Job for 13 year old. Computers

[conna]

Please stop being rough on me (everyone)  :cry:

All I want is a summer job. I need money. I get a max of $300 a year. I'm good at comptuer but willing to do just about anything. And my dad don't support me. He like I screw up my computer tough luck. He won't really help me. Won't buy anything for me even a simple fan. If he willing to get me or my sister anything he won't let me get any computer parts (fans, hd, etc....). I'm trying to convince him to let me buy a power supply of newegg. He doesn't think computer are meant for gaming. I just want some money. I want to get a decent comptuer that would last me for some time. After I get my good comptuer I'll have to start saving up for a laptop for college or maybe late years of highschool if I get enough money before hand.

So if anyone has any ideas it would be great

computer releated or not

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Don't waste your time trying to get hired at a shop. They won't because your not old enough. Start your own business, fixing your friends parents PC's. Enough Luddites parents out there to keep your wallet stocked if your in a decent town. Word of mouth is the best type of advertising you can have so do honest work. Computer work is a lot easier than mowing laws during the summer and you will make more contact that way. The people you fix now will be your customers when your old enough to Start your business fully legit. Its tough out there getting started if you have rent due and car loans, so starting this early will be the best thing you could do. As for everyone out there saying "do you know "______" If so, you will learn it in time. The more you learn, the more you will find out you don't know enough. Besides people that run Linux or anything other than windows will not be your customer because they will know how to fix their own rigs. That's not your target customer

As for the advice about telling lies... I don't recommend it. If you don't know the answer tell them you will find it out. If you lost them because if that, well at least it was not because they caught you in a lie. You will never get a referral from someone you were dishonest to and got caught.

go to Office Depot and print out your service on a stack of paper and hand them out, post them everywhere. You'll get leads and if your good enough your get return business.

Good luck.

[GameOverRob]

Just get a paper round and start saving up

[Vorenus]

maintenance is different than web design... :rolleyes:  it's easy to throw a table in a page and put some HTML text in there...  it's different to actually come up with and sell a design.

I too caught my calling late.  i'm 25 now.  I have 32 college credits to my name.  That's it.  And a certification.  I've made my way thru real know how and hard work.  It can be done.  And believe it or not, not everybody wants some college snob who thinks he knows it all anymore...  they want people that really can do the job... not people who drug their feet thru a few classes.

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"dragged"

[.:YodaGP:.]

Well, i'm 14 and i thought the same thing when i just turned 13. What you need to do mate is look into websites that offer various things like reviews etc. Then you just write some stuff and get into pratice, after you feel that you can do it really well you start to do it free for companies who are profit based. For me i did it for about 6 months (really good, hard work) and now i get paid.

The money i get is very good, especially for my age. Also, you really aren't that good, i gotta say i think i was wiser a year ago.

[Slipdisc210]

It's quite easy, really.  And the money comes in lumps too.

You see,

The customer can't figure out how to install the hardware.

They come to me with $20.  I do it for them.

They accidentally press the eject button, and come back with $20 for me.

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right :no:

[rkv]

Like the idea, but my grandmother doesn't have money, my one uncle is to far away, and finally my other uncles is a landscapper so he won't pay me :p he probably won't even let me cut the grass.

Thanks to everyone he was given me ideas

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hehe :p if you are ACTUALLY computer smart u would know where to get stuff for FREE even books etc :p

:whistle:

then u could study them and learn programming

[REM2000]

Always stay honest with your clients, never go down the crap route and bull***t your client base. The usual stuff like opening a DOS box typing DIR and pretending that your analysing the computer. If you start being corrupt you will just continue it throughout your career which really leaves you with two options (this is thinking of your future and not just of the now)

1 - do i want to do computers to make quick and easy money (then by all means do whatever you can to get money).

2 - do i want to do computers as it's something that i enjoy and i want to become a skilled professional earning big bucks, if so stay honest.

I always have told/tell any of my clients (even when i was your age) what i was doing and why, people will always have problems with their pc's so you don't have to worry about them learning from you. (When i have my car fixed i make sure they tell me exactly why and how, but i don't go home and do it) it's a method of reassurance and the fact that you haven't got anything to hide.

Make sure you charge a fee at the begining, if you give too many freebies away then thats all ppl expect.

If you can get to speak / become friends with someone who knows what they are doing with computers always listen and don't speak (When i was your age it's very easy to believe that you have a grasp on everything, but you can pick up a lot of info from ppl who have already done it, saves you having to repeat there mistakes).

95% of your knowledge of PC's will be obtained from experience, i.e. actually doing it and learning from it. Keep playing with windows and don't be afraid to break it. Microsoft have loads of guides telling you the offical way of doing things (which is good to know!), however if you learn it yourself by messing about you get to learn all of the extra unoffical ways of doing things. MCSE's and MCP's don't learn you nothing, i have had members of staff that have been on MCSE's and they still have problems with the most basic things (CTL+ALT+DEL locking etc..). However MCSE's and MCP's will get you a higher paid job so get an MCSE as soon as you can (try and get a company to put you on one when you join the workforce).

Stress - Be careful of this one as it tends to creep up and grab you. I have seen administrator's break down, cry and in one case actually just stop what he was doing walk out of the office and that was the last we saw of him.

Remember at the end of the day they are just computers, if they don't work they don't work, always remain calm and the solution always pops up.

Stay in School/College/University for as long as you can as once you leave it's near impossible to get back.

Remember that noone knows everything about computers (no one can) so everyday you will be learning something new.

Overall it sounds like you've made a good start, prehaps you won't be able to get joe public to come to you for the first year, but doing friends and family computers for the first year will be good experience. As you will get to know how the "end user" works without the fear of it getting too hot if things don't go your way.

Good Luck Mate ;) Final just remember line being, that the main thing with fixing computers is Confidence, no matter whats going over in your head always remain confident, does wonders :)

from 27year old who started the same way you did (but obviously i didn't have the internet, just a very big DOS book ;)

[sys32]

From what I've read so far, you guys are really a bunch of losers who have nothing better to do than take out their failure related stress on a 13 year old. Give him some credit for being ambitious.

You can start a business no matter how old you are. Head over to the closest SBA http://www.sba.gov/ and tell them your plans. They will help you write up a business plan and everything. They will even cosign on a loan if needed.

[Codegen]

Is it me or are there a lot of pointless, but popular, threads floating around..

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Is it me or are there a lot of pointless users floating around..

Always be honest with your clients

Yep. I always do that first. I have this one friend, I always tell everyone what I am doing, and what they should invest in for the comp. The computer they have originally came with the ECS K7S5A motherboard. As if not bad enough, they got one from a bad batch as well. I suggested that if they plan on upgrading, the motherboard should be the firest thing to go. They gave me some money, did my research, and got the Biostar M7NCD. Needless to say, after the job was finished, they were happy with the better performance of the computer ;).

So, that's pretty much the trick to it. Do a freebie, but charge after that.

[golazo]

i had a job like that at school when i was in grade 5 and 6 i just had to format and stuff for them every few months and fix up what they ****** up. all i got was lollies :angry: :p

[Yvo]

Is it me or are there a lot of pointless users floating around..

Yep.  I always do that first. I have this one friend, I always tell everyone what I am doing, and what they should invest in for the comp. The computer they have originally came with the ECS K7S5A motherboard. As if not bad enough, they got one from a bad batch as well. I suggested that if they plan on upgrading, the motherboard should be the  firest thing to go. They gave me some money, did my research, and got the Biostar M7NCD. Needless to say, after the job was finished, they were happy with the better performance of the computer ;).

So, that's pretty much the trick to it. Do a freebie, but charge after that.

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Yup and based on what you said... I would NEVER hire you. Biostar is probably as bad as ECS.

[Codegen]

Yup and based on what you said... I would NEVER hire you. Biostar is probably as bad as ECS.

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Actaully, if I had an AMD system, the M7NCd is probably what I'd get. Even though it doesn't support O/Cing, I really can't/couldn't afford to replace CPUs everytime I O/Ced too much.

Hell, I checked out review sites (mind you, I suppose the K7S5A was rigged :rolleyes:)

I e-mailed people that owned the M7NCD/pro/Ultra. Basically the same mobos with more features from what I have read on them. They all said they were great mobos. I decided if I was gonna have to go cheap on the mobo due to the budget. I had to choices, the Biostar M7NCD, or the Asus A7N8X. I reminded them over and over again that for 10 more bucks (or more, anyway) that they'd probably have better luck with the Asus board. But they decided for the M7NCD anyway.

The only complaint I have about the board, and not about the board itself, is the backplate. Finally got the damn thing in when I realised that I bled all over the damn case (and thus, had to remove backplate).

[scoobydoobie]

f they have questions or anything. Lie about it. If you don't know the answer, make up a decent lie and try to amaze them. And lie about all the computers and things that you have built. Tell them you built and fixed hundreds of computers for free just because you loved to do it so much. But now you must start to charge

Yea, good idea..lie to the clients right off the bat..that'sll get you business...

idiot

[aishiteru]

Yea, good idea..lie to the clients right off the bat..that'sll get you business...

idiot

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Dude... You (and a lot of the people who are putting this kid down) are taking things way too seriously. Please step out of "adult world" for a second, and realize that this kid is only 13 years old. He is not going to be having any "clients" who need to be treated as "clients". I'm sure any computer that he will be fixing is a family PC for emails, and MSN.

**rant**

People who are threatening this poor innocent child need to take their heads out of their asses and have a look at the world outside of the IT department. As amazing as it may seem, your neighbor likely doesn't know how to remove all his spyware, or manually run windows update, or properly set up his firewall. You may have a point, by saying that this kid doesn't really have a chance in the ADULT world, but you don't have to say it in such a harsh manner.. jackasses...

**/rant**

I just hate people who look at a child and make a mockery of his innocence. Everybody was a child once, and everyone used to think they were a bigshot once. What is there to make fun of?

[scoobydoobie]

I just hate people who look at a child and make a mockery of his innocence

you're really a female aren't you....

[_fOoL_]

you will only ever get hired if you plyed Doom 1 when it first came out, and clocked it on Nightmare in 2hours **still has Nightmares of the big CyberDemon** :ninja:

[aishiteru]

you're really a female aren't you....

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no just someone less hating than a lot of people here.

[tiger2k]

Why are you all being so hard on him. Who says he can't fix computer because he's 13, i been doing it since i was 14 and no one cared that i was that age, im 19 now. I started with my parents friends who knew nothing and they knew i knew a few things about computers. I charge them anything between 20-100 depending on what they want. Just lask week i made $200 in like 4 hours.

Theres a bunch of people that don't know how to do these "SIMPLE" tasks as you guys are putting it. Just 2 blocks from where i live theres a guy that everytime he's going to install a program he calls me. He's not stupid, he has just screwed up his PC so much with spyware and adware that he doesn't like to risk it. I don't charge him for install the programs but he at random gives me my $20 once in a while when he says me, even if i have done nothing he gives me money.

All u need to do is get people's trust, once they know that you know your stuff they dont' care about your age. Alot of people like to find people that would fix their computers around their neighborhood, that way they don't have to unplug everything, you just go over to their house and do everything right then and there.

So just get the word out there that you fix computers, and you'll get your share of money this summer. Just don't over charge, even if the person is a total n00b dont' rip them off, thats what will keep them coming to you, if they get that sence that you didnt' rip them off.

[leesmithg]

Do a milk round or paper round. Wash cars, mow lawns, help old ladies across the street if you want to earn monies. That's what I did @13.

[Guol]

man you guys need to seriously stop being so harsh.

if you didnt read my posts before... im 14 and i help a few people now and again with "simple" stuff.

yesterday i went to my dad's work and cleared all the viruses and spyware off ten pcs and i was GIVEN $40 for my work from the boss [even though i offered to do it free].

just do stuff like that. take it from me... it works.

i repeat... no need to go over your head and try to do all this fancy stuff. MOST of the population don't know anything about computers and by offering to do the simplest of things you will gain their respect and a good reputation. word will soon spread and then u can start charging money [mayb 5 bux per half hour or something].

so ignore what all these dumbasses putting you down are saying and go on and give it a try. after all it doesnt hurt to try new things. :yes: