AZ: Working in IT

[dogscoff]

Doing tech support for friends and family is just as good an experience for this, I think.

Seconded. In fact I got my job (and previous job) in tech support purely on the strength of self-taught practical geekery. I actually went to uni to study modern languages, I have very little formal qualification in IT at all.

I support a range of (thankfully, very robust) software products, which mostly amounts to sitting here waiting for the phone to ring. I'm in a laid-bakc, small office, which is good. I'd hate to be doing tech support in a big high-pressure phone-farm somewhere. This way I get to write, play nethack, read shrapnel etc between calls=-) I'm pretty lucky really, but it can get very boring and I often go home feeling completely empty. I'd like to be doing something else, really.

Money's not too bad though- if I translated into USD and posted it here you all might think I was rich, but the cost of living here is VERY high. I'm certainly not rich, but I live pretty comfortably.