Idiots Guide

Here is your spring break wrap up� I have done my laundry, spent lots of time with Becca, visited my faithful listeners up in Orange City, and finally caught up on sleep for the semester. Now it�s almost time to escape from the parents who so joyfully feed me and give me a place to sleep.

In many ways I am ready to get back to the business of school. I have so many activities that I am involved in that I wish to get back into them and get some things accomplished, especially with Level 1 Media.

I got the opportunity to do some work for Midwest Technology here in town and it really made me realize that I am in the right major, and ultimately the right career path. I love working in Photoshop and with web-design projects, which is what I did for midwest for a couple hours yesterday, and I also enjoy doing tech-support, which is just a part of doing a job anywhere when people know that you know about computers. Any geek can sympathize with the plight of everyone constantly having questions for them about any little thing that they don�t understand on their PC. The odd thing is, I don�t really mind actually doing the work of fixing computers and teaching people how to do things for themselves. Even after working for the helldesk at UNK for a couple years I still enjoy getting to help people with their computer problems, it is very satisfying to solve some problems.

The one big thing that I have with this whole business is the money. I am not very good at knowing how much the work I do is worth. Through my experiences with Level 1, I have learned that many of the potential small business customers that I deal with are unwilling to spend any reasonable amount of money on the services that my associates and myself can provide. Then I get an opportunity to work for a small business that actually has a grasp on the reality of the technology market and I do not have a clue as to how much I should charge for what I can do. I get the feeling that sometimes I undervalue the work that I do for some people because of how easy it is for me to finish it quickly. And other times I feel like I am pulling teeth with small one person craft businesses that don�t even live on the same planet as the rest of the business world. The business world is tricky and full of pitfalls that I hope I will learn to navigate more adeptly with experience, but in the mean time I just wish I could find and idiots guide to being a geek for hire.