A Good Story

jryantech

So I was driving home today and got a call from a small law firm asking about my application i put online for a position as a Help Desk/Tech Support. The guy wanted to ask me some questions so I said ok shoot.

He asks my specs on my computers, basic information on upgrading, but then throws this curve ball...

"What video card is on your most used computer?"

I simply said "It's a Nvidia Geforce series I'm certain"

Then he asks, "What number version driver are you using for it right now?"

I questioned, "The actually version number of the driver?"

he said, "Yah that is something you should know, should you not?"

I said, "All i know is its the latest version"

then he closed with, "Ok well we will contact you for a interview if we feel you fit the position, thank you for your time"

what the heck

undomiel

Reply with something along the lines of I don't know off the top of my head but I know that I can find the version number in the device manager and I can find the latest release versions off nvidia.com. That way you'd show that you know how to do research.

whistler

Sounds like you need to get ready to field strip and reassemble a PC blind folded during the interview if he considers you worth!

Aldur

I would be at a loss for words too after a wam-bam-thank-you-mam interview like that.

jryantech

Aldur wrote:

I would be at a loss for words too after a wam-bam-thank-you-mam interview like that.

Haha, yah I was pretty shocked... And the funny thing is the conversation was going so well before he landed that bomb and then he was just like "ok bye!"

learningtofly22

A law firm asking about video cards? They're probably looking for an IT manager for their World of Warcraft infrastructure at work, lol.

blargoe

jryantech wrote:

he said, "Yah that is something you should know, should you not?"

Correct Answers:
"No."

jryantech

blargoe wrote:

jryantech wrote:

he said, "Yah that is something you should know, should you not?"

Correct Answers:
"No."

Haha

nanga

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcQ7RkyBoBc

jryantech

nanga wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcQ7RkyBoBc

Oh wow, that is brilliant.

leefdaddy

Wow... that's kinda funny... He seems like he was maybe kind of a computer enthusiast and thought that's all you needed to know to keep everything up and running

astorrs

nanga wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcQ7RkyBoBc

That was hilarious - makes me glad I never had to do much 1st level support.

Gundamtdk

I can tell you from that interview you didn't get the job.

jryantech

Gundamtdk wrote:

I can tell you from that interview you didn't get the job.

I hope they don't call back because I'm going to say...

"THE DRIVER VERSION WAS 1.711 RELEASED ON 02/21/2008, GOOD DAY SIR" and hang up.

stlsmoore

That video was amazing had soooo much truth to the type of calls IT gets

Pash

learningtofly22 wrote:

A law firm asking about video cards? They're probably looking for an IT manager for their World of Warcraft infrastructure at work, lol.

I provide support for a bunch of R&D developers/programmers.....so ok youd expect them wanting some extra power under the hood, but i opened up one of the guys PC to put in some extra sticks of RAM and he has a 8800 GTX in there.......unbeleivable.

jbrown414

Pash wrote:

learningtofly22 wrote:

A law firm asking about video cards? They're probably looking for an IT manager for their World of Warcraft infrastructure at work, lol.

I provide support for a bunch of R&D developers/programmers.....so ok youd expect them wanting some extra power under the hood, but i opened up one of the guys PC to put in some extra sticks of RAM and he has a 8800 GTX in there.......unbeleivable.

My friend works for a small company and during lunch they all play WoW. He's been trying to get me a job there, but not for that reason.

LarryDaMan

Perhaps they were not considering you for a job, they just wanted a cheap way for someone to help them fix a video card problem.

Mishra

undomiel wrote:

Reply with something along the lines of I don't know off the top of my head but I know that I can find the version number in the device manager and I can find the latest release versions off nvidia.com. That way you'd show that you know how to do research.

You should listen to this advise and not throw this scenario you just were handed as random and stupid.

This is actually a pretty important lesson to learn. You need to be much more thorough when answering questions and really address multiple ways to answer the exact same question. You need to sound smart and not like you are dumbfounded. I'm sure if you were thinking "wtf is this guy asking and why because its dumb" then your voice reflected the way you answered the questions. I would have also answered the first question with a lot more technical detail. If you truly didn't know your answer was sufficient.

"What video card is on your most used computer?"

Me: "I have a Nvidia Geforce 8800GS on a PCI Express 16 bus that has 512 mb of RAM."


I wish the repliers to this topic were more serious and not trying to play this up as a stupid interview either. There is a huge lesson to learn here.

BeaverC32

Mishra wrote:

I wish the repliers to this topic were more serious and not trying to play this up as a stupid interview either. There is a huge lesson to learn here.

But it is a "stupid interview" -- what the hell do you need to memorize the version of a driver for? How does showing your knowledge of what hardware specs your system has prove you will be a good helpdesk technician?

There are certainly much more relevant questions that could have been asked for a better gauge of jryantech's knowledge.

scheistermeister

That was a great tech support call on you tube!

Mishra

BeaverC32 wrote:

Mishra wrote:

I wish the repliers to this topic were more serious and not trying to play this up as a stupid interview either. There is a huge lesson to learn here.

But it is a "stupid interview" -- what the hell do you need to memorize the version of a driver for? How does showing your knowledge of what hardware specs your system has prove you will be a good helpdesk technician?

There are certainly much more relevant questions that could have been asked for a better gauge of jryantech's knowledge.

Because it's how you answer the question that is important, not what the question is about. The well known thing about an interview is that they will ask you odd questions to see how you react to them.

We have no idea about the whole interview. He said they were on the phone for a little while before they asked him that question. The interview might have been going south and then he answered the question like that and it was the last straw.

networker050184

An interview is not only to test your knowledge, but also to see how you react to situations. Like Mishra stated the fact that he thought the question was stupid probably showed in his voice. That probably contributed more to the interview ending rather than the fact he didn't know. I don't think I have ever been on an interview that I knew the answer to every question.

jryantech

Mishra wrote:

undomiel wrote:

Reply with something along the lines of I don't know off the top of my head but I know that I can find the version number in the device manager and I can find the latest release versions off nvidia.com. That way you'd show that you know how to do research.

You should listen to this advise and not throw this scenario you just were handed as random and stupid.

This is actually a pretty important lesson to learn. You need to be much more thorough when answering questions and really address multiple ways to answer the exact same question. You need to sound smart and not like you are dumbfounded. I'm sure if you were thinking "wtf is this guy asking and why because its dumb" then your voice reflected the way you answered the questions. I would have also answered the first question with a lot more technical detail. If you truly didn't know your answer was sufficient.

"What video card is on your most used computer?"

Me: "I have a Nvidia Geforce 8800GS on a PCI Express 16 bus that has 512 mb of RAM."


I wish the repliers to this topic were more serious and not trying to play this up as a stupid interview either. There is a huge lesson to learn here.

I understand where you are coming from... Obviously my quotes are not word for word but I'm giving the general idea.

This was not a sit down interview, it was just some quick questions spit at me while I was driving.

One reason I posted this is to see if anyone else has had a question like this before by an employer.

Honestly I do not want to work for a company who thinks its relevant to know what version number drivers you have for your devices. Or even just taking the time to ask such a ridiculous question.

jryantech

Mishra wrote:

BeaverC32 wrote:

Mishra wrote:

I wish the repliers to this topic were more serious and not trying to play this up as a stupid interview either. There is a huge lesson to learn here.

But it is a "stupid interview" -- what the hell do you need to memorize the version of a driver for? How does showing your knowledge of what hardware specs your system has prove you will be a good helpdesk technician?

There are certainly much more relevant questions that could have been asked for a better gauge of jryantech's knowledge.

Because it's how you answer the question that is important, not what the question is about. The well known thing about an interview is that they will ask you odd questions to see how you react to them.

We have no idea about the whole interview. He said they were on the phone for a little while before they asked him that question. The interview might have been going south and then he answered the question like that and it was the last straw.

Actually he was happy with all my answers and he seemed really nice. His tone and the way the questions were asked seemed as if he was reading them, I just found it a bit odd that he asked that question towards the end then when I answered with "All I know is it's the latest version" he bascially just said "Ok well we will contact you for a interview if we feel you fit the position, thank you for your time" right after.

undomiel

Mishra wrote:

Because it's how you answer the question that is important, not what the question is about. The well known thing about an interview is that they will ask you odd questions to see how you react to them.

I will second this. If you have to say I don't know to a question qualify it with how you would find out. If you can keep even the craziest questions positive like that it will make you look good to the interviewer. Even if you're on the phone. And if you're on the phone in the car try and pull over somewhere. It will help you sound more professional. "All I know is it's the latest version" is not a very professional sounding answer and has negative connotations. It is something you would want to be careful of.

Mishra

jryantech wrote:

I understand where you are coming from... Obviously my quotes are not word for word but I'm giving the general idea.

This was not a sit down interview, it was just some quick questions spit at me while I was driving.

One reason I posted this is to see if anyone else has had a question like this before by an employer.

Honestly I do not want to work for a company who thinks its relevant to know what version number drivers you have for your devices. Or even just taking the time to ask such a ridiculous question.

It's actually a question that I would consider asking people I interview. This would be because I am searching for people like undomiel because he had researched how to answer those questions. That means he is probably very dedicated to his job because he took the time.

Anyways, I'm not really trying to argue anything. I just think that your answer to his question wasn't a great answer and you could have strengthened it up at bit to make YOU look better. People who play p0ker say that you can be good at it as long as you try to always keep on learning. This is the approach I take to interview skills and it has landed me some great jobs that I didn't qualify for at all. So please, just take the advise in the forum and use it, it will be a great addition to your skills. All this is just to help you, you know.

BeaverC32

I'm in agreement that no matter how off the wall a question may be, you still need to answer it professionally and to the best of your ability. The fact still remains that it looks like this interviewer spent too much time trying to be cute with his questions and not enough time focusing on relevant technical/troubleshooting skills.

sprkymrk

networker050184 wrote:

An interview is not only to test your knowledge, but also to see how you react to situations. Like Mishra stated the fact that he thought the question was stupid probably showed in his voice. That probably contributed more to the interview ending rather than the fact he didn't know. I don't think I have ever been on an interview that I knew the answer to every question.

Well then I bet they never find an applicant to fill this position, because if we are all honest about it, I bet every single one of us would have been thrown for a loop on this question. Remember, when you point a finger at someone, you also have 3 fingers pointed back at yourself.

And actually, I bet it was more the case of an **** interviewer than it was an intelligent question designed to test an applicant's reaction. Most interviews of the "psycological profile" type are conducted in person, not on a cell phone conversation.

networker050184

I don't know if this guy conducting the interview was trying to see how he would react or if it was just a stupid question, but you should be aware that knowing the right answer to a question isn't the only thing that is important. That is the only point I was trying to make, not trying to say he was being profiled by a physiological expert

sthomas

jryantech wrote:

Gundamtdk wrote:

I can tell you from that interview you didn't get the job.

I hope they don't call back because I'm going to say...

"THE DRIVER VERSION WAS 1.711 RELEASED ON 02/21/2008, GOOD DAY SIR" and hang up.

That question about the video driver was silly. If you are still interested in the job I would not give up yet. If he asked that question to other people I am sure no one knows that info off the top of their head. You should download the driver, zip it up and send it to him as an attachment. Seriously though, give them a call in a couple of days and see what is going on.