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Admin
It says at the beginning of the story that this is sort of thing is part of the job. You would have gone out of your way to apply and interview for a job that you knew you didn't want.
I don't think it's any secret why we see lots of stories like this: there's a lot of grunt work in IT, and someone has to do it. Keeping inventory of software licenses, making sure you have enough patch cables on hand...just stupid work. People go to school, get their certs, and what ideally would be concrete for them is really a jumble of facts that they memorized long enough to pass a test.
They apply for IT jobs because someone lied to them and said there was money in it. Then, not only are they frustrated to be doing what they consider to be menial work, their employer gets frustrated because they can't troubleshoot basic things.
Admin
The real WTF is allowing people who don't work for your company to touch a computer which has access to corporate information.
Everyone involved in administering the "receptionist test" should be fired.
Admin
They save a bundle on life insurance.
Admin
Admin
If you are able to do anything "evil" to the network or computer config with a receptionist login on a computer that can be accessed by anyone coming in the building if the receptionist is (mentally) away then your companys security policy is sh*t (or your security officer).
Not counting being able to f*ck with the Semi-Sensitive Data the receptionist needs to access/change, of course (really sensitive data shouldn't be accessable on a reception anyways...)
Yes, I know... "should" and "is"...
but hey, just saying "try another disk this one's write protected" or "your printer is offline, is there a reason for that?" can't possibly be security-relevant or dangerous. Powering the printer on when it's offline for a reason (say, emitting smoke when on) is another case, but even then the tech guy should have put it away or at least stick a HUGE warnig sticker to it.
Admin
That's a rather extreme case, and the interviewer would obviously have to be made aware so they themselves didn't order seafood.
Also, I think it's safe to assume that any "small" change to a dish isn't going to include adding items that people are commonly severely allergic too.
Admin
When they told me to fix the computer, I would have grabbed my crotch and said 'fix this'.
When calling for the interview, I would have said 'Should I bring my F^&#in' tools?'
Admin
If I were hiring and someone refused to help the receptionist I would probably not hire them either. I need people who can get stuff done. Not people who make excuses about how that function isn't in their contract, or they are so afraid of breaking something or doing something "wrong" that they are doomed to inaction. If they are smart enough to cover their own asses by saying "I will try, but I do not know your system and can't do much without risking damage" then so much the better.
Admin
Where have you gone TopCod3r? The Daily WTF turns it's lonely eyes to you. Woo woo woo.
Admin
Some of us are proud that Francophones speak French and disappointed that everyone west of Cornwall is so lazy (and yes, that includes me.)
On Topic: Now that we have an HR department that insists on weeding through the resumes before anyone useful gets to them I can see this as being a pretty good way to weed out the functionally lazy: those people who have enough gumption to understand that they may need a TLA or two, but not motivated enough to actually know the stuff the TLA covers.
Admin
The same receptionist apparently has the ability to go to arbitrary websites and download software if the Ubuntu story is to be believed. Sounds like there's hardly any security on these guys' network at all, and yet they let potential employees who don't work there yet get in front of a computer. Hell, they even had them handling removable media.
Admin
Saying "I will try, but I do not know your system and can't do much without risking damage" covers your ass about as much as a piece of toilet paper will protect you from a flame thrower in the legal world my friend. People are scared because someone MADE them scared, not just because they're pansies (although that's a possibility). Someone asked for something, and then fucked them later on when they messed up a portion and then that boss or whoever blames it on them. Refusing to do a SECRET task like this (unless done rudely) that is not implicitly part of the interview process by no means shows a lack of social graces OR ability. You'd be a moron to base your hiring procedure on that.
Now if they refused to do it after the interviewer came out and said "hey, do you know how to fix this problem" it's COMPLETELY different. (obvious tag here)
Admin
Admin
Honestly, I was expecting the content to follow that track - have the receptionist take candidates to lunch and report back on their behavior.
Admin
So yes, maybe because of this, seeing weird punctuation/symbols when pressing punctuation keys will immediately tell me "damn, they keyboard layout's wrong!". But that may be because of the aforementioned layout duplicity.
Admin
In an interview I did for a "Information Technologist 3" position at a local university a they had a practical issue for me to solve.
They had laptop setup and plugged in but didn't have any network connectivity. They said it had be brought from one building down to do a presentation in this building.
First thing I did was took a look at the ipconfig /all and noticed that the network settings were statically configured. I did some quick mental subnetting and confirmed that the IP address and gateway were in the same subnet and the broadcast was correct. I said "If I recall correctly your currently migrating some of the buildings to static dhcp, is this building using DHCP?"
The tech on the interview panel said Yes and I was done. I did "excellent".
The real WTF is that I probably would not have got that question had I not learned a bit on how their network was setup prior to the interview.
In the end I didn't get the job because an "internal candidate" applied. -_- Unions.
Admin
Why is that in any way a WTF? I have a friend who works at a university here in az. He asked me not long ago why he was having problems saving his Excel files to a floppy. And yes, he has internet access.
Then again, at the company I work at, we got in several new Dell's. Guess what they had in them. That's right. FLOPPY DRIVES. So, it really isn't all that weird.
What I found strange was there was only 1 person there to interview at a time??? I don't remember ever being the sole person wating for an interview. And, not being an employee, I wouldn't have touched the receptionist's pc. Wouldn't want to take the chance of really messing up spmething. As already posted, I would have politely told her to call the IT department.
Admin
Incognito said: Honestly - do you think an 18 year old kid has grown up with a floppy drive at all?
Yes.
Many K-12 schools still use floppies for student work, though USB keys are the way of the future.
Someone who is 18 now was 8 when the iMac came out as the first commodity PC with no floppy drive.
They've had plenty of time to see a floppy disk in their lives.
Admin
Yeah, because my new tech SD card doesn't have a write protect switch.
Admin
I had an interview at a university back in 2001, and while I was waiting to be interviewed for a Sysadmin/ Helpdesk/ Computers Handyman, they were struggling with the Nimda virus (or one of those that wouldn't let you work because of reboots), so after seeing the "expert" fighting with it for about five minutes, I stepped in, aborted the shutdown, and used that "magic" removal tool that Symantec, McAfee, and everyone else were providing, and voila....
Of course after talking for 5 minutes about my previous networking experience, and migrations from NT to Win2K I got the job!
Admin
Admin
Actually, the last candidate was right: in Konqueror file type is determined by headers if the extension isn't associated with anyting.
Admin
the same thing that Microsofts DHCP server calls "reserved addresses"? Gives the same computer always the same address despite using DHCP (and as such being able to give DNS, Gateway etc. information to the client computer)
Admin
I would guess it's a fancy way of saying hcp :P
Admin
Actually, I'm pretty sure step 1 would be to pay attention to the error. I assume it's a Windows PC, and (I realize it has been a while, but) its error message should be something like "Write protect error writing the file". That should be an immediate clue to check the write protect tab.
Of course I quit using floppies long before they fell out of use, simply because they became completely unreliable. Take a brand new floppy out of the box and half the time the drive would tell you it's unreadable. The other half, the file would likely not last long enough to be transferred to another drive. I typically resorted to writing multiple copies of a file to multiple floppies, hoping one would work.
I'm just happy for flash drives.
Admin
They hire someone else. Duh.
Admin
Yes you can tell that they value company IT security, do not wish to put themselves into legal risk, do not wish to cause potential headaches for the actual IT staff, etc. For all I know this is a desired behavior of the system (by the powers that be) that the receptionist is trying to bypass for their own benefit (ie: it’s easier for them, who cares how it impacts others).
I’d personally be a lot more worried about the ones who did offer to help since they quite visibly have no idea about what can go wrong. What other systems will they unthinkably touch on the job to “help someone” without knowing the whole picture or going through official channels?
That’s assuming he realizes (before taking a bite) what has been served to him and that whatever he asked to have removed hasn’t been removed. See the odd thing about having an allergy is that you don’t usually get close to food that contain that product so it’s damn difficult sometimes to realize it can take on certain appearances once processed.
Yeah such people would (or rather should) generally avoid going out to eat period since too much could go wrong in such a setting. If they have to go out then they’d first need to be very explicit in what they can’t be near so other people in their group don’t order it.
Admin
Admin
So...no, the keyboard thing isn't tricky, it's perfectly legit for anybody that is WORTH hiring for their knowledge....which you obviously aren't.
Admin
Admin
Downloading a file is one thing. The ability to run it is a completely different story.
Admin
... and then there's 'Joual'.
Admin
Simplest explanation is that the second shift receptionist is French.
Admin
As to it being accessable to anyone coming in the building when the receptionist is away, presumably she'd have the sense (and a directive from the company) to at least turn on the screensaver whenever she stepped away from her desk, so someone would need her password to easily get in. A combination of that and having the computer itself in a locked cabinet would provide reasonable enough security for most places.
Admin
Admin
I used floppies for years. 5.25" and 3.5" at various densities from 320Kb to 1.44Mb per floppy. Never had issues like that. But then, floppy drives used to be well built too. Newish drives exist to read the occasional floppy, and the quality probably isn't there any more. But floppies were reliable indeed, I had hundreds of them with games, programs, software packages and documents on them, and they all still worked a few years ago when I last got nostalgic.
It's like cassette tapes. They will fade given enough time and poor storage conditions, but they can still play great. But you can't buy a decent tape deck these days unless you go for a specialist deck or second hand for a well looked after piece of equipment...
Admin
I got an interview for a lab-repair-guy/network admin/teaching assistant position because I asked about it (yes, this was all one job). That's often all it takes in college. I got the job because I demonstrated my ability to actually use the skills in test situations.
Oh, and my "previous network experience" that got me the job? Setting up and debugging networks at LAN parties. (That was actually something to be proud of before Windows XP came along and made it comparatively easy.) But it worked!
Admin
Admin
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Admin
Yep, that was my experience. In the days of 5.25 and the early days of 3.5", all was well. But somewhere in there, disks and drives were made cheaply and from then on, only disks supplied by software companies had any reliability. Then Zip disks took over, but eventually they too lost the reliability battle.
Admin
I'd be loathe to actually touch a machine that wasn't under my purview (ie : If Im not employed by a company, Im not going to start fucking with their machines), and I'd be surprised to find a company willing to do that.
Mind you, after having worked for a university for the last year and a bit, I can easily see someone at this place thinking this is a fantastic idea...
Admin
UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT B A SELECT START
Admin
Seriously, I do a hell of a lot of tech support, but the primary thing to do is make the proper person is doing the job. IT hates the guy who home-brews his laptop.
Admin
While not pre-arranged tests (one of them I wasn't really looking for a job, nor did an opening exist at the time), I got both of my two "real" jobs, in part, by jumping in and helping solve a problem.
I've also scored an upgrade to First Class for fixing the printer at the gate (no one at the airline's help desk was answering, and in the conversation I overheard, the issue was threatening to delay my flight). Offered to take a look at it. Beast of a tractor-fed Dot Matrix printer with one heck of a jam...cleared the paper jam, still refused to print. Offline/online-- unhappy beeping, no printy. Power cycle the printer and out comes the flight manifest, weather, etc. and I walk away.
Agent walks up to me before I board and tells me I "forgot" my "correct" boarding pass.
Admin
Linux will not stop you from accidentally renaming a file whatever from whatever.doc. Windows displays a warning message saying that renaming a file extension might make it unusable.
Some file managers may associate .doc files with openoffice/abiword/ms office in wine/whatever word processor you're using even if it does not have the extension.
Nautilius appears to be able to do use both file-extensions AND magic numbers , because it tried to open a .docx in the archive manager (by using magic numbers to see that it is zip-compressed), but I was able to change .docx to open in my word processor.
Admin
One thing I've heard (maybe apochraphyl) is that the floppy drives that aren't used accumulate dust, which affects all the floppies that are put into it.
I bet most of my 5.25" are still good, but my pile of 3.5" are mostly crap.
Admin
If you have two languages installed, pressing "shift+ctrl" will toggle (or rotate, if you have more than two languages) the language for the current application.
Admin
Admin