Originally Posted by
genejockey
Yeah, you see that in watchmaking. There are skills you need, like very fine motor skills, a lot of patience, and the ability to visualize how something that is not currently working works, not to mention a logical approach to diagnosing a problem. Some things you can do by rote, but a lot of it requires a pretty deep understanding of how things fit together and work together.
I became a diagnostic specialist, for lack of a better name. I told people I was a professional guesser, because that's what I did a lot of. You make an educated guess based on what has fixed the intermittent electronic problem in the past. You usually can't duplicate the problem, you can't test anything or measure anything, and tech support may or may not be able to help. Pretty far away from mechanical work.
Sometimes the problem is in the software. Sometimes the factory is aware and writes a new program, easy peasy. Sometimes they are not aware and don't believe some disgruntled old technician in Los Angeles even when tech support agrees with him. So they make him replace every part which could be involved then make him drive 2 field engineers around for hours while they look at their laptops.
I just love reliving this stuff.