Need a Linux admin? Ask a hair stylist to introduce you to a worried mother
- Reference: 1744961228
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/18/on_call/
- Source link:
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Finn" who once worked for a very large hosting and domain registry outfit and found himself managing a young man with no experience or obviously relevant skills.
The youngster was hired after his mother visited her hairdresser and worried out loud that her son would never get a job "because he spends all day in his bedroom on his computer."
[1]
It turned out the hairdresser knew someone who knew someone who ran the company where Finn worked and relayed his mother's hope that the young man could be given a job doing … well, anything that would get him out of the house and into the real world.
[2]
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The young man was hired on minimum wage and ended up on Finn's team.
"Nobody knew why he had been hired. Was it to make tea? We thought he was a clear charity case," Finn told On Call.
[4]
Finn asked the young man if he knew anything about hosting or domain registration.
The new hire was, as expected, ignorant of the latter topic.
But he knew a surprising amount about hosting. In fact, he knew as much as anyone on Finn's team.
[5]Users hated a new app – maybe so much they filed a fake support call
[6]How do you explain what magnetic fields do to monitors to people wearing bowling shoes?
[7]Tech support session saved files, but probably ended a marriage
[8]Weeks with a BBC Micro? Good enough to fix a mainframe, apparently
"He had used the time in his bedroom to become a Linux guru," Finn told On Call.
And as luck would have it, Finn needed that exact skill set, ASAP.
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"We had two guys who hosted with us booked in for a three-hour session on how to streamline their setup and we had promised to answer their questions about Linux."
Grandmothers, too!
On Call also heard from a chap we'll call "Tom" who told us that a few weeks into his first job in tech he fell ill.
"It was nothing bad, just low fever and fatigue, but it lasted for a couple of weeks," he told On Call.
"I'd mentioned it to my family, but before I got a diagnosis from my doctor, I got a call from my grandmother, who was sure my job had given me 'that computer virus I heard about on the news.'"
Tom explained that people can't get that sort of virus. "I don't think I convinced her."
Finn was so impressed by the young man he brought him to the meeting and watched as he delivered professional and expert Linux support.
"The customer went away happy and impressed," Finn told On Call.
The young man had mixed feelings because by then he had learned of the considerable sum charged for his services and compared that to his tiny wage.
"It's unfair," the young man tearfully complained to Finn.
"Life is unfair," Finn replied. "Welcome to the real world."
But the professional world worked out OK for the young man, who Finn told us eventually became "a very senior IT administrator."
And presumably his mother was very proud.
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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/11/on_call/
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I thought he laid pavements.
Have you found a talented techie through unconventional means?
Not on the level of Finn. But I had found (not hired by me, but had to collaborate with) highly untalented stuff (sic!) who had all the right qualifications (still wonder how he passed that BSc) but was completely use- and clueless.
Years and years
Been like that for years
One company the requirement was for an mcse - dunno why for the job, but everyone read pretty much useless and failed and kind of question / answer or scenario. We dropped that and went for experience
Another company, someone in our team has a lot of time on their hands and did every Cisco course. Left us as the most qualified person any of us knew. Could not do the basics in the real world
And now where I can. We interview loads of people with certain qualification, sounds great. A few mins into the interview and it is clear they may have the qualification, but never worked on the topic, know anything about it - sometimes they may have seen it installed, or if we were really lucky "watched someone with on it"
Re: Years and years
I deal with the networking side, and have a simple process for dealing with people
If you don’t know how to do it ask
I will spend time going through stuff with you.
But if you don’t know what you are doing and don’t ask. Then you are on your own.
And if you screw up admit it….. people are a lot more lenient when you are honest (mostly)
We all make mistakes I’ve done plenty of them but stopping and thinking is the best approach.
Case in point I was working remotely and just starting the drive back to office and got a call.
Me: what’s up
Caller ; we have a problem
Me: what has gone wrong?
Caller: I turned spanning tree off on a core switch uplink port and now the network is running odd. I can’t connect to the switch
Me: well I am two hours away, so go and tell management and then power down that core wait 5 minutes hopefully the network will stabilise and then power it back up again.
Caller: do I have to tell management ?
Me: well if you don’t they will find out and trying to cover it up is not a good look.
They did keep their job but why they wanted to do the port change in the first place is still a mystery…..
Hey, hairdressers are powerful marketing tools! Decades ago, I was building a PC as a favour to a mate who had been asked to do it by one of his clients but didn't have the time. Being at a slightly loose end at the time, I agreed.
I was assembling the thing when a hairdresser called to trim SWMBO. It was quickly established that I was building a PC, that she didn't know I could do that, and could I make one for her, too, please?
I duly agreed, worked out a spec and price for her and went back to my screwdrivers. Literally within a week I was up to my ears in phone calls from her clients who were having PC problems, and my end was no longer loose. Can't pay for advertising like that!
Hey, hairdressers are powerful marketing tools!
Right until they all were deported on the B-ark.
Hey, hairdressers are powerful marketing tools!
"Right until they all were deported on the B-ark."
I don't think your local hair dresser who provides your basic hair cut, hair dye services interlarded with a copious quantity of gossip, was embarked on that vessel as no one, even a Golgafrinchan, really wants to cut their own hair.
Those herded on to the B Ark were the various useless species of the genus Stylist(e) and related poncey genera.
Word of mouth - best advertising medium of all.
Spending money on good customer services and support staff is likely to do more good than spending it in advertising. It retains existing customers and they will bring in the new ones.
"He had used the _time in his bedroom_ to become a Linux guru"
The one in a million then? ;)
Finn was lucky that the youngster hadn't found out about freelancing as well as the discrepancy in payments.
Just wondering, was Finn from Helsinki?