers :)

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Merci boucoup :)

Neg:

Does that app require anything special? I have like a crap load of burners here, I generally use K3B because, well, if I want to burn an OS or ISO, you just click on the ISO and it pops up, checks the MD5 for you and then you click burn and it's done.

On Windows, we have about 10 apps but I just usually use Nero or another of the super popular everyone says you need it ones lol.

As for sxcaring customers, haven't done that really. One old lady who hates tech hung up on me when I called her to see when she'd like me to stop by and set up her net connection for her. Wasn't sure why really but when I asked the owner he said she was a bit "odd" so I just let it go.

The others love me and think the prices I set are very good compared to others heh.

Well, it's Friday now...

How has my first almost full week gone?

1. I finished up that laptop for 90 dollars, I get 30, the boss get's 30 and 30 goes to keeping the lights on in the building lol.

2. I did my first on site call today for a really nice lady, cleaned up the spyware and spam, 65 dollars.

3. A used car lot owner wants me to sit down with him while he says what he needs in a computer and I'll make a recommendation and possible set up the buy through my boss's whole sale person, or he can buy one from Best Buy and then I can set it up for him.

And now, I just got off the phone with the owner of the place I work at and HE'S GIVING ME A KEY TO THE OFFICE... Have to say I'm a little shocked there.

Now I'm off for the weekend so I can sit around and do nothing but clean up a bit lol.

It's time to start working for yourself. You finish up that laptop for 90 dollars, you get 30, your wife gets 30, and 30 goes to buying a case of beer. That's how I do it, at least ;)

I have been doing what I can on the side. My Aunt works with someone who's computer is screwed up too, and I said I'm not going to quote a price because I don't charge per hour, but by the job. So that should be some extra cash just for me too.

I've been thinking about it though now that I see how easy it really is to do this stuff. I mean really a phone number is really all people need, and sending someone out to pick up a machine, I have a best friend in need of a job who knows more about hardware than I do, so we may be able to set something up ;)

For now though, he's pretty well known so I get a new job once to twice a day. I make sure they know my name because everyone has been happy with me that I've worked with. I have this weekend off, I'm not doing **** lol.

Right now I'm having a smoke and drinking a Wild Grape Jolt. :) It's good to have friends in the party store business. (Party store = liquor pop and smokes for anyone not from Michigan).

Congratulations on you new job, and it seems quite easy for you.
I think you are a bit overqualified, but then again, it is in the direction your are looking for I am sure.

Thanks much :)

The experience end should pay of well. It's not what I'm going to stop with in any way, I mean I'm still looking, and I applied for another one this morning as a Linux admin, which is obviously more of what I'd like to do, but for now it's alright and I can't complain as money is money heh.

Congrats Gore ^_^

I too have recently segwayed from Unemployment.

Cigna Health I.T. Dept. making 13.25 an hour doing desktop support. w000t!

Thanks dude. ;)

Well, I got paid today. I think he's catching on that I know the busniess end of this as well and could easily open up shop doing this myself, which I intend to anyway, but he seemed to rely on tech people not knowing much about running a business which he told me flat out anyway, so anyway, this pay was for two jobs, one was a laptop that was 90 dollars, and my 1/3 was 30, the other job was 65 dollars, so I got 1/3 of that too.

He instead paid me 65 dollars and sucked up on how good I am and how I do really nice work...

The restore CDs came in too for a desktop he sent me home with.

He said his old tech looked at it and said it needed 2 gigs of new RAM, and a new 400 GB HD because it got a worm on the 200 GB drive it currently had in it that had "destroyed the hard drive and RAM"...

I said that was crap and that formatting a drive takes everything off, and he said "Oh no, the old tech's friend sent an email saying that formatting triggers the worm and that if you just put a new HD in this machine it'll infect the new drive too!"...

I said that's crap too but nope, him and the customer seem to be convinced I'm wrong and so I told him to go ahead and order the new drive and I finally got the old one out after wrestling with the front panel which didn't want to come off and of course the HD was mounted to the front of the machine.

So anyway, I'll slap in the new 200 GB HD because I'm wrong and don't know what I'm doing, and I'll take the new hardware and call t a stupidity tax.

That 200 gig drive should look nice in one of my machines after I format it and put Linux on it or just add it to my Slackware server and format it.

And if the RAM gets ordered, I'll put the new ram in if they want.... Hey, 2 gigs of RAM would also look awfully nice in one of the machines here.

I'll just charge that as a stupidity tax :) I tried to say it was crap and just needed a format and some clean up but nope they think I'm wrong, so I'll take some new hardware no problem and get paid extra for having to take out the old hardware and install new stuff. Hell I get to charge extra for that AND keep the old hardware.

I'm really starting to wonder why I didn't do this before...

nice ;)

In case anyone is wondering:

Axel.Dav is what the problem seems to be. I just re-read the email he printed out for me from his friend saying "DO NOT format the hard drive! That is what triggers the worm!!!!!!"....

The mail goes on to say (Abuot the old tech) that "Someone who isn't good with computersb such as you shouldn't try and fix this by hand, replace the hardware and be careful because this will also infect the new hard drive not installed yet".

*Sigh*

I should be more mad that they don't believe me and instead believe this crap, but then again, my Wife DID need another Hard Drive in Her main desktop since She's running low on space.

AND they ARE totally willing to pay for the work it's taking me to pull out the HD in the pain in the ass case, so basically, I'm getting paid quite a bit to do this.

I saw an old ticket where all the old tech did was hook up a printer and re-install Windows ME and they charged 260 dollars.

So me wrestling with this case to get the front panel off since it was a pain in the ass because I had to open the side case, use my hand and a screw driver to press on little plastic things to get it to pop off, take out the 200 GB Barracuda Hard Drive they had in there, then I have to wait for the new drive to come in, install that drive, put the case back together again, format the new drive, use the restore CDs to put Windows and drivers back on this thing, and then they also think that this new drive is going to get infected, so they think I'll be cleaning this freshly formatted box, and then install spyware scanners, update those, and install free anti virus and update all that and install Windows updates and patches...

This is easily going to be 300 or more dollars and they wouldn't listen to me saying it would be cheaper, AND they have to pay for the new HD, and so they're probably looking at 400 dollars...

I mean after the drive is done and Windows is back on, that is a LOT of updates. And then I have to go through putting other stuff on it and updating that too, and like I said the other one charged 260 for hooking up a printer and re-installing Windows ME so this is easily 300 or more. I should make some decent cash on this one + that old HD is getting formatted and I can keep that so it works out nice.

My turn to speak!

Well, I am amazed by the thread. I never knew that gore did not have a job before this! And secondly what surprises me even more is: ITS his first computer job! Anyway congrats gore.

And yeah, as far as that ISO image thing is concerned, I bet there is none and can't be one easier than what negative has mentioned. I have used that software for two years to distribute my CDs to my friends without having to burn them . I just created images and copied it to their USBs. The software will create a complete copy of the CD/DVD and keeps the bootable DVD bootable even after the ISO file is saved (that what nero is missing). Even today when I do not have Windows installed on my real machine, I use the same method using the Virtual one. I just connect the DVD drive to the virtual machine, put in the disk, create the image in the VM and transfer it to the real machine using the virtual network. Thats seriously easy. I am unable to find anything which could be used to create an ISO image (not the one with dd command) so that I can be faster and reduce my dependence on Windows for that.

Anyway Have a nice time gore.

Thanks :)

Lol yea this is in fact my first computer job. The only thing to come close was when I worked at my Aunt and Uncle's cell phone shop, I got to screw with cell phones sometimes and once in a while a pager, and since the name of the business had the word Computer in it a lot of people thought they sold computers and hardware, which they didn't, it was in the name because they offered a monitoring service done by a computer.

So whenever people came in asking computer questions, my Aunt and Uncle generally told them they had no idea what they were asking about, unless I was there, then I gave them advice.. That's about it though lol.

I spent most of the slow days by myself. It got to the point that my Aunt and Uncle didn't even want to show up anymore so they had me open for them and stay there all day until the end of the day when it was time to close. I helped close up after a long day playing Doom and Quake and Wolfenstein on a 486 he had in there and walking to the store across from the cell shop which was a hobby store with a Mountain Dew machine so I went in there a lot to get Mountain dew and AMP so I could stay awake in there in case a customer came.

And of course once in a while I had my fun with phone company employees who came in to try and get them to sell a new service and my Uncle would let me screw with them for a while before telling them to get out so we could get back to playing Doom.

I do sometimes miss screwing with the AT%T pay phone my Uncle bought and had installed in the mall. It was HIS pay phone so I got to play with that too :)He let me mess with it for a while sometimes if it was really slow.

The best part was that telemarketers would for some reason call the PAY PHONE and we just couldn't help ourselves, we acted like shoppers walking through the mall answering it to see who was calling a pay phone.

Oddly enough these people STILL tried to make a sale even though as far as they knew we were people shopping in a mall and answering the pay phone.

He let me take it apart once too after an idiot kid stuffed something in it trying to break it which was nice.

Other than that I've mostly done restaurant jobs. I'm a pretty good cook, but I hate doing it for a job.

Ah well, called my boss back to tell him to order that shiny new HD =)

Hey gore, I suppose you wont mind if I ask about your education? Now thats because I am surprised .... u r such a genius and I think u would have been in a big company working on big networks and all such stuff. But u say u r working in a small shop? I just do not understand the relation between your knowlege and ur job :|