Via Reddit.com:
The 7 dirtiest jobs in IT – Somebody’s got to do them — and hopefully that somebody isn’t you.
I especially like this:
Dirty IT job No. 5: On-site reboot specialist
Seeking individuals for on-site support of end-users. Must be familiar with three-fingered Ctrl-Alt-Del salute and power cord reconfiguration. Ability to withstand a variety of environments and personality types; concealed-weapons permit a plus. Individuals with anger management issues need not apply.
Closely related to the help desk zombie, but even lower on the totem pole, is the on-site reboot specialist, says Scott Crawford, research director at Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colo. Unlike help desk or support vampires, the on-site rebootnik must venture out into the physical world and deal with actual people.
[ For more fear and loathing of end-user interaction, check out the original “Stupid user tricks: Eleven IT horror stories”]
If you think that this passage suggests a certain level of misanthrophy you haven’t had to put up with enough of the anthropoi out there yet.
I worked in tech support at Apple for 9 years. I noticed that the best way to keep people from yelling at support techs onsite was to send out really tall techs. There seems to be an anger off switch on the back of the human neck triggered when the head tilts back in order to look up at someone really tall.
Like most IT people, I used to be very frustrated by clueless end users. Then one day I realized that if everyone knew what I knew, I wouldn’t have a job. After that epiphany, I began to think of every clueless end user as money in the bank. That perspective made the job almost stress free.
And there’s an unlimited supply of those ;)
Misery market!