Work Experience Kid, What can I get him to do? Options

[lunchbox1988]

I found out a couple of days ago, we are having a work experience kid thrust upon us.

Nobody in the team was aware, I got roped into chatting with him the other day before he starts next week, and from a brief chat, found he isn't interested much in IT as a field and said things like "youse", "nah" and "sick" which gave me the feeling that he doesn't realise it was essentially a mini job interview to gauge his personality on.

The thing I have run into is, I have to give him work to do for a week, and have not got a lot I can give him.

We have some basic doco to give him to read, and some supplies he can stocktake, otherwise, most other tasks involve having domain admin privileges, which I m just not giving him.

So, I come to you Atomic, what can I give this kid to do that might make him worth having for a week?

[Aktavite]

Find the left handed screwdriver in the toolbox?




That is not a euphemism.

This post has been edited by Aktavite: Nov 25 2011, 03:12 PM

[chrisg]

:)

There is no real answer to that, unless you do much in the way of having stuff delivered around town, in which case use him as the deliverer - one of my daughters did that some years ago, had a great time and was out of her temporary boss' hair :)

Cheers

[Hlass]

Cleaning out those cupboards full of outdated stuff is always a good one.


That and pimping him out.

[Xen]

My work experience was pretty good.

Except that one day i was given a roll of cat6, terminators and a crimper... that sucked.

Where's this one coming from?

[Jeruselem]

What about a bit of asset management? Counting computers and taking down serial numbers and general crap like that?

This post has been edited by Jeruselem: Nov 25 2011, 03:45 PM

[smadge1]

I had a work experience kid from the high-school a few times, he wasn't that interested in what I did, and I couldn't really let him do too much, as a lot of stuff I do requires admin access to the workstations and servers.

He even said he wasn't even into computer games, so not sure why he was even there. luckily, after the first 2 times, he came back to do work experience with the groundsman.

I remember when I did work experience at a computer service company, it was eye-opening, and I learned a lot, even got some free stuff at the end of it.

I got him to make a bunch of "Enterprises" out of old floppy discs...

[orinjuse]

Get him to do your filing.

[Kimmo]

Find the left handed screwdriver in the toolbox?

That is not a euphemism.

Yeah, send him out for a can of striped paint and all that.

Endless fun.

Actually, I was sent out for 'a bucket of steam' on my work experience, and naturally, I was pretty sure I was being taken for a ride...

Turned out to be an actual thing though, I shit you not.

[TheFrunj]

Get him to manually defrag the receptionist's computer. As in, not running a tool, but moving files around the hdd himself.

That or get him to count the pixels on every monitor to make sure they add up.

[once_i_was_a_mag...]

I just had one this week. Was horrible thinking of things he could do as there is a lot involved in what we do. I got him to do data entry, photocopying, tidying up and other random crap. It was tiring.... He was also a smart arse to a lot of the staff. There's no way I would have done or said some things he did when I was 15. I said I'll quit if they give me another one next year.

I must be getting old
/get off my lawn

[Harmonic Cacopho...]

Find him something. I had IT work experience once and there was just nothing to do. Fixed a couple of printers and reinstalled a few Windows, but mostly just sat on my ass reading Atomic.

[nesquick]

Clean all the toilets with a toothbrush?

[p0is0n]

we got work experience kids a lot at my old employer.
a few of them were palmed off to me to deal with.

the company assembled and repaired computers.
some of them had a real interest in IT and so I made a bit more of an effort to ensure they learned something.
others, had no interest in IT and barely any interest in even being there.

those kids spend 2 weeks sorting mobo screws from hard drive screws in a room out of the way.
they seemed pleased at this... as they "didnt have to do anything".

the others, start them off on something simple and see how they do, and if they show enthusiasm/interest reward them a bit with more interesting jobs.

any paperwork u need sorted by invoice# or job# or hole punched and filed.
sweeping/tidying boxes. flattening boxes/chucking out rubbish.

cheers

This post has been edited by p0is(+)n: Nov 25 2011, 05:19 PM

[TheFrunj]

To be somewhat more useful, I did work experience at an IT dept for some law firm in the city. Was clearly keen and enthusiastic, and they got me to deploy some new systems and image them. Involved fetching boxes with a trolley, setting them up, recording serial numbers and configuring IP addresses, those sorts of things.

It was great fun.

Other'n that it might be worthwhile to give them some disinfectant and get them to go over mice, keyboards, handsets etc. They're never clean enough.

[Takoma]

Send him to Bunnings for a can of grinder sparks and a long weight.

[CheekyChops]

My work experience was great, I worked at MTV Australia for the week.

They got me to do some trivial filing for the first day around various Foxtel channel departments, but the rest of the week was exclusively MTV stuff. They got me to go through the prize cupboard and mail off prizes to a list of winners. That kept me busy for a while lol. Then I got to keep old prizes in the cupboard from promotions in the past, I scored some earrings and Adidas sunnies, woo :P

I got to tag along on photo shoots and interviews around town, meet Silverchair, The Calling and Anastacia. The Silverchair interview was awesome, it took hours and they got me to do the guys hair and "makeup", mostly consisting of styling their hair and colouring in Ben's sideburns with eyeliner to make them appear thicker and fuller on screen hehehe :)

While they were setting up for another interview in the studio, they got me to put a few MTV posters up on the wall and make the set look interesting. I had a few tours of the various sets and editing studios too. Met a few VJ's and quizzed them on everything they have done in life so far to get their job so I could do the same lol.

They did get me to do odds and ends that everyone was either too busy to do or mundane stuff though, which is about all a kid can handle really lol. It helps if they are interested in that area, I spent a lot of my time talking to everyone in the office about how they got to where they were, asking them what uni/college they went to, how they did it so i could do the same. I think it flattered most of them, some little kid wanting to be just like them when I grew up, they seemed to have lots of time for me and my questions, and even weeks afterwards, sent me pics in the post they had developed from the Silverchair shoot as they thought id like it. Was really nice of them :)

[smakme7757]

I guess it's hard when he has no interest in IT, but it will be easier on you if you find something constructive for him to do. The worst thing you can do is leave him hanging, so he feels uncomfortable.

[merlin13]

+1 as above. Else you've got a Team Gofer for the fortnight...

Spare sacrificial PC he can disassemble, clean, re-assemble and re-install WinDoze perchance? That should also keep him out of mischief for a week if he's not interested in IT, if he shows interest then progress from there.

[.:Cyb3rGlitch:.]

If he's not interested, give him dumb work to do. If you need to move some computers around, he'll be a good mule.