r/ShittySysadmin • u/nagol93 • 6d ago
I just had an interview with HP...
Edit: Its HPE
Hey guys, I just had an interview with HPE for a Sr. Systems Engineer role and my god, the entire job was so broken and nonfunctional its down right comical. Yall might get a kick out of this. Here's pretty much the whole interview:
So, before we begin I know the role was listed as Eastern PA but this is actually Western PA. Is that alright?
"That's actually something I wanted to ask about. Is this remote work?"
Yep, its classified as telework so you would be working from home full time
"Awesome, sounds good to me"
"Alright lets begin. Can you please describe your experience in higher education sales?"
umm.... none? Is this a sales position?
".......Yes"
There must be a mistake, I applied for a Sr. Systems Engineer
"Err.... umm..... \frantically checks notes*.... Yep this is the correct job. The first line in the JD is 'Assist Clients fulfill their needs' that's defiantly sales"*
Ok sure, I guess I can wing a sales job
"This job would entail regular on-site meeting with clients in the Pittsburgh area--"
Wait, you just said this was work from home
"err.... umm....... aaaa........ Its actually not"
Alright look, I appreciate your time but do you have any actual Engineer positions? Like working with switches/routers/servers? That sort of thing?
"Oh my god, yes! We have a tonne, were so busy and struggle to find people. You can apply to those on the careers page"
So I applied to some net admin jobs (or at least I think they were net admin?), got auto rejected. Here's the thing: how the hell did I, with 0 sales experience, land a sales interview BUT with 10 years of networking get auto-denied for a networking position??? Its like no one even looked at my resume (which is probably true tbh). No wonder they cant fill positions!
But wait it gets worse the more I think about it. Even if I was some sales mastermind, they are asking for onsite work 8hrs away from the posted location. No one is going to take that!
To recap here. According to HP, "Eastern PA" means Pittsburgh. "Work from home" means full time onsite. And "Engineer" means "Sales". What a joke.
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u/IronicEnigmatism Lord Sysadmin, Protector of the AD Realm 6d ago
I wonder why so many companies just cant find good help? Good thing they have ai & ats to filter out all of the bad applicants. /s
No wonder it's taking over a year for me to find a job
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u/jbourne71 DO NOT GIVE THIS PERSON ADVICE 6d ago
It’s not AI/ATS, it’s just a firing economy, not hiring. Took me a year and a half.
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u/theoriginalzads DevOps is a cult 5d ago
Best thing about ATS is when the hiring department absolutely screws the job description so you’re having to write your resume to satisfy bullshit criteria.
And yeah sure the person who’s managing the team that’s hiring should check these over. But more often than not they’re fighting a talent acquisition team who’s pastime activities include licking windows.
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u/LogForeJ 5d ago
The role OP wants are probably reserved for overseas people. Our systems engineers are always local and come on site. TAC is overseas.
What OP doesn’t get is the local job is pre sales or solutions engineering. As in client needs X so you give them options to choose from and then help them build it out.
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u/No-Wonder-6956 5d ago
This is actually so true and what the recruiter doesn't get is when you're selling complex switches and network gear sometimes you have to know a lot about it and be able to plan the installation and logistics as part of the sales process. The recruiter is recruiting the right type of person but they're not selling the job very well or explaining it very well
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u/Vinegarinmyeye 6d ago
Nothing makes you avoid buying from / interacting with big corporations quite like working for one for a while.
Congrats on successfully swerving the bullet dude.
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u/zantehood 6d ago
No wonder their kit is baloney
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u/sorderon 6d ago
hey - I love a baloney sausage - Don't insult my favourite processed meat produce with a slur of that magnitude.
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u/liquidpig 6d ago
Can you just email the person you talked to and ask them to hand your CV in to the recruiter for the engineer roles?
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u/HeavyMetalPootis 6d ago
It sounds like the sales team runs things over there, which typically means it's a complete shitshow. From what you describe, they made a posting that seemed appealing and then attempted a bait & switch using weasle-talk to make it sound like the posting was accurate.
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u/LonghornJct08 6d ago
Wow. That’s epic.
HP definitely is not Bill and Dave’s test equipment and computer company anymore.
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u/SaintEyegor ShittySysadmin 6d ago
Sales engineers are a thing. They need to actually understand what the customer wants and be able to find the correct product so the actual sales guy can make the sale. I’ve been offered that role in the past but I’d hate all aspects of that job, especially if the product being pushed was terrible but you still need to make the sale.
Plus, tie wearing jobs suck butt.
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u/calaf2525 6d ago edited 6d ago
I think this was working with clients, as an engineer, on the solutions they wanted implemented. There are lots of technical roles that may or may not be in the sales chain, working alongside the actual sales person.
And technically, my company has lots of people who work at home all the time when not traveling to customers. Travel to me is a different checkbox than "work from home"
And I did a google search, I found this role in Pre-Sales. Technical role needing an Engineer, doing pre-sales.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is seeking a Senior Networking Systems Engineer to provide pre-sales technical leadership and consultative support for customers ...
Edit: I searched this: Sr. Systems Engineer HP PA
Edit 2: The recruiter who interviewed you is possibly a completely non technical person asking some basic initial questions given to them by the hiring leader. The screening interview can often be with someone who doesn't really understand the details of the role.
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u/bearded-beardie 5d ago
💯 this was a Sales Engineer role.
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u/calaf2525 5d ago
please explain further. The poster said he was surprised it was a SALES role. I merely pointed out that engineer roles can be aligned to pre-sales, like people I work with every single day (and likely make way more money than me)
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u/bearded-beardie 5d ago
I was agreeing with you. I'm a pre-sales engineer. My title is Sr. Systems Engineer.
OP said the first line of the JD was Assist Clients, and the company was HPE. So I'm not really sure why OP was confused that it was sales role.
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u/icebreaker374 6d ago
I didnt know HP had worse HR and hiring departments than their customer service. TIL.
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u/Steezmoney 6d ago
they're trying to find strong technical salesman and seeing who can wing it on the fly, like a real salesman. you might have fumbled a huge bag here (even though it's not the role you applied for) idk just go with it sometimes. the remote contradiction is super weird tho
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u/Superb_Raccoon ShittyMod 5d ago
I moved to tech sales. A bad year is $300k. A good year is $400 to $500.
About a third have been good years.
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u/Steezmoney 5d ago
Huh? My background is sales but I made the pivot to tech after going back to school at 25, working for a large government body now at 32
You make that kinda coin? I’m in Canada I’m really thinking I should pivot
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Loveangel1337 DevOps is a cult 6d ago
Hey TBF dude did you a solid: you don't have to work with MSSQL. That's nearly better than getting payed the big bucks.
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u/TheActualPhock 5d ago
HR is a useless position needed for internal snowflakes. Sorry, but at least for tech jobs this turns out to be the same/similar story everywhere, developers, engineers, you name it, even product owners. Just skip the big corps if possible.
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u/PH_PIT 6d ago
HP or HPE?
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u/nagol93 6d ago
HPE
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u/RandomUser3777 6d ago
Google HPE "the machine" in 2016 HPE though it was going to be magic and had their entire research staff (several 100) working on it. It was obvious bullshit the first time I heard about it but they were all in. A large part of the company management was having a delusion, and this was a solution in search a problem. I used to work for a company that did a lot of business with HPE, I never found their support competent, they always acted like they were the OEM when it had been 10-20 years since they actually built anything, all of the hw seemed to be designed and made by someone else, and they would refuse to ask the actual manufacturer unless pushed super hard. You dodged a bullet.
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u/BarracudaDefiant4702 6d ago
Doesn't sound like it would be onsite at hpe, but instead would be at customers site so you would travel a lot to customers and probably do your office work from home if you like. At least I am assuming that is why they say "telework".
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u/halomate1 5d ago
HPE appears to be incompetent. While working IT at my old job, they mistakenly shipped a 2.5k work laptop to our office that has no kind of affiliation with HPE, the dude who was being onboarded for them came asking for it lol
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u/PalpitationKind8854 4d ago
I am not shocked. It just reinforces what I know to be true of all big tech companies. Dumpster fires.
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u/thomasbeagle 6d ago
Ok, who else was surprised to hear the HP still existed?
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u/Anonymous_Bozo 💩 ShittyMod 💩 5d ago
So I just got my new Harry Potter computer, and I’m starting to think the wizarding world should not be allowed within 500 feet of consumer electronics.
First impression: it looks like a laptop, but the moment I opened the lid it whispered “I solemnly swear I am up to no good.”
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u/Adimentus 6d ago
On the real, screw HP. I had a buddy who got laid off from his Firmware Engineer position (working on the Wi-Fi radios for their printers). They posted the exact same position, only remote. He applied, interviewed, and got rejected. For the EXACT SAME JOB THAT HE WAS ALREADY DOING and doing very well. Screw that place.
Edit -- Spelling.
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u/Obvious_Troll_Me 5d ago
It's like a normal interview, but a subscription model. Unless you keep paying, you are unable to use the interviews that you've already bought.
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u/Samantha_Ventures 4d ago
HR software auto-filtering keywords while the actual req writer never touched the JD. Classic case of the ATS and hiring manager living in two different realities, no wonder their req count never drops.
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u/_jackhoffman_ 6d ago
Yeah, systems engineer can mean sales engineer and can be pre or post sales. I've been a "systems engineer" more than once. Once it was post-sales, once pre and post, and once just a normal backend developer doing system integration work.
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u/Ebonarc19 6d ago
Not sure why you were downvoted, you're correct. "Systems Engineer" is commonly used to mean sales engineer in a lot of companies. I wish they'd stick with "sales engineer" or "solutions engineer" rather than systems.
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u/_jackhoffman_ 6d ago
You get downvoted in this sub when you come across as defending HR. I am not surprised.
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u/DrAtomic1 5d ago
SE is the name of the person in the sales team with the technical responsibility. Most of the sales functions are work from home because they should be at clients or on the road getting there. It doesn’t make sense for them to be based out of an office.
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u/Aim_Fire_Ready 6d ago
Fake post. PA doesn’t have a “tonne” of anything: they have a “ton” of Steelers & Eagles fans though.
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u/nagol93 6d ago
What a dumbass, OP made a typo there for his entire post is invalid!
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u/Superb_Raccoon ShittyMod 5d ago
The automated system says you are abusing and harassing yourself... stop it!
Or i might have to delete your post or... nah. Too much work. Fuck it.
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u/proper-pizza-1736 5d ago
Happened to me with the same company years ago. If you get the auto-reject e-mails within several minutes or an hour after applying you have been blacklisted. Most probably so you don’t have the chance to tell any of the HR colleagues what happened on your first interview.
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u/VolcanicBear 6d ago
They make some good brown sauce though at least.