computer repair jobs....

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my husband (an aspie) seems to have given up all hope in jobs. He's tried almost everything and now seems content with staying home all day, mostly on his computer

he has been however doing ALOT of work and upgrades and rebuilding on his computer and a few other old PCs and laptops we have around the house. He has said once that he would absolutely love fixing computers for a living. But, he has no prof experience. He really has a hard time in school, but him going back is pretty slim. (Unless, it was an online program that I could help with). Does anyone have any ideas how he begin something like this? He says he would like to one day have his own business, but I know he needs to start somewhere...

not loosing hope in him...

is he on disability? I ask because of a program called "ticket to work"... they can get him training and job placement... but only if he's on disability... However... if he is not, try your local vocational rehabilitation office... they will often help get training and job placement for those with diagnosed issues.

no not on disability. self diagnosed. in the process of trying to see if it is even worth it to get him a formal screening and fork out the moneY (that we really dont have)

Diagnosis is your greatest tool... There are a lot of other options that can be mistaken for asperger's syndrome... and treatment/approach varies wildly with diagnoses.

this post explains a little bit more about his situation.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt225012.html

we are 101% sure he has aspergers

Yep I'm doing that computer work too. Never graduated college. have electrical engineering stuff from college. Got very good at calculations on DC and AC electronics. But it has been a long time and I rarely use this stuff. I also have experience in construction trades, metalworking, and am an excellent cleaner of dirty nasty things.

I do things that people need, really need and cant get anywhere else without paying a lot of money.
Everybody wants something for nothing and I can deliver, or at least give them the illusion. And because its what they really want they are more than happy to buy in.

Frist building skill, he is messing with the computers, not a bad thing. You have the internet with endless education opportunities. Community colleges. More is always better than not enough.

As you are well aware the Western world is for the most part in an economic slump, this could go on for quite a while longer. I'm am in California also known as Taxifornia, so if I got canned tomorrow and I needed to look for a new job I would move to Texas or the oil patch, maybe the oil sands in Canada. I would go to where the jobs are. If you are in a job black hole area moving would help increase your odds.

When I was young no one would help me, so to get a job I would keep trying until I got a job so I could eat. For me I had to make it by my own enterprise. This is a desperate war effort.

Really their is are all kinds of ways to make money.

An "A+ Certified Technician" certificate is fast, cheap and easy to get - he may even be able to challenge the test and get it without a course at all.

With that small certification, he can get repair jobs at some big-box stores that sell computers... the pay's not great but better than unemployment! He'll have a sense of some fulfillment as well.

sbourg, i moved the answer you received from your other thread over to this one and removed the other thread. it is considered spamming to create multiple topics on one theme, so please choose one area of the forum next time to post it in. thank you.

There are probably some basic level posts in this field, which your husband might be able to get. It won't pay much, initially, as it's really just about replacing old and worn parts with new ones, not more intricate/advanced work. In other words, it doesn't take a genius, so they're not looking for the best IT gradutes. If he manages to work his way up the management, the pay will get much better. This is how my husband started out on his career path. He only had some high school certificates, as he failed to graduate from uni. But, he had done 3 years of an electrical and electronic engineering degree, so I think this must have helped him to get the position in the first place. He did field service computer engineering for a few years, then moved into systems management and he's been a telecommunications engineer for about 13 years, which seems to be a much better area of work to get into. The most recognisable qualification for that is Cisco accreditation.

Well, there's no future for computer repair.

Computers are becoming disposable. Read the teardowns of new equipment like the MacBookPro, Microsoft Surface, and other new computers at places like Ars Technica. Tablets are disposable. Consumer electronics are disposable. If something breaks, throw it out and buy a new one. That's the reality. These devices are designed to last 3 years, and then you throw it away. The people who still build and maintain their own PCs, like me, don't need a repairman.

The trend in business is to get away from having in-house equipment, so there aren't any servers to repair. Businesses are outsourcing their servers to datacenters in Texas. The economy of scale means it's cheaper. Only really big companies or really server-intense companies (like Google) are doing their own server hosting. If a business has a server in-house, it's probably a mainframe.

Datacenters need repair technicians, but not many of them. With the consolidation that's going on, they can pick and choose from the most experienced people. Every computer-related job I've seen in the past year has wanted 3-5 years experience, or 5+ for technologies that have been around a long time. There is such a glut of experienced people from the shakeouts, consolidations, layoffs, and so on of the past few years that employers are able to pick and choose. And datacenters are efficiently automated - you just don't need many people to run them. Read about the new Google datacenter in Lenoir, NC - they got all kinds of tax breaks, but aren't creating jobs because there aren't many employees there.

If I can also add this - I have read about big-box stores like Best Buy - they used to have good technical people, from what I've read (I don't need a repairman, so I have never used their services), but these days they have driven off a lot of the old technicians. They want people who can upsell consumers on services. If you aren't a good salesman, you probably aren't who they're looking for. Read up at places like The Consumerist who have articles about life as a Geek Squad employee.

Last edited by Trencher93 on 28 Feb 2013, 8:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'd keep my eyes open for IT support roles coming up. That's how I got into IT initially.

Is "IT support" hardware or software though? I've been a builder for 20 years but my extensive hardware knowledge was useless in IT because that's all about advanced networking and server support.

Besides, you need edjum-cashun for that... this guy doesn't even have A+ which is the very first small step.

IT support can be quite literally anything from an IT helpdesk position primarily helping people over the phone, to someone sitting in a datacenter who is called for "remote hands". And there's no requirement for education if you know what you're doing and can demonstrate it in an interview - I know plenty of people in very high paying jobs (Systems Engineer, Network Engineer, Datacenter Technician, etc) who have 0 college experience.

Some of them even work for me.

hmmm.... maybe I should visit a few dozen IT places and see if I can fit in somewhere... just because I failed at 2-3 places doesn't mean a "hardware guy" is useless...

...that gives me hope. The OP's hubby too!

Yes there are plenty of different support roles that I've experienced. Some are a mixture, e.g. someone will say their computer isn't working properly, then it's up to you to find out if it's user error, software error or hardware error.

This reminds me of something ... if you're an independent contractor, and you work on someone's computer, then they can blame you for anything that goes wrong in the next six months or more. It was working fine until that guy came and messed with it! Just thought I'd mention that.