[ale] Let's draft a support personnel competency test! [was: Avent and whine - ignore with dignity]

Mon Jun 21 19:28:52 EDT 2010

reverse the order of those two questions...

customer service candidate job questionnaire for cable/phone co:

1. Do you have a pulse?
2. Circle the telephone in this picture.
3. Can you count to 10?
...

On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 6:41 PM, Lightner, Jeff <jlightner at water.com> wrote:

> Hell I'd be happy if they could just answer yes to the question:
> "Do you have access to the manual for this crappy piece of equipment you
> sent me?"
> Of course then I'd have to follow up by asking if they knew how to
> read...
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
> Byron Jeff
> Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 2:59 PM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!
> Subject: Re: [ale] Let's draft a support personnel competency test!
> [was: Avent and whine - ignore with dignity]
>
> Ah. I'll play just for funsies.
>
> BTW while you not bother with the first tier of support, or possibly
> even
> the second, you also have to be prepared to answer everything in their
> script. For example with Comcast I start with already rebooting the box,
> releasing DHCP, and the like.
>
> On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 01:46:34PM -0400, Michael B. Trausch wrote:
> > On Mon, 2010-06-21 at 13:30 -0400, Richard Bronosky wrote:
> > > I would like to draft a list of ~5-10 questions that could be used
> to
> > > pre-screen (like you would to a job applicant) your support
> > > technician. If they fail, you say "I'm sorry but you do not appear
> to
> > > be qualified to handle my support requirements, please transfer me
> to
> > > the next tier of support." I don't know how well it would work, but
> it
> > > would be a fun exercise. We just may end up creating a new meme in
> the
> > > process.
> > >
> > > Here is my v0.1 draft:
> > > 1. An IPv4 address is composed of how many octets?
>
> 4.
>
> > > 2. The OSI model is composed of how many layers? Name them.
>
> 7
>
> Application
> Presentation: Designed to handle protocol translations if necessary.
> Session
> Transport
> Network
> Data Link
> Physical
>
> >
> > I would expect most people to fail this one.  I expect people to know
> > that there are 7 layers, not what every single one of them does...
> most
> > people are too far removed from that model to reliably be able to
> recall
> > it anyway.
> >
> > > 3. What purpose does an ARP table serve?
>
> Directory that maps IP (or other network) addresses to physical
> addresses.
> Only functions on the local network inside the route. Non routable.
> Broadcast call/response with caching and timeout.
>
> > > 4. How many runlevels are there in conventional "system five"? What
> > > does zero do? What does six do?
>
> 6 AFAICR. Zero halts. 6 Reboots. I'm an everyday Linux user and I
> haven't
> looked at an init table in a long long time. Ctrl-Alt-Del abstracts the
> process.
>
> >
> > Doesn't say yay or nay on terms of network support.  Keep the
> questions
> > platform-neutral and OS-neutral.
> >
> > > 5. How do you identify and bounce a network interface in a
> POSIX-like
> > > OS without rebooting?
> >
> > Same as for #4.  I would expect 100% of tier-1 and tier-2 technicians
> to
> > fail this test unless they include UNIX or POSIX (or UNIX-like or
> > POSIX-like) system support in their realm.
>
> Agreed. And ifconfig does have a bit of difference between different
> systems.
>
> >
> > Perhaps:
> >
> > 1.  What is an IPv4 address, and how many octets does it have?
> > 2.  What is 10.0.0.0/8, 192.168.0.0/16, and 172.16.0.0/20?
>
> Private IP address. Non routable.
>
> > 3.  What do the ping and traceroute tools do?
>
> Nothing in today's network. Sigh. Virtually everyone fails to respond to
> ICMP packets anymore because of security concerns.
>
> > 4.  What is the purpose of a routing table, and what happens when it's
> >     broken or missing entries?
>
> Facilitates the movement of packets from one network to another. Can't
> do
> that with (or send to the wrong network) with broken/missing entries.
>
> > 5.  In addition to the Web, what sorts of services does the Internet
> >     house?  [Because most stupid people think the Web *IS* the
> >     Internet, maybe this should be #1.]
>
> You mean it's not? ;-)
>
> This was fun. The real question is what are the techs supposed to
> support?
>
> It's likely at this point I would fail a Windows test in this same
> ballpark. Every time I mess with a broken Windows box (which is just
> about
> the only time that I do) I have to refigure out how to access
> everything.
>
> BAJ
> --
> Byron A. Jeff
> Program Coordinator: IT/CS/CNET
> College of Information and Mathematical Sciences
> Clayton State University
> http://cims.clayton.edu/bjeff
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
> Proud partner. Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
>
> Please consider our environment before printing this e-mail or attachments.
> ----------------------------------
> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail may contain privileged or confidential
> information and is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). If you are
> not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of
> the contents of this information is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you
> have received this electronic transmission in error, please reply
> immediately to the sender that you have received the message in error, and
> delete it. Thank you.
> ----------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>

-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness
Doing pretty well on all 3 pursuits

 Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by
faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits.
   Dan Barker, "Losing Faith in Faith", 1992
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20100621/1ad35762/attachment-0001.html 