Today – as some may, or may not know – I started my work experience at a place called UseIt Computers, where I will be working nine-to-five for 5 days. For those who may not be familiar to the idea: basically it’s UK secondary schools’ method of preparing students for future employment through a quick trail of a real-life work environment. It’s also something to put on your Resumé/CV if you want too.

As I mentioned before I have been assigned work at UseIt Computers, which is a small computer consultancy, sale and repair shop in Rishton. My main role appears to be more in the workshop diagnosing and repairing damaged computers, rather than than working front-of-house and dealing with customers. I’m actually quite chuffed with this really, since I’m not much of a ‘people-person’. I get quite anxious and awkward around people I don’t know or have never met.

Interestingly the placement wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for at first. I was hoping more for a placement in a design or photography studio, although now in retrospect I’m glad it’s at least something related to what I enjoy, because I’m sure some people haven’t received that privilege — plus it’s probably more beneficial for me, since computer repair is something I’m okay at, but by no means ‘savvy’. So it’s actually adding to my overall knowledge, rather than reinforcing a lot of things I already know.

Onto the First-Hand Experience:

I arrived 10 minutes early. Not deliberately, but because only that time arrangement worked to be dropped off by my parents on their way to work; the bus would be too awkward. I expected that they’d open a few minutes beforehand anyway, although I was a little wrong with that estimate. They actually ended up opening up at 9:05am. On the bright side, I used that time to have a cigarette. They all smoke, so I wasn’t fussed about what they’d think if they even knew.

I was more concerned by my first thoughts when I first saw the dresscode of most employees. “Oh crap, I’ve come too casual…” was essentially what went through my head. I was told to wear ‘Smart-Casual Wear’, which for me consisted of a bright shirt and slim jeans – maybe not a great choice in hindsight. Although I eventually felt more relaxed with my dress when Steve and Mark turned up in even more casual wear than me, although Mark had just got back from a stag-do in Blackpool and wore a suit for the rest of the week. To be honest, from there it all began to become less tense, and actually became a very laid back environment as I begun to overcome my nerves.

My first task given was to read through the health and safety rubbish, which was unsurprisingly boring. I read some bits carefully, but most of it was skim read. Basically I know not to mess with electronics stupidly.

My second task was to diagnose a 5-7 year old laptop that wouldn’t turn on. After trying a new powerpack and cable and replacing the RAM it was decided to just leave it till tomorrow and move onto something else. Sounded good to me.

After that Steve decided to walk me through building a PC from scratch: something which I’ve been interested in, but being a loyal Apple fanboy, never really had the chance of doing. It took a bit of fiddling since they seem to get a lot of broken parts from who Pete described as a ‘dodgy bloke’. In the end it turned out to be a poor SATA connection. After replacing that installation of everything else was a breeze. I just had to tidy up the cables inside on which I totally OCD’d on, much to the amusement of the staff.

Yes I took a picture: I give you the first computer I've built.

For the last couple of hours I spend my time trying to fix a laptop with a dodgy trackpad and a funky 3G dongle. After a full factory reset, without any change I concluded it was a hardware issue and that the trackpad had been permanently damaged. Probably by excessive pressure applied to the center of it, as the edges appeared to still be acceptably responsive. After that I was instructed to install Vista SP2 onto it to see if we could at least get the dongle working. I didn’t get round to getting it all done before the end of my shift, I just managed to install SP2 successfully. I’ll see tomorrow if I need to finish that off or whether someone did what I noted down as todos.

Anyhow, in conclusion, I’m quite happy with the placement; the guys there seem pretty cool and I’m definitely learning something from it.