Staples EasyTech

Hi everyone,

I am pursuing a career change and have been offered an interview with Staples next week. I have almost two decades of experience using and troubleshooting computers for friends and family with no formal computer training.

I'm currently studying for my Comptia A+ certification which I anticipate taking with the next two months. I applied for the Resident Tech at my local Staples since the requirements did not mandate formal training or certifications.

I'm preparing for the interview and while doing research on this position, I noticed that a entrance exam may be required for this position. I could not find much useful information online, and I was wondering if anyone could shed some light as to what I should expect for this test.

Thank you in advance!

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Comments

Cisco Inferno

wow how did you ever get past their application interviews?

Dakinggamer87

Good luck on interview!!

edzy

how in the world did you get past that 40 page personality test?

edzy

Where did you come to that conclusion? As far as what to expect, it varies depending on the interviewer, but you should reasonably foresee questions about what potential culprits could cause "x" issue, where X might be blue screens, or boot failures. You might also be asked what kind of memory or hard disks would be ideal for a system of XYZ year.
You will also be grilled, most likely by the GM, about loyalty, responsibility, timeliness and work ethic. Those things tend to be valued pretty highly by a store GM, because those qualities make or break a store, which ultimately reflects on him *nd his pay at year end. At the same time, there are also a great many ways where these things can positively effect your bottom dollar, too.

Easytech employees are really salespeople...so what they really want is a technical person to sell their warranties and service protection plan. They might give you a scenario where a customer comes in with a 5 year old Windows XP System that they want to upgrade and will ask how you will handle it. The main thing they are looking for is what you will recommend...so for this scenario it would be "better" for the customer to tell them that XP is outdated and that they should upgrade to 7 (that's what Staples wants) and that their current setup will probably not handle 7. So you sell them a new computer, warranty, spyware + antivirus, customization, printer, all the accessories that you can think of. Key thing is to stress their service plan and give personal experience about how hard it to remove spyware and viruses and that you would always recommend anybody buying a new computer to have those programs installed. Staples computers division makes the bulk of their revenue from their service plans. If you can prove to them that you can sell AND work on computers at the same time, you're golden!

DooWop

edzy,

Thank you for your insight, I appreciate it. I came to that conclusion based on the two posts asking how I managed to pass the personality test. I really wasn't sure how to interpret that in a positive way.

Thanks again for your help!

edzy wrote: »

Where did you come to that conclusion? As far as what to expect, it varies depending on the interviewer, but you should reasonably foresee questions about what potential culprits could cause "x" issue, where X might be blue screens, or boot failures. You might also be asked what kind of memory or hard disks would be ideal for a system of XYZ year.
You will also be grilled, most likely by the GM, about loyalty, responsibility, timeliness and work ethic. Those things tend to be valued pretty highly by a store GM, because those qualities make or break a store, which ultimately reflects on him *nd his pay at year end. At the same time, there are also a great many ways where these things can positively effect your bottom dollar, too.

Easytech employees are really salespeople...so what they really want is a technical person to sell their warranties and service protection plan. They might give you a scenario where a customer comes in with a 5 year old Windows XP System that they want to upgrade and will ask how you will handle it. The main thing they are looking for is what you will recommend...so for this scenario it would be "better" for the customer to tell them that XP is outdated and that they should upgrade to 7 (that's what Staples wants) and that their current setup will probably not handle 7. So you sell them a new computer, warranty, spyware + antivirus, customization, printer, all the accessories that you can think of. Key thing is to stress their service plan and give personal experience about how hard it to remove spyware and viruses and that you would always recommend anybody buying a new computer to have those programs installed. Staples computers division makes the bulk of their revenue from their service plans. If you can prove to them that you can sell AND work on computers at the same time, you're golden!

edzy

We asked because those "tests" are usually hard to pass. I think i've applied at staples & best buy at least 50 times.

DooWop

edzy wrote: »

We asked because those "tests" are usually hard to pass. I think i've applied at staples & best buy at least 50 times.

I see what you're saying. I've applied at Best Buy maybe a dozen times over the past year and I've never heard back anything either.

sako

hey guys im new here. Im currently persuing an engineering degree in Compunter engineerieng. Im working as an easy tech for staples im actually the head tech. I have been since the program started few years back. There is an entrance exam and its a bit tough. the questions are very similar to that of an A+ exam, and i was a bit nervous because a few of those questions were difficult. Needless to say i passed on the first try but it wouldnt hurt to review for it. Once you get on board the work is very simplistic and harly ever challanging...kinda like the pay

Anonymouse

There's a technical test for Easy Techs? When I applied last year I only got a personality test.

mattlee09

edzy wrote: »

We asked because those "tests" are usually hard to pass. I think i've applied at staples & best buy at least 50 times.

So I thought about this thread when I had to walk into a Staples the other day.

I was browsing around in the networking section (looking for a SOHO modem/router for a client). One of the EasyTechs approached me and we talked for a bit.

I'll spare you on having to hear the conversation, but I can't believe in a million years he passed any sort of "personality" or "technical" tests.

edzy

mattlee09 wrote: »

So I thought about this thread when I had to walk into a Staples the other day.

I was browsing around in the networking section (looking for a SOHO modem/router for a client). One of the EasyTechs approached me and we talked for a bit.

I'll spare you on having to hear the conversation, but I can't believe in a million years he passed any sort of "personality" or "technical" tests.

Happens to me all the time when i go to the geek squad section.

Anonymouse wrote: »

There's a technical test for Easy Techs? When I applied last year I only got a personality test.

I think you get a written exam once you get an interview.

That_Guy_PR

Hey there DooWop,

I'm a EasyTech (EZT) Resident also at Staples. I've been working there for about 6 months and so far I like it. You get to learn a lot. As a Resident EZT, what you would be doing most of the time is selling computer related merchandize, like laptops, printers, tablets, ect. In order to become EZT certified, you must undergo a very in depth training about every piece of technology that is sold at Staples. For my certification I had to do 40+ training "modules" as they call them. After you finish each of them, you will have a 10 multiple choice question test in order to pass that module. To tell you the truth, you don't even have to know anything about computers to pass those modules. Because prior to each test, you will be trained by watching videos, reading about the topic at hand, and doing some simulations on the computer. In the event that you don't pass one of these modules, don't worry, you can retake the test as many times as you want until you pass it and if you want you can also review the material prior of taking it again. Now, the final test, which has nothing to do about what you just spend the last few days learning about, is by far the hardest of any of the test you will take while in the training. This test actually measures your computer knowledge very deeply. But from what you said, you would probably find it easy enough. I on the other hand found it very hard to do. But thankfully I passed it. You can only take this test once. Its about 20-40 questions long and you are timed 3 minutes per question. You cannot work on a customers computer until you pass this test. If your test is around the same as mine, which more than likely it will be. I sugest that you refresh you memory about; how to use the CMD prompt and what is it for. What are their commands and what do they do. Learn about the different types of viruses and malware and how they affect your computer. Learn about tcp ipv4 and 6. Learn about MSconfig, ipconfig, types of hard drives and their differences. Remote access. What antivirus programs use in order to detect viruses on a computer, like the different algorithms.

This are just a few what you will be asked from that I could remember. I was lucky enough that I was placed in a isolated room with a computer that I was able to use my iPhone to look up some of the answers jaja! But from my experience, most of the people who bring their computer in are for basic services like, tune ups, virus removal, things like that. But once you pass everything, there is nothing to worry.

And for the interview, its nothing hard at all. All they asked me was if I knew about computers and I said ya and they asked a simple question. "If a customer brings a laptop with a 1TB hard drive, 12GB of RAM, Windows 7 Ultimate, intel core i7 processor, and the customer says is running slow, but he doesn't have an active Antivirus software, what could be the problem to the computer?" And the answer is kind of obvious isn't? The computer has a virus lol. But just ask him a few advance computer related questions to impress the guy. Because more than likely, the person who is interviewing you will me a manager or assistant manager, and they might not know that much. So you can impress that either way if they do or do not know about computers.

I wish you the best at Staples and if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Alif_Sadida_Ekin

That_Guy_PR wrote: »

I was lucky enough that I was placed in a isolated room with a computer that I was able to use my iPhone to look up some of the answers jaja!

...wow...

That_Guy_PR

Alif_Sadida_Ekin wrote: »

...wow...

I don't consider that cheating. I look at it as we being computer technicians should rely on the resources that technology gives us in order to accomplish our task. And it happens all the time, you don't know how to fix a problem on a computer, so what do we do? We Google it. Plain and simple

woot

never realize it was that hard to get an easytech position

Heero

edzy wrote: »

We asked because those "tests" are usually hard to pass. I think i've applied at staples & best buy at least 50 times.

There is almost no one that could pass one of those tests if they were 100% honest. Literally, almost everyone lies on those tests and specifically gives the answers it wants to hear rather than true answers.

jcuff37

Hey there is a exam or test if you would call it, its only for if your going to be the in house technician or onsite technician, its ultiple choice and revolves around A+ and general knowledge of networks and pc's

i've been with staples for three years now going on 4 started as an easytech associate, moved to onsite technician and in house technician and now im the M.T.S. (mobile & Tech supervisor) and shooting for salary..... but all in all test isn't hard....

Good luck

Jasiono

Damnit man, why did you resurrect this thread from the dead?

Jasiono

That_Guy_PR wrote: »

This are just a few what you will be asked from that I could remember. I was lucky enough that I was placed in a isolated room with a computer that I was able to use my iPhone to look up some of the answers jaja! But from my experience, most of the people who bring their computer in are for basic services like, tune ups, virus removal, things like that. But once you pass everything, there is nothing to worry.

This is why I am glad I'm tech savvy