I’m currently working in a somewhat easy at home call center job, but have been improving my technical skills over the past year. Of course I’ve been applying for remote technical positions since I don’t have a vehicle yet but landed the job I currently have so I can work on that (but completely unrelated position). I located an opening at Support.com for PTE which listed paying $1.50 more than I’m currently making. I thought PERFECT! This seems like the best amateur-ish place for me to start practicing real-life tech experience. So, I made it through to the interview and this is where things get strange. I like to read reviews of a place I may have the opportunity to work with. Although 99.97% of the Support.com reviews were horrible, I continued thinking ‘how bad can it really be if I already have years of customer experience and being under bad management experience’? I update myself on notes for the position, read the horrible reviews, and do a google search on my interviewer and the company. I saw a mugshot of who I jokingly said to my friend ‘I’m sure this is not the person interviewing me’! Day of the interview. I get ready for my interview like I’m walking into a panel of people who are going to ask me questions. Clean as a whistle since I had to be on camera. Low and freaking behold! It WAS the same guy I saw on the mugshot in google, but he didn’t have the courtesy to get on camera, it was an image which was totally fine for me at that point. My nerves were already telling me ‘now why would I want to work for a place who has people with clear public mugshots interviewing the candidates’? Anyway, my 1st system didn’t pass and I emailed additional tests back for a desktop I have just to get an ‘automated’ response at midnight reading I did not respond to the interview, which I clearly had at that point. This was all a sign from whoever/whatever is in control and I am grateful. Sometimes the grass is not greener. I will remain humble in my current position while I study longer to become more capable of applying for a company with better reviews and zero interviewer mugshots! Although my current TL is uninvolved, and pay is low, I don’t have to worry about working for a place like Support.com and very happy about it. Like I dodged a bullet!

Usually entry level techs are recruited through craigslist or internal referral. Online basic qualification test using outdated system requirements for work from home model (ie; a pentium 4 at 3ghz is a better, faster, system than an ivy i5) Questions are obscure and designed to promote multitasking research ability using internet search. Interviews conducted by "Call Center" supervisors/tech leads using arbitrary scale. Full background check and requires notarized documentation of identification.