Okay ... I'm interviewing with them at 8:45 am (I know ... go to bed). I've decided it's probably best to try to throw the interview, even though I really need a job. I just figure if they are that shady about being on the cheap, I can't even begin to imagine how much fun it will be if I'm submitting expense reports for travel.

what position are you interviewing for?

Somebody post the entire grenade story.[/Charger Ag].

I can't believe I had never read this thread and have just finished reading every post.

Great stuff.

[This message has been edited by powerbiscuit (edited 11/30/2005 2:21a).]

Hahaha- Boss Hogg. I never really made that connection, but it's dead-on. I always thought of him more as The Penguin.

I always thought it was so funny how Boss Hogg was so self-righteous and chose his son to run things straight out of college (even though they supposedly don't hire managers straight out of college and he happened to be the biggest smoker/drinker of the bunch).

Boss Hogg = Carlton Cooper?

boss hogg = I don't remember names well, but he had a boy riding his coat tails even though he couldn't tie his own shoes

[This message has been edited by powerbiscuit (edited 11/16/2004 2:11a).]

[This message has been edited by powerbiscuit (edited 11/30/2005 2:24a).]

[This message has been edited by powerbiscuit (edited 11/30/2005 2:24a).]

In good faith, I cannot allow this thread to die!

Anyone wanting to work for UCS or can’t find a job, please, for the love of God, reconsider. Working at Taco Bell would be better that working for this company.

I worked there... twice. I started out in '98 while I was in college working on the bench repairing 830 printers. That wasn't so bad other than the constant feeling of someone watching you. It was great seeing "Big Johnson" with his feet up on the desk staring at you while you tried to work. I finally quit that job after the bonfire collapse in ’99 and moved out of town.

After I graduated from college in ’03 I couldn't find a job at all. I moved back to College Station, gave up and went back to UCS in Jan. '04 because they are always hiring. I worked in the PC System Support department answering telephones. I was also lied to during the interview and was told that we would be answering phones a little bit, but mostly working on client's computers in the lab. BS!!! Eight hours a day listening to clients and techs complain about how crappy UCS's computer systems are, as if we didn’t already know this. My desk computer that I did all of my work on was a 300 MHz machine that took almost 5 minutes to boot and just as long if you tried to open any programs. It was hard to get much done with that blazing fast technology. After two months I got the joy of getting a pager. Having no clue was this was for I just figured it was a job perk. Then they gave me the On-Call laptop. Nothing like being on-call once a month for a FULL WEEK of having morons call you at all hours of the night because they can't wait until the morning. Even better, you didn't get a damn penny for doing it... it was just one of those nice little job duties they forgot to mention during the interview process. This made it very hard on my wife who was still trying to finish up school. There was almost no sleep for a full week once a month. The turnover rate in my department was absolutely horrible. There were 8 cubicles and one person would quit about every month. At one point it was just me and a buddy of mine answering the phones while the supervisor was training three new guys because everyone else quit.

I also loved having to clean up our cubicles for an inspection every month that never happened. Our boss would inspect our cubes and then his boss would do the same thing. We were always told that bobby and robby would be coming by and that’s what we were cleaning for but it never happened.

Oh yeah, do not EVER get sick while using the UCS insurance company. In the 8 month duration I worked in hell, my wife and I went to the doctor probably 6 time combined. EVERY FRIGGIN claim was denied and to this day we are still fighting two of them. These doctor visits were for nothing unusual, the flu, woman visits, strep throat… nothing that UCS does not pay for and their insurance DENIED ALL OF THEM.

The week before I left our part time guy quit. The next week I quit and two days later my supervisor put in his two week notice. A week later, my best friend who worked with me quit, joined the Army and went to Iraq… kind of tells you how bad it was there!

I finally found another job that I am still working at and LOVE! I am making almost double what I was making at UCS and no one watches me at my new job. I feel like I went from a sweat shop to paradise. Working for UCS helped me understand how bad things can be so I don’t sweat the little stuff anymore. Other than that, I cannot stand UCS and wouldn’t wish working there on anyone.

Jon
God bless and Gig Em '03

why let it die?

agsrmyteam...I revisit this thread and find someone calling me out (in a friendly way)...

if you are still out there, 15 months later, we probably did know each other, and I'm thinking your name rhymes with "like smoke ridge"...if it's you, I hope you are doing well...if it's not you, I still hope you are doing well, since I probably still know you...if you get this, let me know by responding to this thread...

Jon, I worked right across from you with hardware support. Whenever I get stressed at my current job, I think about UCS and all is well again. I remember when my teammates and I were racing to see who could quit first. We all left within a 3 week period except for one poor guy.

The nearly two years that I worked there was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. I started in peripheral technical support, which was housed in the Golden Corral strip center on University. Basically, 90% of the staff was new, and we were all working fairly hard trying to pick up on everything. We all shared the common bond of being trapped in a horrible job with little hope. One day our group supervisor gathered us up and cussed everyone out because some whiny worker said we were passing tough calls along to others. That resulted in three workers leaving within the next week, and most of the rest of the staff soon after. They just refused to deal with all the BS.

To give you an idea of how much I hated that job, I used to think of ways I could get in crashes on the way to work. I just wanted to get maimed bad enough to miss a few weeks of work.

I worked with a good group of guys, and I hope they are all doing well. For those left behind, I can only hope someday they escape from that place.

drivinwest,

Did your sup's name begin with a "T" and end with "d"? He was actually a nice guy, but I feel your pain.

Ron,

No, that was the sup for perpiheral systems support (PSS). I was in PTS. I actually liked my sup (KR), but he was just in such a no-win situation trying to train an entirely new group of techs. They used three guys that traveled in everyday from Houston, and resented every second of it. I remember one time after sitting there for two weeks thumbing through manuals, I asked him a few questions, and he let out a heavy sigh and started an impromptu training session on the white board. It was like they were totally unprepared for the move to College Station, which was weird because you would think they had plenty of time to prepare.

[This message has been edited by Sofa King (edited 2/15/2007 5:19p).]

WOOHOO...Made it to the end of the thread!

Can't believe I went through that whole thing and there was no grenade story.

Worked at a company near there in the Blockbuster/Golden Corral shopping center and we were pretty surprised when they moved in and there were little lab-coated folks marching in and out and needing a code to go everywhere...it was amusing. I think the top guy at UCS at that time (at that location) had reddish hair and a big mustache...big guy that wore Cowboy boots with his suit...dunno his name, but he was okay to folks not working for him.

I work for a company that was just bought out by UCS, and they wasted no time turning the place into a prison camp. What freaking planet are these guys from anyway?

this thread will never die.

It looks like UCS is the cancer that is taking over the IT world, at least in my life at this time. I just hope they gather enough people for a class action suit to shut their damn doors. *******s like this deserve the electric chair, not a payraise. I won't stand for their ****..

Does the company that UCS recently bought have 2 words in the name, the first one starting with an A and the second one starting with an S?

yup..

Be careful - they're everywhere...

True. It looks like Bob Brockman has already infiltrated this thread- but he forgot to use an alias.

Damn it, I forgot to change my name! How dare you people criticize the greatest software company since IBM. You're all fired!

i want to work there just so i can quit and tell whoever my boss is to f off. i did this once at copy corner (worked there for a total of 15 minutes) and also at some telemarketing company in san antonio (worked there for about 8 hours). the look on people's faces when you tell them you're quitting after they just spent all kinds of time/money/effort hiring and training you, aahhhhh god it never gets old and this place sounds like it needs to be jacked with very bad.

What is the IT job market like in Houston and College Station? I can imagine it's still not great if UCS can get away with these terrible practices and still keep people employed. Then again, that must explain why they are "always hiring".

Is there really a grenade story??

yes its on one of the 11 pages

this thread has totally discouraged me from ever thinking of UCS!

Thank you texags!

And ChargerAg's legacy lives on.

FRREEEEEDDDDOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!

Oh the feeling one gets after walking out those doors for the last time.

I am NOT reading 11 pages of thread to hear about this grenade story. Tell, tell!

the grenade story is on this thread if you look hard enough.


its a stupid story





Make the choice adventurous stranger, strike the bell and bide the danger
Or wonder 'till it drives you mad what would have happened if you had.

PS: This is what that part of the alphabet would look like if you removed Q and R