I had to call MS support today..........

[Gohan Ryu]

Originally Posted by turtlecrxsi

I would've jumped out my window a long time ago if I had to deal with customers/clients.

It's not like that if you work for in a private IT dept. All of the users that I support are internal to the law firm. I know them personally and they know me - which means they know they are the lawyers and I am the techie - so they usually just answer my questions and do what I ask them to do. It's the occasional "outside job" being done as a favor that I hate doing - I quit a job that paid $100 an hour because I didn't want to deal with the "general public".

[turtlecrxsi]

Oh yes, of course, I meant the techies like Brodie. The IT staff here at this firm seem to have it pretty good. They are like you described what your situation is. Actually, I'd almost prefer setting up the hardware/software and fixing network issues etc. because frankly what I do is rather boring. But I'm a database "specialist" so I do what they pay me to do, and conveniently surf AF LOL

[l_eclipse_l]

Originally Posted by Gohan Ryu

- I quit a job that paid $100 an hour because I didn't want to deal with the "general public".

You mind posting where and what this job entailed? I will deal with dumbshits all day long if they wanna pay me that kind of money lol.

I work for tech support on a campus, and I get paid $7.45 to do exactly that...help computer iliterate people. $100 would be quite a treat

[BrodyP]

$22 an hour here

I worked on Park ave for a major law firm in Manhattan for a few years but I couldn't handle the commute any longer. It was much better money as well.

I'm going to shoot for an analyst job or internal support when I move in 3 months just till I finish school then I'm switching careers.

[turtlecrxsi]

I work an analyst job at a law firm now and make substantially less here in SC. However, if I was in NYC the salary would probably equate substantially higher salary, at least 5-7k more a year. I can't complain though. I can't really deal with customer/employee support because I'm hearing impaired and say "what?" all the time so having a nice cushy office with full benefits package isn't so bad. Besides, I'm used to being broke... haha

['97ventureowner]

I based a lot of what I said in my previous posts from my experiences with AOL ( from 5 years ago), Dell (from both 5 years ago and last year,) and Tracfone. I will say this , Tech support has gotten better in those 5 years.I dreaded calling either AOL or Dell when I bought my computer 5 years ago because of the sniping that went on between the 2 services. XP had just come on the market and there were still a lot of issues with it clashing with AOL's 7.0. Of course AOL wouldn't admit to anything and blame it on Dell and vice versa. I felt bad being in between those 2 whenever I called with a problem, which was frequent back then. Funny how 99% of my problems "disappeared" after I got rid of AOL.
Recently, however, I had a problem when I had FiOS installed. I couldn't get my son's computer online and went back and forth between Verizon and Dell. Whatever Verizon would have me do,(which didn't solve the matter,)Dell would have me do it again. I kept telling them I already did that once or twice and it didn't work, but still they went by their script instead of maybe "looking outside the box for a moment." I guess the problem was the router was not recognizing my son's computer or IP address, something along those lines. Finally after calling Verizon one more time after the request of Dell, while talking to the tech lady I accidently found the problem. It was the MCAfee virus protection installed by Dell on his computer that was not allowing the router to get through to his computer. Dell knew about the virus protection on it because I told them and they saw it on their list as his computer having it installed. I even remember the Verizon installer being on the phone a long time after installation working with their IT dept. trying to get it to work.
As a courtesy I decided to call Dell back to let the tech person who was helping me with the problem know what it ended up being in hopes that this could help them troubleshoot issues similar to this in the future. After my conversation, I received a call back from the head of Dell's IT and an email thanking me for calling back and letting them know. He told me they would "re-train" the individual who helped me and use my information in future training sessions.
Don't get me wrong by the tone of my previous posts concerning this matter. I have a lot of respect for IT people. It amazes me at how much they know and have to know about various systems and hardware/software that is used with it. I can imaginge the schooling that goes along with such a position. My own brother is an IT person who has been in the business since serving back in Vietnam in the '60s. He worked for GE, then worked for Digital for over 25 years, then his job got outsourced and went to work for Microsoft business IT. He recently was layed off from that position,(not sure if that job was outsourced as well,) and I believe the last time I spoke with him he had another IT job lined up. It's hard for someone his age (he's 62) to find work in that field out in Colorado. I've been joking with him to move back home to NY where IT jobs are plentiful and slow to be filled for the lack of qualified personnel.

[BrodyP]

Originally Posted by turtlecrxsi

I work an analyst job at a law firm now and make substantially less here in SC. However, if I was in NYC the salary would probably equate substantially higher salary, at least 5-7k more a year. I can't complain though. I can't really deal with customer/employee support because I'm hearing impaired and say "what?" all the time so having a nice cushy office with full benefits package isn't so bad. Besides, I'm used to being broke... haha

Yea I am sure I'll take a pay cut when I move but it all equals out in the end..God thing the wife graduates law school this semester

[turtlecrxsi]

The longer warm seasons make you eventually forget about the monetary cost of living differences. If somebody offered me $45-50k to live in NJ/NY all year round I'd tell them to look elsewhere.

[BrodyP]

Originally Posted by turtlecrxsi

The longer warm seasons make you eventually forget about the monetary cost of living differences.

You got it, also just want a bit slower pace of living to start a family.

[Gohan Ryu]

Originally Posted by l_eclipse_l

You mind posting where and what this job entailed? I will deal with dumbshits all day long if they wanna pay me that kind of money lol.

I work for tech support on a campus, and I get paid $7.45 to do exactly that...help computer iliterate people. $100 would be quite a treat

I was working for a friend who was starting his own IT contracting agency - he had several companies and a few home users as clients. He charges the client $175 per hour for on-site tech support. This seems like a lot but that is what agencies charge their clients. Normally the agency keeps 80-90% of that fee and they pay the tech whatever the normal salaries are (between $15-$50 per hour, depending on how good you are). But because my friend is the owner of the agency, he gave me a better rate. Independant contracters make more money but there's no benefits, no 401k. I had to buy my own health insurance, and in April I paid a lot to the IRS since taxes weren't being taken out of my salary.

The job itself was supporting the client's entire network: installing file servers, setting up email servers, running cables thru the walls and installing data jacks etc... - it involved more than deskside user support.

$7.45 is frightening, but I'd rather help some cute young college girl than some smelly old lawyer. j/k - there's some damn hot interns here that will be permanent once they finish law school.

There's more and more IT positions becoming available here in So-Cal as we recover from when all of those dot-com companies crashed in the early 2000's. Headhunters call me all the time asking if I or anyone I know is looking for a job.

[ericn1300]

luckily i work in the corporate world and each of the corps i deal with have a 24/7 support center staffed with knowlagble peeps as i'm usually going in blind as to their system infranstructure and don't often have to deal with the script monkeys very often.

i get from $250 to $1,500 a night for upgrades and installations for the work i do, but if i leave a store down and they can't open they loose about $10,000 an hour. a lot of pressure, but mony is well earned.