[AusNOG] Job: Head of Network Operations - NEXTDC - SydneyC

[Ross Annetts]

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.

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.

Regards,
Ross

On 22/02/2015 3:10 pm, Michael Wheeler wrote:
> 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.
>
> Anyone aware of any jobs that might be lurking around Melbourne? At 
> this stage I'd be willing to answer phones for a NOC.
>
> On 22 February 2015 at 13:25, Cameron Ferdinands 
> <cameron at jferdinands.com <mailto:cameron at jferdinands.com>> wrote:
>
>     +1 I wrote out this long reply but this pretty much.... nail....
>     head.. Especially about "jack of all trades" fitting into large
>     networks well, very well. When I look around this is a commonality of
>     our best people.
>
>     > 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.
>
>     Absolutely, what do you have to lose? Worst case you get a job offer
>     to present to your boss for that raise.
>
>     The other note, virtualization of network equipment has never been
>     easier, and if you run out of compute there's plenty of that on tap
>     now (<shameless plug> AWS </shameless plug>) if you want those 400
>     routers, that's within your reach for less then $50 for a couple of
>     hours. -- If you have issues getting $50 together for AWS, do let me
>     know.
>
>
>     On 22 February 2015 at 14:02, Ben Buxton <bb.ausnog at bb.cactii.net
>     <mailto:bb.ausnog at bb.cactii.net>> wrote:
>     >
>     > I will chime in here, I've interviewed well over a hundred
>     network engineer
>     > candidates for Google (hi Phil!). Some personal thoughts here...
>     >
>     > On Sun Feb 22 2015 at 9:14:36 AM Skeeve Stevens
>     > <skeeve+ausnog at theispguy.com
>     <mailto:skeeve%2Bausnog at theispguy.com>> wrote:
>     >>
>     >>
>     >> I'm seeing a massive amount of foreign application these days
>     (90%) but
>     >> equally missing relevant experience and the certifications
>     rarely seem to be
>     >> as 'solid' as locals.
>     >>
>     >> What strategies are Google/AWS using to find good candidates
>     locally - if
>     >> you don't mind telling us?
>     >
>     >
>     > I think I've found your problem.
>     >
>     > 90+% of the world's network engineers live outside Australia, so
>     it only
>     > makes sense that you will get a substantial number of
>     applications from
>     > overseas.
>     >
>     > My experience tells me the following generalisations (there are
>     exceptions):
>     >
>     > - Certs are a poor signal that someone may be a good candidate.
>     Candidates
>     > with and without certs are equally likely to perform well in a
>     technical
>     > interview and job. All it tells me is that they can memorise and
>     rattle off
>     > the vendor literature. In fact, I tend to find that those with
>     large cert
>     > counts are particularly poor candidates as they seem to lack actual
>     > experience and cant work through oddball real-life problems.
>     >
>     > - The location of a candidate has no correlation with how good
>     they are.
>     > There are equally good candidates from around the world. You
>     need to seek
>     > locally first to get a 457 i think, but there's only 1% of
>     candidates
>     > locally.
>     >
>     > - Candidates who have worked in large companies can often have
>     very narrow
>     > experience due to siloing. They may have just touched the
>     firewalls, or the
>     > access side, or the peering edge. Whereas often candidates from
>     smallish
>     > companies/networks often have had to be "jack of all trades" and
>     their
>     > dealing with knock-on effects across infrastructure mean they
>     can quickly
>     > become brilliant engineers at large networks.
>     >
>     > So by excluding (or strongly biasing against) foreign
>     candidates, those
>     > without certs, and those from smaller companies, you have just
>     gone and
>     > dropped your pool of quality engineers by 90%. There's your problem.
>     >
>     > Go and find good engineers by speaking with them about interesting
>     > engineering challenges rather than first looking for CCIE
>     numbers. And be
>     > open to global candidates.
>     >
>     >>
>     >> Or... what advice would you give to engineers who might be
>     missing in some
>     >> experience, to help them fill the gaps?
>     >
>     >
>     > Be curious. Turn on interesting protocols in a lab and fire up
>     > wireshark/tcpdump on them. Break them in interesting ways (and
>     see what
>     > tcpdump shows). Write some software to do tedious tasks for you.
>     >
>     > Dont just memorise the cert cram material. This becomes really
>     obvious to a
>     > seasoned interviewer.
>     >
>     > 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.
>     >
>     > Unfortunately it seems you may need certs to get past some resume
>     > screeners...but you probably wont be happy working for those
>     companies.
>     >
>     > BB
>     >
>     >
>     _______________________________________________
>     AusNOG mailing list
>     AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net <mailto:AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net>
>     http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AusNOG mailing list
> AusNOG at lists.ausnog.net
> http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog

-- 
Regards,
Ross Annetts

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ausnog.net/pipermail/ausnog/attachments/20150223/53abed03/attachment.html>