The correct answer is "Don'tinvest yourselfin a shitty job.
The problem with me, CS and stupid people is that I'm a very passionate man. I put my all my effort into anything I do. Normally an asset but when you are dealing with that those who can't be reasoned with, it's a liability.
I worked retail at a game store when I began working at the ripe age of 16. It was magical. I got to share my love of games with people and as a result I made a ton of sales. Retail is not a career when it comes to games so I left for greener pastures.
I'd also like to make note that when I hired in to Blizzard, it was for billing and account issues. Credit card problems, password resets, and the like. Hackers have targeted us FAR more in the last year-year and a half and now we are flooded with compromise account calls which bring up tech issues. In light of that, management has to decided to (very poorly, considering I knew everything in the curriculum when I was 12) give us tech training and responsibilities.
Who had 2 thumbs and applied for the first job out of there? THIS GUY! Total plus that it happens to be QA. That can be soul grinding in its own ways but I don't mind 12 hour days and I don't have to DEAL WITH IDIOTS!
Who had 2 thumbs and applied for the first job out of there? THIS GUY! Total plus that it happens to be QA. That can be soul grinding in its own ways but I don't mind 12 hour days and I don't have to DEAL WITH IDIOTS!
Programmers with god complexes, who think their code is perfect and see no need for anyone to check it because any problem with it is obviously user error or the fault of the computer on which you are running it? Yeah, I've run into a few of those.
Some of the older Macs at work have the NVIDIA 7300 GT cards, which, due possibly to poor driver support on Apple's part seem to have more than their fair share of malfunctions when handling CG. After a particularly vexing Maya session during which I suffered a number of bad crashes I came bitching to one of the programmers, complaining that every time I got on one of the macs, it started crashing constantly. "It's like I have some sort of Aura!" I said. "And whatever workstation I am on crashes all the time! Why do the macs always break for me and no-one else?" "Welp," said he. "The bad news is that you'll have to quit being a Maya artist if that is the case." "The good news," he continued, "is that you can totally have a spot on the QA team."
Some of the older Macs at work have the NVIDIA 7300 GT cards, which, due possibly to poor driver support on Apple's part seem to have more than their fair share of malfunctions when handling CG. After a particularly vexing Maya session during which I suffered a number of bad crashes I came bitching to one of the programmers, complaining that every time I got on one of the macs, it started crashing constantly. "It's like I have some sort of Aura!" I said. "And whatever workstation I am on crashes all the time! Why do the macs always break for me and no-one else?" "Welp," said he. "The bad news is that you'll have to quit being a Maya artist if that is the case." "The good news," he continued, "is that you can totally have a spot on the QA team."
I know some people who went to work in QA...They didn't used to sound like Scott, but now...
Even working retail you will have to deal with idiots, but at least some of the job is doing other things like stocking shelves and such. With tech support it's just idiots all day long.
You've never worked retail. (I never have either). But I can't imagine how soul-sucking it must be. At least phone idiots have volume knobs, and you can follow a script to the letter in order to further infuriate them for your own amusement.
You know what? I work retail, and either I'm just oblivious, or I'm some kind of magical being, because I almost never have bad experiences with customers. Maybe morons are too dumb to shop at Old Navy?
Working in low-item cost retail causes far fewer problems that working with larger-ticket items and particularly with items that are not simple like pants or shirts or whatever. Someone dropping two grand on a brand new PC with accessories who is not highly computer literate has a much higher rate of buyer's remorse and/or people thinking they are getting something they are not and/or people thinking they're smarter than they really are about what they're buying.
I have worked in retail for the past 9 years, at one Best Buy. Earlier this year, I was hoping to go full time for a short while to build up a reserve of cash and see what I got for being here 10 years. Now? Now I really want out. The biggest problem is management and idiotic customers. I imagine there are some nimrods who can't figure out how a shirt works, but the questions I get sometimes make my brain hurt. I was once talking to a woman who thought iPods came preloaded with all the music. She was buying it for her daughter, and when I asked the daughter about her music collection, she had none, she just watched videos on youtube. Or there's the people(that's right, more than one!) who asked for a Wi-fi when they wanted a Wii. Best Buy wants you to care a whole lot but it doesn't care about you one wit it seems. I feel fantastic when I can help someone get just what they need, but a lot of it just beats me down. Don't do it to yourself.
Aaaaaaaaand this customer keeps repeating over and over, "The game worked yesterday. Why isn't it working today?" I've explained 5 different ways that we updated the game with a patch and that can cause things that were working fine to "break".
So we are updating his video drivers from 03/14/06 to a modern one and he won't shut up about how it worked and now it hasn't. This is, quite possibly, the worst 38 minutes and counting I've had in a while at work.
Yeah, if I had a dime for every time I heard someone on the other end of the phone say that, I'd be retired and living in the Bahamas. Close runner up to that is when you ask them what they did or changed recently. They ALWAYS reply, "I didn't do anything!" At which point you remote connect into their PC to discover that their browser history shows they've been surfing Facebook nonstop, they have a million browser toolbars installed, and they clicked on one of those links that installs a fake antivirus app on their system, which has been popping up every ten minutes trying to scare them into forking over fifty bucks to get rid of the infections. "Didn't do anything", my ass.
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Thank the Maker I'm getting out!
I'd also like to make note that when I hired in to Blizzard, it was for billing and account issues. Credit card problems, password resets, and the like. Hackers have targeted us FAR more in the last year-year and a half and now we are flooded with compromise account calls which bring up tech issues. In light of that, management has to decided to (very poorly, considering I knew everything in the curriculum when I was 12) give us tech training and responsibilities.
Who had 2 thumbs and applied for the first job out of there? THIS GUY! Total plus that it happens to be QA. That can be soul grinding in its own ways but I don't mind 12 hour days and I don't have to DEAL WITH IDIOTS!
"Welp," said he. "The bad news is that you'll have to quit being a Maya artist if that is the case."
"The good news," he continued, "is that you can totally have a spot on the QA team."
Someone dropping two grand on a brand new PC with accessories who is not highly computer literate has a much higher rate of buyer's remorse and/or people thinking they are getting something they are not and/or people thinking they're smarter than they really are about what they're buying.
In conclusion: computers are not pants.
So we are updating his video drivers from 03/14/06 to a modern one and he won't shut up about how it worked and now it hasn't. This is, quite possibly, the worst 38 minutes and counting I've had in a while at work.