The new meaning of Technical 'Expertise'

I've heard of resume inflation but interview inflation is a new one for me.

Let me start at the beginning, my job is to not only be the admin at the town hall but I also am computer support for the town library. It's been that way since last year. The library hired a new person to take care of the regular duties of a librarian as well as be the primary contact for computer support. When I heard this I was ecstatic, no more rushing over to solve the mysteries of restarting monitors, stupid questions, etc.

However when I heard the details of who they hired, I became a little disheartened. From here on I may sound stereotypical and I apologize in advance. The woman they hired was a 50-some year old librarian from another library (go figure), and she also can do html. The fact that they sounded so impressed with her knowledge of html made me giggle a bit I must admit. Html is possibly the easiest web programming language to learn. Also, the website for the library doesn't even use html, it is all drag and drop. Also I figured that since she was older, maybe her expertise wasn't so good, which is ridiculous to think anyway. But I figured I was being stupid, possibly even jealous so I decided to reserve my opinion until I met her in person.

Well, said woman started this Monday at the library and first thing that morning I got a call from them, the mouse and keyboard were not working on a computer. I thought to myself that the new girl probably didn't come in until later so that must be why they called me. I get to the library to find, to my dismay, that the new girl was there, and she was stumped. But still I thought maybe the problem was actually more serious then I thought. I went through the normal procedures of cable checking, unplug/replug, restart and...everything was working fine again. Slightly miffed, I headed back to the town hall, only to receive another phone call from the library. This time, the new girl's mouse wasn't working, so instead of running back over I suggested unplugging it, etc, but she said she did that. Fine then, 'replace the mouse' I say, and the phone call is over. Not even 30 minutes later I get another call from, you guessed it, the library. This time the barcode scanner on her computer isn't working. She makes a comment that 'you are really earning your money today' and I hold in the comment of 'well at least someone is , because you certainly are not'. This is the level of her 'expertise', she is describing the problem like this 'well I plugged the purple thing into the gray thing and then the other gray thing into another gray thing but now the other gray thing doesn't fit where the purple thing was' '........' At this point I have a severe headache. The girl continues , saying I should stop in, I say no because I am on my lunch, and she comments maybe she should just fiddle with it. I agree, thinking, Good idea, then maybe you can develop some troubleshooting skills. I know it was the girls first day, but I expected a bit more from someone hired to teach computer classes and do technical support.

That is another thing it itself, this woman will be teaching basic computer classes, as in 'this is a power button, etc'. I am concerned because I used to teach those classes, but I think an advanced knowledge is needed even to teach the most basic course. I think this goes for teaching any subject as well. How can you pass on knowledge to others when you don't have an in depth understanding of it yourself. I even learned some new things when I taught the classes, some tricks that I missed out on because like many others my age, I taught myself when it came to computers. To think...this was only on her first day, did I mention I took quite a few aspirin that day?

Now moving to her second day. I had to go find a username/password for our cataloguing program, which I didn't support so I had no idea what they would be. A couple phone calls later and we had the username and password. Not a big deal, I can see why they would want my help with that. The new girl was over my shoulder the whole time and then before I left she commented that the internet was out, and she didn't do a damn thing to figure out why. A quick inspection revealed that the modem somehow got unplugged. The modem is plugged into a power bar under the new one's desk, way at the back. She unplugged it with her feet apparently and yet again expected me to fix it. I was there anyway so it was okay, but I don't like that she doesn't even attempt to do any troubleshooting. There are more things she has done , well hasn't done, but I think this post is way too long as it is.

Wonder who this girl knows at the library, because something is very off.

And the women at the library wondered why I wanted to have some technical questions to ask the people they interviewed.

CSI: IT ; The Pebkac diaries

Sometimes I am amazed when someone with no technical knowledge suggests a brilliant solution to a problem I have been slaving over. Other times..well..I realize if it wasn't for the people that come up with the dumb solutions, I wouldn't have a job. The other day a computer froze at my workplace, and the woman who noticed it called me and was stumped by this. She told me she restarted the computer and for some reason when it came back on it was the same frozen screen, everytime, she even unplugged the computer and alas, when she plugged it back in, it was frozen still. Now this woman likes to think she knows a lot about computers and frequently questions my solutions. So I thought to myself, what a predicament! I must go at once! I arrived at the scene of the crime to discover a frozen computer, just like she described. To humor myself, I tried restarting it and, shock and amazement, it fixed the problem. However I discovered one piece of evidence that made me realize why her restarting did not fix the problem. When I arrived, the monitor cable was unplugged, helping me to reach my conclusion that she 'restarted' the monitor. But then again, this woman knows everything, so I suspect some foul play, maybe she's trying to trick me into thinking she's 'uneducated' so she can hack into the system when I let my guard down. This situation also made me want to buy some sort of insulting t-shirt off of thinkgeek...and maybe a tin foil hat.

Of cables and anime conventions...

I just realized I only have a couple of weeks before GCAF in St.catharines and my costume is nowhere near ready, funny how time sneaks up on you like that. The costume isn't that complicated thank goodness, so it should be ready. I'm debating re-doing my Naruto cosplay from last year but I haven't been into Naruto for a while now so I may work on my Ururu costume, get the wig for it and such.

Speaking of anime, I haven't watched any since I have been out of school, I have been playing video games and reading instead. I've been trying to play DDR more frequently so I can stand a chance in the DDR tournament at the conventions this summer, but I don't think I can get any better, as in, I've reached my peak, which isn't that good :P.

As for my job, my boss is gone on vacation for 2 weeks, leaving me to man the IT department (just me) and all the tasks associated with it. So far its been okay but I just know I'm going to be running around like mad next week.

had a huge fight well..another huge fight with a good friends of mine, and it has pretty much ended our friendship, which may not be a bad thing. Also another one of my friends is moving to the US for a job, so my group of friends has shrunk, something I am not pleased about. I don't have a hard time making friends but I only have a few really close ones, and now even fewer.

All in all I am glad it is a friday :)

About me...

I suppose an introduction is in order, considering I skipped doing one in my first post ;). I am going into my 4th year of Computer Science at Brock University with a Business minor. I love anything japanese, my room is full of japanese stuff, sushi sets, kimonos, you name it. I love anime, DDR, J-pop, hip-hop, pop, and all that good stuff . I'm also a packrat, an immense one and sometimes I can be a bit of a slob, my room is always a disaster, there's clothes, books, tools scattered everywhere. However I am extremely organized at work, my office is very clean and my desk is spotless. I am a computer geek, not a major one, I couldn't possibly tell you the best graphics card out right now but I do Sys admin stuff at work and I can build a computer, to me that makes me a geek, even if just a little bit :).

I don't go out much, I'm a home body, I only have a few close friends and no boyfriend. I am searching for a guy but at the same time I enjoy being single. I am trying to lose weight right now, eventhough I am told I look fine, but I just want to tone up a little, nothing wrong with that ;)

As for the title of my blog, I think it's pretty self-explanatory . I am especially proud of my witty little address "the wiring closet", comes from my Cisco class in highschool, we had a glass enclosed wiring closet and it was so nice to stand in with all the pretty lights and blasts of hot air from the switches :).

That's enough for now I suppose, there probably won't be another entry for a week or so, I am picking up Kingdom Hearts tomorrow, I beat the second game first, so now I figure I should beat the first game..second, I wonder how my mind works sometimes ^_^

Summer is for....work

Well I'm back at my summerjob from last year, my title is "Summer Student Computer Technician" but I'm basically the Sys Admin. The IT department where I work consists of the IT manager and myself, it's a fairly small company,60 people or so, but there's still plenty of work to go around. There is never a dull moment, or lack of people stressed out over minor computer bugs. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but sometimes I wish I had the power to severely maim my co-workers. This is the second summer at my job, yet I still run into the people that think I have no idea how to do anything and then theres the ones who think it would just be easier if they fixed it themselves, which turns into them breaking it more and me pulling some strange solution out of nowhere that fixes it, thereby proving I actually do know something! I am by no means an expert when it comes to computers, in this day and age who can honestly say they are? I used to have a CCNA, so I was pretty good with networking stuff when I got it in 2003, now though, half the stuff I know is no longer valid, therefore pushing my expertise down another notch. Thats the one thing that bothers me, I don't always have the answers when problems arise, and I get annoyed if it takes a while or if I need to ask for outside help. But it's a learning process I suppose, you don't start out knowing how to troubleshoot every problem.

Before I go, here are some random links that may be of interest:

A-Z Protocols
10kcommotion
Thinkgeek

Well for a first post, I'd say this wasn't too bad, till the next one, Later ;)