Career Change

[Talyn]

Well, I've had it up to my back teeth of

"I've forgotten my password"

"How do you spell apple" (after changing a password to 'Apple123')

"I'm not very technical" After being asked to read some numbers of a sticker on a PC tower unit

"is that in caps?" If it was in caps, I'D TELL YOU TO USE CAPS!

"My caps lock I'SNT on" Then finding out it was.

I'm sure a few of you have heard it all before. Anyway, the point is, I'm looking at a career change, and am thinking of heading into Physics.

So long as I can cover the finances, all will be well, but at this stage, it may all go tits up early.

I'm thinking of headed back to college and doing 2x A levels, Maths and Physics, then heading out for a degree, and then (if my head still functions) maybe a doctorate or whatever it is these days.

I'm aware it's going to be 8 - 10 years, and that I'll be around mid forties by the time i'm done, but I have to stop talking to numpties all day long.

Anyone tried the old career change trick? or any scientists with advice on restarting science interests?

 

[Jeros]

There is always the Access course route to Uni, usally only takes a year

 

[Fweddy]

Not knowing anything about science industry and the like, my only advice would be to figure out what job you want and get yourself qualified to do that, rather than get the qualifications you want and then seeing what jobs you can get. I know plenty of people who picked the courses they thought were most interesting and then later discovered the jobs they wanted were going to people with slightly different skills.

 

[Talyn]

Not knowing anything about science industry and the like, my only advice would be to figure out what job you want and get yourself qualified to do that, rather than get the qualifications you want and then seeing what jobs you can get. I know plenty of people who picked the courses they thought were most interesting and then later discovered the jobs they wanted were going to people with slightly different skills.

I was thinking about this too, but physics has so many specialist subjects, I'm still unsure about where I'd like to end up. I figured I'd start, and see if anything grabs me. I'm kinda leaning towards Astronomy or something 'space based' at the moment, but that could change.

As for the Access courses, I'm not sure my maths is up to scratch as yet, I've even been considering re-taking the GCSE as a 'refresher' course, cause looking at the maths A level, my mind is like 'whoa boy!'

 

[Wij]

Well, I've had it up to my back teeth of

"I've forgotten my password"

"How do you spell apple" (after changing a password to 'Apple123')

"I'm not very technical" After being asked to read some numbers of a sticker on a PC tower unit

"is that in caps?" If it was in caps, I'D TELL YOU TO USE CAPS!

"My caps lock I'SNT on" Then finding out it was.

I'm sure a few of you have heard it all before. Anyway, the point is, I'm looking at a career change, and am thinking of heading into Physics.

So long as I can cover the finances, all will be well, but at this stage, it may all go tits up early.

I'm thinking of headed back to college and doing 2x A levels, Maths and Physics, then heading out for a degree, and then (if my head still functions) maybe a doctorate or whatever it is these days.

I'm aware it's going to be 8 - 10 years, and that I'll be around mid forties by the time i'm done, but I have to stop talking to numpties all day long.

Anyone tried the old career change trick? or any scientists with advice on restarting science interests?

Back when I was a developer I had a department who claimed the icon for the app they'd been given didn't appear. It went past our helpdesk unresolved so landed with us. I went through all the noddy questions about scroll-bars and stuff on the windows and they were very offended. Ended up we had to go on-site with them which required a day out of the office.

First thing in the morning a user logged on, opened up the window the icon should have appeared in and pointed out that the icon was not there. The explorer window had defaulted to be quite small though, presumably it had been closed that way, but the scroll-bars were quite visible. I took the mouse and dragged the bottom-right out and the icon magically appeared. "That wasn't there before!", whined the user. I let my managerial colleague do the talking and went off to shit in their bogs.

 

[TdC]

lol Wij, I bet you had to drive 300 miles too eh

Talyn, I know nothing of hard science, but I would applaud your efforts. Go do it, don't be scared or put off. It's logical that you feel a bit dodgy when looking at maths atm: you've been out of things for a while. When I studied photography I could do all kinds of cool light related maths, but now the formulae are just gibberish to me.

Anyway, I'm going back to skool in September to earn a higher technical paper. it's going to take 4 years and then perhaps another year and a half if I continue to pull finger and follow through. This will be my first ever qualification, besides my drivers license that I actually make happen heh. I'll be 41 or 42 when it's done.

 

[Jupitus]

lol Wij, I bet you had to drive 300 miles too eh

Talyn, I know nothing of hard science, but I would applaud your efforts. Go do it, don't be scared or put off. It's logical that you feel a bit dodgy when looking at maths atm: you've been out of things for a while. When I studied photography I could do all kinds of cool light related maths, but now the formulae are just gibberish to me.

Anyway, I'm going back to skool in September to earn a higher technical paper. it's going to take 4 years and then perhaps another year and a half if I continue to pull finger and follow through. This will be my first ever qualification, besides my drivers license that I actually make happen heh. I'll be 141 or 142 when it's done.

Fixed

 

[TdC]

still a yo-mamma amount of years younger than j00, Jup

 

[yaruar]

I was thinking about this too, but physics has so many specialist subjects, I'm still unsure about where I'd like to end up. I figured I'd start, and see if anything grabs me. I'm kinda leaning towards Astronomy or something 'space based' at the moment, but that could change.

As for the Access courses, I'm not sure my maths is up to scratch as yet, I've even been considering re-taking the GCSE as a 'refresher' course, cause looking at the maths A level, my mind is like 'whoa boy!'

All the people i know with Physics PHds end up working in IT, problem is that you end up very specialised and fighting for a limited amount of research places, you are overqualified to do most other things so usually end up working in IT or if really luck a Quant of some kind.

 

[old.user4556]

IT.

Guhhhhh.

 

[Tilda]

Talyn,

Good luck to you! If its an encouragement, I am switching from law to do medicine in September!

Not sure if you've been to uni before, but if you have, you it will be counted as a second degree and you won't get any state support in terms of loans. Just throwing that out there, I had to work out detailed budgets to ensure I could afford everything!

 

[rynnor]

so usually end up working in IT or if really luck a Quant of some kind.

Or Physics teachers - its a nice idea to pick a hard science but there arent many real jobs in it.

In my current IT department we have a PHd in Chemistry another in Physics and god knows how many BSc's.

Still its not a bad degree if you dont mind working in something completely un-related at the end of it.

 

[ST^]

"my printer says replace toner"

"shall I press OK?" when the thing on screen is just a dialogue box with only on button: "ok"

"I tried <something> and it came up with an error" "what was the error?" "I don't know, I closed it" and then you actually go to their PC to see what was wrong and ask them to repeat the action. As soon as the error appears, THEY CLOSE IT BEFORE YOU CAN READ IT!

"i'm trying to open this file in Excel and it says incorrect file type" well... that is possibly because you're trying to open a fuckin' PDF file in Excel

it's a fun job

 

[Talyn]

Talyn,

Good luck to you! If its an encouragement, I am switching from law to do medicine in September!

Not sure if you've been to uni before, but if you have, you it will be counted as a second degree and you won't get any state support in terms of loans. Just throwing that out there, I had to work out detailed budgets to ensure I could afford everything!

That's my biggest concern, the finances. I have a plan, but I need to talk CAB to see if I can 'legally' pull it off. So long as I know everything is covered, I'll be headed back to school!

 

[Talyn]

"my printer says replace toner"

"shall I press OK?" when the thing on screen is just a dialogue box with only on button: "ok"

"I tried <something> and it came up with an error" "what was the error?" "I don't know, I closed it" and then you actually go to their PC to see what was wrong and ask them to repeat the action. As soon as the error appears, THEY CLOSE IT BEFORE YOU CAN READ IT!

"i'm trying to open this file in Excel and it says incorrect file type" well... that is possibly because you're trying to open a fuckin' PDF file in Excel

it's a fun job

I was thinking about this the other day. When I started in IT support, it was all 56k modems, win 95, muchos DOS, and things were actually pretty technical.

I wouldn't expect any user to know how to get thier 56k to connect, what with possible broken dial tones, messed up modem settings, not handshaking, and so on.

These days, everything so, so simple, and yetm, they can't fucking do the most basic things. Like follow instructions. or listen. or pay attention. Oh, and every-fucking-thing is always so bastard urgent. No, no it's not. The fact you can't print, is not as urgent and the 500 users without a domain on another site, for the managing director is it? Then he can come down here and tell me himself if it's that important. No? Shut up then, and wait your turn.

By god, I've gotten bitter over the years. I know mistakes can happen, I've put my keys in the fridge before now. But, but... gah.. I'll just shut up now or I'll rant all bloody night!

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Some years ago...

Customer in Darlington. I drove from Falkirk (where I lived at the time) to the site.

They had been complaining that the server was slowing down and it was taking ages to access files. They'd tried rebooting but the problem always reoccured.

Got on site, switched off the fancy 3D screensaver that someone had gone and installed (which was sucking out all the resources). Went to the pub for lunch before driving back home.

 

[TdC]

this is why you don't give admin accounts to idiots

 

[SilverHood]

Ah users. Love to hate them. Had a user who complained their PC was slow. Asked them if they had rebooted recently. They said 3 weeks ago. So, so reboot and we'll drop by in 5 mins.

Turn up at desk and the user is sitting there with the monitor off.... he turns it on... "PC is still slow"


Open command prompt, write "uptime"...........
..........

....

986 days 23 hours and 22 minutes.

Not bad for Win2k.

 

[DaGaffer]

Some years ago...

Customer in Darlington. I drove from Falkirk (where I lived at the time) to the site.

They had been complaining that the server was slowing down and it was taking ages to access files. They'd tried rebooting but the problem always reoccured.

Got on site, switched off the fancy 3D screensaver that someone had gone and installed (which was sucking out all the resources). Went to the pub for lunch before driving back home.

this is why you don't give admin accounts to idiots

Well now, smug IT ones, I've seen the very opposite of this only this week;

me to IT helpdesk: "my PC has rebooted itself 5 times in the last two days"
them: "your PC has admin access, you've probably installed something that's causing that"
me: "no, the only new thing on my PC is this annoying screensaver that seems to be on everyone's PC, and was installed yesterday..."
them: "oh yeah, that's an HR thing they wanted installed. Come to think of it, you're not the only person to have their PC reboot itself today"
me: "Reeallly. Maybe you could unstill the screensaver then?"
them: "Oh, no, HR won't like that. We'll have to investigate"
me: "Tell you what, as I have admin access, I'll remove it myself. If my PC stops rebooting, maybe that will help your investigation"
them: "OK, but we won't support you if anything goes wrong"
me: "I'll take my chances. Bye".

 

[Talyn]

Well now, smug IT ones, I've seen the very opposite of this only this week;

<snipped>

Wow, your helpdesk sounds bloody useless. I think I'd have said the same. I got admin rights, I'll get rid of it.

 

[TdC]

Well now, smug IT ones, I've seen the very opposite of this only this week;

me to IT helpdesk: "my PC has rebooted itself 5 times in the last two days"
them: "your PC has admin access, you've probably installed something that's causing that"
me: "no, the only new thing on my PC is this annoying screensaver that seems to be on everyone's PC, and was installed yesterday..."
them: "oh yeah, that's an HR thing they wanted installed. Come to think of it, you're not the only person to have their PC reboot itself today"
me: "Reeallly. Maybe you could unstill the screensaver then?"
them: "Oh, no, HR won't like that. We'll have to investigate"
me: "Tell you what, as I have admin access, I'll remove it myself. If my PC stops rebooting, maybe that will help your investigation"
them: "OK, but we won't support you if anything goes wrong"
me: "I'll take my chances. Bye".

lols. the idiots don't necessarily have to be the users Gaff

 

[mr.Blacky]

Excel is magic after sitting with that person for 2 hours and the person still couldn't do anything.

 

[rynnor]

We have an outsourced help desk thats pretty sucky.

Me - 'Hi I cant change my password anymore remotely?'

Them - 'Oh, some people couldnt do that so we disabled it.'


Or

Me - 'Youve gotten rid of all the online forms for security access?'

Them - 'Its part of our new security policy'

Etc. etc.