apple techies

[jefhatfield]

i make my living as a pc tech/network engineer and any of us who have been in the field for any number of months or years quickly realize it is not what they taught us in college/trade school and if it was a hobby for many of us once, it seems for the vast majority not to be a hobby for us now...imagine working on a pc all day, the last thing you want to do is work on your pc at home so most of us take up different hobbies besides computers and many of us don't want to see anything computer related (fixing hardware or programming) on the weekends at all until monday morning

i recently read that being a computer techie is the second highest burnout job in america next to being an air traffic controller...i have met very few techies who do this fast moving field for more than a decade or even five years

if there are any techs out there on macrumors who make their living fixing macs,

1) what do you do for a hobby? is it macs?

2)is a mac the last thing you want to troubleshoot on your precious free time? does your love life suffer because of the computer?

...just a curious pc tech

 

[Ensign Paris]

X Over

I work as Mac tech at my dads company (Repro Graphics) We have two networks about 50 summut G4 and G3s and about 24 Dell Windows 2000 machines aswell as a few Unix servers.

In my spare time I race go-karts and mess about with my PBG4, oh yes and sometimes I do my GCSE homework.

Thanks,
Ensign Paris

 

[eyelikeart]

any help would be appreciated...

I'm currently working as a graphic designer/tech/problem solver for a print company (all Mac of course). Friends of mine doing similar work on Macs come to me for troubleshooting help and to help set up their system whenever they get new hardware. I've been interested in pursuing more than being an artist and novice tech. Can anyone give me some info and some possible tips to become an advanced Mac tech of sorts?

 

[jefhatfield]

apple techies are truly noble

to be an apple tech, have an "advanced" apple tech take you under their wing...it is the age old tradition of mac techs

with being a pc tech, you can do that, get certified, or get an undergraduate or graduate degree in computer science, math, engineering, or telecommunications management

but what makes being a mac tech so hard is that you have to take the narrow path of finding a mentor because having an apple certification has not taken on the same degree of acceptance that getting certified in the pc world has (and certifications in the pc world are still highly suspect with most of the techies i have met in the IT field)

a college degree, while laughed at by a lot of good techies, is still good to have even if it will not help anybody that much in high tech (IE -"REALITY BITES")

but even a two year associate's degree or bachelor's degree can help especially if you want to leave the not so fun IT field and go into something more rewarding like teaching...hey, for an example, just look at steve wozniak

from what i have seen, if you are willing, there is someone out there who will teach you the ropes and usually they won't be threatened by you taking away business since the mac techs i know are poor anyway and have another source of income and are mac techs for a more noble reason...unlike me who is a little too scared to go into something so involved which won't help me with my rent

 

[eyelikeart]

thanks for the info

Thanks for taking the time to reply jef.

I've also talked to someone who makes a living as an Apple dealer out of his home and I suppose is what u would call a Mac techie himself. He's given me much of the same advice, along with basically saying not to try and make it as a complete career move. He suggested staying with what I do and do the Mac tech work on the side. Pretty much the same advice as u have given me. I'm starting to see more and more that it's not as easy as being Microsoft certified, but still much more rewarding.

My local friend has also offered me help and advice anytime I feel need or want for it. That being said, I'll keep at what I've been doing and hopefully the paths I take will lead into something interesting!

 

[powermac glory]

yeah i am also a graphic artist and i depend on my mac techie friend for a lot of non art computer stuff that i dont know. where i am at this mac techie is the only one who knows macs inside and out.

 

[voicegy]

Not quite a "techie", but...

I'm a Network Systems/Media Support Tech for the Edcuational Technology Department of San Diego City Schools. (try saying THAT at cocktail parties and watch their eyes glaze over)

I provide support for the Apple platform for the district. Everything from simple troubleshooting, networking issues, installation of various components to make your Mac happy (ok, ok, so I'm just talkin' memory, airport cards, system and application installs and hard drive swaps!) and professional development (i.e., "teaching the teachers) I stop just short of completely tearing the things apart and providing actual repair. (we have a seperate repair dept. for that)

So, in keeping with the original posters' query, (which may have been directed exclusively to "PC" i.e., NON-Macintosh technicians I wasn't sure):

"1) what do you do for a hobby? is it macs?"

No, Macs are my life, not my hobby.

But seriously, folks:

Although I don't build little ships in bottles or paint landscapes in my spare time (true, "actual" hobbies) I'm a voracious reader, mostly non-fiction, enjoy architecture (FL Wright is the MAN), dig music (Kraftwerk is my favorite), long walks on the beach, snuggling by the fireplace, candlelit dinners...oh, wait a minute. That's my personal ad. Sorry.

and

"2)is a mac the last thing you want to troubleshoot on your precious free time? does your love life suffer because of the computer?"

No, Macs aren't the last thing I want to troubleshot on my precious free time. My Volvo is.

I've actually given out my home phone number to various district employees to help them with their home machines. The satisfaction quotient is very high, for both parties.

The other night I spent 2 hours with a speech pathologist who had reached the end of her rope with modem issues on her iMac. Calls to her ISP and Apple were proving fruitless (pardon the pun) and I told her, hey, why don't I just come by your house after work and take a look-see. She was floored by this offer, and gratefully accepted.

After a little of this and a little of that (Norton, rebuld desktop, tossing preferences which I suspected were corrupted, running the very underutilized control panel Software Update) everything worked peachy keen. Why did I bother? Because she's a Mac Owner, and I love the Mac. It really is that simple.

And as for my love life suffering...well, with a combination of a few personal ads out there on the web (which, of course, couldn't be possible without a computer) and taking my Titanium PowerBook out to a coffee shop now and then, I haven't any complaints. : )

Does that translate to "Own a Mac / Get Dates"?

Oh, now I'm just being silly...

Scott

 

[networkman]

getting into it

it sounds like you are on the way to becoming a mac techie since you mentioned that thing about tossing corrupted preferences which is more than just basic user level stuff and you also mentioned networking which is also more than the basic user stuff

wait until you start getting into taking apart your tibook, after the warranty is out, and being able to take it apart in your sleep

or maybe you will get into messing with the jumpers and trying to clock your macs to a faster speed

or taking imac components and building it into a 24" sony trinitron (woz.org)

...if you ever get to that level, believe me, the level of expertise that doing the hard stuff takes will cut into your personal life big time

the best techies don't care about making money and would rather spend their time experimenting and inventing instead of being practical and if it were not for those inventors, we would not have the personal computer you are typing on right now

 

[eyelikeart]

DIY tech lessons...

I learned a lot by screwing up my first Mac...he he he

even though it was unintentional, I feel that was the best way to learn "what not to do"...

still good lessons....better than what one could learn in school....

 

[guest]

techie?

i too am a digital artist (web/media/print design, music) with semi-techie exp. I like to be able to run a Mac with no help (unless of corse it needs serious repairs (ie logic board swaps, warranty voiding). I've handled many software/hardware/network issues on personal and work Macs. I've used PC's for years and found it very easy to become technically in th Mac world. I used to like being a PC tech-type, but it got old real fast (Once the pentium came out it wass all about speed and nothing else). I use a Mac at work, at home and at band practice. My work and play both occur with the Macitosh at the center of it all

neut
neusound
neudesign

homepage.mac.com/organech

 

[GigaWire]

or maybe you will get into messing with the jumpers and trying to clock your macs to a faster speed

i was under the impression that overclocking a Mac required soldering, not just jumper tossing?

 

[networkman]

not all overclocking requires soldering

in the old days, there was a lot more soldering and analyzing so techies had bsee/bsel degress but now it is much simpler than that to be a technician engineer

the ibookzone.com has some interesting articles on overclocking for the do it yourselfers

doing this voids warranties and is best done on an older machine off warranty

 

[krossfyter]

i wonder if you could over clock your girlfriend?

 

[networkman]

niagra

 

[PyroTurtle]

i now know more about the Rev A v2 iMac than i ever wanted to know...
hobby wise i play video games on my Ti 400, play N64 and Super Nintendo, go out with my girlfriend (lots of PIXAR movies...)
for getting back to the original post...
i do computer stuff round the clock, my PowerBook is almost always with me, so i don't mind using it whenever...PeeC's i do, and i'm not sure why...i can use UNIX or MacOS or OS X whenever where ever...but for some reason i can't go have "fun" on a PeeC...it's like they're always work...they just remind me of school and work...
hobbies: Bass Trombone, Tuba, Bass, Girlfriend, Video Games, Marching in the Rose Parade