Monday, August 17, 2009

The Trouble with Interns, Part 1

Confession: I’m not fond of people between the ages of 14 and 25.

I find them self-absorbed and clueless. Also meta-clueless – clueless about being clueless.

(Oh, give me a break. Everyone is prejudiced against some group. At least it’s possible to outgrow the target group for my bigotry.)

Anyway, because of this, as an IT manager I avoided hiring interns. This story should help you understand why.

Rashmi was between her junior and senior years at Purdue when she worked with us. She was extremely bright – she had 5 different majors and was carrying 4.0’s in all of them. More impressive to me, she accomplished actual programming work – no mean feat without a mainframe background.

Over the course of the summer, she shared her automotive history with us.

When she finished high school, she was given a brand new Honda Civic as a graduation present. She promptly totaled it.

Annoyed, her father refused to buy her another new car. Instead, he gave her a six-month-old, fully-loaded Honda Accord. Two weeks later, she loaned it to a friend, who rolled it.

He then bought her another new car, another Honda Civic, which she was still driving as our story begins.

But it wasn’t the only car she owned.

That spring, while on break in L.A. with a bunch of friends, she’d inadvertently purchased a Rolls Royce.

How, you ask, do you accidentally buy a $200,000 car?

Apparently, the family of one of the kids in the group collected Rolls. When the lighthearted crowd saw a dealership, they decided to go window shopping, and this kid fell in love with a model on the showroom floor. Because he didn’t have his ID with him, Rashmi signed the paperwork, believing that she was simply attesting to his identity.

But when the kid told his parents about the car, they said, “We do not need another Corniche sitting around taking up space. We’re not buying that car.”

Rashmi's parents’ lawyer was still trying to back out of the deal.

Tomorrow: The Sheriff Said What?

17 comments:

  1. "not fond of people between the ages of 14 and 25."

    You're right, they are clueless. And as a wise 27-yr-old I'm glad I've just made it past that range!

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  2. You're right. Everyone DOES hate a group of people irrationally.

    Mine happens to be Purdue students.

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  3. Sounds much like my sister, one of the most brilliant people I know, but not a lick of common sense.

    Side note: I decided to stop having birthday's after 25, but (sigh) I guess I can make it 26 so I can be on your good side.

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  4. The problem here is not the kid, but the dimwit parent who keeps buying the cars, don't you think?

    I agree. Clueless. All of them.

    Kat

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  5. I know quite a few very mart people who could use a lot more common sense.

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  6. Bought a rolls-royce on accident huh? Well there's a story that kid will be telling way after the 26th birthday party!

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  7. Sounds like it is more the parents of the 14 to 25 year olds that are causing you trouble! If they would quit buying the cars and getting her out of her messes, she might be tolerable.

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  8. Jeanne- I lived for the time my sons would actually realize how much I taught them... Today one is going to be 29, and the other 32 soon- both said something to the effect, "The older I got, the more sense you made"... Book smart and street smart are two different catagories! Common sense aint't that common, and reading people has little to do with what they say!

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  9. Maybe the clueless increases with the income of the parents?

    I'll agree that a lot of the young folks are clueless, but the most annoying ones seem to be the totally spoiled ones.

    (I'm not quite 30 yet - am I allowed to talk down about the under 25 crowd? But at 25 I was married, owned a house and a naval officer.)

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  10. Is that real? If it is, I would say the really stupid ones are the parents that keeping buying new cars.

    xoxox

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  11. Jeanne, thanks for the constant ignition.
    The idiocy of youth is only overshadowed by the idiocy of old age.

    Show me a 30's mom with a muffin top. Let all tattoos pass like the long hair of the seventies. Let them all pass.

    Hand me down an interracial couple with a whiney kid who only wants a toy.

    Give me a a fat wife.

    Give me a fat husband

    Show me a guy Bob Dylans age with black hair dye and and hidden gut.

    Show me a woman who decides to let her hair grow a natural grey... followed by the sexy smile of eye contact.

    Show me a white man who, one day, decides to himself to never again say the famous word "nigger".

    Give me the gift of humility so I can understand the truth of forgiveness.
    Oh Sparkle Farkle... I hope to see you in my dreams where where we all actually love people equally, regardless of their ownership of commomn sense.


    And always remember, mentally challenged souls carry the gift of love in their eyes. The rest of us are the idiots.

    sg

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  12. Oh God. Another thing I have to worry about when P gets older. Cosigning for a Rolls Royce

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  13. So I'm catching up on blogs, which means reading them backwards (um, obviously...). This girl has a serious problem with cars! But if she has *this* much trouble with cars, I can't believe that's the only problem.....

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  14. I do like that age group...maybe I am clueless! But...I have a bigger problem with her parents...her father in particular!

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  15. Maybe I should have read Part 1 before Part 2. Now that I'm awake it all makes more sense.

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  16. Meta-clueless is my new favourite word.

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