jeffpollard.net: You went where to study what?

June 28, 2004

You went where to study what?

So our department hired a new AA/Help Desk person a few weeks ago to take Kathryn's place. But, this new girl doesn't really seem like she knows much about computers, which makes me wonder why we hired her.

For example, a few weeks ago I received a ticket that said that someone needed help installing "iToons". Huh? What's iToons? Is this some new cartoon drawing software? Ok, so maybe she's never heard of Apple's ever popular music-playing program. She's in her mid 20's..maybe she's not into MP3s.

Ok, so today I notice that one of the tickets I received a few days ago is a request to get training for "End Design". "End Design?" What's THAT?? For those not in the graphics arts industry, Adobe InDesign is Adobe's Quark-killing page layout software that has been out in the marketplace for around 5 or 6 years. Apparently our new Help Desk person hasn't heard of it.

Ok, so maybe I'm being a little mean, right? I mean, comon, you can't expect someone who's never worked in an IT department to know about the software we use, right? Wrong. Apparently, she worked at another company in their IT department before she came here. Oh, well. Maybe IT isn't her thing. Wrong again. Apparently, she graduated from a local university with a degree in MIS.

Now do you see why I wonder?

Posted by Jeff at June 28, 2004 10:05 AM

Comments

University of ECPI maybe?

Posted by: Chris R. at June 28, 2004 11:14 AM

Stupid is as stupid does...

Posted by: Forrest Gump at June 28, 2004 05:51 PM

Did Martin find her, or vice-versa? I know they normally seek out people.

Posted by: B at June 29, 2004 01:23 AM

A degree in MIS means absolutely nothing in today's world as far as expertise goes. Where I work we have several MIS grads as well as Microsoft "Certified" Engineers that spent unnecessary time in school when they could have gained experience.

On another note, they LET you have iTunes & music where you work?

Posted by: Chris K. at June 29, 2004 01:04 PM

It's okay. I used to think "Shammy" and "Chamois" were two different words until Mike and I washed our cars on Sunday.

Posted by: Lauren at June 29, 2004 03:33 PM

What's so pathetic about the above comments is that a person's ability managing systems is based on their familiarity with commercial end user programs. It's expected that a new person is going to have to catch up with what is used in the new environment.

If I walked you through a large software shop among the thousands of applications, are you going to tell me that you're familiar with them all??

"knowing computers" is a broad term and we all have to constantly work to catch up. No one knows everything so don't be so high and mighty just because some one new isn't totally familiar with two applications that don't even exist in most workplaces.

So there!

Posted by: Zen at August 30, 2004 12:19 AM