Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Found this while catching up on some RSS feed reading today: http://creativebits.org/cool_business_card_designs. It’s pictures of some really creative and very cool business cards. I’m not sure how practical some of them are, but most of them are very clever.

My favourites? The dental ones, the cat tail, ‘blind date’ theme, the x-ray, the acupuncturist, and the divorce lawyers and post-marriage counselling ones.

If you’ve EVER worked on a Help Desk or in technical support of one form or another, you should enjoy this YouTube video (6 mins). I especially loved the “12 o’clock flasher” reference!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be3alRoxkOo)

A work colleague sent this link around the team today: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q276304/

The support title says it all, really:

Error Message: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords

Yeah, go figure!!

The Gurus at PC Guru have been a godsend – again! I’ve written about them before, but yesterday they finally got something sorted out that’s been an issue for over a month and that my ISP’s technical support said was a faulty router/modem or perhaps a dicky phone line, amongst other things.

For the past month or so I’ve had intermittent connection problems – some websites (like Google!) wouldn’t connect; I was getting “Access is Denied” messages when I tried to FTP changed web pages to a client’s website and my own; some of my RSS feeds weren’t coming through; and most recently, Microsoft Live Messenger wouldn’t connect. All through this other services worked fine – Skype, email, most websites, VPN, etc.

I had spent hours on the phone with iinet‘s tech support and some time with the guys at PC Guru – mostly bouncing off them the random ideas that the various iinet people came up with. After many days, being shunted from one support person to the next (and having to explain the issues EVERY TIME [don’t these people use a tracking system????] ) and doing pings and trace routes and all manner of things, someone finally suggested that the modem (I have a router) was faulty and that they’d send me a test modem. Another week went by. Then a phone call to say that it’d be another week…

Just over a week ago I got the test modem. And guess what? The problems were the same whether I was using theirs or mine! I did about 3-4 hours of isolation testing and various configurations of phone line, filters, modems, routers, phone cables, servers, PCs, laptops, etc. Frustrating! I was just glad that I’d worked in tech support myself for some years and realised why I had to do all these tests, as well as having enough knowledge to be able to do all this stuff. My husband or my Mum would’ve been way out of their depth, and my Dad would’ve thrown everything in the bin and given up on the internet and computer forever!

Anyhow, after reporting the results of the isolation tests to yet another tech support person at iinet, this one suggested that maybe it was a patchy phone line and that he’d lodge a fault with Telstra. Next day I get an SMS saying they’re closing the call! No fair – it’s not fixed!!! So I call them back and ask them not to close the call. This new person asks about the problem… so again I go through the whole raft of issues. To say I’m heartily sick of telling this story by now would be an understatement. But this time the person I’m speaking to offers up something new – she suggested that Bundle 1 of the issues was different from Bundle 2! Bundle 1 seemed to be fine now, and she said that the Bundle 2 problems appeared to be somewhere between my system and iinet.

So back to the PC guru guys with this latest ‘idea’… (they must’ve been getting sick of hearing me too!). Aaron agreed and said he suspected that something had got screwed in my ISA Server’s firewall settings (no, I don’t know what an ISA Server is either, or how the settings got screwed – perhaps one of those insidious Microsoft Auto Updates??), and that I really didn’t need ISA Server for such a small network and how about we uninstall it? Well, I still had a week’s work to do, so we arranged for him to call me yesterday morning.

Long story short… after 3.5 hours on the phone with Aaron with him doing some stuff remotely on my Server and me doing stuff while the connection was reset, and fiddling with the proxy settings, everything is now working 100%!!!! Yay! This has been a long and arduous journey – I just hope it lasts.

Lessons learned from this:

• If your support desk has a call logging system, USE IT. Document the issue in detail so the customer doesn’t have to repeat the issue time and again. That gets old real quick and doesn’t give customers much confidence in your tech support. It’s called “customer service” people – and that’s NOT an oxymoron, though there are days when I think it is.
• Listen to your customers and don’t assume they are dumb.
• If there are multiple possible reasons why the symptoms are occurring, don’t just insist that only one thing is responsible unless you know for certain that that’s the case. If I’d believed everything the various iinet people told me, I’d have paid out for a new router that I didn’t need, and incurred a Telstra call out fee for a fault that didn’t exist. And I would’ve still had the problem.
• If you have good people to help you out or bounce ideas off, use them – and recommend them to others. They are worth every cent you pay them. (Thanks PC Guru!!)
• Thank those who helped you and let them now how things are going a few days later. And also let those who worked on the problem at various stages know how it was resolved – hopefully they’ll add this to your customer notes and to their own knowledge base so they can learn from it as well. (Yes, I’m about to send those emails…)

Oh, and read Pamela Slims’ excellent post on “Your company brand is only as strong as your technical support“. The title says it all really.

A friend’s blog had a list of careers that the “Career Cruising” site matched to her interests. Because I used to work with her and had a good idea of her skills, it was interesting to see how close a match this automated process was for her.

So I did the test myself and came up with this list of the top 25 jobs most matched to my interests. The ratings next to each are according to a further test on my self-assessed skill levels. Here’s my list:

1. Editor – Very Good Match
2. Market Research Analyst – Very Good Match
3. Communications Specialist – Very Good Match
4. GIS Specialist – Good Match
5. Public Policy Analyst – Very Good Match
6. Print Journalist – Very Good Match
7. Translator – Fair Match
8. Technical Writer – Good Match
9. Lobbyist – Good Match
10. Political Aide – Good Match
11. Public Relations Specialist – Very Good Match
12. Activist – Good Match
13. Criminologist – Very Good Match
14. Computer Network Specialist – Good Match
15. Cartographer – Good Match
16. Writer – Very Good Match
17. Critic – Very Good Match
18. Economic Development Officer – Very Good Match
19. Desktop Publisher – Good Match
20. Computer Trainer – Very Good Match
21. Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator – Fair Match
22. Corporate Trainer – Good Match
23. Artist – Fair Match
24. Economist – Very Good Match
25. Website Designer – Good Match

Interestingly, my first career—teacher-librarianship—didn’t rank in the top 25 at all.

Of those 25, some are just so way out there that they were a surprise (esp. those to do with politics, economics, art, and PR). However the rest are really interesting! I currently work as a technical communicator (#3) which encompasses some website design work (#25) and critiquing (#17), tech writing—of course—(#8), DTP (#19), and editing (#1). I’ve been interested in maps and map making since I was a kid and would’ve pursued cartography (#15) or GIS (#4) if they were available. I was also fascinated by genetics and forensics (#13). For some years after leaving the secondary school teaching environment, I did computer training for adults (#20), and more recently I’ve presented to colleagues at international conferences (#22). So that’s 11 out of the 25 that I currently do, or were interested in pursuing. Not bad considering there are *thousands* of careers and job titles out there.
You can do your own assessment…

1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/
2. Username: nycareers, Password: landmark
3. Answer the “Career Matchmaker” questions (top left).

Day 1

Uneventful three-and-a-bit hour drive to Perth; only 11 long term parking bays available when I got there and I got one, so I didn’t have to implement plan B!

Equally uneventful direct Qantas flight to Brisbane. Slight rain delay and a slight traffic delay coming in to Brisbane, but I was in my apartment accommodation by 7:30 and at the apartment the other Perth staff were staying in by 8:00pm for an EXCELLENT BBQ steak dinner!

We were thwarted by the rain – despite being under cover, the wind blew the rain in and we headed up (with 3 other guys from the Brisbane office) to the 38th floor where their apartment was.

The guys walked me back to my accommodation (2 blocks away), which was nice.

Day 2

In the office today. Two longish meetings, and then a few bits and pieces. Back to the apartment just after 5:00pm. Will be heading out for dinner with the guys tonight – not sure where or when. Will update later…

Day 2 continued…

Went out to a pizza and lasagne dinner to Citizen Restaurant (Albert St) with two of the team – one of the guys from the Perth office and a new recruit from Johannesburg. I’ve had better pizza – and worse. The three meals, two beers and one glass of wine came to $51, so that wasn’t too bad.

Day 3

Packed up this morning (not that there was a lot to pack!), then off to the office for the 8:00am start of the half day usability workshop with users from the client’s offices. The workshop went really well – we got a lot of issues identified and enunciated – and, most importantly, prioritised. The afternoon was spent combining all the butcher’s paper ideas from the two groups into one document, and presenting that to a small group of developers. More fleshing out of that document will occur, but the hard work of going from “I don’t like it” to something concrete is done. Now, for the decisions on what can/will get done, and when… None of that is my problem, thank goodness.

I left the office before 5:00pm hoping to beat the end-of-day cab rush. Nope. There were about 7 people in front of me at the taxi rank just outside the office. And it was raining. I asked if anyone was going to the Airport – the guy next to me was and was OK to share a cab. As it happened, a guy three up from us was going to collect his car from the service depot – which happened to be on the way to the Airport – so the cab driver asked if anyone was going to the Airport and the three of us shared the cab.

I’m currently sitting in the VERY busy Qantas Club lounge waiting for my flight to Perth. I’m due in around 11:00pm, then have to collect the car and go to the hotel the company has booked for me. I’ll have a leisurely drive home tomorrow.

Later… The flight was 90 minutes late leaving, getting in to Perth around midnight. I had a VERY uncomfortable flight – the chap next to me was a pretty big guy and his knees were spread so they encroached on my space, and his backside and thighs overflowed into my space. There was no way I could avoid him – and with those economy seats, there was no way he could sit any other way. It made me very uncomfortable. The only saving grace was that I was on the aisle so after the food service, I was able to stretch out a little. The movie was Ocean’s Thirteen. Now in-flight movies aren’t the best for sound and vision, but even accounting for these limitations, this was a VERY ordinary movie, in my opinion. None of the humour and repartee from the other two. Oh, and I had a slightly upset stomach. No wonder I didn’t enjoy this flight!

Day 4

I checked in to the Melbourne Hotel in Hay St, Perth after midnight. The room was adequate but not impressive for the price. The bed and pillows were great; the shower was set up for wheelchair access and so had one of those handheld showers – which was situated so that it sprayed water all over the bathroom floor when I turned it on. You really don’t need this at 12:30pm. Sigh. I finally fell asleep around 1:30am. And then was woken around 7:00am as the room was directly opposite someone’s office, and outside on the veranda a party was going on! Well, it sounded like it. Near my room was two of the function rooms, and one of them linked to the first floor veranda. A breakfast function was going on, and some people decided to spill over on to the veranda… right outside my window.

When I checked out, I suggested to the rooms manager that they don’t put late-arriving guests that room and told her about the early morning noise. She was most apologetic and knocked off the $24 valet parking charge. Which was something. Even though the company was paying for the room, the credit charge hadn’t gone through, so I paid it (I’ll claim it on expenses). The room-only charge was $155 for the (short) night. Very expensive for what it was.

After doing some shopping (I finally tried out an Aeron chair and have ordered two!!!), and collecting our fix of Indian food (4x beef vindaloo and 4x chilli chicken dry), I hit the road around 1:00pm. It rained almost the entire way home – in some patches the rain was *that* heavy the wipers were on double speed and the traffic was reduced to a crawl.

It was nice to be home. We had a beef vindaloo, and watched the first of the footy finals (Port Adelaide beat the West Coast Eagles by 3 points; Collingwood play Sydney tomorrow night).

I’m off to Brisbane on Tuesday to spend all day Wednesday in the office, followed by a usability/user interface workshop on Thursday. I fly back on Thursday evening, getting back to Perth near midnight. Overnight in Perth then drive home Friday.

The following week, I’m back in Perth on the Tuesday for an all day meeting with one of my Brisbane bosses on Wednesday, then home sometime on Thursday.

After weeks of no travelling/commuting, there’s a few thousand kilometres to come in the next two weeks. Which is good, ‘cos I’ve got a lot of podcasts saved up to listen to!