Towards the end of my computing career I had several opportunities to work with the younger crowd just graduating college. It seems a lot of the colleges in this area are churning out kids with degrees in computer science that have never had their hands on live computers or networks. One such young man walked into my shop and was just standing there, waiting for someone to help him out. At that time I had 2 high school seniors that were taking college courses at the local JC working for me. Both these boys were sharp. I never hesitated to let them tackle anything that walked through the front door. They were also both Linux geeks. So, there those two sat while this other young man stood, waiting for help. I finally came out of my office and asked the young man how I could help him. He told me he was home on vacation and was working on a friend's computer. He needed to know how to format a hard drive and then how to install Win98. I took the time to explain it to him and even gave him a floppy disc with each of the programs I used to do low level formatting and then repartitioning of the hard drive. He asked what he owed me and I told him to just forget it. I didn't even charge for the floppy. As soon as he left I turned to jump my two employee's butts. I was ticked at them. When I turned they were laughing so hard each of their faces were red. I asked what was so funny and one of the boys looked at me and said, "That's his brother." No kidding. It really was the brother of one of my two employees. So, I asked the obvious question. I asked why they didn't help him out. They explained that the brother had graduated from the local JC with a degree in computer science and was working in a shop in Indianapolis for $65,000 a year. So, a $65,000 a year computer science major had no idea how to prep a hard drive for use OR how to install Windows. That's pretty sad.
The second time I ran into a ridiculous situation like that was while I was contracted at a different JC in the area. I was the first full time computer tech hired by that JC. There are 4 JCs in this area that are controlled by a parent organization. So, I was getting sent to the other 3 JCs and it was running me ragged. The head of the computer science department came to me one day and asked if I'd be interested in having a recent graduate from a college in Indiana work with me to get some hands on experience before heading out into the real world. I would have taken a trained monkey at that point because I was so buried in work. I agreed and this recent graduate showed up the next morning. It was kind of a shock. It wasn't at all what I was expecting. It was a woman only 2 years younger than I was. She was wearing a skirt that was very tight and a white, frilly blouse. We did the usual get to know each other crap and I finally asked when she would like to start work. She looked at me kind of funny and said, "That's why I'm here. I'm ready to go to work right now." I kind of laughed and told her to go home and change clothes. She looked at me like I had slapped her and asked just what was wrong with what she had on. I told her to come back in blue jeans and a T-shirt becuase we were going to be chasing Cat 5 cable through ceilings and in the underground tunnel system where all the plumbing, electrical, and other utilities were.
So, she came back dressed more appropriately. I asked if she had any tools and she went back to her car and came in carrying what can only be described as a suitcase. No kidding. She put the thing on a table and started unfolding it. She had everything but the kitchen sink! I asked her why she had purchased a tool kit like that and she said it was a requirement of the college where she studied. I kind of laughed. I reached over and pulled out a Phillips screwdriver and 1/4" nut driver and handed them to her and told her to take the rest of the stuff back to her car and for her to leave the rest of the stuff at home. She wanted to know what we would do if we needed some type of tool other than the two items I picked out. I told her that if we needed more tools than that, we were doing something wrong. She seemed a bit disappointed. LOL!
Next came the real shocker. Before I could get back to chasing cable, I had two PCs that were down in one of the labs. One PC had a bad optical drive and one had a bad Network Interface Card. On the way to the lab, I decided that it would probably be best for her to start with the network card and I'd handle the optical drive. So, we arrived at the lab and I handed her the network card and said, "I'll tackle the burner and you swap the NIC out of that box there." Then, I turned and started towards the PC with the bad drive. She was just standing there, looking like a lost puppy. I stopped and asked her what was wrong. She turned kind of red and said, "What in the world did you just say?" No kidding. So, I asked her what she didn't understand. She said she understood NONE of what I had said. She said she didn't know aht a NIC was or a box or a burner. So, I broke things down. I said that the computer I had pointed to her had a bad NIC and it needs replaced. She said she never heard of a computer being called a box. I had to laugh. That's pretty common jargon for a tech. So, I asked what else she didn't understand. She said, "Well, what is a NIC?" Then, I was really kind of ticked off. She had a 4 year degree in computer science and had NEVER heard a network card being called a NIC. How does that happen? How can a college turn out graduates that have never heard of a NIC? Why would a college demand their students buy a $600 or $700 bag of tools that will NEVER be used? I had to teach this woman EVERYTHING. She knew NOTHING about how to diagnose a computer problem and knew less about how to fix it. She told me that they had never opened up a computer in class to work on. I asked her exactly what they did on a daily basis and she said that 100% of what they did was out of a book. They read about repairing computers, but never had hands on. Their exams were strictly out of the book. And you don't even want to get me started on what she DIDN'T know about computer networking. She knew ZIP.
So, when you say that those young kids knew they needed to harvest data, but didn't know why, I can fully relate.
