Monday, September 27, 2010

I'm not a magician but perhaps I can be of service

I truly wish I knew the answer to every question asked of me by my users. The truth is that there's a good chance I've never heard of your issue and don't know how to fix it. But there's also a good chance that I can figure out how to solve the problem.

There's nothing magical about what I do. However, it does take some logical thinking, some experience, and a lot of patience. Google is every IT guy's best friend (or Bing if you’re a Microsoft fan). Although the possibility of me running across something I've never seen before is good, chances are that someone out there has not only seen my issue but has written about how they solved it. When I receive a call about somebody's problem I attempt to gather all of the details about it as possible. I walk through a checklist in my mind and attempt to iron out anything the user could've done differently to achieve the desired result. If this doesn't resolve the issue, I look at what's happening on the computer itself. Are there any rogue processes? Do I need to find an update? Is it a virus or malware? Are there any software conflicts occurring? All of this happens in just the first few moments of a call. I then turn to Google.

I search for the problem; I reword my search. I use synonyms and I rewrite the search with antonyms. I search for error messages, I search for issues with versions of software. I look for Microsoft Updates and I look for other software updates as well. I look for updated drivers, software patches, even software downgrades. I click on links that spark new subjects to search for and the cycle starts all over again. I check forums, wikis, I use search modifiers, change the search parameters… then that EURKEA moment inevitably finds me. This process might take a few minutes, it might take a few weeks.

Occasionally, Google won't have the answer I'm looking for.  I then turn to the software developers and make them aware of the issue. You know what those guys do?  The SAME THING that I just did!!! Granted, they have a few more tools as it relates to their product, but the process is the same. The gather information and do a whole lot of searching. If they come up short then they get with their programming team and write code to fix the problem.

People at work give me a hard time because all I do is 'sit and Google all day'. To which I respond 'that means you'll Google your own problem next time and leave me out of it, right?' You see, although the process is relatively simple, few people have the experience or the patience to struggle through it and find the solution.

I am more than happy to teach someone to fish if it will reduce my workload as I have plenty of other things I can focus my energies on than your printer not working. But often my job is to fish for people and just hand over the goods. Which I really don't mind since I get paid to surf Google all day.

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