HP graduate/tech support job

Arathorn

Mate of mine has an interview with HP, its his first job out of collage just wondering does anyone know what type of tech questions they will ask here? Anyone been on this before, its a tech support role I think

penexpers

Is this for HP or CPL?

Villain

They normally ask questions like, are you willing to work for 21k? You answer Yes and you have the job!

rick_fantastic

These are the questions that I got asked in the actual interview

1. What do you do if you get a virus?
2. What is ping
3. What is tracert?
4. What do you do if the screen goes black?
5. How would you if a user cant access their archived emails?

ill root out the cpl technical test that they email you to fill out before they give u an interview

i worked there for a whole three months. if you have no experience and a honours degree in computing they will offer you 20k a year.

its a **** job, the work sucks but the people are pretty cool.

try and get an out of hours role cos they have a 25% shift allowance

newestUser

rick_fantastic wrote:

its a **** job, the work sucks but the people are pretty cool.

Why is it a **** job, and why does the work suck?

Arathorn

Ya cheers, it was for cpl, already filled in the online test and done well in it apparently (thanks to google), ill pass on that info thanks

IronMan

I worked in this place for a year.

Its pretty easy get to, number 11 from town, and a shuttle bus from the Dart station. About 15 minutes walk from the Luas.

Most of your colleagues are pretty cool, pps from all over Europe. You unite in your hatred of CPL, and their amazing lack of vision.

No sick pay, small gym on site, subsidised canteen (not great, nice salads), pretty much expected to work bank holidays if its an international helpdesk.

Loads of middle management, rule changes, employment reviews, written warnings etc. They treat you like an answering machine, not a humanoid. Many of these managers, have no personality, intelligence or people skills, they are poorly paid for the role they are in, and it shows in the calibre of the candidates who work in these positions.

CPL are a total disaster. Worst I have ever encountered. Petty, greedy and vindictive. A good way to exact revenge is to look for all data relating to you under the data protection act. Does this after you have left. Request all information stored on their systems, and on the systems of the client (HP). Best €6.54 I ever spent.

Working in this place has become a rite of passge for many IT grads. It's soul destroying work, but its a foot on the ladder. Always be on the lookout for something better, never let the place get to you, never let them walk all over you.Be as cold and ruthless as they are to you. Go to O'Sheas on a Friday, and don't talk about work. Made some good friends there.

joePC

Yea worked for CPL/HP for 30 days, was good at the time, seeing people that spent a year+ there with no vision of moving on, that must be the sole destroying aspect of it. **** pay, pay by month system........ CPL refused to send me my P45 claiming that I owed them holiday money because I left without taking holidays???? TAX office had to get it off them, didn’t get the original until 6 months later.

Its good to get the foot in the door.

rick_fantastic

newestUser wrote:

Why is it a **** job, and why does the work suck?

think d lads answered your question

ChRoMe

Its pretty rare that I come out from lurking (check age of account and posts!) but when I saw this thread I had to reply.

I spent ten days in the CPL run HP ****hole out in belfield. I've been working in IT for 6 years and never ever In my time have I experienced the crazy situation that goes on in that office. CPL are complete and utter idiots who make no secret of the fact that they dont give a **** about you. I remember laughing about 4 months ago while I was browsing a job site that the exact same advertisement was still there for multiple positions. Here's a few things that in the first week made me really question what was going on.

1. While listening in on calls with one of the guys being trained he turned around to me and laughed about the fact he had been there only three months and was one the the people the longest there

2 When you hear a team leader being congratualted as being the ONLY person who has managed to stay from the start of a project to the end.

3. I know somebody talked about trying to get the night shift as the allowence was pretty hefty. I did the same. What they dont tell you is that if you are night shift you will be support 8 different companies each with their own individual way to answer the phone to and with different systems/business process's etc etc. Thats eight different ways to answer the phone depending on what caller id says, 8 different ways to reset passwords etc. Oh yeah and all these comapanys believe you are a dedicated helpdesk to them so any mistakes on that end and your going to get ****. HP is in the mess it is in globally becuase of this sort of crap.

I could go on and on but I think you see what I'm getting at. Seriously I strongly urge you not to take the job. By all means do the interview for practice but you dont need this headache trust me.

I feel so strongly if you want you can pm me and ~I'll talk to you over the phone about it.

Arathorn

Thanks for that it does sound a bit dodgy alright, at the same time though my mate has no IT experience since graduating 3 years ago. I think it would be a good start even for a few months experience. It wont kill him will it? should lead on to better jobs at least!

zefer

I worked there for about 5 months when I left college also.

Have to agree with all the oter posters, its a sh*t job, with sh*t wages but the "experience" I gained there helped me get my network admin job that I am still in now.

It wont kill your mate but it is not good for the soul if you stay any length of time.

ps. CPL are the biggest pile of wan*ers to work for!

IronMan

zefer wrote:

ps. CPL are the biggest pile of wan*ers to work for!

Jebus, this CPL bashing is doing me the world of good. I'm out of the place almost a year, and it still makes me mad sometimes just thinking about them. And despite the 25% shift allowance, I would be very wary about taking the 'Out of hours' role. The Ericsson desk is another one to be avoided by all accounts, it seems Ericsson expected a professional service from HP, and got a sham job service desk. So you get callers from all over Europe, Africa and the Middle East giving out to you about the situation. It's on the 5th floor for a reason, the security guards have a chance to take you out before you get to the ground floor. Wouldn't want to see someone crying and blabbering in the reception area would we.

Cantab.

HP tech support = crap job. I work in Beech Hill Office Park and I know a girl who works there (I also feel sorry for her with the kind of crap she puts up with). She has a degree in computers from Trinity and has been told a yarn about 'it's a great starter job, you can use HP to springboard you on to greater things' - You hear this kind of crap every day from the people who work there. Don't live in the future, there are loads of jobs in Ireland for techies - you just got to persevere. You'll find one eventually.

FrenchCed

Hi,

I worked there for a year. As a masters graduate I could not get any other job as a first experience

The work is sh*t but the ambiance is quite good.

CPL are useless and they try to make you think you are going to progress, made me laugh alot (...) of course it is badly paid.

Don't consider doing 'out of hours' : yes you are getting paid 25% more but you are working 4shifts*12hours=48 hours wich means you are working 20% more.

Yea they are so nice to you they pay you 25% more because you work 20% more !! Plus you are working antisociable hours/weekends.

I think the best way to make a bit of genuine extra money is to work on a desk with some shift (like desks operating from 6 to 23)

Well if you can avoid it, try to, yes it can be a step in the door but it will be hard to get you out of technical support later....

rick_fantastic

i worked on the ooh2 desk for 3 months. ericsson/wartsila and the shift is grand. u may work 12 x 4 hr shifts but you get 4 days off which is pretty sweet. it was 2 weeks on nights / 2 weeks on days. days were a bit sh*t cos all the team leaders and management were there but the nights were grand. all i did was get high and sleep and maybe answer bout 10 calls.

i didnt put it on my cv cos i didnt want employers to know i was working there!! i only did it during the transition between 3rd yr and 4th yr of my degree for the summer.

cpl went pretty mad at me when i left saying that i was in breach of my contract and they were withholding my pay but as i was still in the probationary period they didnt have a leg to stand on.

im finished college 2 months and im working as a systems administrator / network engineer (not really what i wanna do but it will keep me going for a while)

point of the story is DONT WORK FOR CPL THEY ARE ****

axer

I have to agree with the CPL bashing above. They deserve to get bashed. Worked in Thames-Water section in Clonskeagh. Saw people that were there for years get ****ed over constantly. Impossible to get pay rises etc. Left after 3 months. The workers were all really sound though - I guess when you're all stuck in a **** hole together you stick together.

Brian21156

Agree totally with all of the above. I worked for CPL in Sandyford and it is the same story as in HP. Everybody there working for CPL was treated like sh*t. If you get a pay rise you are lucky one but they cannot wait to get rid of you as the replacement they get goes back down to €21,000.

feylya

Ha, I worked on Thames Water too. I'm still in this place though I'm on a brand new desk which is even worse than all the others. The wage is slightly better but it's still a ****ing joke. Trying to get the hell out of here!

Hellm0

Looking at all the above posts seems I'm glad I didnt get the jobs I applied for with CPL.
That said, I've contemplated doing development contracting with them, anyone any experiance with this?

Villain

CPL are the worst contracting crowd of them all, don't touch them with a barge poll.

HashSlinging

Great memorys of the people working there, im talking about the plebes (like me) I lasted a month also, on the hutchension 3 helpdesk (waves) . it was painful work, but it got me through a sticky situation (being a contractor at the time there were many) so it was good from that perspective. If I had nothing else on the cards I would work there as a last resort only.

Just keep in mind that if your friend has no experience he would really have to look at staying there for a year. Esp if he graduated 3 years ago, anyway there are some really cool people working there in the same boat so its not like he's alone! its bitch central! great!;)

feylya

TBH, if you have a good deal of Windows and Unix skill and experience, you should try and get onto the GM desk.