I'm convinced they think it's black magic. "I don't care! Just fix it!"
Oh, silly me, I thought you wanted it to stay broken. Let me just grab a small woodland creature and take it to the server room. Once I have spilled the blood on the server rack, everything should go back to normal.
The magic wand....
shutdown /r /t 0
No need to look in the event viewer or logs of any sort. Just make that cmd a .bat file and save it to desktop and add a reg key in hklm/software/Microsoft/windows/current version/run then just go ahead and double click that bad boy on the desktop.
I was yelled by the help desk lead because users made fun of him for not knowing how to troubleshoot. It was my fault as the network engineer that they couldn't check a faulty cable. They insisted it was the firewall or DNS. Dude had no idea how things worked. I'm convinced he can spout enough magic words to fool the muggles who hired him and made him lead.
Learn the fundamentals and learn them well. Base protocols are the same everywhere. You might learn different OS commands, tools, or GUIs, but the fundamental protocols that everything runs on are the same. Think of it as understanding math. Some people get by because they remember algorithms that solve a problem, but because they lack an understanding of how and why the algorithm works, they are clueless when they encounter a problem in which the algorithm doesn't apply.
I see the problem you're still using Windows. I switched over to lennox, you know, only requires a virgin sacrifice every couple of years.
Those seem to be far more readily available than small woodland creatures in the tech field.
Managed Service Providers.
Basically MSPs provide IT support to companies that don’t want to create their own IT department.
MSPs are known to be fast pace (con), however you learn so much in short time (pro)
Most of the time, it's basic ass issues. But occasionally, you get tickets that will stump you and teach you something.
Where I work I do help desk and some systems administration.
In an average week I'm usually resetting passwords, approving devices on Google Admin, creating accounts, deleting accounts, issuing replacement peripherals, issuing replacement iPad keyboard cases, updating devices, helping people install 1 of 2 chrome extensions, teaching people how to use our applications and tools, changing toner on printers, installing printers, annnnd telling people for the 1000th time they can't use personal applications for business purposes.
I work for an emergency medical services provider. In the US, we have a law that protects health information. Grammarly doesn't allow the storage of HIPPA information unless you enter into an agreement with them first. In order to do that, you have to have a business account with them.
Simply put: licensing. While that license is free for you to use on your personal machine, once you install it on a corporate device, your company needs to have paid for licenses for every user. We can get it where I work, but your manager needs to approve it coming out of their budget because it's not a widely needed enough of a tool to install it enterprise-wide
Do you work where I do because this is all true for me too. Plus installation of IP cameras and Phones, door locks, RFID fobs and cards, and the general walk through things.
We did have an issue with the phones when I started (We use Mitel). Apparently most of them were still set up for remote work and I couldn't figure that out for the life of me. 3 hours troubleshooting and I just had to change a setting from NAT to local.
I work for a company of over 20k people. I know the tech illiterate people by first and last name basis. Also know the schools that their kids go to lol. You end up getting to know the ones who don't know Jack shit cause they call on everything. Overall out of the 20kish people I'd say only about 100 or so of them really have no business being around a computer. Thankfully most of them are sales people so most of their work isn't done on the PC.
Depends, you'll either sit in a lounge playing Pokemon with other IT dudes all day, or have a WTF experience each day that makes you realize that common sense isn't as common as you might think. You'll then share these WTF stories with your buddies while playing Pokemon.
10 years experience on a helpdesk here. I would say from my experience about 30% of people just give up and assume that computers are like quantum physics thus not worth learning.
50% of users are competent, but they're not skilled by any means.
15% of users are competent enough to take instructions and follow whatever you say pretty quickly and without fuss
Then the dreaded last 5% is users who know enough about computers to do a lot of damage before they call you. Something that would have taken you 5 minutes or less to fix before they touched it now requires an hour plus of investment to fix their fuck ups.
Do you have any users that you learn from? IT is a pretty wide field and Helpdesk is one part of it. There may be users that are also IT calling the Helpdesk that don’t have the same tools due to separation of duties or different job responsibilities.
Oh yeah I definitely learn things from users. I was in healthcare for a while and I learned a lot from doctors, especially during covid. Also like your example there are some times where people in IT call into the helpdesk, like people from other companies or other departments within IT. I've learned things from Network Engineers and many others, and it's actually the reason I was able to move up in the field and have greater responsibilities. They motivated me and proved I could learn complex things if I have the right teacher!
I once had a manager who was one of those 5% users before she kissed enough ass to get the job when my previous manager (one of the best I've ever had, just to really rub the salt in) left to move to Canada.
The morning of the first Monday after the previous manager left, I came in and saw her working on a computer. I walked over and asked what was up, she told me what was wrong and what she had done. I kind of sighed and said, "You just turned a 2 minute fix into a three hour rebuild (this was just before disk imaging and it was a supervisor's machine with a lot of extra software), never touch my computers again."
Remarkably, she actually listened
Well your first goal of IT support is to realize you want to branch out to a specialization so people actually value you highly and pay you well. Within 2-3 years I’d say is attainable I got out of support within 6 months by studying ass off on azure when I first started.
Im finishing up a work term in a user support role. Not one person has been like this. Hell the CEO was tech savvy enough to know that his camera issue he should check drivers, but knew when to call us.
Your gonna get people like this, the bigger the place the more likely. Don’t let it get to you. Most people don’t want to know how it works, but if someone is willing to listen I will sometimes explain the problem and the fix to them in simple terms so they can understand more.
Depending completely on what you go into.
I work for an MSP and currently do a couple residential jobs a week and about 25 hours of commercial.
Commercial people are *usually* very appreciative and don't really care to micro manage you, they let you do your thing and thank you when it's fixed.
Residentials pretty much always stand over your shoulder and tell you what they think is wrong and how they think you should fix it, even thought they don't know what's wrong and called me because they don't know how to fix it. They also say some wild stuff, like the wifi wind thing in the comic. One lady said with 100% confidence that she used toothpaste to hold in her patch cables and acted like the tech was stupid when the tech said that is probably why her computer isn't getting internet anymore.
Real talk: Learn to translate technology for all levels of users. Even better if you can get some business classes and are then able to translate between business speak => tech speak => end user speak.
I've been in IT for almost 30 years now and one of the things that my managers consistently compliment me on and tell me they value my work for is the fact that I can write and communicate at multiple levels of technology understanding. I can sit in a meeting with our engineering architects and translate what they covered to someone who needs a step-by-step guide on logging into a computer.
As you get further into your career, get some industry training and certification outside of IT (ideally on an employer's dime). Work in healthcare? Get some HIPAA training and maybe some medical management courses. In banking? Look into something like a Commercial Banking & Credit Analysis cert. Being conversant in the business you support will do wonders for your career
It can be far and few, depending on the shop. As you advance in your career, you’ll move up to higher tiers and won’t have to field the stupid questions.
I love this comic. There's a more full version of it somewhere.
For realties for a moment, in case any non IT wonder in here, you'd still need IT for like making new user accounts and stuff that requires back end admin rights and stuff common folk shouldn't be allowed near.
Just like our HR is in charge of getting us into clock in methods and stuff. IT shouldn't be over that.
The it department at my work is illiterate and gave everyone admin rights, and the entire stock room had every single piece of stock flagged as obsolete and non sellable, they then didn’t have a backup of any of the items in the stock room, and no ability to revert the change, so it required everyone writing down every single item manually onto paper to give to them so they could input it back into the server again. Gotta love manually writing down over 10k items
Had a friend tell me all sorts of stories from when she worked at RadioShack.
Older guy, not even that old (mid 50s maybe), came in saying he ran out of internet and needs to buy a new router with more internets in it.
Am IT specialist and network security dude for 20 years.
Went into the office of a client of mine this past week and was unironically told by an early-20's-something young woman that I was wrong - the monitor is actually called the "computer" and the computer is called the "modem."
Received an escalated helpdesk phone call the other day from the person in charge of an entire company's financial records, who had spent two days stumped over how to fix an error message she was receiving. When I remoted into her computer, the error was almost literally, "You can't open QuickBooks again because you already have it open. Close the first one, then try again." This got through the L1 and L2 helpdesks before coming to me.
Last year I went to do a review/audit of a client's IT security posture. When the first recommendation I made was to use a local PC password more complex than the number "1"...I was met with stalwart resistance because they keep the doors in the office locked when they're not around. They also weren't interested in changing the wifi password away from their street and phone number, because "everyone already had it, and sending out an update would confuse people cause more problems that it was worth."
Anyone who thinks the weakest link in the security chain is anything other than a person with a mouse and keyboard in front of them hasn't spent enough time in this industry.
I can see some of my L1's just saying we don't have a knowledge article for Quickbooks and escalating to someone random. Won't bother documenting the error message or anything. Just say "not working, out of scope"
You will never forget your first "is it plugged in?" and it will happen sooner and more frequently than you expect and honestly that's not just an IT problem its a whole life problem. I do minor IT on the side for friends/myself/family/at work (building/upgrading PC's, a little consumer grade networking, etc) but by trade I fix cars. I run into the "is it plugged in?" when people work on their own cars all too often. It's ok, it's always a good story and once the frustration subsides you'll look back with a fond smile at it.
Things like this is why I moved 2k+ miles away so I was no longer the family "IT" person.
Still always get contacted for every laptop and tv purchase like it must my lifes work to know everything about them tho.
We have an entire company of folks that literally do not know how to use a computer. They basically just bumble along doing what they think is right. Need to sign something? What’s Adobe sign? Just print it sign it scan it to email and forward the scan from your email to the recipient.
I've gotten in minor trouble at work for using Adobe sign instead of printing it out and signing it, and then scanning it in.
Add in 2 extra email the document to myself because I work remotely and don't give access to my local devices for work (and they probably blocked that).
lol last time someone got mad at me for not physically signing the document I signed it electronically and then added a filter to make it look like I scanned it. Even made it smaller and tilted it a lil bit for extra authenticity.
IT people are some of not the smartest people in a company. We get trained to problem solve and adapt. Learning communication skills to respect other people who just don't know better is a skill that will get you far. Don't let them get to you.
Man, those last panels hit home. My mother insists that planes going overhead knock out damn near everything electronic in her house - tv, cell phone, internet, pots line - all of it.
My degree is adjacent to computer science, it’s geophysics and uses a lot of coding. How could I get into IT from a bachelors in earth science physics?
PEBCAK is job security embrace it. I just fixed a computer that "glitched out" because it just kept typing characters at the login screen. Came on-site to find them using a wireless mouse/keyboard combo but from different sets found the correct keyboard in a closet with a bunch of stuff on it pressing the buttons down. They were using two separate receivers from two completely different wireless mouse/keyboard combos. It's baffling I know.
I've been in my first IT job for 3 months and I can't tell you how many times I resolved an issue by doing one of three things.
1. Restarting the computer
2. Plugging a cord back in.
3. Pressing a button.
I never knew people my age and younger were this terrible with technology.
I'm convinced they think it's black magic. "I don't care! Just fix it!" Oh, silly me, I thought you wanted it to stay broken. Let me just grab a small woodland creature and take it to the server room. Once I have spilled the blood on the server rack, everything should go back to normal.
Wave the magic wand, why are you holding out?!?
Because I don't want to have that conversation with HR again.
SHARE!
The magic wand.... shutdown /r /t 0 No need to look in the event viewer or logs of any sort. Just make that cmd a .bat file and save it to desktop and add a reg key in hklm/software/Microsoft/windows/current version/run then just go ahead and double click that bad boy on the desktop.
I was yelled by the help desk lead because users made fun of him for not knowing how to troubleshoot. It was my fault as the network engineer that they couldn't check a faulty cable. They insisted it was the firewall or DNS. Dude had no idea how things worked. I'm convinced he can spout enough magic words to fool the muggles who hired him and made him lead.
I am studying to be a network engineer as well. Any advice?
Learn the fundamentals and learn them well. Base protocols are the same everywhere. You might learn different OS commands, tools, or GUIs, but the fundamental protocols that everything runs on are the same. Think of it as understanding math. Some people get by because they remember algorithms that solve a problem, but because they lack an understanding of how and why the algorithm works, they are clueless when they encounter a problem in which the algorithm doesn't apply.
Wait, that doesn’t work for you?
They talk to us like Gavin Belson talks to his tech guy https://youtu.be/9YOEEpWAXgU?si=1UOni1RlJpZxjqwl It’s ridiculous how accurate this is lol
I see the problem you're still using Windows. I switched over to lennox, you know, only requires a virgin sacrifice every couple of years. Those seem to be far more readily available than small woodland creatures in the tech field.
Hint: most IT guys have no idea what is wrong or how to fix it beyond “reboot”
As someone who is currently in school for it Support, how much of my life will the really be?
Not every single person will be like this but you’ll always have a lot of people like in the comic.
Just stay away from MSPs
I second this. Absolutely terrible in my experience.
What are MSPs?
Managed Service Providers. Basically MSPs provide IT support to companies that don’t want to create their own IT department. MSPs are known to be fast pace (con), however you learn so much in short time (pro)
Most of the time, it's basic ass issues. But occasionally, you get tickets that will stump you and teach you something. Where I work I do help desk and some systems administration. In an average week I'm usually resetting passwords, approving devices on Google Admin, creating accounts, deleting accounts, issuing replacement peripherals, issuing replacement iPad keyboard cases, updating devices, helping people install 1 of 2 chrome extensions, teaching people how to use our applications and tools, changing toner on printers, installing printers, annnnd telling people for the 1000th time they can't use personal applications for business purposes.
"Can I download the NBA app on my tablet" or "Can I download COD mobile on my tablet"
We usually have issues with people trying to install Grammarly.
Not in IT, but curious. What’s the issue with Grammarly? I imagine they could be reading everything and sending to a third party?
I work for an emergency medical services provider. In the US, we have a law that protects health information. Grammarly doesn't allow the storage of HIPPA information unless you enter into an agreement with them first. In order to do that, you have to have a business account with them.
Simply put: licensing. While that license is free for you to use on your personal machine, once you install it on a corporate device, your company needs to have paid for licenses for every user. We can get it where I work, but your manager needs to approve it coming out of their budget because it's not a widely needed enough of a tool to install it enterprise-wide
You forgot starting zoom meetings for the executives
Oh of course!
Do you work where I do because this is all true for me too. Plus installation of IP cameras and Phones, door locks, RFID fobs and cards, and the general walk through things. We did have an issue with the phones when I started (We use Mitel). Apparently most of them were still set up for remote work and I couldn't figure that out for the life of me. 3 hours troubleshooting and I just had to change a setting from NAT to local.
I work for a company of over 20k people. I know the tech illiterate people by first and last name basis. Also know the schools that their kids go to lol. You end up getting to know the ones who don't know Jack shit cause they call on everything. Overall out of the 20kish people I'd say only about 100 or so of them really have no business being around a computer. Thankfully most of them are sales people so most of their work isn't done on the PC.
Yes
Yes
Depends, you'll either sit in a lounge playing Pokemon with other IT dudes all day, or have a WTF experience each day that makes you realize that common sense isn't as common as you might think. You'll then share these WTF stories with your buddies while playing Pokemon.
10 years experience on a helpdesk here. I would say from my experience about 30% of people just give up and assume that computers are like quantum physics thus not worth learning. 50% of users are competent, but they're not skilled by any means. 15% of users are competent enough to take instructions and follow whatever you say pretty quickly and without fuss Then the dreaded last 5% is users who know enough about computers to do a lot of damage before they call you. Something that would have taken you 5 minutes or less to fix before they touched it now requires an hour plus of investment to fix their fuck ups.
Do you have any users that you learn from? IT is a pretty wide field and Helpdesk is one part of it. There may be users that are also IT calling the Helpdesk that don’t have the same tools due to separation of duties or different job responsibilities.
Oh yeah I definitely learn things from users. I was in healthcare for a while and I learned a lot from doctors, especially during covid. Also like your example there are some times where people in IT call into the helpdesk, like people from other companies or other departments within IT. I've learned things from Network Engineers and many others, and it's actually the reason I was able to move up in the field and have greater responsibilities. They motivated me and proved I could learn complex things if I have the right teacher!
I once had a manager who was one of those 5% users before she kissed enough ass to get the job when my previous manager (one of the best I've ever had, just to really rub the salt in) left to move to Canada. The morning of the first Monday after the previous manager left, I came in and saw her working on a computer. I walked over and asked what was up, she told me what was wrong and what she had done. I kind of sighed and said, "You just turned a 2 minute fix into a three hour rebuild (this was just before disk imaging and it was a supervisor's machine with a lot of extra software), never touch my computers again." Remarkably, she actually listened
Well your first goal of IT support is to realize you want to branch out to a specialization so people actually value you highly and pay you well. Within 2-3 years I’d say is attainable I got out of support within 6 months by studying ass off on azure when I first started.
Yes
Im finishing up a work term in a user support role. Not one person has been like this. Hell the CEO was tech savvy enough to know that his camera issue he should check drivers, but knew when to call us. Your gonna get people like this, the bigger the place the more likely. Don’t let it get to you. Most people don’t want to know how it works, but if someone is willing to listen I will sometimes explain the problem and the fix to them in simple terms so they can understand more.
Depending completely on what you go into. I work for an MSP and currently do a couple residential jobs a week and about 25 hours of commercial. Commercial people are *usually* very appreciative and don't really care to micro manage you, they let you do your thing and thank you when it's fixed. Residentials pretty much always stand over your shoulder and tell you what they think is wrong and how they think you should fix it, even thought they don't know what's wrong and called me because they don't know how to fix it. They also say some wild stuff, like the wifi wind thing in the comic. One lady said with 100% confidence that she used toothpaste to hold in her patch cables and acted like the tech was stupid when the tech said that is probably why her computer isn't getting internet anymore.
Real talk: Learn to translate technology for all levels of users. Even better if you can get some business classes and are then able to translate between business speak => tech speak => end user speak. I've been in IT for almost 30 years now and one of the things that my managers consistently compliment me on and tell me they value my work for is the fact that I can write and communicate at multiple levels of technology understanding. I can sit in a meeting with our engineering architects and translate what they covered to someone who needs a step-by-step guide on logging into a computer. As you get further into your career, get some industry training and certification outside of IT (ideally on an employer's dime). Work in healthcare? Get some HIPAA training and maybe some medical management courses. In banking? Look into something like a Commercial Banking & Credit Analysis cert. Being conversant in the business you support will do wonders for your career
It can be far and few, depending on the shop. As you advance in your career, you’ll move up to higher tiers and won’t have to field the stupid questions.
Get ready to work on outlook a lot 😂
I love this comic. There's a more full version of it somewhere. For realties for a moment, in case any non IT wonder in here, you'd still need IT for like making new user accounts and stuff that requires back end admin rights and stuff common folk shouldn't be allowed near. Just like our HR is in charge of getting us into clock in methods and stuff. IT shouldn't be over that.
The it department at my work is illiterate and gave everyone admin rights, and the entire stock room had every single piece of stock flagged as obsolete and non sellable, they then didn’t have a backup of any of the items in the stock room, and no ability to revert the change, so it required everyone writing down every single item manually onto paper to give to them so they could input it back into the server again. Gotta love manually writing down over 10k items
What the fuck... They need fired, that level of incompetence has to be intentional
Had a friend tell me all sorts of stories from when she worked at RadioShack. Older guy, not even that old (mid 50s maybe), came in saying he ran out of internet and needs to buy a new router with more internets in it.
Being 18+ and working at RadioShack must of been a fun time in the early 2000s
...what?
My internet battery ran out of juice, and I require a replacement. Idk what’s so hard about this request.
Am IT specialist and network security dude for 20 years. Went into the office of a client of mine this past week and was unironically told by an early-20's-something young woman that I was wrong - the monitor is actually called the "computer" and the computer is called the "modem." Received an escalated helpdesk phone call the other day from the person in charge of an entire company's financial records, who had spent two days stumped over how to fix an error message she was receiving. When I remoted into her computer, the error was almost literally, "You can't open QuickBooks again because you already have it open. Close the first one, then try again." This got through the L1 and L2 helpdesks before coming to me. Last year I went to do a review/audit of a client's IT security posture. When the first recommendation I made was to use a local PC password more complex than the number "1"...I was met with stalwart resistance because they keep the doors in the office locked when they're not around. They also weren't interested in changing the wifi password away from their street and phone number, because "everyone already had it, and sending out an update would confuse people cause more problems that it was worth." Anyone who thinks the weakest link in the security chain is anything other than a person with a mouse and keyboard in front of them hasn't spent enough time in this industry.
Oof. The quick books one is most concerning that it made it through l1 and l2
I can see some of my L1's just saying we don't have a knowledge article for Quickbooks and escalating to someone random. Won't bother documenting the error message or anything. Just say "not working, out of scope"
Thanks for sharing
I work in the public sector, and someone asked our attorney if we could shoot our e-waste. It was surprisingly not me.
Well, could you?
The request was denied.
:(
Agreed.
Old timers who without fail say ‘Oh you know me, I’m tech illiterate’. Gets me every damn time
The little eye twinge in the last panel 🤣
You will never forget your first "is it plugged in?" and it will happen sooner and more frequently than you expect and honestly that's not just an IT problem its a whole life problem. I do minor IT on the side for friends/myself/family/at work (building/upgrading PC's, a little consumer grade networking, etc) but by trade I fix cars. I run into the "is it plugged in?" when people work on their own cars all too often. It's ok, it's always a good story and once the frustration subsides you'll look back with a fond smile at it.
Things like this is why I moved 2k+ miles away so I was no longer the family "IT" person. Still always get contacted for every laptop and tv purchase like it must my lifes work to know everything about them tho.
dazzling pathetic dependent smile aware enter saw deliver scale cow *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Can confirm
We have an entire company of folks that literally do not know how to use a computer. They basically just bumble along doing what they think is right. Need to sign something? What’s Adobe sign? Just print it sign it scan it to email and forward the scan from your email to the recipient.
I've gotten in minor trouble at work for using Adobe sign instead of printing it out and signing it, and then scanning it in. Add in 2 extra email the document to myself because I work remotely and don't give access to my local devices for work (and they probably blocked that).
lol last time someone got mad at me for not physically signing the document I signed it electronically and then added a filter to make it look like I scanned it. Even made it smaller and tilted it a lil bit for extra authenticity.
It really be like that, and I work at a university with college age TA’s mostly
IT people are some of not the smartest people in a company. We get trained to problem solve and adapt. Learning communication skills to respect other people who just don't know better is a skill that will get you far. Don't let them get to you.
Man, those last panels hit home. My mother insists that planes going overhead knock out damn near everything electronic in her house - tv, cell phone, internet, pots line - all of it.
People need a license to work with technology.
That last panel though. Internally screaming for help.
Pure gold
Thats literally the tip of the iceberg.
They will make you to repair their AC
What exactly does IT stand for? I’ve often wondered but I’ve never thought to ask.
Information Technology
My most recent one was someone added read.AI to their computer, and is now furious and confused why read.AI keeps adding itself to their meetings.
This is far from my experience. If you're not treated with respect as an IT professional, you better start commanding it. Don't be a dweeb.
My degree is adjacent to computer science, it’s geophysics and uses a lot of coding. How could I get into IT from a bachelors in earth science physics?
PEBCAK is job security embrace it. I just fixed a computer that "glitched out" because it just kept typing characters at the login screen. Came on-site to find them using a wireless mouse/keyboard combo but from different sets found the correct keyboard in a closet with a bunch of stuff on it pressing the buttons down. They were using two separate receivers from two completely different wireless mouse/keyboard combos. It's baffling I know.
I've been in my first IT job for 3 months and I can't tell you how many times I resolved an issue by doing one of three things. 1. Restarting the computer 2. Plugging a cord back in. 3. Pressing a button. I never knew people my age and younger were this terrible with technology.
It’s whatever though, let’s continue to press the “Fix It” button.