Being a computer enthusiast will often get you offers to do your magic on someone's computer. These people are usually relatives, co-workers and neighbors but not necessarily in that order. So there you are fixing the disabled computer and the question they always ask is, "How do you know all this stuff about computers?" My standard response is usually something along the lines of "Oh I just enjoy working on them." Which is in fact very true. I love working with computers. But my mostly self-taught education hasn't happened all at once and it is definitely not over.
My first exposure to computers came about in the early 80's when a friend brought a Commodore computer home. We would tinker with it all day and night. Copying lines of code from some magazine or book line by line. Hours of work to watch simple diagrams and pictures being created on the screen with x's and o's.
By the end of the 1980's computers were starting to become more advanced. It was becoming common to see shelves of software in the computer stores. I bought my first computer at Radio Shack paying over $1800 dollars for the computer. And to be real honest this computer became a center of entertainment more than an educational tool.
Advance forward to the early 90's and the world was slowly becoming aware of Bill Gates and his company Microsoft. MS-Dos was the operating system and Windows 3.1 was riding on top. I bought another computer during this period and the real education would begin that day. I broke the computer on the first day I owned the machine. The monitor said Super VGA right on it. Why didn't I have all the colors it was supposed to have? Lesson number one, never make changes you know nothing about. Well I did. I changed the video settings and ended up with colorful horizontal lines. By 4am the following morning I had read the manuals, computers use to come with manuals, re-installed MS-Dos and Windows. My life would never be the same.
The next several years were filled with trying new things with the computer. I bought new hard drives and learned how to install them. I installed a 2400 baud modem so I could go online with local bulletin boards or BBS's as they were called. I built a computer from scratch before I really knew what I was doing. It was amazing that it ran at all. People were buying computers more than ever before. The Internet become all the rage and Napster turned the music industry upside down. I was totally hooked on computers and technology by this time.
In 1999 I found myself in the classrooms again but now it was for Microsoft certifications. Since the Internet boom was in full swing, I was going to have a great career as a Microsoft Engineer. I was almost finished with the program, only one more test. My career as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer would not happen. The Dot Com bust pretty much stole the thunder from this field. My certification would become almost worthless. I wound up as a fully certified engineer sitting in call center helping people get connected to the Internet. The jobs that were available were all asking for experience and multiple skill sets. I had neither multiple skills or real-world experience.
When you are a tech support technician you are basically forced to learn. I learned how to use Windows, how to install and configure it and how to troubleshoot problems. I learned how to guide people into doing something they were sure they couldn't do. My job now is not any different from before with one big exception. I do the support face to face now rather than on the phone. I still love working with computers. I still love building them and taking them apart for the fun of it. Learning about how they work still challenges my mind. I guess it always will.
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