What is Professional? March 21, 2011

Funny Story.  I fix computers on the side since I’m really good at it and twice a week I go to classes for training in computer certification.   I was told in class last week that the guidebook clearly states you’re expected to look professional when you go out to a computer repair job and I just laughed hysterically.

I’ve been fixing computers most of my life, but mostly just for my own personal amusement.  I hadn’t discovered until recently (my family was always against me making profit from my computer skills, they rather I stay in college until I died) that fixing computers could be a lucrative business if you had a customer demand for it in your area.  With only my experience and no formal training to inhibit my expectations, I would go to these computer repair jobs dressed how I normally dressed, with a video game t-shirt and zip up hoodie (weather appropriate).

In fact I told my A+ Certification class about a time when a private school called me in to look at some laptops.  I went to diagnose and fix them wearing a Doom 3 shirt.  None of the staff batted an eye at my appearance, I was treated with the utmost of respect, and a lot of the students (who averaged around age of 6) were extremely curious to what was my experience and how they could get a job fixing computers as well.

I was told by the instructor that was just AWESOME.

I think that the times have changed, in that people expect real technical experts to dress like how I normally do, instead of dressing how Best Buy does commercials about how their technicians look.  The times of the MIT graduate IBM engineer wearing a button down white shirt and black tie, armed with horned rim black glasses and a pocket protector have passed and people have come to expect a computer expert to come wearing a video game or rock band t-shirt. Dressing like a stereotypical geek is not professional anymore.  Ironically, dressing in a Halo shirt actually makes you look more like you know what you’re doing.

Obviously it’s a bad idea to wear long dangling chains, especially if you’re working inside a pc, so things like dog tags cannot be worn, but even something as professional as a tie can also easily get in the way of your hands when you’re building a new PC.

From what I’ve been told by my peers, the corporate level still expects their employees to cater to their stereotypical dress codes, leaving personal individuality to when they leave their homes.  Other than basics of cleanliness, there is really not a good reason for these policies to be in effect, espessially when a guy like me looks like more of an expert to a typical person than someone depicted in a Best Buy commercial.  More progressive software companies like Google, eBay, and Apple have bucked this trend without incident, to say nothing of the dozens of game development studios in the US alone.

Something that I’ve noticed, especially in the computer games industry is that you can’t judge anything about a person just by appearances anymore.  I think for the most part people still will judge others by appearances in every other field (business especially) but in all my experience, for technology they expect the out there to be the norms.  This might have something to do with the exposure a lot of people have had to technology enthusiasts as depicted to them in movies and on television, or it could be expectations formed from people they have in their own families who have technical backgrounds.

I think that’s one thing that A+and compTIA is behind on, maybe someone should inform them to update their manual.  Has the games industry influenced this trend, or has the media been more responsible?  I’ll leave you to decide that, and also what you should look for when you need help the next time your computer breaks.