[wellylug]how to get your foot in the door of the world of UNIX ?

[Gerald Roehrbein]

Hello Mian,

certifications are just an entry to a technology. In my opinion a
certification can not replace personal interest and activities and years
of experiences with different technologies  o n  t h e  j o b.

In January 2006 we had here a discussion about the way a recruiter can
find good staff. My opinion is recruiters are not able to distinguish
between a high skilled specialist and a beginner. Today it's very often
said: "Experience does not matter!" (Ooopppsss... I disagree. )

>The big guys like IBM and HP, they will ask the graduates for "A"
>average grade of a credit. How many students can get such a grade when
>they are working and studying at the same time or for other some
>reason.

We have the same problem here in Germany. Students have to work to pay
for life and the Universities take 2.000€ per year and than they have to
have best grades/ censorships. 

I've a friend from Russia he tried to get a Dr. in Germany. He said to
me in Russia this takes less time an less resources and the support by
University is much better. (He already had a Dipl. from Russia it seems
that he knows what he is talking.) This seems to be a special sort of
social selection.

First thing: You should have your feet in the door and than you should
do your best to show your abilities. In Germany it is required to have a
recruiter which acts as a door opener. Staff managers are like most
recruiters overextended with selecting the right IT staff. The major
problem is the complexity of our job. If you need a lorry driver things
are simple. The guy have to have a license but if you are searching for
IT staff what to do? 

Just ask a recruiter or a glass ball. ;-)

Today the worldwide trend is division of labor. It's just the idea of
Adam Smith for IT ( very lovely) so maybe you find a Company searching
for a specialist.

But in most cases I've seen advertising of large Companies searching for
staff experienced in almost everything (Different Operating Systems,
Networking, different Databases, different middlewares, printing and
billing systems, ERP systems, office products and programming in
different languages). Well I don't believe that such persons really
exists!

If you read "Programming PL/SQL" written by Steven Feuerstein than you
can find in the foreword a much simpler and more efficient definition of
what is required:

Problem solvers!

Most Companies are searching for IT problem solvers and this requires to
be creative and able to deal with a lot of technologies and general
purpose problem solving methods and to work on a problem until it is
solved in an efficient way.

That's all a Company need but they do not know! Sometimes experience
helps to reduce the amount of time it takes to solve a problem. Fast
success not success at all depends sometimes on being lucky. It's just
like digging for gold or fishing. I've seen beginners being lucky and
solving problems fast without any deep knowledge and methods just using
trial and error. 

Good grades are a hint that the ability to solve problems is given! But
today students can fake too much. There are too much Dogberts outside..

To work in a first level support is probably good for beginners. On the
other hand: If you want to give advice you should have to have
knowledge. To work in a first or second level call center is (in my
opinion) not what increase technical skill. In my opinion it sometimes
increase the ability to be diplomatic, the ability to say "I've no idea"
in a very efficient, very kind way or in a way that everybody accept as
perfect (regardless the problem was solved or not) or the last
solution/word.

If you want to become a UNIX specialist than you should work in a UNIX
environment. Windows know how is often required because Windows is in
most cases the desktop system we have to work with. 


kind regards
Gerald







Am Sonntag, den 15.07.2007, 20:47 +1200 schrieb Mian Lin:
> Let me make myself clear.
> 
> Recently I have been looking around on the seek and trademe websites.
> Fewer of junior or graduate unix system engineer positions are
> available in Wellington or other places in NZ compared in Australia.
> Instead, there are quite a lot of senior Unix positions available in
> the market.
> 
> The big guys like IBM and HP, they will ask the graduates for "A"
> average grade of a credit. How many students can get such a grade when
> they are working and studying at the same time or for other some
> reason.
> 
> I heard a guy who graduated from the university of otago found the job
> after six months. So I am just confused that if I should get the job
> whatever it is.
> 
> I applied a one-day work to install several solaris and linux servers
> half a year ago.(I have a sparc machine at home,so I know a bit of
> solaris 9)  But I was declined by "less commercial experience" said by
> a job agent.
> .The field site training is a good start, I prefer to find the one
> myself instead of from the school.
> There is first time for everything. I hope the people on the list can
> share their first unix or IT job hunting experience.
> 
> Thanks
> 
>