Re: a question regarding resumes

[Steven Jenkins <sjenkins@ms.com>]

>3. Technical Knowledge.
>
>It is impossible for someone who is computer illiterate to assess
>whether someone has decent technical knowledge.  It is too easy for
>someone to sound as if they know what they are talking about.  Since I
>have some technical expertise, I do ask questions in their realm.  I
>will mostly look to see if people understand basic concepts like
>client/server.  I will ask a few detailed question to gauge how honest
>the resume is (if they say significant experience, I expect they will
>know some details), but I am doing this to gauge their honesty.  Quite
>frankly, this is the least important area of interviewing for me.  If
>a person has good problem solving skills and can learn quickly, they
>can pick up wherever specific knowledge they need from books, man
>pages, the web, classes, and conferences.  Beside, any "knowledge"
>they have today will be obsolete in a few years anyway.  I am going
>through my tenth platform transition.  [Note: I am counting all of
>UNIX (V6-Solaris) as one platform.]  In my book, understanding the
>system is more important than knowing some specific facts.

That is a fairly enlightened perspective, but it's been my experience
(albeit limited) that most SAs don't really stick around long enough
to learn anything useful.  Or once they have really learned something,
they leave.  If the average time on a job is on the order of 2-3 years,
then most places really need their SAs to already have knowledge
(obviously there are exceptions, but it's clearly unreasonable for
a computer illiterate company to hire someone who does not have
specific knowledge).


Steven L. Jenkins

(I speak for noone but myself, not any current or previous employer).