[AusNOG] Uni Graduates - Was Re: Sysadmin opportunities in Melbourne?

[PRK]

Hi all, 

Given the comments below, I thought I'd share some experience I've had
with hiring Uni Graduates. 

Several (5+) years go, my employer was struggling to find engineering
staff in a very competitive mining driven market, so decided to try a
graduate program. 

>From memory six graduates were brought on for a 2 year program. IIRC,
there were 4 technical and 2 non technical. For the first year, the
technical graduates rotated through the NOC (which I was managing at the
time), Network Engineering, and programming. I think we lost one
graduate (careless of us, I know), who didn't find the experience
fulfilling. 

For the second year, the graduates picked an area they found
interesting, and worked with that team for the whole year. Two chose
Networks, one chose programming. Those three stayed on a good few years
after the program ended, before moving onwards to bigger and better
things. 

>From my perspective, the program was useful and resulted in good staff
who stayed for several years and were well worth the investment in
training & upskilling them. 

However I wasn't involved in the development of the program & graduate
selection process, so I don't know how much additional overhead that
added. 

In summary, in an employee's market, I'd have no problem hiring a Uni
Graduate for certain roles and be happy with the trade off of their
inexperience for someone who is willing to learn. However if it's an
employer's market, then I'm more likely to find someone who already has
some experience, and is probably a better candidate. 

Supply & demand. 

prk. 

On 2015-01-06 12:58, Nick Stallman wrote: 

> Would I employ a new uni graduate? Nope - not a chance no matter what the price was.
> They don't have any of the skills I'd need them to have.
> Universities aren't producing useful workers in IT.
> 
> Job postings aren't supposed to be training opportunities, usually the person posting them actually has a job that needs to get done.
> 
> On 06/01/15 12:48, Giles Pollock wrote: 
> 
>> I've long argued that any IT skills shortage that exists can be rectified by providing the appropriate incentives to employ and more importantly, train existing locals. There are more than enough people out there, but they are not being considered for roles as they aren't able to tick the right boxes when the job is sourced to the market.
 
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