Prev: how many ways to disable telnet
Next: OpenSolaris User Group Möte 13 Maj kl 16:30 hos SUN Akalla Sweden
From: Jim Nathan on 21 Apr 2008 14:43

> The fourth was honest, and told me clearly what he didn't know.
> Honesty won -- an honest/trustworthy person was also a requirement
> of the job, just as it is with most jobs. He fitted in to the team
> brilliantly and I definately made the right choice.

Thanks for the response from everyone. But I wanted to focus on
Andrew's response because clearly he's been in the role of an
interviewer and hiring decision maker. I see a conundrum with the
"honesty" approach which is not to say that I don't agree with it and
am not an honest person; sometimes I think I'm too honest. Here's what
I'm thinking...

I've heard that recruiters and hiring managers typically look for
keywords on a resume; the first culling of resumes are usually the
ones that don't mention the skills that are being sought. I would say
that beyond having a very good grounding in one or more of the Unix or
Linux flavors, the top tool skills being sought by employers are the
Veritas tools, SAN, and ERP/database applications. (Basic shell
scripting, excluding Perl, I consider to be part of the standard Unix
skillset.) If I only have cursory exposure to these tools, do I or do
I not mention them on my resume? If I don't, then I get very few face-
to-face interviews let alone phone calls. Of course, if asked detailed
questions like "How would trouble shoot a cluster problem?", I might
come out looking quite foolish. I'm sure I could make a stab at that
but it would by no means be a smooth, convincing answer. I should
mention that I've seen jr. level postions seeking some level of tools
skills.

By the way, I would gladly accept an "entry level" position that
hopefully would give me significant exposure to tools from which I
could build up my skillset, even if the pay was not much more than
minimum wage. I know I would move very quickly if given the
opportunity. The only problem is that there seems to be a dearth of
those kinds of jobs out there.

Jim
From: Richard B. Gilbert on 21 Apr 2008 15:40
Jim Nathan wrote:
>> The fourth was honest, and told me clearly what he didn't know.
>> Honesty won -- an honest/trustworthy person was also a requirement
>> of the job, just as it is with most jobs. He fitted in to the team
>> brilliantly and I definately made the right choice.
>
> Thanks for the response from everyone. But I wanted to focus on
> Andrew's response because clearly he's been in the role of an
> interviewer and hiring decision maker. I see a conundrum with the
> "honesty" approach which is not to say that I don't agree with it and
> am not an honest person; sometimes I think I'm too honest. Here's what
> I'm thinking...
>
> I've heard that recruiters and hiring managers typically look for
> keywords on a resume; the first culling of resumes are usually the
> ones that don't mention the skills that are being sought. I would say
> that beyond having a very good grounding in one or more of the Unix or
> Linux flavors, the top tool skills being sought by employers are the
> Veritas tools, SAN, and ERP/database applications. (Basic shell
> scripting, excluding Perl, I consider to be part of the standard Unix
> skillset.) If I only have cursory exposure to these tools, do I or do
> I not mention them on my resume? If I don't, then I get very few face-
> to-face interviews let alone phone calls. Of course, if asked detailed
> questions like "How would trouble shoot a cluster problem?", I might
> come out looking quite foolish. I'm sure I could make a stab at that
> but it would by no means be a smooth, convincing answer. I should
> mention that I've seen jr. level postions seeking some level of tools
> skills.
>
> By the way, I would gladly accept an "entry level" position that
> hopefully would give me significant exposure to tools from which I
> could build up my skillset, even if the pay was not much more than
> minimum wage. I know I would move very quickly if given the
> opportunity. The only problem is that there seems to be a dearth of
> those kinds of jobs out there.

Remember that we are supposed to be in the midst of a "recession". I
suspect that those fortunate enough to have jobs are not going to leave
them if they can reasonably avoid it.
From: Andrew Gabriel on 21 Apr 2008 16:41
In article <fd51e113-f5cb-40ae-b5be-31df9143407f(a)v23g2000pro.googlegroups.com>,
Jim Nathan <jamcnat(a)gmail.com> writes:
> Thanks for the response from everyone. But I wanted to focus on
> Andrew's response because clearly he's been in the role of an
> interviewer and hiring decision maker. I see a conundrum with the

I was doing this up to 6 months ago, but I changed jobs and
I'm not doing it at the moment.

> "honesty" approach which is not to say that I don't agree with it and
> am not an honest person; sometimes I think I'm too honest. Here's what
> I'm thinking...
>
> I've heard that recruiters and hiring managers typically look for
> keywords on a resume; the first culling of resumes are usually the
> ones that don't mention the skills that are being sought. I would say

I think that most interviewing and selection is done incompetently,
so I'm afraid I wouldn't put much money on the right person being
selected for any job. That means there's often a significant
element of chance if you get the job, regardless if you are the
right person or not. Given how incredibly expensive it is to hire
the wrong person (not just talking about salary here -- that's a
tiny part of it), it's amazing more companies don't try to do this
better.

I define a set of skills I require for a job, and pass these to
recruitment agencies. I get CVs back in, typically about 25 for
a job. I create a spreadsheet with skills I require listed down
the side (usually in two groups -- essential and desirable), and
candidates across the top. I mark each candidate against each
skillset and add up each candidate's score (usually with a
weighting applied to some skillsets verses others). At this
stage, I can only go by the CV. I use this to select up to
4 candidates for interview. Sometimes, it takes a long time
to get enough CVs to actually find 4 suitable candidates.

For the interview, I use Competency Based Interviewing (look it
up if you've never heard of it), based around the skillsets
(competences) I want. I will also get one or two team members
to interview a candidate and for a SA role, there would be a
written test.

> that beyond having a very good grounding in one or more of the Unix or
> Linux flavors, the top tool skills being sought by employers are the
> Veritas tools, SAN, and ERP/database applications. (Basic shell
> scripting, excluding Perl, I consider to be part of the standard Unix
> skillset.) If I only have cursory exposure to these tools, do I or do
> I not mention them on my resume? If I don't, then I get very few face-
> to-face interviews let alone phone calls. Of course, if asked detailed

Your CV should have a table listing your experiences/skills
and at what level/duration each is/was.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]
First  |  Prev  | 
Pages: 1 2
Prev: how many ways to disable telnet
Next: OpenSolaris User Group Möte 13 Maj kl 16:30 hos SUN Akalla Sweden