Job Opening at Sprint!

Dear Job-Seeking Friends and Family,

If you need a job, it appears that Sprint (the cell phone company) has a few openings for qualified individuals in possession of a specific skill set.  Ideal candidates would have experience writing code for scheduling software (like the sort that dental receptionists use) or for pocket calculators (with or without order of operations).

If you know how to write code for every single one of this calculator's functions, then you are exactly the sort of employee that Sprint needs!

Your duties will include figuring out a way for Sprint to schedule a "stop-service" or a "start-service," even if the date requested is outside of the current billing cycle.  If you have written code for a dental office, chiropractor's office, or even a hair salon, you definitely have what it takes.  Unfortunately, none of Sprint's current computer programmers do.

This is a computer programmer for Sprint.  He's trying to write code, but it's hard for him.

You also must be able to calculate a customer's pro-rated final billing statement.  For instance, if a customer is stopping their cell phone service on the eighth day of their billing cycle, you would need to be able to multiply their usual monthly bill by a fraction (in this case, eight thirtieths).  I know that this is not an ability that every job-seeking individual possesses.  Please only apply for this position if you have a fifth-grader's grasp of fractions!

If this chart confuses you, then unfortunately you do not possess the specific skill set needed to work for Sprint.

Best of luck in your job search!

Sincerely yours,

A customer who was not allowed to wait until Monday to shut off her phone service because her billing cycle ends tomorrow, and the computer just won't allow customer service representatives to do anything outside of the current billing cycle.

P.S.  To be fair, Sprint is not the only cell phone provider that needs computer programmers with common sense; the customer service representative to whom I spoke explained to me that this is truly an industry-wide problem.