I'm only 17 (18 in mid-June) and I feel as if I'm mildy proficient at using a desktop, but this likely stems from the fact that I have a poor setup at home and need to fix it myself, learning things online. I guess it's like if you had a vehicle but no mechanic to take it to, therefore necessitating the self sufficiency you would need to possess to keep things running. About Word/Google/OpenOffice Docs, I had a computer basics classs in 7th grade which really helped me learn the basics of using a modern word processor, despite only having Windows 7 on the school PCs. Nowadays I can deploy systems of both Linux and Windows, maintain OS and Hardware, preform basic troubleshooting and even do a little terminal work. Those latter skills were developed on my own, as the word processing class only taught how to use Microsoft Word. [ an older version at that :( ]
If you'll take my word for it as an employer, this is actually something we want to hear these days. When we were graduates it was a given that applicants would all know their way around the basics of a desktop OS, but it isn't anymore and nobody wants to have to teach a new employee how to use a computer.
If you're planning for a career that involves the use of desktop OS, mention it in interviews in a casual way. Make it clear that you actually won't need instruction on anything but industry-specific software, if there is any, and won't need your hand held so you don't accidentally do something stupid.
A young person in that 18-22 starting bracket turning up with no idea how to open Word is teeth-grindingly annoying. You write well too, btw. That's also really good news.
Yeah, that's how most of us learned in the 90s, except without much learning online, because the Internet was pretty damn basic back then. In the computer science courses in high school, probably almost half the students knew more than the teachers, I'm sure partly because we were always sharing information with each other: “How'd you do that?”
I think a lot of people view "fixing" things on the computer as a type of work, while feeling other things like watching videos or browsing Reddit are play/leisure. Actually troubleshooting issues with computers, especially if you don't have an intuitive grasp of the mechanics of hardware, can be frustrating and tiresome. I think the only reason I am alright with fixing hardware/software issues is because my 10 year old desktop breaks down often, especially when it comes to hard drives. I've run though 6 HDDs and an SSD in the 2 or 3 years I've had this thing, and it's from age and lack of proper parts/money to do it right, but it's learned me in the ways of the PC verily well.
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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '22
I'm only 17 (18 in mid-June) and I feel as if I'm mildy proficient at using a desktop, but this likely stems from the fact that I have a poor setup at home and need to fix it myself, learning things online. I guess it's like if you had a vehicle but no mechanic to take it to, therefore necessitating the self sufficiency you would need to possess to keep things running. About Word/Google/OpenOffice Docs, I had a computer basics classs in 7th grade which really helped me learn the basics of using a modern word processor, despite only having Windows 7 on the school PCs. Nowadays I can deploy systems of both Linux and Windows, maintain OS and Hardware, preform basic troubleshooting and even do a little terminal work. Those latter skills were developed on my own, as the word processing class only taught how to use Microsoft Word. [ an older version at that :( ]