How To Ask for Help

Everyone has had the experience of writing a paper, finding a question for a client, or searching for help on a personal issue. All too often we claim defeat and give into asking our questions aloud with the hopes of having some experienced professional within earshot. People aren’t always there to help, and if they are, they may sometimes get annoyed by our incompetence or our negativity due to our frustration. I have been in this situations on many occasions, and when you find yourself in this situation, take a few deep breaths, and give these ideas a try.

Google It

Google is how every IT professional appears to be so smart and intelligent. Turns out IT pros are just like everyone else, except people pay them to Google things that they most likely could have just Googled themselves. Another part to this is how to Google things. The table I have listed below is pretty self explanatory and will give a few tips that I use to narrow my searches. Also, once you have your search results, push Ctrl (or command on a Mac) and click to open a few pages in different tabs, so you don’t have to go back and forth in your browser history.

If Google Doesn’t Have the Answer

Search engines are so Web 1.0, meaning, it’s a one way conversation. You ask, they give, and you can’t really respond back to tell them “actually I was looking for my friend Terrence Bollea, not Hulk Hogan”. The web gives you what it gives you depending on what you enter in. In Web 2.0 we now have social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and many other social media sites where you can now post your questions and have almost immediate responses from people that you can reply to. You’d be surprised how smart people within your social networks really are.