Ask HN: Is tech support becoming a bad long-term career choice?
So I'm looking for a job and I've had a new idea today. I live in a peripheral area and I have been doing maintenance on Windows machines for quite a while to make some side money. Ideally, I'd like to not leave the area I live in to get a job. So, what if despite having a developer diploma, I extended my activity to include tech support and marketed myself as "the all-around IT tech guy" from said area? This place is quite touristic and I speak English so I'm confident I could achieve such a position.
But then I thought to myself: with the desktop declining and being replaced by smartphones or tablets, isn't tech support becoming a dying skill? What can you tweak on an iPad? Besides setting up email accounts – which people won't be doing while on vacation here. The younger generations are more tech-savvy, too; the two-click "repairs" I could do in 2004 are not going to make me look like a "genius" anymore. So I'm thinking I should forget about this idea but perhaps somebody has something I haven't thought of to add?
10 comments
[ 5.1 ms ] story [ 30.9 ms ] threadWith less than $50 of tools you can be in business.
Then they aren't your target market, but perhaps older people are.
As the world gets more technologically advanced, the result is that fewer people know what to do when their devices don't work. If anything, the number of people who need your services might be increasing, not going away.
I started in tech support in '98. I worked my way from a trainee associate in Sophos's UK support team to managing a department of 30 in 5 years. I left Sophos in '06 to start my own business.
I am in a similar position to you in some respects. I started my own locally-focussed business as the tech guy. I placed an ad in the local parish newsletter for 25GBP (~40USD) for the year. That ad has paid for itself 400+ times over since then.
B2C support is tough. My demographic is adults, typically 40+. People are sometimes reticent to ask for help, especially with cheap laptops. Be approachable. Be a nice guy. Be professional. Be honest.
You'll learn about your area pretty quickly. I started out with an external hard drive and a screwdriver set. It's 90% laptops and tablets, and the repair side of my business is slow to catch on. The low purchase cost of laptops and tablets makes people less ready to commit to fixing things, instead choosing brand new. Sad, really. Apple device users tend to be more keen to get things fixed up.
Poke around on /r/computertechs[1] and start thinking about a software toolkit. Get a basic website and sign up with iFixit Pro[2]. Familiarise yourself with their store; they do good parts at fair prices. My website[3] isn't anything special (and isn't finished, either), but gives you an idea for what works around where I live.
[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/computertechs
[2] https://www.ifixit.com/Pro
[3] http://ex23.com
I find younger people I interact with to be more comfortable with technology, but on the whole more disinterested and frustrated with troubleshooting. Getting paid by them might be another story, but you'll see plenty of < 25 year olds waiting for hours at the Apple store to get their phone restored.
Related example: We've had electric lights for years and use them constantly, but how many people actually understand electricity either? It's because electricity, like the iPhone, is set up in a really "opaque" way to outsiders. Not only are we used to it "just working", like the parent said, we have no idea how we'd even BEGIN to address a problem if one came up. Go inside the wall? Do something with wires? I don't know.
I'm really good at figuring out why my computer is broken, I program for a living, but when my "smart phone" doesn't work right I'm helpless. So even if there's a will, there sometimes doesn't seem to be a way.
So, i believed tech support is still an important role. :)