- Feature Articles
- CodeSOD
- Error'd
-
Forums
-
Other Articles
- Random Article
- Alex's Soapbox
- Announcements
- Best of…
- Best of Email
- Best of the Sidebar
- Bring Your Own Code
- Coded Smorgasbord
- Mandatory Fun Day
- Off Topic
- Representative Line
- News Roundup
- Editor's Soapbox
- Software on the Rocks
- Souvenir Potpourri
- Sponsor Post
- Tales from the Interview
- The Daily WTF: Live
- Virtudyne
Admin
We should use this at my college.
Admin
Hmm. Converting your body to enervy. e-nervy.
The mind boggles.
Whoops, typo fixed! -Ed.
Admin
Unfortunately, this test (or something similar) is needed for many jobs.
Admin
The real WTF is that they interviewed the candidates after those receptionist tests.
Admin
I can't wait for someone to explain how real developers don't need to have the common sense to check that a printer is on, and how they'd walk out of the interview if you tried this on them.
Admin
Sounds like a job interview I had. I walked in and the guy immediately walked me into a room where there was a table with a completely dissassembled (as in case open, ram, processor, IDE cables, etc sitting next to it, not as in keyboard mouse and monitor not plugged in) computer. "Make that work, I'll be back in 20 minutes" Despite being the only one of the 5 candidates that day without on A+ cert, I was the only one who got it working. Interviewer said the other guys didn't even come close.
Admin
I like how you managed to fit in the Linux bigot stereotype. Very subtle.
I think the real WTF is that this story is largely fictional.
Admin
I suppose it does reveal the candidate's problem solving skills regardless. I like the "just download and install Ubuntu" one. Now you have <insert huge number> problems.
In fact, now that I think about it, this test would work well for any tech job. Great idea!
Admin
Coming here and reading these makes me feel more confident about my ability to get a job when I graduate
Admin
Was there anything wrong with it, or was it just assembling the parts together? Doesn't speak well of the A+ cert, either way.
Admin
Why is it these applicants even make it there?
Oh, I forgot. Like most places, I'm guessing the hiring (okay, resume review) process is based on how many degrees the person has, how many languages/operating systems/insert-unrelated-thing-here they've worked on, and how long they were in their last job, rather than the basic items the job actually requires; such as, in this case "Can work with a computer running windows properly".
It's sad, but I rarely get to the interview stage from a resume application. It's because my resume doesn't look like a million bucks (It's not bad per se, it's just I didn't complete post-secondary, I owned my own store and I tried a new career; it seems HR considers these "risks", or so I'm guessing--colleagues and managers consider them perks, though, once they realize how valuable outside experience is). However, every single interview I've ever had has resulted in a job offer. Although, I usually need to apply to a few dozen jobs to get an interview. Oh well, at least I'm in a job that keeps my happy now! But it was rough getting here!
(And yes, I've had lots of people review my resume. Even people "trained" to check resumes over. They think it's okay, although they'd wish I'd embellish to the point I'm actually just out and out lying. It's my unwillingness to flat out lie [unlike the candidates you got] that's the issue.)
Admin
I've used Ubuntu, it's pretty lame; I had to have ink, paper, AND power to print!
Admin
Admin
I just want to say, fictional or not... the Tales from The Interview stories are always my favorite.
Did anyone else think of Nick Burns when the guy kept trying to get it to print. "Just hit Apple-P and it will print... GAH!"
Admin
Damn write-protect tabs!! I hated those things!
captcha: genitus I think that's plural for genitals. Or maybe singular for genitals.
Admin
Yes, and the French method would be to write the computer off as worthless and wax on about how Computers should know french.
Admin
Thats IT's job..as long as I can failover onto one of the other printers in the cluster why should I care? :D
Admin
I'm having some trouble reading this WTF.
Wait... <switch monitor on> that's better!
Admin
To be fair I'd write off some slow speaking, loud shouting american as worthless too. You'll find the french perfectly helpful if you talk to them like people instead of retards.
Admin
Funnily enough I got my first IT job via an interview with a test like this. 2 of us interviewed for an entry level support position, via a back to work scheme.
Other guy had experience in office apps, could hack up a decent spreadsheet in excel that looked pretty enough, but id he check the power cable on the desktop pc?
Admin
Okay just that you're happy, the German method would be to concentrate the ones we don't understand in camps telling everyone else they were evil while secretly killing them.
Admin
I guess it depends on the day and the place...
Admin
Well basic support is the main dish of every tech support, I remember a client complaining his speakers did not work and she had not connected them to the computer.
If this WTF is true, I'm amazed how many candidates can fail such a basic test. I mean, the fact they apply to a tech support job implies they ought to be ready in their mind to do that kind of work. I'd never consider working in a position I don't even know the basics of. (Unless the boss is real hot, or the pay is real high, well I'll say I'd consider in some cases...)
captcha : haero (someone who plays gauitar?)
Admin
Admin
Wait...I'm having trouble placing the time period - what with the talk of Ubuntu and Wikipedia. The PC still had a floppy drive???? Honestly - do you think an 18 year old kid has grown up with a floppy drive at all?
Admin
Admin
Hello, tech support? I'm having trouble writing a comment, could you come take a look at it?
Admin
Ubuntu: making Linux accessible to morons since 2004.
Admin
That's one way to save on labor expenses.
Admin
Some of the smarter companies take management candidates out to dinner, and then arrange for the restaurant to make a small error in the candidate's order. If he flies into a screaming rage, he doesn't get the job.
Admin
Admin
Did anyone at all pass the test? I mean, when I am at a job interview, I try to make as little eye contact as possible with anyone not interviewing me. If you go solve the problems that people are actually being payed to solve (and with no context at all), you may end up looking like a showoff.
I once had an interviewee who stormed in the middle of a discussion and made a very obvious suggestion not because he wasn't smart, but because he didn't know what was being discussed. I showed him the door mainly because of that.
I would gently suggest that she call IT, but nothing more.
Admin
That's because of "particular" relations between english and french people in the province of Quebec, particularly in Montreal.
Admin
I think the biggest WTF is that they were using floppy disks in the same timeframe that someone could use Wikipedia and download Ubuntu.
Admin
I can understand screwing up the dead tech: a write protect tab? How quaint.
But step one (assuming you didn't immediately think write protect tab) should have been to try another disk, to see if it was a drive problem or a disk problem, not to spend 10 minutes blowing on it. That shows a fundamental lack of understanding: magnetic media doesn't have dust-related errors of that sort.
Admin
I had a similar test when I was applying for a city job involving repair/maint of their desktop PCs. They brought me to a PC that would boot, but nothing displayed on screen. I checked the power cord on the monitor, it was loose. Plugged it back in. PC booted up with display. Total time, 10seconds.
Didn't get the job, but not sure I would have wanted it. Got another one so I wasn't too heart broken.
I will still fix a PC for friends, but I gave up doing anything like that on a professional level or as a moonlighting attempt. People will break something else totally independent of what was fixed, hand it back to you and expect it to be fixed for free since 'you touched it last'. "My internet doesn't work anymore and you hooked my CD drive in last week, so fix it for free, since you touched it last!"
Things like that made me want to piss all over their keyboards and take a dump in their printer trays. Not that I had thought the scenario through or anything.
Admin
Yeah, while I like this idea for an interview test, I don't think I would really even take it. I could probably pass it, but, as this poster said, I'd probably just suggest she call IT and let them look at her computer.
It's a good test, for sure, and these people in the story are obviously morons but what would you do if a candidate just said "oh well, better check with IT?" rather than offer to help?
Admin
Paris is hardly representative, FWIW my gf spent a year in france (Rennes) and I found the french obnoxious no matter what language you spoke to them in.
Admin
But of course! That is a hardware problem. Assuming you are thinking of real software developers. Remember how many of them are needed to change a light bulb?
Admin
I think it would have been great had you assembled it, put a bios password on it, and walked out with a note saying, break this, ill be back in 20 minutes
Admin
Personally - I'd think, 'what an unfriendly, unhelpful person, I wouldn't want to work with him/her'.
It's very true that you can tell an awful lot about a person from how he/she talks to the receptionist (or waiter, porter, other service staff).
Admin
While I agree that he couldn't have picked a worse solution to a very simple problem, the guy wasn't completely without a valid point.
Windows' dependency on arbitrary file extensions to decide what to do with a file and by default hide known extensions is a major WTF. That's after all where spammers success with postcard.gif.exe comes from.
Admin
They should have hired the recepcionist for the position.
Admin
To be fair, the keyboard language thing is a bit tricky. It's not something you expect to see suddenly change by itself. If the receptionist's keyboard was happily typing in English the day before, why would it suddenly be set to French?
Admin
Admin
That's a pretty terrible assumption to make. You would assume that the guy, nervous as hell, coming in for an interview would immediately jump to his feet to fix a receptionists computer while not being paid for it and having no prior knowledge to how their network, IT, etc. works?
Again, I like this test, but it has some flaws. I really liked the test that someone posted about having the computer lying in pieces on the ground and said "fix this" though.
Admin
I would help the receptionist out of hornyness if she were hot, but if I had any reason what-so-ever to believe it was part of the interview, and that was actually work I'd be expected to do, I'd tell them to get corned.
Admin
I stormed in the middle of a discussion once.
In another one I winded, and then drizzled everywhere, much to everyone's consternation.
I think it's a perfectly valid test. If you're content to do your job, only your job, and nothing else, then you're not the sort of person I'd hire, certainly.
Admin
Admin
I was born an American citizen, but I have a German heritage, and I'm also fluent in French. I don't know which part of myself to hate.
And, for the record, I think the German insult was (a bit) over the line. It's more Third Reich, than German.