14 votes

A teenager's guide to avoiding actual work

5 comments

  1. [3]
    autumn
    Link
    I read up to the part where he got the computer repair job because of who his mother knew. That’s almost always what it boils down to, and why it’s so important to be involved in your community if...

    I read up to the part where he got the computer repair job because of who his mother knew. That’s almost always what it boils down to, and why it’s so important to be involved in your community if you want a “good” job.

    I do think there’s some value in doing manual labor, though I do not like being required to do it as part of my job (been there). Gardening is an excellent, relaxing way to spend a weekend afternoon.

    11 votes
    1. Eabryt
      Link Parent
      Agreed. There are plenty of weeks where I feel I accomplished more spending 3-4 hours fixing shit around the house or gardening than in the 40 hours of actual work I did for my job.

      I do think there’s some value in doing manual labor, though I do not like being required to do it as part of my job (been there). Gardening is an excellent, relaxing way to spend a weekend afternoon.

      Agreed. There are plenty of weeks where I feel I accomplished more spending 3-4 hours fixing shit around the house or gardening than in the 40 hours of actual work I did for my job.

      5 votes
    2. skybrian
      Link Parent
      There's more luck to it than getting the job. The part after that, about not knowing what you're doing and also not knowing how to negotiate, while the customer basically knows nothing about...

      There's more luck to it than getting the job. The part after that, about not knowing what you're doing and also not knowing how to negotiate, while the customer basically knows nothing about computers but hopes you do, brings back memories. That's not mentorship, it's sink or swim. He was very lucky to be able to figure it out with a hex editor or it would have ended there.

      As a teenager, I got an (unpaid) internship where they had me look at an AS/400 system and try to fix something (I don't remember what) but I had no idea what I was doing and didn't understand the manuals either, because IBM has its own dialect of computerese, nothing like the Commodore and Apple computers I was familiar with. I thought I fixed something but it didn't stay fixed. I wasn't smart enough to admit that I was out of my depth, so it was just a failure.

      My "normal" teenage jobs were at a local Burger King, grocery store, and a discount retailer. Indoor work, at least, but definitely motivating when it comes to college.

      2 votes
  2. [2]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    Hah. What a lovely little story, and it actually even kinda reminds me of how I first got into working with computers as an actual career too. For some background, my father ran a Database...

    Hah. What a lovely little story, and it actually even kinda reminds me of how I first got into working with computers as an actual career too.

    For some background, my father ran a Database Marketing company when I was growing up, so I got into computers at a very young age. I think I was around 6-7 years old when I was given my first IBM 286 which my dad's company no longer needed since they had upgraded. And pretty much the very first thing I did after I got it was "break" it by completely taking it apart in an effort to figure out how it worked, but was then unable to put it back together again.

    Needless to say, my father was not particularly pleased with that, but thankfully called one his IT people and offered to pay him to come over, teach me how to put the computer back together, and get it working again. So when the IT guy finally had some free time he popped over, and not only taught me how to put the computer back together again, but also walked me through what every component was called, what they did, and the rudimentary basics of how they worked.

    After that experience, I became hooked on computer hardware. And from there I went on to host LAN parties in elementary and high school for my friends, using the enterprise-grade networking equipment I "borrowed" from my Dad's company... which I knew how to configure (even back when networking was a real PITA!) since I had spent a fair amount of time over the years doing odd jobs in the IT department to earn enough money to buy newer and more powerful computers for myself. One of my elementary school friend's cousins also ran a local BBS, so I got to play around with some pretty cool modem and server hardware by helping them occasionally too.

    But the reason this substack post reminds me of how I first got started doing legitimate work on computers was what happened when I was forced to get my first "real" summer job when I turned 15. The only job I could get at the time was at an office supply warehouse/store, so that's where I went to work. Thankfully I had told them in the interview that I knew office equipment reasonably well from having worked in my father's IT department, so they put me in the front-of-store computer hardware department selling desktops, office printers, fax machines, etc.

    However despite that, it was still a miserable job and I hated every minute of it.... especially since my sleezy manager demanded I basically lie to customers in order to upsell them to more expensive hardware than they actually needed. He also followed the idiotic "no idle hands" management philosophy, where during any luls in actual work he would make some up to keep us busy. And this busy-work often involved doing (in retrospect) pretty stupidly dangerous stuff, like climbing on top of the 30ft high warehouse storage units, with no safety harnesses, to reorganize their inventory. There were also mandatory "team building/motivational" meetings every morning at 6am when we first arrived at work, which were cringy AF. They were basically mini-pep rallies, where we had to chant shitty slogans, hop around together, and do idiotic trust exercises.... at 6AM in the goddamn morning... after having had to wake up at 5AM to get there on time!!!

    But despite all that, I probably would have kept working there like a dutiful child, if it wasn't for the final straw that broke my (figurative and thankfully not literal) back. A few weeks into working there, some kid projectile vomited all over a bunch of school supplies, right before my shift was up. Despite me getting ready to leave and that not being my department, since I was the "new" employee my manager told me I had to clean it up, and also demanded I try to clean as many of the school supplies as I could so they wouldn't have to get thrown out. I said "okay, sure" then promptly walked out of the store and never went back... well, sort of never went back.

    See, since I didn't want to tell my parents I had "quit", for the next week I still got up at 5AM, got dressed in my work uniform (which I hadn't given back to them when I left) and simply pretended to go to work like normal. And instead of going to work I usually just went to the movie theater or mall. It was a pretty fun week... but eventually the guilt got to me and I finally fessed up when my next paycheck didn't arrive. My dad was pretty furious, but quickly realized it was futile trying to convince me to look for another retail job, so he proposed a compromise instead.

    And that's when I started formally working for his IT department, which is basically what I still do to this day. Although I did eventually move on to doing data recovery and computer forensics work for a while too. And I also had a brief interlude where I went out West to visit family and wound up working for an uncle doing commercial landscaping. After which I went to Art College and worked in an Advertising company's art department for a time, before finally returning to doing freelance IT/data recovery while also dabbling in web design, which is what I still do today. That may not be quite as cool or interesting as managing to fix some mysterious software bug for a sleezy used car salesman... but c'est la vie. :P

    7 votes
    1. Adys
      Link Parent
      OH MAN that is awesome. I tended to "take apart and break" as well, but I only ever did it with hardware that was being thrown away / discarded. I'm sure I must have broke a live item at some...

      So when the IT guy finally had some free time he popped over, and not only taught me how to put the computer back together again, but also walked me through what every component was called, what they did, and the rudimentary basics of how they worked.

      OH MAN that is awesome.

      I tended to "take apart and break" as well, but I only ever did it with hardware that was being thrown away / discarded. I'm sure I must have broke a live item at some point doing this but I was pretty scared of exactly your story happening haha.

      3 votes