My first paid tech job was selling IBM PC clones at a small “Mom n’ Pop” computer shop part time. I’m thinking it had to have been in summer of ’91. I was young and cocky. I was entirely self taught and proud of it. I was also the consummate “Lone Wolf” tech guy. No problem I couldn’t solve… No component I couldn’t swap.
In truth I was really green. I knew Windows 3.1 well enough … DOS was easy. When it came to hardware I was learning on the fly. Back in ’91 there was no Internet … No You Tube. Building and repairing PC’s was a bit of a “Dark Art” lots of similar looking cables … Nothing labelled. There were few standards for case sizes and motherboard sizes or shapes.
I was picking up knowledge from the two technicians that worked tirelessly in the back of the store. Selling computers really wasn’t for me. I didn’t much care for the hours or being on my feet all day. I really wanted to be building and troubleshooting. I wasn’t welcomed into that world. The store had two paid techs after all.
Within the year I was still working as a salesman but I was building and doing “on-site” setups during the busier times. I was in love with business.
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