Geek Squad

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Does anyone know anything about these guys? I have an interview with them on friday and I'm not sure whether getting this position would help me to progress my career, or whether it's just a dressed up retail role. The title of it is 'counter intelligence agent' which really doesn't help to understand what I will be required to do..

Also have another interview coming up next week, so any advice how to prepare? What sort of questions are usually asked at an entry level interview?

 

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Sounds to me like you are giving advice over the counter for that Geek squad job.

 

They are the same as the tech guys at pc world.

 

I applied for it some time ago as well, it was part time, and according to description it was IT Technician role mixed with sales assistant, at least that's how I understood it.
In my town there is Carphone Warehouse, and they sell mostly phones (and about 3 netbooks )

 

Cringe.

 

If the role gives you some hands-on troubleshooting tasks and isn't just a counter sales assistant role, it could help you gain some "professional" hands-on IT experience. I've heard some people claim that it won't really help you get a role in corporate IT because it's a "retail" job, but I tend to disagree with that. If I'm looking for an entry-level help desk person, I'd be more inclined to hire someone who has some experience with being paid to troubleshoot than someone who doesn't have any experience.

EDIT: I'll echo what Ken said, too. Whether it will help you is entirely dependent on what you're after with your career.

 

Thanks for the feedack people. What I think I shall do is interview them while they're interviewing me and try to figure out whether it will help me at the same time. If it's not for me atleast I will gain a better understanding of what I do want. With any luck maybe it will be more technical than sales... maybe!

 

http://www.geeksquad.com/careers/computer-agents/counter-intelligence-agent.aspx

http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/mac-geniuses-vs-geek-squad-cias/ has some good information about salary although it is all American.


also Counter intelligience Agent means you will work on the Counter (Hence the name)

 

Yes, try here and here.

And "Counter Intelligence Agent" sounds more that you will be countering all intelligence... So probably a spot on assessment if PC world here is anything to go by.

 

The sales part is probably pushing upgrades when people bring things in for repair. Sounds like there's plenty hands-on work, plus you can sharpen your customer service skills when you have to explain to customers why their in-warranty repair is still at the manufacturers workshop and no, you have no idea when it will be ready.

If you don't already have a job in IT then I'd give it a try. It'll look good on your CV for entry-level jobs and there is a steep learning curve so you won't get bored for a few months at least.

 

bro just go for any role that you can that will give you go experience, also do certs cause u love learning not cause it is in demand.

 

Hmm. geek squad, fancy name.

 

Hey,

Like the others have said, any experience you can get nowadays is good. I looked into geek squad when I was job hunting back in '09 and came across some people who had bad experiences. Granted, it's worth a grain of salt since mileage might vary, but because it's in a best buy they have a reputation of pushing the reps to meet sales quotas and push services and equipment on the customers. So yes, you will get experience in handling technical issues, but depending on the management they might expect you to be a salesman in a certain capacity. You won't know until you actually start the position what it's like, but I know that it was part of the reason why I didn't consider it when I was searching. I do wish you luck and say that try and get the most out of any experience... there's always something to learn from the good and the bad.

 

Update: I went to the assessment on friday and then had an interview afterwards, unfortunately I just got pipped at the post by someone with a little more experience. So not brilliant, however I did really enjoy the day and being surrounded by other techs made me feel alot more comfortable in my own skin. I definitely need to break into this industry asap!

 

Sorry about that, buddy. At least you got some experience with the interview process and it will hopefully help you in the next time around! Keep at it. If you are determined you will be able to get your foot in the door. The trick is to persevere!

 

j.hinds can you share your expierence of the day/interview and tell us if you found out anymore about the job roll so future members can see this?

Onto the next interview aswell, 2nd best aint bad.

 

I was goofing off one day and decided to fill out their online application and assessment guide. I did it as dishonestly as I possibly could, from a role of "screw the customer and squeeze as much $$$ out of them as possible". Within FIFTEEN minutes of completing the online process I had a phone call wanting me to come in for an interview.

I'm definitely not better than anyone else, but I now laugh at the white shirts and black ties.

If you think this will advance you career, I say go for it.

 

Yeah sure I don't see why not. The assessment started at 10am, it was meant to be 9:30 but unfortunately they were not ready in time. Myself and the rest of the group of shortlisted candidates entered what I can only describe as Lord Sugars board room, there we were introduced to 3 employees of the geek squad all know as agents

After we all did short introductions, we watched a couple of videos about the geek sqaud and its history and then we then began a series of 4 tasks. The first one being a group exercise to create an advert I believe to show creativity, how we approached a problem, teamworking, leadership, communication .etc

The second thing we was required to do was a written test, pretty basic stuff really (Basic hardware and troublshooting mainly) e.g what's the difference between a static and dynamic IP address?

Following this we were given a laptop each with preset problems which we had to figure out, fix and document.

Finally those who performed well in the previous tasks (4 of us) were given an interview which lasted about 45 minutes. During the actual interview itself they tried to figure out a little bit more about each of the candidates by asking some pre-written competancy questions.

This event lasted all day from 09:30 until approximately 16:00. So as you may have already guessed there was quite abit of sitting around waiting for things to happen, in which time we talked amoungst ourself about the IT inustry and many things relating to it.. This forum being one of those topics!

All in all a pretty fun filled day, lunch was provided and many lessons were learnt.