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I have had some experience in interviewing new network engineer
candidates (at final stages of testing technical ability) for the
web hosting space where a variety of skills is preferred.<br>
<br>
I think the term Jack of all trades can imply "master of none" and
shouldn't be used loosely in a resume or interview, as we all have
limited time and energy it is an uphill battle trying to be an
expert in all things and can indicate spreading yourself thin. I
think you clearly need to excel in a specific need of the employer
and then supplement this with a variety of skills/experience, having
your resume reflect this as well as the way you present yourself. Do
your research on the company and what they do before hand, what
hardware/systems they use etc.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Ross<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 22/02/2015 3:10 pm, Michael Wheeler
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAEXJqTyoT_6E-XXY0b9cE64SWuijWbSBr-h1cMZBiJ9=nBQJEg@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">I'm yet to find a company that is ok with "jack of
all trades" resume in Melbourne out of the 50+ jobs I've applied
for. Apparently showing any sort of interest outside of Network
Engineering results in your resume being thrown out.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Anyone aware of any jobs that might be lurking around
Melbourne? At this stage I'd be willing to answer phones for a
NOC.</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On 22 February 2015 at 13:25, Cameron
Ferdinands <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:cameron@jferdinands.com" target="_blank">cameron@jferdinands.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">+1 I wrote
out this long reply but this pretty much.... nail....<br>
head.. Especially about "jack of all trades" fitting into
large<br>
networks well, very well. When I look around this is a
commonality of<br>
our best people.<br>
<span class=""><br>
> Apply for positions at your dream company, even if
you think you might not cut it. Many/most of my colleagues
never thought they'd get the job, but did.<br>
<br>
</span>Absolutely, what do you have to lose? Worst case you
get a job offer<br>
to present to your boss for that raise.<br>
<br>
The other note, virtualization of network equipment has
never been<br>
easier, and if you run out of compute there's plenty of that
on tap<br>
now (<shameless plug> AWS </shameless plug>) if
you want those 400<br>
routers, that's within your reach for less then $50 for a
couple of<br>
hours. -- If you have issues getting $50 together for AWS,
do let me<br>
know.<br>
<div class="HOEnZb">
<div class="h5"><br>
<br>
On 22 February 2015 at 14:02, Ben Buxton <<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:bb.ausnog@bb.cactii.net">bb.ausnog@bb.cactii.net</a>>
wrote:<br>
><br>
> I will chime in here, I've interviewed well over a
hundred network engineer<br>
> candidates for Google (hi Phil!). Some personal
thoughts here...<br>
><br>
> On Sun Feb 22 2015 at 9:14:36 AM Skeeve Stevens<br>
> <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:skeeve%2Bausnog@theispguy.com">skeeve+ausnog@theispguy.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> I'm seeing a massive amount of foreign
application these days (90%) but<br>
>> equally missing relevant experience and the
certifications rarely seem to be<br>
>> as 'solid' as locals.<br>
>><br>
>> What strategies are Google/AWS using to find
good candidates locally - if<br>
>> you don't mind telling us?<br>
><br>
><br>
> I think I've found your problem.<br>
><br>
> 90+% of the world's network engineers live outside
Australia, so it only<br>
> makes sense that you will get a substantial number
of applications from<br>
> overseas.<br>
><br>
> My experience tells me the following
generalisations (there are exceptions):<br>
><br>
> - Certs are a poor signal that someone may be a
good candidate. Candidates<br>
> with and without certs are equally likely to
perform well in a technical<br>
> interview and job. All it tells me is that they can
memorise and rattle off<br>
> the vendor literature. In fact, I tend to find that
those with large cert<br>
> counts are particularly poor candidates as they
seem to lack actual<br>
> experience and cant work through oddball real-life
problems.<br>
><br>
> - The location of a candidate has no correlation
with how good they are.<br>
> There are equally good candidates from around the
world. You need to seek<br>
> locally first to get a 457 i think, but there's
only 1% of candidates<br>
> locally.<br>
><br>
> - Candidates who have worked in large companies can
often have very narrow<br>
> experience due to siloing. They may have just
touched the firewalls, or the<br>
> access side, or the peering edge. Whereas often
candidates from smallish<br>
> companies/networks often have had to be "jack of
all trades" and their<br>
> dealing with knock-on effects across infrastructure
mean they can quickly<br>
> become brilliant engineers at large networks.<br>
><br>
> So by excluding (or strongly biasing against)
foreign candidates, those<br>
> without certs, and those from smaller companies,
you have just gone and<br>
> dropped your pool of quality engineers by 90%.
There's your problem.<br>
><br>
> Go and find good engineers by speaking with them
about interesting<br>
> engineering challenges rather than first looking
for CCIE numbers. And be<br>
> open to global candidates.<br>
><br>
>><br>
>> Or... what advice would you give to engineers
who might be missing in some<br>
>> experience, to help them fill the gaps?<br>
><br>
><br>
> Be curious. Turn on interesting protocols in a lab
and fire up<br>
> wireshark/tcpdump on them. Break them in
interesting ways (and see what<br>
> tcpdump shows). Write some software to do tedious
tasks for you.<br>
><br>
> Dont just memorise the cert cram material. This
becomes really obvious to a<br>
> seasoned interviewer.<br>
><br>
> Apply for positions at your dream company, even if
you think you might not<br>
> cut it. Many/most of my colleagues never thought
they'd get the job, but<br>
> did.<br>
><br>
> Unfortunately it seems you may need certs to get
past some resume<br>
> screeners...but you probably wont be happy working
for those companies.<br>
><br>
> BB<br>
><br>
><br>
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<div class="HOEnZb">
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Regards,
Ross Annetts</pre>
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