HireLink Electronic Application System
05/16/03
by Venadium

I wrote this article 2 years ago for an
e-zine a friend and I started that never ended up getting past the first
issue. I was broswing around my hard drive and came across it, so I
decided to submit it. I'm too lazy to proofread it, I just copied and
pasted. Enjoy.

-------------------------------


Happy Holidays everyone! Let me start off by saying that this is my
first text file/article that I've ever written, so it's going to be
pretty unorganized and inconsistant, so you're going to have to try to
ignore that. OK, so I'm about to attempt to explain to you the HireLink
system now being used by many department stores around the country, but
first the disclaimer. You're probably going to skip though this, but
that doesnt matter, because if you get kicked out of a store or even in
trouble for messing with the HireLink phones, you can't go blaming me
for it (i always wondered, what sort of idiot would say "But a text file
told me to do it!"?).


Anyway, here we go... Since it's the holiday season, you've probably
been spending a little more time in large department stores like Toys R'
Us and Target, that is, if you aren't a heartless Scrooge and actually
bought your family and friends some gifts. Anyway, back to the stores,
I'm going to use Toys R' Us as an example throughout this article. Lets
say you go into Toys R' Us for whatever reason, and you soon notice this
row of phones, or maybe a single phone, with an LCD screen on it.
"Interesting" you say, and go over to investigate. What you will find
is, depending on what model the store is using, a beige ITT type phone
with an LCD screen, or a newer looking, more contoured black phone like
the one to the right, both with a standard keypad, plus a small keyboard
that slides out from within the phone (this article is written using
hands-on experience with the older beige phone, but having toyed a bit
with the newer phone, I can say that it's pretty much the same besides
maybe so me fancier graphics). There are also a few "function" buttons
under the screen, their function depends on what is displayed on the
screen above them. So now you may be thinking "Ok, I know what it is and
what it looks like, but what does it do, and how does it work?". Well,
that's a good question. Before I explain how it works, you should know
what it does. It's pretty simple really. Instead of filling out a paper
job application, you sit at the phone, which is really more of a
glorified fax machine, and type up your application, which is customized
depending on what store you are applying at, then it gets faxed or
otherwise sent to Decision Point Systems, which will then fax it to the
store you are applying at. The way it works is simple. At the main menu,
you will either see 2 or 4 choices as to what you can do. The 4 choice
menu is more common, and look like this:

 
  
 
1 English Application 
2 Spanish Application 
3 Request Faxback 
4 New Hire Notification 
______________________________________ 
 SYST     
 



Notice the 4 spaces at the bottom, one of them says SYST, those are the
functions for the 4 function buttons I told you about. Now I'll expain
what each menu choice does:





1 - Start filling out an English Application

2 - Hmm, I wonder.....

3 - This is a password protected menu choice, and is used if one of the
applications was lost or otherwise damaged while being faxed to the
store.

4 - This is also password protected, and is used by the employer to
notify Decision Point Systems that "Applicant XYZ" has been hired. SYST
- Access the System Menu, obviously password protected.

So you may be wondering, "Aw man, passwords, geez, how am I going to
mess with this thing if it's protected by passwords?". Well don't worry!
The password for these systems is usually (by default) the 4 digit store
#, and is easily attained by either looking ona receipt or just asking.
Now that you have the password, you're probably going to want to check
out the System Menu first. Expect to see something like this:


 
SYSTEM MENU 
 
 
             DECISION POINT SYSTEMS 
                  *STORE NAME* 
                  *STORE LOC.* 
 
  
 
1 Dial into APS 
2 Review Session 
3 Results Menu 
4 Extend Session 
5 Resume Session 
6 Initiate Practice Session 
7 Maintenance Menu 
 ______________________________________ 
 SESS    
 
          
 
  PHONE    



Now to explain what everything does:



1 - This will dial into APS (Application Processing System) and send any
completed applications. They are then faxed back to the appropriate
store in a nice neat format.

2 - This is definately an interesting function, it has actually been
disabled by Decision Point Systems for legal reasons, and is protected
by a different password than what is used on the other menus.

3 - Results of the day's worth of applications

4 - An incomplete application can be saved for later completion, but
will eventually "time-out" and be erased. Extending the session gives it
more time before being deleted.

5 - As said above, an incomplete app. can be saved for later
completetion, and this will pick up from where you left off.

6 - Starts a demo application, I have no idea of it's purposes, maybe to
show employees how to help people who are having trouble filling out an
application. The word 'TEST' will flash in inverse on the sides of the
screen to let you know you are in 'test mode'.

7 - Brings up the maintenance menu, which you will see in just a bit...

SESS - Return to the main menu where applicants can start an application

PHONE - The coolest thing abou this phone is, well that it's a phone of
course! This will bring up a blank screen that displays numbers as you
dial them. There arent any long-distance restrictions on the line,
becuase the APS dialup number is LD. The phone will return to the System
Menu when you hang up.

OK, and now for the Maintenance Menu:


 
 
                  
 
MAINTENANCE MENU 
               DECISION POINT SYSTEMS 
 
 
1 Change Location 
2 Change Phone # 
3 Change Auto Dial Time 
4 Auto Dial Status: ON / OFF 
5 Current Settings 
6 Pending Sessions 
7 Advanced Menu 
 ______________________________________ 
 SYST    
 





1 - Change the Location # of the phone. The Location # is basically the
ID # assigned to the store by HireLink.

2 - Change the # the phone uses to dial APS

3 - Change the time of day the phone dials into APS

4 - Displays and changes the status of Auto Dial (ON or OFF)

5 - Display Current Settings (more on this in a bit)

6 - Displays any suspended sessions

7 - Basically just tells you if Dial Tone Detect is on or off


Here's what the Current Settings screen looks like:

(All of these settings are from the Toys R' Us in Hylan Plaza on Staten
Island, in New York City)

 
 
    DECISION POINT SYSTEMS     01-03-01 
     Copyright 1996-2000 
      CURRENT SETTINGS 
 
 Company Number:         252XX 
 Location Number:     000063XX 
 DCU ID Number:         0033XX 
 DCU Serial Number: 95340005XX 
 Tech. Support:   800-338-XXXX 
 Auto Dial 1:     503-596-XXXX  
 Auto Dial 2:     503-596-XXXX 
 Auto Dial Status: ON at 21:21 
_______________________________________ 
<- BACK  
 



The company number is the number assigned by HireLink (in this case the
company is Toys R' Us). The Location number is the number unique to that
specific building. The DCU ID and Serial number refer to the phone unit
itself, and the rest is pretty self explanatory. Some other interesting
things to note about this unit is that there is a serial port for
attaching a tablet for signatures, and a slot on the side labeled "Smart
Card". I'm guessing this is for software upgrades but I never did find
out for sure.

-------------------------------

I should mention that since I wrote this article, Toys R' Us no longer
uses the HireLink system. Also, the hardware has probably been upgraded
multiple times along with the software, but I doubt much has changed as
far as the default passwords or system menus goes. You might try looking
for these in Blockbuster, that's the last place I've seen one. I also
heard they use, or at one point, used these at Target.

Also, I'd like to say I had some trouble formatting the menues because
of the small text entry box. My ASCII menus were a bit larger in
original article so I had to edit them to fit, so they may turn out
looking like shit.