Many tech support jobs are thought to be in clean, air-conditioned offices. After reading this article from CIO.com, IT consultants do not have it as easy as we think. The article talks about some of the dirty jobs tech support engineers do to improve the computer systems of their clients. Check it out below.
You think your job is bad? You ain’t seen nothing until you’ve had to pick moldy food and cockroaches out of a dead PC or been asked to find out what your coworkers have been up to online when they were supposedly working. You definitely haven’t earned your IT creds until you’ve stood in two feet of water holding a plugged-in server while trying not to get electrocuted, found yourself inside a sniper’s crosshairs while you’re attempting to install a communications link, or had to worry about bombs going off while you’re futzing with network protocols.
In our fourth installment of the Dirty Jobs series, we visit with the dedicated geeks who hold jobs like these and ask how they managed to survive or, in some cases, thrive under difficult conditions.
Next time you’re hating your job, remember: It could be worse.
Dirty job No. 1: Systems sanitation engineerBeer cans. Food wrappers. Cigarette butts. Moldy bread. Cockroaches. Things you’d typically find in the bottom of your average dumpster — only in this case, the dumpster is the shell of a discarded computer.
It’s all part of the job at Redemtech, an IT asset disposition firm that processes the aging hardware Fortune 500 companies no longer want. Somebody has to go through each piece and muck it out, decide what can be saved and what must be discarded, says Chomroeun “C-Ron” Sith, technical supervisor for Redemtech’s Grove City, Ohio, facility (and no relation to the Dark Lord).
Though it varies widely, Sith says approximately half of the systems he sees can be refurbished and resold. The other half gets recycled in an environmentally responsible way. Before that happens, they have to be inspected and cleaned — and that’s where things can get nasty.
“Some of these things look like they’ve been sitting the back of a warehouse for years,” he says. “They come in covered in dust, with cobwebs, rat droppings, and roaches inside. Sometimes they’re so rusted that when you pick them up your hands turn orange. One of the systems we got in was covered in makeup. Every time my guys touched it, they got all glittery.”
Go to CIO.com to see more of the article. Would you put your IT consultant team though anything this nasty?
