Helldesk gimp
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I'm in the same office as the helldesk guys (2 of them) at a small company. So, all day long I hear them troubleshooting the systems that the company sells off to retail clients. It's mostly troubleshooting with retail salesmen (Can you see if the network cable is plugged in?...... The network cable?.......... It looks like a telephone cable.........Is the telephone cable plugged in?............It's gray...............Yes, that must be plugged in..........Are the lights flashing?.............no, the lights next to the network cable..............the lights next to the telephone cable.............there are two lights, amber and green...........orange and green..........etc,etc)
A couple of days ago, i walk in and see one of them sitting with his desktop tower opened up on his desk. It's issuing a POST error code indicating a video card error. I tell him this, and he pulls the PCI video card he's been using. He tries to start it up minus the monitor attached and beeps just fine.
Now, he want to connect his monitor to the onboard video card. He puts the box back together and asks if i have a gender changer for the VGA cable. (The cable is permanently attached to the monitor, so all that needs to be done is to push it in. And, there's no DVI connectors). I tell him no. He goes to the store room to find one and comes back and attaches it to the cable, but somehow can't plug it in. After a couple minutes of struggling, he is called out to a site.
While he was gone, I went over to see what I can do to help him. I saw the motherboard had no onboard video output ports, but it did have two serial ports.
A VGA MB or expansion card-mounted connector is female, while DB-9 serial ports are male.
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Ya gotta love attempts at interspecies mating.
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Please tell me your company isn't one of the ones that insist on a CS degree as a minimum qualification for 1st-line support...
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Well, I suppose that since CGA used a DE-9 port (which is commonly misrepresented as DB-9: see reference), it could be seen as somewhat forgivable, but no, the helldesk guy is an idiot. However, TRWTF is how he managed to put the gender changer on the cable. I would image the DE-15HD cable has been damaged beyond reasonable repair now.
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@Jake Grey said:
Please tell me your company isn't one of the ones that insist on a CS degree as a minimum qualification for 1st-line support...
Just based on stupidity level of the tech, I would say that they don't... but it sounds like they should.
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@amischiefr said:
@Jake Grey said:
Please tell me your company isn't one of the ones that insist on a CS degree as a minimum qualification for 1st-line support...
Just based on stupidity level of the tech, I would say that they don't... but it sounds like they should.
CS degree is overkill for a first line phone monkey, but the ability to count to 15 would be helpfull.
It's fairly common knowledge that if the number of pins in the cable and the number of pins in the port don't match, you have to use the big hammer to make it work.
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@cdosrun said:
@amischiefr said:
@Jake Grey said:
Please tell me your company isn't one of the ones that insist on a CS degree as a minimum qualification for 1st-line support...
Just based on stupidity level of the tech, I would say that they don't... but it sounds like they should.
CS degree is overkill for a first line phone monkey, but the ability to count to 15 would be helpfull.
It's fairly common knowledge that if the number of pins in the cable and the number of pins in the port don't match, you have to use the big hammer to make it work.
More to the point, a CS degree is orthogonal to this problem. This is a *hardware* issue, and most CS degrees only focus on software. In fact, I've heard multiple CS professors indicate that ideally, a programmer wouldn't need to be concerned with any implementation details of his hardware.
Now, a computer technology degree would be both pertinent and probably overkill. I say probably, because one could make a serious reduction in their helpdesk headcount by employing competent helpdesk staff and empowering their helpdesk staff to really be helpful. However, as that means paying at least twice as much, most management types aren't interested in reducing their helpdesk by around 1/4 in that manner.
(For reference, I got the numbers above from having seen things go the other way - they had to hire 4 idiots1 for every competent staffer they kicked out the door. Worse, they also had to hire about 1 HR person for every 20 competent staffer they kicked out, simply to handle the added turnover rate.)
1 And, by idiots, I mean people willing to work on a helpdesk for near minimum wage. Not that any of them stayed idiots for long, mind you.
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CS degree? Seriously? Sounds like what this company needs are people that can connect monitors to computers. Not necessarialy people that are good at attending lectures and passing tests.
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@shepd said:
CS degree? Seriously? Sounds like what this company needs are people that can connect monitors to computers. Not necessarialy people that are good at attending lectures and passing tests.
Or maybe one of those Fisher Price shape sorting balls for toddlers. Don't hire the mongs who try to shove the square peg in the round hole.
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@tgape said:
And, by idiots, I mean people willing to work on a helpdesk for near minimum wage. Not that any of them stayed idiots for long, mind you.
I am biting my tongue here ...
