I keep running into cases where people do not know how to adequately use my talents so the compensation is too light... Or they require relocation, even though the nature of the job is virtual (hands on not really required). At least it is nice to see some folks out there who do need people like me. Over the years I've been a (very good) coder, sysadmin, DBA, network engineer, etc. with strong Cisco and some Juniper (of course a couple days self training and I am pretty strong on anything). I'm not a job hopper so I have to either really hate my position or get an offer too good to refuse, for me to change companies. For me the "too good" includes things like telecommute (I am well set up for that), good salary/package (have that now..the salary part anyway), limited paperwork a plus (we pay you salary, you provide results...no pointy haired bosses here), a company who's motto is not "Panic! Because planning is just too much effort." I guess my advice is: Don't miss out on someone who might be your star employee just to keep doing things the old way. Telecommuting can be very effective with the proper management tools. Obviously, working from home is not for everyone so the employee needs to be dedicated to the process. The best technical people can be quirky. I once had a guy on my team who customers thought was rude so I had to handle sites where people had met him before. I recognized he was desperately shy and did not deal with people well. He was a very talented technician so rather than loose him I was able to redeploy his abilities to projects not involving humans. Worked out well. For me it's lists. I do way better when I have lists I can check off. I make lists for everything and get a warm feeling when I check off an items. I like the word "check" because it brings up a picture in my head of a list with check marks. Freaky, huh? On Thursday, December 01, 2011 10:52:39 AM Mark Stevens wrote:
It takes me years to find such people and when I do, I try very hard to keep them! I have 3 key people that fit the "soft" attribute criteria Randal mentioned, but with a premium skill set in their specific function. Good luck with your task Leigh!
Mark Stevens
On 12/1/2011 10:21 AM, Leigh Porter wrote:
I am looking for just such a person now. Good Juniper, some Cisco and Sysadmin experience with an ISP background..
I expect it will be immensely difficult to find somebody. What makes it even more frustrating is that just such a person was not all that long ago made redundant!
So if anybody is looking for something to do around London...
-- Leigh
-----Original Message----- From: randal k [mailto:nanog@data102.com] Sent: 01 December 2011 15:19 To: Bill Stewart Cc: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: Looking for a Tier 1 ISP Mentor for career advice.
This is a huge point. We've had a LOT of trouble finding good network engineers who have all of the previously mentioned "soft" attributes - attitude, team player, can write, can speak, can run a small project - and are more than just Cisco pimps. I cannot explain how frustrating it is to meet a newly minted CCNP who has zero Linux experience, can't script anything, can't setup a syslog server, doesn't understand AD much less LDAP, etc. Imagine, an employee who can help themselves 90% of the time ...
Finding the diamond that has strong niche skill, networking, with a broad& just-deep-enough sysadmin background has been very, very hard. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of cross-training. Immensely valuable.
Randal
On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 4:39 PM, Bill Stewart<nonobvious@gmail.com>
wrote:
And yeah, sometimes it means that you need to go
learn technologies like Active Directory
[snip]
In addition to learning scripting languages
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-- David Radcliffe Network Engineer/Linux Specialist david@davidradcliffe.org www.davidradcliffe.org Nothing ever gets solved better with panic. If you do not know the answer, it is probably "42."