Classic IT Support 'types'....

[broc]

I know of one lady technician, she's a bigger geek than many people I know & I bow to her knowledge especially in certain areas. She's a lovely person too. I think we need more lady technicians like her......

[Rydra]

The Catch 22

 

This techie has worked in the industry for a good few years, and is now pretty good at what he does. Most things are fixed in record time, and anything that isn't is more likely to do with prioritisation than because of lack of knowledge/ability. He can do most things despite not having the certificates to prove it, and as a result finds it hard to obtain the training, either because work dont see the need, he can't afford it, or see's them as a waste of time since they really can do it already.

A thankless individual, he is under-appreciated in general, as people are used to him being able to accomplish almost any task. He is stuck in the rut of employment; where he's too good at what he does where he is, therefore everything works and he is mostly getting bored with the daily tasks and sporadic projects, compared to a lesser-experienced body who would still struggle to keep things running as smoothly, and therefore be (or at least appear) busier.

This techie will either one day get a lucky break and move onto some new exciting role within IT, or give it all up to become a Bottanist.

[hardtailstar]

The Overlooked Techie can also be one who works in Primary (either gender) as their Secondary equivalents (usually young and male) assume that because the Primary Techie doesn't have a massive network and a team of people, then Primary Techies are worse than Hobby Jobbists.

 

thats me with the local secondary giving me grief!

[superatticman]

The 'Catch 22', thats got to be the most interesting variant yet.

 

You could probably rename that to.............'The Network Manager'

[SimpleSi]

OK - what we need is a Google Spreadsheet, with the Titles across the top , description in 2nd row and then each Edugeek sticks the percentages of each trait they admit to

 

Idea? Yes/No (Just hit thanks button and if I get more than 20 I'll knock one up)

 

Si

 

Example

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqjbnxKTTpnCdEJDRVZuaW9ZMTQxTlY0Z0dKMVBPRWc

Edited June 12, 2012 by SimpleSi

[sonofsanta]

OK - what we need is a Google Spreadsheet, with the Titles across the top , description in 2nd row and then each Edugeek sticks the percentages of each trait they admit to

 

Idea? Yes/No (Just hit thanks button and if I get more than 20 I'll knock one up)

 

Si

 

If you just want more rep points, just say

[SimpleSi]

If you just want more rep points, just say

 

Damm - you've seen through my cunning plan!

[elsiegee40]

The rep point hunter

See @SimpleSi

[gill]

I've never actually met a female IT tech, have heard of them and talked to a few on here but have never actually encountered one in real life. It would be a bit of a black swan event for me to actually meet one so my Terminator HUD would be unlikely to flag one. Not from any sexist standpoint, just from a rarity standpoint.

 

There are two of us here! It's the tidiest IT office in the world!

[sonofsanta]

There are two of us here! It's the tidiest IT office in the world!

 

Lucky swine, with 2 of 4 techs being female in this office it was constantly a tip. Although that may just be that I am that powerful a force for mess.

[Roberto]

The Catch 22

 

This techie has worked in the industry for a good few years, and is now pretty good at what he does. Most things are fixed in record time, and anything that isn't is more likely to do with prioritisation than because of lack of knowledge/ability. He can do most things despite not having the certificates to prove it, and as a result finds it hard to obtain the training, either because work dont see the need, he can't afford it, or see's them as a waste of time since they really can do it already.

A thankless individual, he is under-appreciated in general, as people are used to him being able to accomplish almost any task. He is stuck in the rut of employment; where he's too good at what he does where he is, therefore everything works and he is mostly getting bored with the daily tasks and sporadic projects, compared to a lesser-experienced body who would still struggle to keep things running as smoothly, and therefore be (or at least appear) busier.

This techie will either one day get a lucky break and move onto some new exciting role within IT, or give it all up to become a Bottanist.

 

I think I'm somewhere between this, the re-tred and the bofh - the last one not defined here yet but, well, I think we all know.

[AMLinington]

The Overlooked Techie...

 

Nomally the female of the tech support team, who even though will know the solution and willing to give advice and help out, is generally 'overlooked' due to being female. Luckily this doesn't happen much nowadays but have had plenty of experience of this with phone support and other support roles, where the end user would like to talk to a 'real' technician or some who knows what they're talking about. These users are generally older and of a generation that believe that females should be at home rearing children!!

 

sorry rant over.....

 

Oh yes, I've been here! I've lost count of the number of time people assume I'm and administrator and ask to be put through to an engineer because I'm a woman... Drives me nuts!

 

I'm not sure I fit into any of these stereotypes at the moment. Although I do posses the following qualities:

 

- Rare female techy and often overlooked

- Moderate interest in techy things and gamer of MMOs

- User baiter of outstanding talent. Knowledge is power and knowledge of service level agreements and company IT policies is power over users! Feel my wrath lowly peons for I wield the Stave of Password-complexity-policy and wear the Robes of Change-and-configuration-management-policy-won't-allow-this (did I mention I'm an MMO gamer?) It must be said that I don't get to wield these powers so much these days in the second line role, but I do have some fond memories of first line support...

- Moderately technical and can baffle ordinary peons but cannot last in an allout nerd-fest. Greater interest in ITIL policy and process management (see above)

- Prolific supporter of the 'help yourself' approach - I'd rather send a lengthy set of instructions as the small piece of optimism still alive in me hopes that the end user will refer back to this when said issue occurs again. This is foolish, I know, but still.

- Sponge - I learn fast and absorb knowledge like a sponge meaning I pick up new tech and complex concepts really fast. Also means I must always push myself to learn and understand new things or I become bored.

 

I'm sure I'll think of more.

[superatticman]

The 'surprised you don't know'

 

This particular specimen is often the source of much entertainment and guaranteed to generate sarcastic replies in return. To be fair, he's not always a 'know all' and admits to his own limitations. But this guy will almost get into a state of distress when you put your hand up to not knowing (usually the following) technologies:

 

"What do you mean you don't know scripting? All good IT people know that"

 

"What? You don't know anything about SQL?"

 

"Come on! You need to know exchange like the back of your hand"

 

Its usually those three, all of which are considered a bit 'specialist' by most general support people. However, unlike the 'know all' who if he does know will simply fix it without bothering to explain to you what he did, the 'SYDK' will usually at least attempt to run through it with you and ensure its documented.

[ijk]

knows they can generally 'google' it otherwise.

 

A key skill - I don't know the answer to that question, but I can find out.

[ijk]

The Overlooked Techie...

 

Nomally the female of the tech support team, who even though will know the solution and willing to give advice and help out, is generally 'overlooked' due to being female. Luckily this doesn't happen much nowadays but have had plenty of experience of this with phone support and other support roles, where the end user would like to talk to a 'real' technician or some who knows what they're talking about. These users are generally older and of a generation that believe that females should be at home rearing children!!

 

sorry rant over.....

 

I keep doing this to the woman behind the desk at the garage I use and each time I do it I hate myself more and more. Which is exactly what I deserve.

Edited September 26, 2012 by ijk
idiocy

[ijk]

pretty good at what he does.

 

pretty good at what they do

shurely, Ed. Ref the overlooked tech above.

[chrisredfield93]

you all missed one , i think the two titles explain themselves

 

"The Rebooter"

 

This indivual eitehr restarts the device and hope it works or turns it off and then on again and hope for the best.

 

if this dont work then they will have the new title of "The wipe and loader"

[superatticman]

A recent conversation on another thread has led to the addition of another tongue in cheek fine specimen:

 

The Two Foot Diver

 

More commonly recognised as the techie who dives into every new bit of technology with both feet regardless of whether its any good or not. As soon as a new release of windows comes out (having already spent months on the beta version), there he is, rolling it out en masse to the network and then usually getting loads of grief in return thanks to the fact its probably broken half the applications. Tells everyone they should be grateful because they've got the latest kit even quoting "You should feel lucky to have Windows 8, the MoD and NHS are still using XP". But is often found backtracking and desperately searching for backups of those old Windows XP/7 disk images that he cleared off the server in the name of procurement.

Edited June 20, 2013 by superatticman

[AMLinington]

He of unrealistic expectations:

 

- Someone who has unrealistic expectations of the performance of a device or software and is unaware of or chooses to ignore known limitations. Most commonly seen employing VM hosts.

 

- "What do you mean a single quad core processor with 4GB of RAM can't handle 10 live server VMs and a VM host OS? That is outrageous and unacceptable! The slow performance of my VMs are nothing to do with the spec of this system, it's brand new top spec. It must be your fault!"

 

- "What do you mean that 500GB isn't enough space for 2500 roaming user profiles?"

 

- "We only need a 10Meg line..."

[happymeal]

The Wanderer

 

This guy - knows it all. No, really. He was never born - he was the result of a mish-mash of Encarta, the Matrix and a few dodgy Command Lines.

If you ever have a problem, he knows the reason for it, what you should have done to fix it, and how to prevent it in the future.

 

The only problem is that he/she/it was born with a 6th sense - which is to predict the exact time when a problem will occur and to flee the scene and not be able to answer phone calls/texts/emails.

 

So ultimately, you get landed with the job and after much troubleshooting and a long lengthy fix to resolve the problem, a vibe is sent out. Much alike a high-pitched whistle to dogs - this call snaps the Wanderer out of his/her/it's trance and they then retreat back to their lair and then proceed to tell you what you should have done.

Edited June 20, 2013 by happymeal
grrr - forgot <b> and </b> doesn't make it go all [B]BOLD[/B]

[strawberry]

The Buzzword regurgitater.

 

This one has an opinion on everything. He'll stand over you whilst you fix something and help you out by asking you if its every single component in the darn machine, but only with 1990's ict knowledge. They will ask you why you are bother using MDT and SCCM when you could use this fantastic thing called SMS they have read about. They greet every development with... is it web 2.0 , does it have an app, can I access it on my iphone from my car up a hill. If you ask them to fix any problem they will turn up with every piece of equipment they care to show off before they even look at the problem ( you'll be lucky if they've even bothered to read the original email). Any problem can be solved with updates and of course the first random google result is the one that the end user needs to follow to end their woes. They will be a god on child protection and internet safety but only after the event.

 

A bullpooping liability with the patter of a salesman and the knowledge of a GCSE IT book from the 1990's. And an Iphone.

[superatticman]

The Wanderer

 

This guy - knows it all. No, really. He was never born - he was the result of a mish-mash of Encarta, the Matrix and a few dodgy Command Lines.

If you ever have a problem, he knows the reason for it, what you should have done to fix it, and how to prevent it in the future.

 

The only problem is that he/she/it was born with a 6th sense - which is to predict the exact time when a problem will occur and to flee the scene and not be able to answer phone calls/texts/emails.

 

So ultimately, you get landed with the job and after much troubleshooting and a long lengthy fix to resolve the problem, a vibe is sent out. Much alike a high-pitched whistle to dogs - this call snaps the Wanderer out of his/her/it's trance and they then retreat back to their lair and then proceed to tell you what you should have done.

 

Definite similarities with the 'know all' here. But you are dead right. I've come across this type loads of times!! They always know the answer, always tell you what you should have done. A bit like when you go to visit your relatives in the Shires on Boxing day and one bright spark always reckons there's a far easier route to get there than you took. Despite the fact you've been going there for 30 years and have the shortest and quickest route to a tee. But get him in the car with you and he won't have a clue. "Must have changed the roads a bit since I was last here".

[superatticman]

And another type which started to become very common in the early 2000s.

 

"The MSCE"

 

Their career in IT started when they paid £3000 to do a full blown MSCE advertised in the local paper. The advert promised them £30,000 a year once qualified. However, they soon got bored with it all. All these odd and funny terms. 'Delegation of control Wizard' 'Reverse lookup zones' 'layer two tunneling protocol' and some totally hideous sounding command lines. All those tedious labs, "hey, wheres the action? I thought IT was fun?" They lose interest but hear of these 'brain dumps' which if studied hard will get you through the exams. The lure of that £30k starting salary kicks in again. Off they go, get through the exams due to a mix of of what they learned in class and braindumping. Awarded an MSCE which must mean they are an IT Professional.

 

And so they land their first job as a network engineer. This lasts about a month as despite their best efforts, they fall at every first hurdle. In fact, they struggled to even diagnose a faulty patch cable. So off they go, convinced it was just a bad experience, exaggerate on their CV and manage to get another job with a smaller IT company. Again, out after a month having totally screwed up a server and lost data. And so it carries on. Eventually end up buying a server off ebay, setting up a couple of client PC's and go back to their study material to replicate some true to life environments. Including building a server from scratch, setting up DHCP and applying group policies. As they've become handy with a screwdriver and now have some basic OS skills get a £15k job with PC repair shop which has a few base techies and field engineers. Know all attitude puts them at odds with technicians which have nothing on paper but know their stuff. Soon gets a dose of reality, knows that £30k job is still miles away and becomes a bit more humble about it all. Gets some experience with networks shadowing another engineer and is soon capable of providing basic administration of a small network. Two years pass and and he's now getting a bit more confident with network administration and is now charged with looking after a 50 user site with a senior engineer to help him out if things get a bit hairy. 3 years pass and he's now a popular and respected IT support worker. Fancies a change. Applies and gets a £35k job in Central London working for a multinational company. Fits in fine once he learns the territory. Just realises his MSCE has expired but couldn't care less as he's now got a proven track record.

[Ghostgame]

All we need now is David Attenborough to narrate this.

[Ephelyon]

@superatticman, that's actually quite an encouraging story considering there are so many who don't get that eventual break, I think. +1 to David Attenborough narrating it, or possibly Morgan Freeman.

 

Here's another type:

 

The Responsibility Sponge

 

With technical ability ranging from weak to exceptional, this denizen of disused prep rooms and staff-room-annex server rooms sees their responsibilities creep up with each passing year as another device with a plug on it is added to their silo. E-safety is piled on top of them as well, and their conscience won't allow them to flatly refuse when others are claiming they have no time for it. Having wanted to specialise (and having a skillset that is really intended for that), they instead find themselves lumbered with everything under the sun. The stress piles up until at some point they leave or have a heart attack. Despite all of this they actually quite enjoy a lot of their job while it lasts, sometimes too eager to say no because of this. Often this creature will progress towards the infamous BOFH type in later life, having not been born evil but had all the enthusiasm beaten out of them.