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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums“Thank you for calling tech support, now please die”
sub-title: I answered calls from the public for a few months so you dont have to
(yes original titles on website)
http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/07/thank-you-for-calling-tech-support-now-please-die/
I felt unmoored and directionless after my high school job at Babbages dissolved at the end of 1997. Id met my wonderful wife therewed go on to get married in 2003but Babbages had been the only job Id known. When the doors finally shut, I wasnt sure what to do. I skipped the typical teenager process of wandering around the mall filling out dozens of applications for various storesId gotten the job at Babbages merely by asking for it. Now I had no idea how to get another with nearly the same level of awesome.
For a while I slummed it at Electronics Boutique, since my Babbages experience was enough to get me hired with only a quick interview. It just wasnt the same. This was long before both EB and Babbages were swallowed by the Gamestop monster, and although the merchandise was similar, the atmosphere was totally different. EB wasnt anywhere near as fun as Babbages (probably because I was more used to slacking with friends than working), so I kept up the search for the perfect replacement job.
Back then, tech support seemed like a viable career option. Just a few years before, Microsoft had very famously hired armies of phone warriors to assist Windows 95 buyers with installing and working with the new operating system. Now Windows 98 had just launched a few months prior, and I had some relevant experience on the phones. Sometimes folks would call into Babbages or EB asking for help installing a program theyd bought, and I genuinely enjoyed helping them. It followed, I thought, that actually doing phone support as a job would be a great way to spend my time. I envisioned sitting back in a cubicle with my feet up on the desk, headset on my ear as I snappily answered question after question, earning the immense personal satisfaction one must feel when finishing up a workday filled from start to finish with the smiles and thanks of people youd helped.
Those of you whove worked phones can start laughing at me now.
Courtship
(more at site above)