IT jobs for anti-social people!

[randomshenans]

You can moan about it all you like, but it won't get you anywhere. You play the game and get where you want to be. I didn't invent it, just do my best to ensure I am ahead of the next man.

 

[ttaskmaster]

"IT is a service industry - customer is king!"

Yes it is, but no they're not. Customer is a clueless, but moneyed individual who is paying you to do what they cannot.
You don't have to be a nob about it, because everyone deserves common courtesy and good manners, but neither do you have to be their best bud.
The more focussed on nattering about their kids and their cats and how they're doing today, the less focussed you are on fixing their problem.

And one question, "How would you turn a customer frown into a smile?"

Politeness, manners, efficiency, competence.

now you have to be everybody's best friend, able and willing to spend hours on the phone comforting the customer and reassuring them everything will be OK.

Go speak to my mechanic - A woman can turn up crying her eyes out and having a complete eppie over some mystery car problem and, in just one or two sentences can completely reassure her. It doesn't take hours...

"How would you make a customer feel special?"

Err... that's the private Thai Massage parlour industry, isn't it?

Are there any IT jobs out there still that don't revolve around customer service skills? Or am I boned?

Give Wipro a call.
Failing that, there's a wealth of helpdesk companies with callcentres in India, where you don't even need to speak English...

 

[drakioned]

How would you break into development?

I've written the odd thousand-line /script/, but I've never done real coding, and certainly not commercially.

As it stands I'm 35, no degree, and no advantage over a freshly graduated youngling So although I'll give anything a shot, I'm struggling to see how I'd get my break in that industry. With my employers hat on, there's no way I'd give myself a job in anything other than support

Willing to try, but not seeing how to do it, currently.

Contributing to open source projects is a good way to build experience and a portfolio.

 

[drakioned]

Or get an IT job where your customers are other IT people...

 

[FoxEye]

Contributing to open source projects is a good way to build experience and a portfolio.

Anyone can do this? I assumed the project curator would vet the experience of potential contributors before letting them make changes, or committing them.

So basically I need to teach myself proper coding and find a project to add some bugs contribute to.

What kind of projects or languages would be a good starting point for a newb?

 

[CK61938]

Yes it is, but no they're not. Customer is a clueless, but moneyed individual who is paying you to do what they cannot.
You don't have to be a nob about it, because everyone deserves common courtesy and good manners, but neither do you have to be their best bud.
The more focused on nattering about their kids and their cats and how they're doing today, the less focused you are on fixing their problem.

There's a guy here at where I work who does this and I am sick and tired of hearing his stories he tells to users. His voice is beyond annoying and I would like to be moved away from him but my Team Leader says I can't.

But can I just say to the OP, you sound just like me. I too want to be in an environment with little to no human interaction especially with users. But unfortunately, this is the world we live in. That being said, I am looking to move into Project Management. So we'll see how it all goes.

 

[drakioned]

Anyone can do this? I assumed the project curator would vet the experience of potential contributors before letting them make changes, or committing them.

So basically I need to teach myself proper coding and find a project to add some bugs contribute to.

What kind of projects or languages would be a good starting point for a newb?

As a starting point, I'd say either C# or Java. They're the main two, as in, every undergraduate invariably gets taught one or the other (or both).

As for projects, SourceForge keeps a list of projects where they have help wanted.

 

[ttaskmaster]

There's a guy here at where I work who does this and I am sick and tired of hearing his stories he tells to users. His voice is beyond annoying and I would like to be moved away from him but my Team Leader says I can't.

I'll swap jobs with you - One of my colleages tells the same stories over and over, with the exact same phrasing, intonation, wording, etc, as if he was reading from a script.... except we're NOT customer-facing. This is just his own social retardidity and inability to actually relate to other people, who generally don't care to listen to him anyway because it's always about how awesome he and his interests are... and he's a proper train geek, too.

 

[dowie]

You have to play the game I'm afraid. It's all this is.

yes and no, the OP will certainly when looking to change career and land an entry level role which I why I linked those videos, on the other hand once you've gained some experience in a particular area then there can be much less of this nonsense involved

 

[randomshenans]

There is, to a degree, but there are boxes to tick when it comes to changing jobs etc. you may not have to deal with the same types of question, but it still comes with crappy questions you have to answer, just different.

 

[dowie]

not always, I had a recent interview which was more a chat about what the job would involve and whether I'd be interested in it - didn't even need competency based questions as I'd essentially written the manual*

still that was a particular case - other stuff that hasn't been relevant to what I'd done previously has also involved less nonsense - but just stuck to competency based questions


*well I'd helped develop enhancements to the product they use and I'm the author of a bunch of the documentation the relevant team in the bank use so my name was already known to the hiring manager

 

[CK61938]

I'll swap jobs with you - One of my colleages tells the same stories over and over, with the exact same phrasing, intonation, wording, etc, as if he was reading from a script.... except we're NOT customer-facing. This is just his own social retardidity and inability to actually relate to other people, who generally don't care to listen to him anyway because it's always about how awesome he and his interests are... and he's a proper train geek, too.

Yikes! Dude, how are you still alive? Come to think of it, how is HE still alive?

 

[Dave M]

And one question, "How would you turn a customer frown into a smile?"

My comfort zone is 2nd line, although I've done retail sales too (and hated it). Plus I've done a fair bit of scripting/ automation. But my idea of putting the customer first is just doing a good job in a reasonable time frame. I'm not a stand-up comedian, or a clown, or an agony aunt.

I enjoy problem solving, learning stuff, getting the job done... much, much more than "banter" with the customer or colleagues. Hell, you can shut me in a room on my own for all I care

Before you leap into training to work in a dark room by yourself, I think you're reading far too much into that question.

You need to understand their problem, fix their problem, and don't try to make them feel bad. If you can actually manage a bit of human conversation in the middle of this bonus points, but it's not important. No-one wants to talk to you, you're not their friend, they just need you so they can do their job.

 

[dowie]

OP - consider trying something like this:

www.toastmasterclub.org/

A Toastmasters meeting is a learn-by-doing workshop in which participants hone their speaking and leadership skills in a no-pressure atmosphere.

There is no instructor in a Toastmasters meeting. Instead, members evaluate one another’s presentations. This feedback process is a key part of the program’s success.

Meeting participants also give impromptu talks on assigned topics, conduct meetings and develop skills related to timekeeping, grammar and parliamentary procedure.

Members learn communication skills by working in the Competent Communication manual, a series of 10 self-paced speaking assignments designed to instill a basic foundation in public speaking.

might well make it easier for you to have to deal with people etc...

 

[FoxEye]

Before you leap into training to work in a dark room by yourself, I think you're reading far too much into that question.

You need to understand their problem, fix their problem, and don't try to make them feel bad. If you can actually manage a bit of human conversation in the middle of this bonus points, but it's not important. No-one wants to talk to you, you're not their friend, they just need you so they can do their job.

And that's basically what I put on the application forms. Only to be told that I didn't focus enough on my customer service skills. How I should have related an experience where I gave exceptional customer service. Where I turned a "frown into a smile."

Frankly I'd have to make something up. Because in all the years I did 2nd line, I just turned up, fixed their problem, and left. Never had a "thank you"; never expected one. Did my job as efficiently as possible and moved on to the next one. Was polite but didn't hang around making small talk.

But that isn't good enough any more.

The feedback I've had from several employers, who didn't even give me an interview, was that I spoke too much about my technical skills, and didn't show them how I was the most customer-focused techie the world had ever seen. Which is, apparently, more important than techie skills.

More important than getting the job done.

 

[dowie]

If you've had the same feedback from several people you really ought to have adjusted how you approach these things based on that feedback. I mean if it was one application then I wouldn't worry but if completely different people are independently highlighting something they perceive to be a problem then you probably do need to address it.

 

[danielanthony]

Or get an IT job where your customers are other IT people...

This.

This is why a lot of people are confused about Support, if you're talking to the general public or non-techie internal users, you're basically one step up from any other call handler. If you're providing vendor support on some multi-million piece of kit, you'll be talking to someone who knows what they're doing, or you make them go and get someone with the required level of competence.

I know people answering the phones at Cisco TAC who have both VCDX and CCIE certifications, probably more qualified than 99% of the IT people on this forum.

 

[radderfire]

How would you break into development?

It's down to whether you are self-motivated to learn, have the enthusiasm for programming, and whether you have the necessary brain power. Everything you need to learn programming is available free online. Look at the job vacancies to see what skills are requested.

It can be learnt and enthusiasm will get you a long way. However, it can be quite challenging and you do need a fair amount of brain power to be really good.

 

[radderfire]

Also, I would suggest Linux Administration is a good area for opportunities at the moment.

 

[DarrenM343]

OP, you do have an advantage over recent grads - you have experience.
Thought about IT Security? It's an area very much in growth. I know of a few who have retrained themselves from other areas of IT to security.
Programming languages like C# and Java are okay but both highly commoditised these days and you will need to know other technologies usually, not just C# for example, but Javascript,JQuery to name a few.