On 7/15/10 11:40 AM, "Jon 'maddog' Hall" <[email protected]> wrote:
> You might also ask how deep their technical skill goes. Some people have > hinted at this in their emails. Is it a lot of memorization, or is there > a deeper understanding of what is going on with the system and how it > works? Both are needed as a good problem solver, but I would rather > have the latter than the former. I'd +1 that. My tack on this has always to take time at every learning opportunity - obviously with certain exceptions depending on the the conflagration du jour - to work through problems with said junior. I know it irritated the **** out of some of them, but unless it was critical I would *not* just give them the answer. (Setting up problems is useful too, but it's worthwhile making every problem you can into some sort of learning experience). I'd look at the problem, try and mentally backtrack to a reasonable starting point and then start asking questions that were intended to take us to solving the problem - talking out the problem "from first principles", if you like. Any questions that could not be answered went on the list for them to go off and research later, and I would talk briefly about how that worked to help them through to the next part to solve the problem. This gives insight into how to work the problem and helps give them things to do. Plus, as I intimated, it's as annoying as all getout, so they really don't want to go through the wringer, thus providing wonderful motivation to learn more and work out how to do it. I strongly believe that this is an essential part of the seniors job. It's also entertaining, because - as always - it's only when you start trying to explain something to someone else that you discover how well you really know the material yourself. Even things you thought you knew backwards. It's good for the Hubris :) Tim -- Tim Kirby [email protected] _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
