You have bought the course. You have learned the basics. You may have even gone out and got some certifications. (CompTIA, Microsoft, Dell, etc) Now you have a hard time getting a job because you have no work experience. What do you do?

Do some contract work. Contract work is great to help build experience, knowledge, and get a taste of real world troubleshooting.

Below I have compiled a list of websites for contract work. This list is for contract in the US. Please feel free to let me know of any others and I will add to this list.


Syntechs
Barrister Global
Install It Today
OnForce
Nexicore
Field Nation
Field Solutions
Prism Pointe Tech
Captovis
Gurus2Go
Installs Inc.
Endeavor
Geeks Mobile
PC SOS
ServiceLive
ServRight
Work Market
National IT Force
Excel Management
e-technicians

I'll add more later

I did some work for barrister and some of the others on that list. Treat you like crap... not cover your mileage.... treated the customers like crap.

The last straw for me with them was when I had a customer who had a warranty and had an HP media center pc. The motherboard had failed (this is after they sent me out to replace the hard drive) and they had shipped me a new motherboard.

I went out there and found out that the board had not been branded with the HP information so her restores would not work. I called them up and they said I had to contact HP. I contacted HP and they told me i had to contact barristar. The company they used to get replacement HP motherboards no longer did branding and did not support branding the motherboards. They told me to contact HP. I recontacted HP and gave them the information of the motherboard and the digits on the bottom of the case (missing 1 of the fields I needed for branding) and they refused and told me I was trying to brand unauthorized hardware.


Eventually I took the machine back to the shop (did i mention i drove 25 miles out to her house 3x?) and I made a fresh install, force activated on the phone, and then made a ghost restore image.

Nexicore then called me up and chewed me out for violating contract by taking the unit off site and refused to pay me as I could have caused a lawsuit and such and such. The woman bought her next 3 computers from us at the shop.

My boss then tried to get me to do a simple one for barrister (replacing a cd rom) when i got there the guy tells me the machine wont boot and its clicking. Classic Click of Death and my diag disk told me bad hard drive. I packed up my cd rom and left and never took another barrister order again.

Before all this they also had me replace a cpu for an old guy .. i get to his house and fine out hes terminally ill with cancer and hes using his comp to talk to his daughter in maine. I open the replacement cpu (it actually was a bad cpu for once) and its completely mangled. The pins are all bent and it was shipped in a joke of a package.

Spent the next hour straightening all the pins with a butterknife and a credit card and hooking it up (it worked) leaving the old guy to talk to his daughter.

If you've had a good experience great, I want nothing to do with that company ever again.

I have never done work for barrister. In fact there is a thread on the forums at theforcefield.net that has a log of people complaining about that company. I don't like to pass judgement unless I have done work for them, but I probably will not ever do work for them.

I have only used a few on the list. The Main one I have used is OnForce.com. OnForce is not the greatest but they will get you work and get you experience. I use to really like them but lately, the pay is going down and now they require you to have insurance. If you don't then they will take it out of your check. I understand about general liability. Every real tech doing this for a living should have that. But they also require O&E and Workman's Comp. And that's just crazy. But I still continue to do jobs for them when the pay is right and my business is slow.

I have also done work for Field Solutions and Field Nations. I have not done much for these 2. Field Solutions has some real low pay and I do not like how their platform is set up. They post a job and put the max pay. then you bid on it with a lower amount. The other day there was a hard drive replacement on there for $25. No way would I do that for $25 and they want me to bid lower. Uhmmm. Then Field Nations. They just don't have much work in this area. I would do more for them if more work was available.

I have also signed up for Install IT Today, and Gurus2Go. I have not completed the backgrounds for these 2 companies yet so I have not done any work for them.

I wanted to compile a list so people can have a chance to use their knowledge. I would recommend researching any of these before you use any of them. One reason is most require you to have a background check and/or drug test. This cost money. And you have to use their system. You can't get one background check and use it for all of them. (or drug test for that matter) I would be real nice if you could. If you could I would have an account on all of these.

If anyone else has had experience with any of these or others. Please share.

I had one brief experience with one of those on the list.
A local resident had an issue with the hard drive on a desktop. They had been dealing with one of those companies. Interestingly, the rep at the company told them to ask the local tech to contact them about doing the work. The residents came to me and I called the company.
The first thing that I balked at was the overwhelming amount of rules and policies and procedures that had to be followed. To do anything would be somewhat complicated and time consuming. Added to that, it had to be done at the residence, the pay sucked, and you were not reimbursed for time or travel. The customer was also getting frustrated...not at me, but at the company's way of dragging things out. The company eventually mailed them a replacement hard drive. I was honest with them and told them that I couldn't do the work under the conditions and terms of the company. When I explained it to them they shook their heads and said they didn't blame me...they understood. They finally said to heck with the company and asked me how much I would charge to replace the hard drive. I told them and they happily paid me to do it.
It's not that I am totally against doing that kind of work, it's just that it's too complicated, frustrating, and almost a waste of time. If there was a company that would 1) Let me do it in shop. 2)Let me handle the hardware acquisition 3) Repay me in full for the hardware used (including shipping) and 4) Pay decently for the repair ...... I might consider it.

Man, besides me, has anyone had any good experience with doing these type of jobs. Now I will admit, I will not do warranty work. I have not had any good experience with warranty work.

Yesterday I did a job for OnForce. The Server at a local Hotel went down. When I got there the replacement parts were there. I swapped out the power supply and talked on the phone with their tech support team to test the computer. I was there for 2 hours and made good money. I also do a lot of DSL installs and Vontage installs. These take about 30 min and I get $55 a pop. I have never seen any that pay for your travel unless it's outside your area. There have been many times that OnForce or one of the other companies ask me to do a job that is outside my area and they pay me more for going to the jobs.

But the best thing about these places is you can get some hands on experience with out having to hunt for a job.

Man, besides me, has anyone had any good experience with doing these type of jobs.

No, but I got made to drive 40 miles to go restore some spanish speaking guy who didnt know english computer and then had to spend an hour or 2 trying to figure out where he kept his data.

Google translate is your friend:
¿dónde están sus documentos

And i wasn't told anything by the company about special language needs of the client.

Well then fine. I will continue to do contract jobs and enjoy them myself.

Actually have have also had a few bad experiences with contract jobs, but I have had a lot more good experiences. I am just careful which jobs I pick up. I don't take just anything that comes my way. I look at the location and if it is over 30 miles away I demand more money or I don't do it. I only deal with companies that will still pay some if the customer is a no show. Then again 90% of the contract work I do is either for AT&T or for ZIP (Zip does Vontage Installs, and entertainment system installs.)

I like these 2 companies. They have always treated me right. And I know what to expect when I get a call from them. Only thing I don't like is most of the calls are not challenging. Most are DSL and Vontage installs. Every once in a while I get a Virus Removal, or some other computer repair. I do have to watch it because AT&T does HP Warranty jobs. (Its under a different name but it is AT&T) I will not do those anymore. They are flat rate jobs and if they misdiagnosed it issue and send you the wrong part you could end up putting in a lot of time for not much money. Not to mention you have to worry about sending the part back. Just not worth the hassle.

Overall, great post by OP. When you don't have experience, unfortunately you don't always have the luxury of demanding more pay and you often have to 'put up' with a certain amount of problems and disrespect. Another option for newbies is volunteering, something consistent and good enough to list on a resume. It's not always easy getting started in a new career path, even if you have the knowledge and paper to back it up, so you have to sometimes make sacrifices.

Great post sent you a PM.

Thanks

Originally Posted by jbt52

Overall, great post by OP. When you don't have experience, unfortunately you don't always have the luxury of demanding more pay and you often have to 'put up' with a certain amount of problems and disrespect. Another option for newbies is volunteering, something consistent and good enough to list on a resume. It's not always easy getting started in a new career path, even if you have the knowledge and paper to back it up, so you have to sometimes make sacrifices.

If you're looking for some experience through volunteering, try your local public library. Most libraries have some non-working PCs. Do them a "public" service by volunteering to look at their non-working PCs and diagnose them. Of course, they'd have to reimburse you any cost for parts, but it's a good chance for practice for you and they might get a PC up and going. Of course tell them why you're doing it, or they may tell folks that you do free PC repair.