PC troubleshooting practical test
 

I need either an online test or something to make up for the tech that works for me. I need to benchmark his current skill set and then test again in 30 days (the time frame was set by senior management) to see if he is improving.

He misses the simplest things, he does the opposite of Occam's razer. If his car didn't turn over he would change the ring gear thinking it was jammed. I have tried going through steps with him and have paid for IT classes but they seem to have not helped.

So, who has some ideas or resources?

Switch it off at the wall. I've had one or two tech's that would have never thought to look :rolleyes:

Pay the $200 to have him get his CompTIA A+ cert ... if he can't pass, he can't work, and you only pay for one.

https://certification.comptia.org/certifications/a#examdetails

Any future hires make having the A+ a requirement or it must be obtained in first 30 days.

He already passed that.

Having done the A+ it isn't very up to date, unless it has changed again in the last few years.

Bill, he used to work for you as well?

Ah... sorry, thought I'd have you a quick and easy solution

Last time I made something up like this for hiring we were kinda evil. Hard drive connectors in wrong, no power to devices in the case, missing CMOS battery, network card with one of the connectors snipped, etc. But most of that can't be done on modern systems...

I suppose I could "damage" the boot sector, or manually remove the drive in the BIOS of an older system. The new stuff makes it too easy.

Bill's idea might work.

We had a worker that was taking some time to work from home and needed access to our document management server from home. I told him he needed to change the path for the repository on the client so it knew where to find the repository from her remote location. I may not have the best communication skills, but it took over 30 minutes to try to explain it and he is the one that has gone to LA 3 years in a row for training on the software.

bar hopping and shopping on the company dime


FTFY

Could have been, we didn't pay the training costs though.

Back in the day, I used to flip the dip switches on the hard drive controller so it thought the hard drive was the second in path. Now a days things are all done in software. Modify the Bios and see if he checks it.

Send him to the army recruiter for an asvab....

He is retired Army aviation. Flew the AH1 and UH1 believe it or not.

I might just do a spreadsheet with issues listed and have him do the steps. I think if it doesn't boot the first step for him is to replace the motherboard.

Actually, he does know to check the BIOS most of the time. It is the simple things he misses. We had to install an agent on the kiosks here and the flash drive was too long to fit in the space so he was dismounting them to put the drive in the slot. I told him just use a USB extension cable. He now doesn't have to dismount the kiosk from the wall.

I've been in IT for 26 years. Based on my experience as a manager, people either have it or they don't. Troubleshooting requires a logical and methodical thought process, as well as some common sense and intuition. Common sense cannot be learned, IMHO. I've managed the type you mention, but for a short period of time. I'd put him on a PIP with milestones, then say cya if he doesn't improve.

Brad, that is the plan more or less. I have been in IT a long time as well, but this is my first experience with this type of person as a manager/director.

He was good for a while, then flattened out and hasn't improved in those areas over the last two years. I do have to admit he is a hard worker but there are some personality issues where he tries to be BMOC and tells third parties incorrect information and then I have to explain to the third party why they can't just hop on our enterprise network with their stuff just because they are renting part of one of the buildings.

I can see several possible issues with the tech person. First of all he is probably bored to death working on the same things over and over. Second is fixing a broken PC is nothing like flying an AH1 so he does not feel there is much of a challenge there. Last is the way he was trained in the Army, I.E. do this, do that, check this, ETC, ETC and do them in a certain way and expect certain results. I saw this when I was the IS manager at COMNAVAIRPAC in San Diego years ago and my contractors were all ex military who worked for SAIC. Their hiring process was tough enough so that I would get people who could think fast on their feet and use a lot of imagination. I see that also in the computer classes I teach with retired Navy people with lots of experience as they are taught to do things in a certain way with only these steps, ETC, ETC. It is very hard for them to break out of that method of thinking and some never do.

I guarantee he isn't bored because of repetitive tasks. If he had repetitive stuff he would have his checklist. It is all new stuff he has issues with as well as common sense. We really don't fix a PC per se. There are two of us for 435 employees and most of the issues are PC related but not broken parts. Well, we do have a dropped laptop now and then but...

This is the job he applied for and is the job he was let go from when that organization downsized. There is document management, general housekeeping, VMware, switch management and so forth.

Here is where we are starting. I expect him to be able to walk through 20%.

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