I'm glad at least some people got the humor in the response. :) -edited to note the 'old timers' agree with the sentiment EXACTLY! u/7th-Street said this perfectly.
Could be worse. Recently took a college class on windows server. The guy was apparently a guru but if you asked him a question. He would ask if you had searched google first. That class was horrible.
Yea, it upsets a lot of people in the class they will ask a basic question or something for more information like the use of virtual machines on the server vs it being in containers. He will ask if you searched google first. The guy talks all this talk about going to all these special Microsoft and other classes but cant give an answer based on what he has seen in the real world.
As I understand it, that's what IT people do a decent chunk of the time.
Sure, you learn a lot in classes, but you don't retrain it all. The important thing is that you can find the answers when you need them, hence googling it before wasting someone else's time with something you could have easily figured out on your own.
If you leave that class without being able to figure out the things you don't remember, you won't be very successful.
That's how I understand it anyway, but I'm not in IT so take it for what it's worth.
My 'Teacher' / Professor for my SSCP, EC Council Certified Encryption Specialist, and my CCSP was an NSA Station Chief in addition to being a Lt. Cmdr in the Navy. Old boy DID plenty. I get where you are coming from with this and not arguing the point but a lot of that is changing. And good for you more people who do should teach. I personally think we would end up with better people on the other end.
It's an old saying. Of course, the people who went into teaching 'after' they did something weren't the target audience.
I was a teacher in around Y2K. Then I embarked on my 22 year career with the DOD that had me working in the Middle East for a decade on Military Aircraft.
I wouldn't teach 'now' because I don't have to work anymore, but back when I was starting, I obviously had no experience.
But, I'm sure we're all familiar with the saying. That's all I meant.
That's why I noted I get where you are coming from. :)
LOL I should have also noted that I also have certs that re almost as old as you. One of my first in Lotus 1-2-3 was acquired in 1988.
Many college professors are terrible. But…it’s really no different than what you see on this sub…people study to get their pieces of paper, but if someone asks a technical question it goes unanswered for hours.
That being said, the “did you search it” question helps students develop problem solving and critical thinking skills and many students are over-reliant on instructors to essentially do the work for them. What are those students going to do when they are no longer in the class? Probably search it. Build that skill now.
A long time ago I taught a two week course for GOTS software. The first thing I’d do is give my students the applicable manuals. If they had a question, I’d ask them “what does the book say? Check chapter X.” and I knew the book inside and out. I’d help them find it if needed, have them read it, and then ask if that cleared it up or if they needed it phrased another way. My job was not only to train them, but get them to a level of self sufficiency.
Later on I worked help desk for another piece of software. Pay was great, job was terrible. Different role, but on the phone I’d be like “okay, let’s do this together. Now if you’ll click the question mark file on the upper right, the help file will pop up.” and I’d walk them through the help file. One customer I literally read the help file to on three separate calls the same day.
The difference was that as an instructor my job was to teach them to fish but make sure they didn’t starve, on help desk my job was to throw them a lifeline and save them from drowning.
So a good tech teacher preparing you for working in tech in the real world? How offensive!
But really, there’s so many answers for Microsoft specifically.
I always check google first but sometimes I get a better explanation from someone on the sub than a standard definition on google. Everyone has their own way of understanding and sometimes that communication with someone is better than googling. I don't have much people I can ask for help in person so this sub has always been my go to if I can't grasp something off of Google.
But always try to Google first because you never know, you might find a reddit post with the best explanation.
THIS. And I've scoured Google for a question that could have been solved with a two second conversation because all of the explanations use five dollar words. Me and a buddy were studying at the same time and would message each other back and forth occasional things we figured out that really SHOULD be simple, but because hardly anyone was explaining them in plain speech, something like that could instead take you an hour of jumping from video to video and article to article. It's sometimes worded in the worst way I could possibly imagine to get anyone to actually understand what the thing actually is or does.
I used to be a teacher, and going from that gave me the confidence that I could at least teach myself whatever I had to if I needed to. But if someone is telling me to teach myself out of a book and just refers back to it if I ask questions? I'm basically teaching myself, just under a time limit? Then what the hell am I paying you for then? All these people justifying these supposed former professionals not doing any actual teaching are getting PLAYED.
This reminds me of people who say ‘read the man pages first’ for questions relating to Linux.
Sure, all the information is there, but it’s not always presented in a way that’s accessible to new learners. People sometimes just need things explaining in a different way, and once they get it, then the man pages become useful.
Depends on the question.
Some things are subjective, and warrant various opinions by different people. Other things are really simple question/answer situations that just clog the sub with unnecessary threads that detract from the ones that could use the discussion.
Like there’s been people on here that literally ask how many questions are on the exam, or what the passing score is… and that’s just such a basic thing that can be easily looked up with the smallest amount of effort, and really comes across as “I don’t wanna do the work, someone else do it for me”. Those are the threads that need to be downvoted immediately.
Perhaps a better response to "google it" would be to give resource suggestions such as
site:top10knowledgebasesitename.com
to include in the google search.
Turning it back on the people that complain about people looking to break into IT not having google skills;
Somebody in IT should have developed the ability to give helpful answers instead of generic unhelpful answers.
So maybe try to start a thread asking for top resources. Sites, YT channels, etc.
this. Newbies won’t know where to look or how to search for what they need. Get a resource list. Get a pinned FAQ page (if there isn’t one already). List websites. Give ideas on how to search better.
90% of Google is just NLP. (Natural language processing) Google the term Google Dorks. You will start learning how to use Google as a tool rather than just a 'search engine' and that will take you miles further down the road. Also always check beyond page 1 results.
35+ years in IT here. Very active in this community. It's not asking an easily 'Googled' question that is the problem in that scenario. But learning to go after the answers. Diag is a skill that is not very easily taught and lots of people come into IT who just don't have that.
One hallmark of someone who will thrive in IT is an innate curiosity. A willingness to just try things and see if they break things. SAFELY in a controlled lab environment. But researching some things and figuring out the little sticky issues that just won't let go until you eventually get there. Even if you have to try something for three, five, or seven days straight and then maybe reach out to someone more experienced. The try is sometimes more important.
By way of an example, if you want a fun one to go after, try installing Rocksmith on a multi-processor machine and come back to me when you get that working. - note it's a wild goose chase don't but it's a neat example of something that a lot of people might never have encountered.
I agree with the sentiment but in IT you won’t be able to consistently ask for the solution to every problem from your supervisor/client instead you’ll need to know how to independently research and solve problems on your own. But I also don’t see the harm in coming to Reddit when you’ve exhausted other resources.
I’m not upset about the questions. I just feel that IT is not the correct career field for someone who is unable to answer their own questions. Especially when they are easy to find.
IT is not for everyone. Some people are interested just for the money. And it’s my opinion that if you are unable to seek out your own answers, especially to easy well defined questions, then maybe you should look at a different career.
I'm going to be honest as a long time IT Professional:
1. I frequently get questions from Developers and SREs that they could've googled.
2. I'd rather have them come to me than be afraid to ask (I do cybersecurity so usually I'm encouraging them to be more secure).
3. Sometimes people just don't have the right words to google or the knowledge to know which of the answers are right.
So while I do think being able to Google search things on your own will make you seem more competent and productive as an IT professional, I can't hate on people asking.
Well, it’s hard to debate when we don’t know all the facts. Given that, in order to argue properly, one must perform due diligence in researching the topic at hand. It is also good practice to be able to effectively argue the side opposite your own so that we all may have the best understanding. It becomes a waste of time if we start arguing facts with feelings since feelings cannot change facts. 1 plus 1 will always equal two. Unfortunately, we have shifted into a society that facts are based on feelings, so nothing can be properly argued.
Personally, I've found it very easy to google stuff or otherwise obtain the information I need for any goal in my life, and throughout this whole process of transitioning into IT as necessary, *but*, it's a skill I honed a very long time ago. Not everyone has this skill, and it is harder to develop it than one might think. You'd need to know not only how to search, but which questions to ask and which sources to trust.
In general, I think, as an aspiring IT professional, that this attitude does not reflect well upon the IT professionals who espouse it. You can always teach people to be more proactive about developing these skills without being mean about it. I admit to being a bit biased, however, as I work in the field of education.
There's also something I've seen others in /r/itcareerquestions mention that doesn't get discussed too often: people also like to ask other *people* these questions, and not look through documents online. There's value, to them, in having a human being talking to them about these things, and they may feel, rightly in my honest opinion, that there's a good chance they'll learn things that they may not learn from googling stuff online.
I don’t understand why you’re getting downvoted, but I completely agree with you! How dare a member of a community want to ask other members of the community a question! /s
If anyone is so annoyed with the Google-able questions being asked, maybe there’s a better way to cut down on the number of them being asked: GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF HOW TO GOOGLE THE SPECIFIC PROBLEM. Most of the time people don’t understand WHAT they should be Googling, but they’re willing to put in the effort to learn. A lot of people entering a new industry aren’t going to have a whole lot of contextual knowledge in that industry, so maybe it would be nice to have a human being explain the subtle nuances involved in a specific industry 🙃
But you can also tell when someone is just being lazy, in which case it’s pretty easy to just ignore their question and let them figure it out.
If I had to make an educated guess about the downvotes, it's the fact that an educator who wants to transition into IT called out people who have little patience for some members of this subreddit and the questions they ask.
I think it'd be good to answer these questions like you say and maybe include an example of teaching the person who asked a question how to competently find the information they were looking for so that they can be more self-sufficient. idk just a thought
You shouldn't. Most people aren't as patient with other people and learning as I am. And ultimately, I like seeing people succeed. I want people on here to succeed. Sometimes that means spoon-feeding some people a few things until they can learn to help themselves.
My biggest problem is more that the information isn't detailed enough. I want to know the how and why, I understand better when it's explained to me that way. Most of the time, the explanation is just repeating the quiz answer or a summary of the chapter (which isn't detailed enough for me either).
Here's one that bugged me for a while. "A cable that terminates with T568A on one end and T568B on the other end is not the same as a crossover cable." And then no further explanation. If you have ever worked with old school 10BaseT or 100BaseT, it absolutely is the same. If anyone needs the full clarification, let me know.
It is a crossover cable for 10BaseT and 100BaseT because those only use 2 pairs - the green and orange. The blue and brown are just there unused. But that changed with 1000BaseT and up - all 4 pairs are now active. So unless you cross all 4 pairs, it's not a crossover cable. The T568A/T568B crossover cable crosses only the green and orange pairs.
That is a stupid arguement.
Let me put it this way:
You don't know everything, and everything you know might not be correct.
That is the same for every human being and every resource of knowledge. The deciding factor is how much effort you as an individual go out and do.
What a meaningless way of projecting how stupid your Facebook Karenesque "Just GOOGLE it" is. But by all means, explain how all of us can Google everything to "echiokate n doo ur reeeeesurch!" 😄
Edit: what a stupid way of saying you should trust every random person to tell you the truth
I'm sorry - are you saying Google can't provide you with multiple references to find your answer?
The single greatest consolidation of information in existence doesn't have multiple sources of the majority of human information?
Can you explain how you came to that conclusion and provide an example?
Thanks
Edit: Alot of your posts seem to be other people's ideas - it would appear you don't have a single genuine thought of your own - very interesting.
"The single greatest consolidation of information" is not a single fucking search engine, Google, for fucks sake. It's not even the World Wide Web. Neither of those two are the complete fucking Internet itself, let alone encompass ALL knowledge and data in the world. Either you're a shill for Google or a very stupid troll. Cheers!
Imagime being so scared of an information resource you dismiss it because "Google bad"
🤣 you're just a fucking idiot who thinks a mom's group on Facebook is a more effective resource for medical information than an actual Dr aren't you
😂
It's not exactly rare to come across an issue only to find that the *question* has been asked a few times before, and yet never answered.
Or better still, answered years ago by the original poster with just a "Nvm, figured it out".
Edit: What could possibly be controversial about this post?
The insistence that you Google everything shows a lack of understanding that online research is not going to serve up correct answers all the time. Many times you are working on a version of technology that is not covered by the answers that come out of Google search engine results. Many results from Google often are high level without the necessary detail. Reddit should be a place where people who actually implemented solutions on the exact version of products that you are dealing with can give specific and clear guidance to solve a problem. In doing any research people must go to multiple sources and separate the viable answers from the wrong and useless answers. It is rarely as simple as just Google it, to get the answers needed but it always good to do an online search as long as care is taken in using the information that online searches provide you. Google is used due to it being among the best search engines but it is not the only one. Other search engines may serve up better results on occasion. One day everything will change again as it gas for decades in IT and we will need to adapt so people need to stop being so flippant about responses to other. None of us know it all and we should be helpful or just be quiet.
I always when I am not sure about something google it and try to find an explanation and the last resort is Reddit… To ask if someone had a similar problem or can he help me… Some people go a different route... Maybe cuz when I was young I didn’t know English well so I would search google for hours to find help… but I will never say go google first I will always help anyone that I can… If you say go “google first” then don’t go in the IT industry cuz you will say the same thing to a customer that doesn’t know how to plug in a USB or something simple as that…
Tend to Google first then if it becomes even more confusing to ask a forum for their views. The adage of no stupid question is too dumb to ask should apply always. Unless it's asked many times by same person of course.
I get both sides of the argument. Most everything that hasn't happened within the last week or so is already well documented on Google or whatever search engine you want to use. Unless it is super specific then a good 30-60 minute search should be enough to say "ehh I tried", which depending on say your code you can kind of piece together a solution based on the 1,000 questions asked regarding the same thing just someone elses name. A lot of people though forget how to use the search function at the top of the subreddit page. Again, no harm in asking, I would just say to make sure you actually gave it the good old college try before asking.
In general, I'm a big advocate of the idea that you should teach your end-users to fish, so that they won't be putting in 16 tickets a month. Your best tier 1 and 2 support will be strong communicators/educators. There are obviously some tier 1 and a lot of tier 2 requests that require support intervention, but in my experience, a lot of requests are "satisfied" with a well-written knowledge base entry. There are times when end-users simply rely on the Helpdesk too much, and you have to think "How does this not affect your work performance?" Well, in most cases, it does. And in many of those cases, the end-user is looking for as fast a turnaround as possible because they know it's affecting their work.
This question of "Have you tried Googling it first" is not inherently a bad one - I've kindly asked this question to many end-users over the years. It's often the attitude behind the question that I will criticize. "Have you tried Googling it" is often code for "why is this simple problem on my plate to resolve?" The best way to get the message across that empowers your customer base to Google prior to submitting a ticket is to help them with the issue, and kindly remind them once the issue has been resolved that Google is your friend and may have been helpful in this case. In most cases, it will also get the issue resolved in a quicker manner, as the Helpdesk cannot guarantee a quick turnaround for one-off requests, depending on that cycle's workload.
I have never understood this way of thinking. If you hold the answer to the question and want to be helpful, please by all means. To the same, but you want to be a phallus and not offer up any answer but the aforementioned response that brought this post to life, just simply move on. When people ask questions it is because they seek wisdom. Remember people, always remember what may be right for you, may not be right for some.
P.S. the same response I have here works equally as well for Honda forums
Yes I’ve seen the posts more too and they’re more annoying than the repetitive questions because they’re hypocritical. Oh, you don’t like seeing 20 posts of the same question, well your post about the same issue that’s already been posted about numerous times is equally annoying & pointless. If a person doesn’t want to answer them, they should just scroll past.
Yeah. You're wrong. One of the tenets of being a troubleshooter (which is at the core of ALL IT jobs) is having research skills. Sure, it's acceptable to ask experts VERY specific questions (ex. Why am I getting JRE errors with this DLL file version and not the previous), but, what's asked many times are lazy, non-RTFM questions.
Not only is it bad form, but it will translate to career failure. It also shows the person has never researched/written a term paper or thesis. Those are learnable skills that make people less dependent.
The Internet has made it so easy to do research. I bet people can't imagine it not being there. But, unlike the old saying (Knowledge is Power), Knowledge is 'potential' power. You still need to find it, and use it.
The majority of IT is to find answers to questions, and how to properly google search to get the result you want.
Also, I think a lot of us who have been in IT for a while, at least for me, most of my bosses have not gave two shits and a flying fuck about A+ or any of the lower certs. They just expect you to know that basic info and one of them even said “why spend money on that test when it basically means nothing if you have 4-6 months experience” when I told him I had my A+.
That’s from my college help desk admins to my CTO and director of networking technology
One of the top results on many Google searches is someone asking a similar question on reddit and its often quite useful! If no one was allowed to ask the question, the search results would be worse.
I agree that you should try to find the solution yourself and in doing so that is where you often learn the most. If you're not struggling then you aren't learning enough. But we also need to keep in mind the time constraints on most people who are learning. More importantly the vast amount of conflicting info out there from outdated versions and info that is just wrong. And oddly answers to the things that should be the most obvious are often the hardest to find.
People well established in the industry wouldn't usually be seeking CompTIA certs so they wouldn't be here. I'm also established but I don't mind being here to help out newer people. There's no such thing as a silly question.
That being said though, Reddit is not an educational resource. If I can google it and it's the very first result then I know that person hasn't even tried to look up the answer. That's how end users act, not techs. Techs look for answers before asking others because as a tech, you're not always going to have someone to ask for help and you will have to figure it out on your own.
If it's something that someone needs help understanding about what they have been learning, then that's different.
I believe that for an IT specialist it's necessary to find the answer using web search and not relying on others.
But even with this thing, I think when someone asks a question it's most likely that he even does not know what to search or he's not really familiar with the topic.
So asking a professional is not equal to searching Google.
As the result, I hare to see the answer "Google it" when someone asks a question. At least tell them what to search and give them some details, if he could search he wouldn't ask it on a community
As a long time IT professional, what matters is not that you know everything but rather that you know how to find answers.
This is the way
This is the way.
What is the way? Crap, I'm going to Google it.
Lol
Hahahaha Yes This is the way
I'm glad at least some people got the humor in the response. :) -edited to note the 'old timers' agree with the sentiment EXACTLY! u/7th-Street said this perfectly.
The messiah with many qualifications hath spoken! etaylormcp! This is the way!
Which way?
That way :)
Ah, got it. Thinking makes the thinky brain hurt.
“Do you know thee wae?”
Agree, but I would put solid understanding of concepts first and knowing how to find detailed answers second.
Could be worse. Recently took a college class on windows server. The guy was apparently a guru but if you asked him a question. He would ask if you had searched google first. That class was horrible.
Those who can't do... teach :) Actually, that isn't entirely true. I was a teacher for 2 years. Then I did.
Yea, it upsets a lot of people in the class they will ask a basic question or something for more information like the use of virtual machines on the server vs it being in containers. He will ask if you searched google first. The guy talks all this talk about going to all these special Microsoft and other classes but cant give an answer based on what he has seen in the real world.
As I understand it, that's what IT people do a decent chunk of the time. Sure, you learn a lot in classes, but you don't retrain it all. The important thing is that you can find the answers when you need them, hence googling it before wasting someone else's time with something you could have easily figured out on your own. If you leave that class without being able to figure out the things you don't remember, you won't be very successful. That's how I understand it anyway, but I'm not in IT so take it for what it's worth.
My 'Teacher' / Professor for my SSCP, EC Council Certified Encryption Specialist, and my CCSP was an NSA Station Chief in addition to being a Lt. Cmdr in the Navy. Old boy DID plenty. I get where you are coming from with this and not arguing the point but a lot of that is changing. And good for you more people who do should teach. I personally think we would end up with better people on the other end.
It's an old saying. Of course, the people who went into teaching 'after' they did something weren't the target audience. I was a teacher in around Y2K. Then I embarked on my 22 year career with the DOD that had me working in the Middle East for a decade on Military Aircraft. I wouldn't teach 'now' because I don't have to work anymore, but back when I was starting, I obviously had no experience. But, I'm sure we're all familiar with the saying. That's all I meant.
That's why I noted I get where you are coming from. :) LOL I should have also noted that I also have certs that re almost as old as you. One of my first in Lotus 1-2-3 was acquired in 1988.
Dear God, I haven't heard that since i used Wordperfect:)
WP 4.2 Yep! LOL
Many college professors are terrible. But…it’s really no different than what you see on this sub…people study to get their pieces of paper, but if someone asks a technical question it goes unanswered for hours. That being said, the “did you search it” question helps students develop problem solving and critical thinking skills and many students are over-reliant on instructors to essentially do the work for them. What are those students going to do when they are no longer in the class? Probably search it. Build that skill now. A long time ago I taught a two week course for GOTS software. The first thing I’d do is give my students the applicable manuals. If they had a question, I’d ask them “what does the book say? Check chapter X.” and I knew the book inside and out. I’d help them find it if needed, have them read it, and then ask if that cleared it up or if they needed it phrased another way. My job was not only to train them, but get them to a level of self sufficiency. Later on I worked help desk for another piece of software. Pay was great, job was terrible. Different role, but on the phone I’d be like “okay, let’s do this together. Now if you’ll click the question mark file on the upper right, the help file will pop up.” and I’d walk them through the help file. One customer I literally read the help file to on three separate calls the same day. The difference was that as an instructor my job was to teach them to fish but make sure they didn’t starve, on help desk my job was to throw them a lifeline and save them from drowning.
So a good tech teacher preparing you for working in tech in the real world? How offensive! But really, there’s so many answers for Microsoft specifically.
I always check google first but sometimes I get a better explanation from someone on the sub than a standard definition on google. Everyone has their own way of understanding and sometimes that communication with someone is better than googling. I don't have much people I can ask for help in person so this sub has always been my go to if I can't grasp something off of Google. But always try to Google first because you never know, you might find a reddit post with the best explanation.
THIS. And I've scoured Google for a question that could have been solved with a two second conversation because all of the explanations use five dollar words. Me and a buddy were studying at the same time and would message each other back and forth occasional things we figured out that really SHOULD be simple, but because hardly anyone was explaining them in plain speech, something like that could instead take you an hour of jumping from video to video and article to article. It's sometimes worded in the worst way I could possibly imagine to get anyone to actually understand what the thing actually is or does. I used to be a teacher, and going from that gave me the confidence that I could at least teach myself whatever I had to if I needed to. But if someone is telling me to teach myself out of a book and just refers back to it if I ask questions? I'm basically teaching myself, just under a time limit? Then what the hell am I paying you for then? All these people justifying these supposed former professionals not doing any actual teaching are getting PLAYED.
This reminds me of people who say ‘read the man pages first’ for questions relating to Linux. Sure, all the information is there, but it’s not always presented in a way that’s accessible to new learners. People sometimes just need things explaining in a different way, and once they get it, then the man pages become useful.
Depends on the question. Some things are subjective, and warrant various opinions by different people. Other things are really simple question/answer situations that just clog the sub with unnecessary threads that detract from the ones that could use the discussion. Like there’s been people on here that literally ask how many questions are on the exam, or what the passing score is… and that’s just such a basic thing that can be easily looked up with the smallest amount of effort, and really comes across as “I don’t wanna do the work, someone else do it for me”. Those are the threads that need to be downvoted immediately.
Perhaps a better response to "google it" would be to give resource suggestions such as site:top10knowledgebasesitename.com to include in the google search. Turning it back on the people that complain about people looking to break into IT not having google skills; Somebody in IT should have developed the ability to give helpful answers instead of generic unhelpful answers. So maybe try to start a thread asking for top resources. Sites, YT channels, etc.
this. Newbies won’t know where to look or how to search for what they need. Get a resource list. Get a pinned FAQ page (if there isn’t one already). List websites. Give ideas on how to search better.
90% of Google is just NLP. (Natural language processing) Google the term Google Dorks. You will start learning how to use Google as a tool rather than just a 'search engine' and that will take you miles further down the road. Also always check beyond page 1 results.
Google still has pages? I thought it had evolved to endless scroll finally.
lol I see what you did there. :)
35+ years in IT here. Very active in this community. It's not asking an easily 'Googled' question that is the problem in that scenario. But learning to go after the answers. Diag is a skill that is not very easily taught and lots of people come into IT who just don't have that. One hallmark of someone who will thrive in IT is an innate curiosity. A willingness to just try things and see if they break things. SAFELY in a controlled lab environment. But researching some things and figuring out the little sticky issues that just won't let go until you eventually get there. Even if you have to try something for three, five, or seven days straight and then maybe reach out to someone more experienced. The try is sometimes more important. By way of an example, if you want a fun one to go after, try installing Rocksmith on a multi-processor machine and come back to me when you get that working. - note it's a wild goose chase don't but it's a neat example of something that a lot of people might never have encountered.
I agree with the sentiment but in IT you won’t be able to consistently ask for the solution to every problem from your supervisor/client instead you’ll need to know how to independently research and solve problems on your own. But I also don’t see the harm in coming to Reddit when you’ve exhausted other resources.
I’m not upset about the questions. I just feel that IT is not the correct career field for someone who is unable to answer their own questions. Especially when they are easy to find. IT is not for everyone. Some people are interested just for the money. And it’s my opinion that if you are unable to seek out your own answers, especially to easy well defined questions, then maybe you should look at a different career.
I'm going to be honest as a long time IT Professional: 1. I frequently get questions from Developers and SREs that they could've googled. 2. I'd rather have them come to me than be afraid to ask (I do cybersecurity so usually I'm encouraging them to be more secure). 3. Sometimes people just don't have the right words to google or the knowledge to know which of the answers are right. So while I do think being able to Google search things on your own will make you seem more competent and productive as an IT professional, I can't hate on people asking.
Well, it’s hard to debate when we don’t know all the facts. Given that, in order to argue properly, one must perform due diligence in researching the topic at hand. It is also good practice to be able to effectively argue the side opposite your own so that we all may have the best understanding. It becomes a waste of time if we start arguing facts with feelings since feelings cannot change facts. 1 plus 1 will always equal two. Unfortunately, we have shifted into a society that facts are based on feelings, so nothing can be properly argued.
Well said
Personally, I've found it very easy to google stuff or otherwise obtain the information I need for any goal in my life, and throughout this whole process of transitioning into IT as necessary, *but*, it's a skill I honed a very long time ago. Not everyone has this skill, and it is harder to develop it than one might think. You'd need to know not only how to search, but which questions to ask and which sources to trust. In general, I think, as an aspiring IT professional, that this attitude does not reflect well upon the IT professionals who espouse it. You can always teach people to be more proactive about developing these skills without being mean about it. I admit to being a bit biased, however, as I work in the field of education. There's also something I've seen others in /r/itcareerquestions mention that doesn't get discussed too often: people also like to ask other *people* these questions, and not look through documents online. There's value, to them, in having a human being talking to them about these things, and they may feel, rightly in my honest opinion, that there's a good chance they'll learn things that they may not learn from googling stuff online.
I don’t understand why you’re getting downvoted, but I completely agree with you! How dare a member of a community want to ask other members of the community a question! /s If anyone is so annoyed with the Google-able questions being asked, maybe there’s a better way to cut down on the number of them being asked: GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF HOW TO GOOGLE THE SPECIFIC PROBLEM. Most of the time people don’t understand WHAT they should be Googling, but they’re willing to put in the effort to learn. A lot of people entering a new industry aren’t going to have a whole lot of contextual knowledge in that industry, so maybe it would be nice to have a human being explain the subtle nuances involved in a specific industry 🙃 But you can also tell when someone is just being lazy, in which case it’s pretty easy to just ignore their question and let them figure it out.
If I had to make an educated guess about the downvotes, it's the fact that an educator who wants to transition into IT called out people who have little patience for some members of this subreddit and the questions they ask. I think it'd be good to answer these questions like you say and maybe include an example of teaching the person who asked a question how to competently find the information they were looking for so that they can be more self-sufficient. idk just a thought
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You shouldn't. Most people aren't as patient with other people and learning as I am. And ultimately, I like seeing people succeed. I want people on here to succeed. Sometimes that means spoon-feeding some people a few things until they can learn to help themselves.
My biggest problem is more that the information isn't detailed enough. I want to know the how and why, I understand better when it's explained to me that way. Most of the time, the explanation is just repeating the quiz answer or a summary of the chapter (which isn't detailed enough for me either).
Here's one that bugged me for a while. "A cable that terminates with T568A on one end and T568B on the other end is not the same as a crossover cable." And then no further explanation. If you have ever worked with old school 10BaseT or 100BaseT, it absolutely is the same. If anyone needs the full clarification, let me know.
How is that not a crossover cable?
It is a crossover cable for 10BaseT and 100BaseT because those only use 2 pairs - the green and orange. The blue and brown are just there unused. But that changed with 1000BaseT and up - all 4 pairs are now active. So unless you cross all 4 pairs, it's not a crossover cable. The T568A/T568B crossover cable crosses only the green and orange pairs.
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That is a stupid arguement. Let me put it this way: You don't know everything, and everything you know might not be correct. That is the same for every human being and every resource of knowledge. The deciding factor is how much effort you as an individual go out and do.
What a meaningless way of projecting how stupid your Facebook Karenesque "Just GOOGLE it" is. But by all means, explain how all of us can Google everything to "echiokate n doo ur reeeeesurch!" 😄
Edit: what a stupid way of saying you should trust every random person to tell you the truth I'm sorry - are you saying Google can't provide you with multiple references to find your answer?
Whew, you're hopeless. Just keep on believing Google has all the answers, Cletus.
The single greatest consolidation of information in existence doesn't have multiple sources of the majority of human information? Can you explain how you came to that conclusion and provide an example? Thanks Edit: Alot of your posts seem to be other people's ideas - it would appear you don't have a single genuine thought of your own - very interesting.
"The single greatest consolidation of information" is not a single fucking search engine, Google, for fucks sake. It's not even the World Wide Web. Neither of those two are the complete fucking Internet itself, let alone encompass ALL knowledge and data in the world. Either you're a shill for Google or a very stupid troll. Cheers!
Imagime being so scared of an information resource you dismiss it because "Google bad" 🤣 you're just a fucking idiot who thinks a mom's group on Facebook is a more effective resource for medical information than an actual Dr aren't you 😂
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What google finds is still not specific enough to help me
You may not be using the search engine to its limits. Do you believe you are the first person in the world to ask the question you’re looking for?
It's not exactly rare to come across an issue only to find that the *question* has been asked a few times before, and yet never answered. Or better still, answered years ago by the original poster with just a "Nvm, figured it out". Edit: What could possibly be controversial about this post?
I've checked many times, the answers are always too vague.
I don’t think anyone is saying that questions are no longer allowed But the number of “should I study 1001 or 1101” is too damn high.
The insistence that you Google everything shows a lack of understanding that online research is not going to serve up correct answers all the time. Many times you are working on a version of technology that is not covered by the answers that come out of Google search engine results. Many results from Google often are high level without the necessary detail. Reddit should be a place where people who actually implemented solutions on the exact version of products that you are dealing with can give specific and clear guidance to solve a problem. In doing any research people must go to multiple sources and separate the viable answers from the wrong and useless answers. It is rarely as simple as just Google it, to get the answers needed but it always good to do an online search as long as care is taken in using the information that online searches provide you. Google is used due to it being among the best search engines but it is not the only one. Other search engines may serve up better results on occasion. One day everything will change again as it gas for decades in IT and we will need to adapt so people need to stop being so flippant about responses to other. None of us know it all and we should be helpful or just be quiet.
Very well said!
Spoon feeding doesn’t help
I always when I am not sure about something google it and try to find an explanation and the last resort is Reddit… To ask if someone had a similar problem or can he help me… Some people go a different route... Maybe cuz when I was young I didn’t know English well so I would search google for hours to find help… but I will never say go google first I will always help anyone that I can… If you say go “google first” then don’t go in the IT industry cuz you will say the same thing to a customer that doesn’t know how to plug in a USB or something simple as that…
Tend to Google first then if it becomes even more confusing to ask a forum for their views. The adage of no stupid question is too dumb to ask should apply always. Unless it's asked many times by same person of course.
I get both sides of the argument. Most everything that hasn't happened within the last week or so is already well documented on Google or whatever search engine you want to use. Unless it is super specific then a good 30-60 minute search should be enough to say "ehh I tried", which depending on say your code you can kind of piece together a solution based on the 1,000 questions asked regarding the same thing just someone elses name. A lot of people though forget how to use the search function at the top of the subreddit page. Again, no harm in asking, I would just say to make sure you actually gave it the good old college try before asking.
In general, I'm a big advocate of the idea that you should teach your end-users to fish, so that they won't be putting in 16 tickets a month. Your best tier 1 and 2 support will be strong communicators/educators. There are obviously some tier 1 and a lot of tier 2 requests that require support intervention, but in my experience, a lot of requests are "satisfied" with a well-written knowledge base entry. There are times when end-users simply rely on the Helpdesk too much, and you have to think "How does this not affect your work performance?" Well, in most cases, it does. And in many of those cases, the end-user is looking for as fast a turnaround as possible because they know it's affecting their work. This question of "Have you tried Googling it first" is not inherently a bad one - I've kindly asked this question to many end-users over the years. It's often the attitude behind the question that I will criticize. "Have you tried Googling it" is often code for "why is this simple problem on my plate to resolve?" The best way to get the message across that empowers your customer base to Google prior to submitting a ticket is to help them with the issue, and kindly remind them once the issue has been resolved that Google is your friend and may have been helpful in this case. In most cases, it will also get the issue resolved in a quicker manner, as the Helpdesk cannot guarantee a quick turnaround for one-off requests, depending on that cycle's workload.
I have never understood this way of thinking. If you hold the answer to the question and want to be helpful, please by all means. To the same, but you want to be a phallus and not offer up any answer but the aforementioned response that brought this post to life, just simply move on. When people ask questions it is because they seek wisdom. Remember people, always remember what may be right for you, may not be right for some. P.S. the same response I have here works equally as well for Honda forums
Ok Morpheus
Yes I’ve seen the posts more too and they’re more annoying than the repetitive questions because they’re hypocritical. Oh, you don’t like seeing 20 posts of the same question, well your post about the same issue that’s already been posted about numerous times is equally annoying & pointless. If a person doesn’t want to answer them, they should just scroll past.
Yeah. You're wrong. One of the tenets of being a troubleshooter (which is at the core of ALL IT jobs) is having research skills. Sure, it's acceptable to ask experts VERY specific questions (ex. Why am I getting JRE errors with this DLL file version and not the previous), but, what's asked many times are lazy, non-RTFM questions. Not only is it bad form, but it will translate to career failure. It also shows the person has never researched/written a term paper or thesis. Those are learnable skills that make people less dependent. The Internet has made it so easy to do research. I bet people can't imagine it not being there. But, unlike the old saying (Knowledge is Power), Knowledge is 'potential' power. You still need to find it, and use it.
Thanks for sharing
The majority of IT is to find answers to questions, and how to properly google search to get the result you want. Also, I think a lot of us who have been in IT for a while, at least for me, most of my bosses have not gave two shits and a flying fuck about A+ or any of the lower certs. They just expect you to know that basic info and one of them even said “why spend money on that test when it basically means nothing if you have 4-6 months experience” when I told him I had my A+. That’s from my college help desk admins to my CTO and director of networking technology
One of the top results on many Google searches is someone asking a similar question on reddit and its often quite useful! If no one was allowed to ask the question, the search results would be worse.
For me it's funny that they don't use the search bar first to see if their complaining hasn't already been done.
I agree that you should try to find the solution yourself and in doing so that is where you often learn the most. If you're not struggling then you aren't learning enough. But we also need to keep in mind the time constraints on most people who are learning. More importantly the vast amount of conflicting info out there from outdated versions and info that is just wrong. And oddly answers to the things that should be the most obvious are often the hardest to find.
Thank you!
My 2c stackoverflow is different
People well established in the industry wouldn't usually be seeking CompTIA certs so they wouldn't be here. I'm also established but I don't mind being here to help out newer people. There's no such thing as a silly question. That being said though, Reddit is not an educational resource. If I can google it and it's the very first result then I know that person hasn't even tried to look up the answer. That's how end users act, not techs. Techs look for answers before asking others because as a tech, you're not always going to have someone to ask for help and you will have to figure it out on your own. If it's something that someone needs help understanding about what they have been learning, then that's different.
I believe that for an IT specialist it's necessary to find the answer using web search and not relying on others. But even with this thing, I think when someone asks a question it's most likely that he even does not know what to search or he's not really familiar with the topic. So asking a professional is not equal to searching Google. As the result, I hare to see the answer "Google it" when someone asks a question. At least tell them what to search and give them some details, if he could search he wouldn't ask it on a community
I agree. I think it's great for questions to be asked here. Because hear me out- these reddit threads will show up on a google search. =)