In a message written on Thu, Dec 01, 2011 at 08:17:08AM -0700, randal k wrote:
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 ...
I've been on both sides of this coin, looking for folks with these sorts of skills and finding them very difficult to find but also looking for employers who valued this base of skills when I have been job hunting in the past. My observation is that most ISP's want this broad base of skills, but won't pay for it. The folks with these skills promptly move in one of a few directions. They become consultants making huge money but dealing with the clueless. They become SE's for vendors and VAR's, where their skills can earn them comissions. The few lucky ones become Architects or Principal Engineers and provide vision and run key projects, but then they aren't doing much day to day work. More interestingly, the people with these sorts of skills got them because they like touching everything and maintaining their end to end knowledge. While it's more a problem on the corporate side, a lot of folks want to hire this knowledge and then put them in a role where their hands are tied, unable to access all of these parts. Obstensibly the goal is to have them lead and mentor the clueless in control of the various elements, but the few folks I've seen try it quickly get frustrated, see no future in it, and leave. No where is this more true than when these sorts of folks are brought in to manage outsourced arrangements. It's a wonderful double edged sword. Someone who can think their way out of a myriad of technical problems is also smart enough to evaluate the orginizational structure and dynamics, predict their own future (or lack thereof), predict the success and failure rates of the current envornment and leave if they don't think it's a net positive. I do think NANOG as a community could do a better job in helping employers and potential employees in this industry find each other. I know nanog-jobs exists, but it doesn't seem to have traction with either side of the problem. -- Leo Bicknell - bicknell@ufp.org - CCIE 3440 PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/