Dear Geek,
I am changing jobs in a week. In my current job, I had use of a laptop for work purposes. Is there anything I should do before giving it back?
Signed,
Wanna Stay Private
Dear Private,
In today’s world, hardly anyone stays at one job for all of their lives. So, chances are, you will move from one company to another at least once in your working life. Unless you work with Fred Flintstone at the Quarry, your job involves a computer. Turning in your work computer, before you’ve gone through the necessary steps may jeopardize your personal security, leave you ill-prepared for your new job, and may even unknowingly burn bridges. Follow these 5 easy steps, and you should be good to go.
1. Back Up Your Documents:
I know, you’re thinking “new job, clean slate”, right? However, you never know when your old files may come in handy. Especially Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, or Excel files. If they were important to you in your current job, they may be of assistance in your new job. Even if it means you don’t have to start from scratch, could ‘pad’ your resume, or help you to prepare for a future presentation.
To Do: Back up these files using an external hard drive, CD-R, or USB thumb drive. If you don’t have access to any of these, you could email the documents to yourself. Or you could use an online storage solution which provides users with up to 5 GB of data for free, and can be accessed easily from almost any device.
2. Keep Useful Programs:
Coworkers often share tidbits, or useful (and sometimes free!) office tools with each other. If your new job is in a similar, or related area, these programs may be useful to you still. However, remembering where to download these tools can be difficult.
To Do: Similar to the solutions offered in step 1, you can easily upload these programs onto an external hard drive, CD-R, USB thumb drive, or to an online storage solution.
3. Save Old Contacts and Emails
Saving your email logs and contacts can be very valuable (and time-saving) when looking up information, references, and when networking.
To Do: Most companies use Microsoft Outlook as its email client. If your current company is one of them, there are 2 ways to save your emails and contacts. One way is to manually drag and drop the email/contact name you with to save, to your desired folder. The second way is helpful if you want to copy everything over. Select the “File” drop down menu>”Import and Export…”> “Export to a fil”> choose “Personal Folder File (.pst)”> Select “Personal Folders”. Make sure to click the “include subfolders checkbox” to copy all your data into a folder of your choosing. Doing so will allow you to easily import all of your old Outlook content to different computers.
4. Clear History
History can come back to bite us. Especially on a computer. Make sure to clear your Internet history, cookies, cache, passwords, bookmarks, and on and on.
To Do: Most web browsers make it fairly easy to clear all of this information. For this example, I’ll use Internet Explorer. Go to “Tools”, “Internet Options”, click the “Delete” button. To delete individual bookmarks, click the “star” button to access the “Favorites” tab. Then choose “Organize Favorites” from the drop-down menu.
5. Delete Personal Programs and Files:
The computer was provided to you as a “loaner” and you should return it, in similar condition as it was given to you, which means deleting all your personal information, programs, and files. By doing this, you also ensure that any personal documents or information won’t be left for some stranger to peruse through.
To Do: Make sure you search through all the storage spots on the computer. This includes the Desktop, Downloads, and My Documents, in addition to any other save destinations you may have used. If you can’t find a specific file you REALLY want to delete, use Windows’ search feature to look for jpgs, bmps, mp3s, etc. Remember to empty the “Recycle Bin”!
If you have a question for our Resident Geek, send it to: geek@tbyd.ca. We’ll translate it from Geek-lish to English, so it actually helps!
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