On 08/30/2010 03:37 PM, Pat Wilson wrote:
On Aug 30, 2010, at 4:39 PM, Simon Lyall wrote:
On Tue, 30 Aug 2010, Luke S Crawford wrote:
Adam Moskowitz <[email protected]> writes:
"Tinkerer Check: What is Your Home Network Like?" Despite later saying
claiming to not discount candidates who aren't netadmins in their own
homes, this question clearly does exactly that. There are plenty of
good
candidates out there who leave their job at the office, run the most
simple and basic network at home, and who put their "enthusiasm and
curiosity" into non-technical things outside of work.
yes, but if I hire a guy who thinks about these problems on his own
time, and I feed him (or her) problems that are more interesting that
what they have at home, I get the benifit of his 'time in the shower'
I mean, the 'top idea in your head'[1] is generally thought to
be something that you think about in the background. something you
come up with solutions for in the shower.
One way I look at things is that network and System administration is
still a rapidly evolving field. Somebody who only does it 9-5 is
going to
be concentrating on the problems in front of them and not keeping up
with
how the field is evolving.
I probably shouldn't stick an oar in, since I've been retired for so
long, but hey...
Just because someone does want to run a whiz-bang network in their own
home doesn't mean they're not interesting in the evolution of the
field... When I was running the vast bulk of the central Unix systems
at Dartmouth, eons ago, the *last* thing I wanted to do was to come
home and tinker with more of it. That didn't mean, though, that I
worked only 9-5, never read technical papers (look at early LISA
program committee members), or didn't have technical discussions
outside of work - I just didn't see the need for a lot of technology
at home.
Everyone's mileage varies. To assume that someone who keeps a
work/home technology separation isn't interested or involved in the
field seems fairly unhelpful when you're looking for good candidates
to employ.
--paw
I'm the same. My home network consists of a wireless router with MAC
address filtering, my wife's laptop, my computer, a Wii, and a backup
storage device. That's it. Mostly I juggle my free time around outside
of work interests like music (yes, dare I say it I "work to live", not
"live to work".)
Having downtime is very important, both emotionally and mentally. There
are any number of research papers [1] that show switching your brain off
and doing other things is more productive than 100% obsession with one
area. Your brain needs time not thinking about things to lock
information in effectively, and actually do its job. Some of my most
brilliant work ideas have come when I've not been doing anything work
related or even consciously thinking about work in any form.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/technology/25brain.html?_r=1>
That's not saying I'll never experiment with stuff at home, If needs be
I'll spin up a couple of VMs and see what I can do, and I'm always
available for on-call stuff and pay close attention to critical e-mails
I receive on my phone even if they are just another Java stacktrace from
a Webapp.
Frankly I'd be more concerned with an employee that had no major
interests out of work.
Paul
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/technology/25brain.html?_r=1
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