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.
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.
posted by archergirl | 7:40 AM
1 Comments:
Aww girly, I am sorry that the new girl is being such an annoying biatch.
I need to move back there, and they need to hire me,a nd we can have lots of fun cause you like me :)
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