Have you tried it in Chrome?....

Now, I don't really write much about my job for a few reasons. It's not something that I want to share cos it's work right, and also it's quite hard for me to put into words what I actually do. I've never considered myself to have a career and I was never someone who was driven to be anything in particular so why would that be interesting?

When I was young I seem to remember that I wanted to be a vet. But when I found out about how long it took to study etc I was kind of put off. Not that I was lazy, nope, just more interested in reading or music than studying. I always add at this point that this doesn't mean I'm not clever. I have an extremely good memory which I think can come out as intelligence, but I do not class myself as academic. I did ok at school though, but I didn't really like it much as I was one of those kids on the outside. I wasn't cool, but I wasn't hated either. I was just there I guess. I carved out a role being funny when I was around 14 and I think that's when my love of sarcasm started. It's still something I do now, but quite often it falls flat as people have no idea if I'm joking or not. As a disclaimer, approximately 90% of what I say is usually sarcasm. Right, now we've got that cleared up let's move on...

So why am I writing about work and what do I do? Well, I'm not going to name who or where I work so don't ask me that. What I will say is that my role is mainly quite technical, so yes, I am a geek. I work with IT, but I'm not in IT, although I think I should (and would like) to work in IT. I was never employed as a tech, but due to my understanding and ability it has become a large part of what I do every day and I have to say, it's my favourite part of what I do. I decided to write about it as I sometimes think I am quite different to other geeks as I am a non-tech working in tech which can be quite hard as I don't come from the same background. Someone I work with regularly picks me up on it and says "are you sure you don't work in IT?" due to the things I say and do. My favourite quote from him was this: "you are the most technie non-tech I know". I like that one and I think I might have it put on a t-shirt...!

I never set out to work with computers or systems, but everywhere I've worked I've ended up learning and then teaching the system we used. I spent a long time working in insurance and had to learn and use bespoke systems as part of my job. It came easy to me and this is a pattern that has continued. Any time there is a new system or website at work, it usually ends up with me to work out or manage in some way. This is also the same at home. My family always ask me about computer stuff and I am the go to person with mobile phones whether I know about them or not. I recently got asked to update the contacts on a Samsung phone (never owned this brand in my life) whilst being asked which wi-fi printer is worth buying (don't have one of those either). And yes, I did both of those tasks.

Yeah, I can reset one of these no worries...

In my office I sit with a group of programmers and they often like to test me with words or check my understanding of things. More often than not I'll get it wrong, but one day I'll be able to explain what a GUID is correctly, just you wait!

I guess the reason this post was in my mind is because of something that happened this week. I attended a conference and met other people who did kind of similar jobs to me. It was nice to be with other geeky types for once although it was obvious that not everyone gets as excited about tech as me. I have to admit I didn't actually realise it excited me either until I found myself explaining something to some people and caught sight of myself being all enthusiastic about it like a loon. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment when I looked at their faces, realised they had absolutely no clue what I was talking about, but there I was enjoying telling them all about plugins and stuff. Slightly embarrassed to say the least...

I loves it

Now this is all very well, but it's probably not that interesting to you really. It just gives you an idea of my personality a bit I guess and the fact that I am thinking about my career for once. I considered writing another blog about being a technie non-tech, but I'm not sure it would be that engaging or I would have enough to say really so this post will do for now.

Here are some things I've learnt that could help with your IT problems (in order of importance):

1. Have you tried turning it off and on again? This is key to everything.
2. Have you tried it in Chrome? A newer one, but it seems that Chrome is apparently the god of browsers sent to save us all from the inadequacies of IE.
3. Which site are you trying to access? Yeah, your network password is probably not going to log you into Twitter my dear (unless its the same one and then I'd maybe reconsider that actually love).
4. Is it actually plugged in? If your keyboard isn't working, stand up with it in your hands and take 3 steps backwards. If it stays in your grasp then it's not plugged in...

You can't get away from technology, it's everywhere so perhaps you should embrace it and see what happens. I will say though, if you hear any mumblings about Skynet, be afraid, be very afraid...