Levels of Competency

Tech Support folks spend 8 to 10 hours a day supporting a specific product or range of products. That's 40 hours a week, 160 hours a month, 1920 hours a year, not counting overtime.

It doesn't help that most of us in Tech Support are already up to our elbows in computer stuff most of our waking hours. We're so deep into it that we forget that not everyone else on the planet is in the same situation.

In on of the many training seminars I was asked (ok, required) to take presented me with "The Four Levels of Competency":

1. Unconsciously Incompetent: You don't know about something, and you're not even aware that you don't know about it. Anything you are not actively interested in, or that you've never heard of, you're at Level 1 already.



2. Consciously Incompetent: You know that something exists, and you're aware that you don't know a whole lot about it. Most folks you will ever deal with as a tech will fit into this category. There's a reason for that which I'll get into in a later post.



3. Consciously Competent: You know quite a bit about something, and even have a pretty good idea what areas you're not that savvy in. Every time you've ever had to start supporting a new product, you're soundly at level 3.



4. Unconsciously Competent: The subject is something you know inside and out. You eat, breathe, and sleep this subject. You have forgotten more about this subject than most people will ever know. Consequently, you forget that there are folks in the lower 3 levels who don't know as much about this subject as you do.

Most "Tech Support" humor on the internet resides at Level 4. Most smug, snide, condescending tech support reps are at Level 4. If your job is to communicate concepts to people who may not know as much about a subject as you do, Level 4 is a pretty common place to find yourself. I'd like to suggest you try moving back to Level 3.