this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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Asklemmy

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I think most all of us here on Lemmy are people with technical background. Most of my professional contacts remained using Reddit, Twitter and even excited when Threads launched.

If you are non-tech background, please comment and share what you do for life.

If you have tech background, upvote this to help promote this post so that we can find more non-tech users on Lemmy.

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[–] PapaDuke 5 points 2 years ago

I have an Associates in Electronics. I graduated just as the recesion reared it's ugly head in the early '90's. With nothing else to do, I cleaned carpet for 20 years. I have dabbled in computers and programming in A86 but never got too deep into them.

Let's just say I know enough to mess up everything I touch if I'd let myself...

[–] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 years ago

I don't work in tech but I do (I translate technical stuff). I'd say I'm very tech-adjacent, but nobody should hire me for any real coding or engineering jobs. But if you like to infodump about very technical stuff go ahead, I'll get sparkly eyes and start drooling. I'm also a tree-hugging hippy.

[–] trslim@pawb.social 5 points 2 years ago

I mean, I was a 25B in the army, which could be counted as technical, except that after training I pretty much never saw another army computer and became a radioman.

[–] retrieval4558@mander.xyz 5 points 2 years ago

I'm in medicine. My level of computer literacy is that I've built several computers, and fuck around with easy versions of Linux for fun

[–] Kes@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 years ago

I work in hospitality. There's a lot of waiting around at my job, so I mostly used Reddit to kill time. I hopped over to Lemmy since Wefwef's app is better and Blahaj.zone had a Lemmy instance

[–] gaytswiftfan 4 points 2 years ago

I work in retail management lol! although I have spent p much my entire life around computers and am tech savvy :p

[–] charlytune@mander.xyz 4 points 2 years ago

Non-tech. Pubs / bars, arts, then generic admin. Now in a regulatory case working role. Can't really say much more without revealing my employer as it's very very niche (but not exciting, at all, trust me on that).

degree in Visual Art, work in digital asset management for a marketing (blech) studio. I'd love to get into a DAM position at somewhere less ethically awful, like a symphony or museum or something, buuut my position pays really well relatively speaking to other similar similar jobs I've looked at, so that'll have to wait until I feel more established in life.

took a couple basic comp-sci classes in college, though, and went to a coding bootcamp before I got my current position. running linux on my laptop, might switch to it on my desktop. I make use of bash for renaming files a lot at my job.

there's a lot about tech-heavy areas that interests me, but it'd drive me crazy to be around too much of it. I think there's a lot of good in the liberal arts that tends to get missed by the sort of hard rationalists that tend to hang out in tech spaces.

[–] calhoon2005@aussie.zone 4 points 2 years ago

I'm an arborist. The most tech I get is figuring out mechanical advantage setups with various pulleys and snatch blocks.

[–] Monkyhands@feddit.dk 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I am not at all from a tech background. I have a humanities/ social science educational background, I work in the organizational management space, for a humanitarian organization.

I do not enjoy a lot of social media, but I had been using Reddit for 8+ years, as my only social media platform really. I enjoyed it for the specialist communities focused on niche interests. I’m hoping to replicate some of that with Lemmy, which is much more aligned with my value set than a large corporate run social platform.

[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

I'm a Substation Designer. Non tech for sure. I had to get a coworker to plug up my monitors, I tried to do it myself and failed miserably.

[–] manbeef@lemmy.whynotdrs.org 4 points 2 years ago

Professional land surveyor. Work a lot with raw digital data, with some experience in various coding languages to manipulate the data. Plus I know computer stuff pretty well.

[–] xxkickassjackxx@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

I mean i took a programming class and damn near failed it my first semester of college so hopefully that doesn’t disqualify me. I work in insurance for now.

I just switched over because Apollo was my favorite time killer, and I can’t stand the Reddit mobile app.

[–] Awa@mander.xyz 4 points 2 years ago

Am a nurse, but consider myself a bit of a computer geek. Was an avid Reddit user, but left in protest of the changes and never looked back. I've enjoyed participating in the growth of lemmy, learning the system by trial and error in throughout the migration. Has been really enjoyable, reminding me of when I switched over to Linux a bit in the early 2000's before becoming an avid gamer.

I know a lot of the non-tech savvy folks and younger generations were disappointed when joining lemmy and learning it isn't a polished platform like most other commercial social media is, but imo that's part of its charm, knowing it is a growing, living work in progress with the many dedicated developers devoting their free time to continually improve it.

[–] Zak8022 4 points 2 years ago

I’m tech-adjacent, lol. Technically I’m in Operations, but end up also doing a little project/product management. I wear many hats, which in one way is. I’ve but in others is very annoying.

[–] Bozicus@lemmy.one 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Non-tech person, though I would prefer not to go into detail on a public forum. I do get along well with tech people, and I run into some fairly technical issues while trying to do other things, but I’m rarely interested in technology for its own sake. I will listen to someone talk about what they do, or read an article, and I will always try to read the manual, but I am also the kind of person who’s like, “if I can’t solve this problem on my own in 15 minutes, I am going to call tech support.” (In my defense, if I can’t solve the problem in 15 minutes with the manual, I am not going to manage it on my own without human intervention, and I don’t want to bother my friends and family if I can get someone whose actual job is to ask if the machine is plugged in, and who won’t tease me about it for the next three weeks if it was, in fact, not plugged in. I am always polite with tech support, but I can tell they sometimes think I should have been able to figure it out on my own).

I’m fine with not really understanding how Lemmy works, since it does work, and it’s easy to find help if I get stuck. I am picking stuff up here and there as I go, which is usually what happens with stuff I use often, but at a certain point it’s just a black box to me.

ETA: when I say “not going into detail,” I mean about my background. That didn’t come across the first time, lol, sorry about that.

[–] TrippySquidsman@reddthat.com 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

As an IT support officer, I (and my colleagues) deeply appreciate that you attempt to solve problems before calling us. There's never ever any judgement if you do that and then need to call us. We're here to help, but trying to help yourself first makes our job infinitely easier, not to mention you reaffirm your troubleshooting skills!

If you've genuinely tried to solve the problem but couldn't, and the problem turns out to be that the machine wasn't plugged in, I'm 100% not going to think less of you for it. You know many things I don't, and visa versa.

I liken it to returning your shopping cart to the bay. You don't have to, but you're making someone's day easier ❤️

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[–] zemon@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

I work at the railways as an overhead line mechanic.

[–] Scooter411@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Public Affairs

[–] quinacridone@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Non tech background (art education), but I do like a minor bit of tech tinkering and tweaking

Aiming to remain semi retired for as long as possible doing a couple of hours work a day...

The rest of the time? I have several art projects to occupy me, and now I've migrated over from reddit to here I have more time available for that.

I have also created a few art subs here that I'm hoping to set up properly soon, and see where they go

[–] eleitl@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Nice to see so many non-technical users. It's good for diversity. HackerNews, Tildes, Hubski and Lobste.rs already cover that sphere pretty well.

[–] lunaticneko@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

HPC researcher but I suck, so am I partially technical?

[–] Klanky@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 years ago

I’m a US Licensed Customs Broker (I help people/companies navigate Customs laws and classification to import stuff). I have been building and tinkering with PCs since I was a teenager though I have no schooling.

[–] fly_paper_love_maker@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I’m in construction. Non-technical but I’m suffering/enjoying my way through NixOS. Been enjoying SSB for a while and always up for trying a new tech that could be an improvement over the corporate status quo.

[–] President_Pyrus@feddit.dk 4 points 2 years ago

It isn't my field, but tech and selfhosting is definitely my hobby.

[–] sol@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

Lawyer here, but a lot of my interests are tech-adjacent.

[–] JimmyDean@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

Not really a tech person, most of my jobs have been in customer service or warehouse/manufacturing work. I mainly switched to lemmy because the 3pa change helped me realize I've been so tired of all the ads and bs reddit keeps pushing; it's pretty much garbage compared to the site it used to be 10+ years ago when I found it.

I do appreciate how much tech gets discussed here though. It's interesting to see things talked about that I wouldn't normally be exposed to, so I do learn a bit from time to time.

[–] SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 years ago

I'm doing PhD in math, but I've always been interested in tech and programming.

[–] megsmagik@feddit.it 3 points 2 years ago

I don’t have a specific job, I do administrative work, customer service, worked in a few shops… I would love to work in tech but I’m not an expert, just passionate about it! I tried to follow an online course but I need a real teacher and where I live there aren’t many opportunities unless you go to university

[–] ArtieShaw@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

I'm technically non-tech, but have a bachelors degree in a hard science. I say technically because I did learn a bit of programming and other skills because I'm of a certain age and also you sort of have to if you want to make your work life not suck.

If I can create an automation that can do something that would normally take me days or weeks? Hells yes. (+1 if it's a fun challenge and +2 if I can transfer a time-saving tool to my co-workers).

But it looks like magic (scary magic) if you don't have that background/skill set.

And... long story short... I now work in a science-adjacent job but I've also gained the reputation as a "computer hacker" at my workplace. I appreciate how funny that is because I'm nothing of the sort! The thing is: a colleague once - in all seriousness - reported me to IT for these "hacking exploits" that I was committing. With VBA for Excel.* Fortunately, IT laughed their asses off when they heard that one and I've retained my job.

  • to be fair, it was a prank that I ran on her and my other colleague.
[–] HeckingShepherd@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago

I am a student working on a degree in finance. Work in cell phone sales part time so I am kinda used as tech support but wouldn’t consider myself that technical

[–] TheDourSalmon@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

I'm an advertising copywriter. I don't use much tech on a day-to-day basis (I tend to write about deodorant, which is definitely on the lower-tech side) but I have some extremely limited coding in my background, and I like building PCs.

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