DO NOT SEND YOUR RESUME at this point of the application process. If
you do send your resume, we will assume you did not bother to
carefully read this job posting, and we will not consider your
application.
To begin taking the tests, please send your public SSH key to
jobs@telerama.com along with your email contact information.
I like these two points. Essentially, they are ways of weeding
out the large number of timewasters who just can't do the job.
Who wants to open up their network infrastructure to someone
who can't read and understand plain English? And how many truly
experienced network engineers would not be able to generate an
SSH public key if they don't already have one?
But this type of technique can also be used with recruiters. It just
means that you have to train them in how to identify candidates that
you like. In past lives at other companies I've done this.
For instance, I told the recruiters that MS certification was a bad
thing and that I the only Cisco cert that was remotely interesting
was CCIE. I also told them that at least half the resumes they submitted
should have no certs at all. I explained the kind of UNIX experience
that was good to have, i.e. using Linux or BSD at home. I also told them
that I wouldn't see any candidates until I had interviewed them over
the phone. This let me quickly weed out the evasive ones who were
probably stretching the truth on their resumes.
When I interview, I start out by asking one or two key questions that
help me quickly get to the truth. For instance at one company, when I
has hiring NOC folks, I started by asking them to explain traceroute
to me. The answer that I wanted was one which showed that they had
a detailed understanding of what was going on at the protocol level
as the packets flowed through the network because that view of the
network is needed to effectively troubleshoot problems. It did lead
to one awkward situation with a 16 year-old who immediately started
talking about ICMP echos with varying TTL and routers sending back
ICMP echo-replies. I wanted to end the interview and hire him on the
spot but it seemed unfair to give this young guy the idea that job
interviews are that short.
I believe that it is possible to train recruiters to ask one or two
questions like this by giving them a few samples of the level of detail
that you are looking for. For example I could have told a recruiter
that the answer should mention TTL and echo-reply.
If you shop for a recruiter who is willing to learn about your
needs and properly select candidates according to *YOUR* requirements
I think that recruiters can be much better than hiring directly.
If that would be the criteria, wouldn�t the acceptable answer involve UDP packets and
ICMP time exceeded? (not counting windows way of doing traceroute)
experienced network engineers would not be able to generate an
SSH public key if they don't already have one?
And for this same reason, we ask for the resume's in "Plain ASCII"
If they simply export their Word doc, it gets deleted as the formatting is
terrible. A good geek/sysadmin understands the importance of a well
formatted ASCII file. --Mike--
From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu] On
Behalf Of Michael.Dillon@radianz.com
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 6:03 AM
To: nanog@merit.edu
Subject: Re: This may be stupid but..
<snip>
When I interview, I start out by asking one or two key
questions that help me quickly get to the truth. For instance
at one company, when I has hiring NOC folks, I started by
asking them to explain traceroute
to me. The answer that I wanted was one which showed that they had
a detailed understanding of what was going on at the protocol
level as the packets flowed through the network because that
view of the network is needed to effectively troubleshoot
problems. It did lead to one awkward situation with a 16
year-old who immediately started talking about ICMP echos
with varying TTL and routers sending back ICMP echo-replies.
I wanted to end the interview and hire him on the spot but it
seemed unfair to give this young guy the idea that job
interviews are that short.
Especially since not all traceroutes use ICMP and the reply from the routers
is typically NOT ICMP echo-reply.
This would fall into the category of people being told to ask certain
questions without really understanding the material or the expectation of
the answer. A savvy, if ignorant, interviewer would say, "Explain the
difference between each". I can imagine that explaining the difference
between African and European would be a little tougher to stand up to a
(good) technical reviewer -- say who read the meeting notes.
Then again, anyone who really wants to work for a very savvy technical
organization should either put up with a few less clueful interviewers, or
ask that their clue-savvy contact sit in on the interview to translate.
I'm always a little concerned with very sharp guys (technically) who talk
down, even unintentionally to their superiors or customers. In a market
where smart guys are out of work, the smart guys with good interpersonal
skills have an advantage.
