Hi PJ, ilugd list, @PJ: Thanks for taking the time to share your perspective in detail.
I'm giving a concrete example, based on personal experience of some rather "in the air" points I put forward in my previous mail. On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 7:24 PM, PJ <pee...@hotpop.com> wrote: > <nsn...@...> writes: > > > Hi People, > > Time for the Naligator to surf right in. > > [snip illuminating perspective by N] > > The crux of my question remains: RHCE guys should be good at > their stuff, seeing how probing the exams are. > > But for some reason, none of the RHCE guys I interviewed about > half a year ago were people I would entrust to run the company > servers. I was even told the possibly apocryphal tale of Mary, > who when he was searching, would filter out the RHCE candidates > and chuck them in the bin. It was a relief when I managed to unearth > someone with the qualities of constant learning that you describe, > along with the required abilities and mindset. > > So what was it that I was uncovering in interviews that were > putting me off and weren't coming out in the RHCE scores? > > Damned if I can remember the details now and articulate it. I > think it was linked with the constant learning aspect and surprising > blanks in knowledge and ability. Something missing in the mindset > too, I think. Stuff that Nalin touched upon. > Here is a personal experience I had earlier in my career-- that illustrates some of whats wrong with sysadmins and IT-departments in a lot of indian company. > >(1) what a company's IT goals are; > > >(2) what the approach and background of your manager/superior/organization's >management are > >(3) what are your own career plans and willingness to be flexible; goal oriented and team oriented. >I cant generalize much on (1) and (2) above in a public forum-- but on (3) my views are as below:-- >(a) Do you want a stable average paying position even if you want tech compromises ? > I once worked for a Bangalore office of a very large Indian networking company that had set up their bangalore presence just 1-2 years before I joined fresh out of college. At the time, the IT guys-- the sysadmins-- were administering a network of WIndowsNT 4.0 machines; with a HP-UX server and also some Linux presence included. The sysadmins were contract workers the company outsourced (I think either from Compaq OR from HP-- at the time, Compaq hadnt yet been acquired by HP). Soon a IT manager came-- who was a company employee-- answering only to the Bangalore Center's General Manager-- who was the goto guy for the GM and all the project managers. This IT manager had some power issues--- he liked to pretend he was managing the IT operations of a bank or of some government office with data-entry operators and confidential info. This was a tech company-- and mind you-- the people being denied access to their own computers were programmers-- who had been selected from amongst the best in their respective colleges. He would force programmers to justify every small requirement they had; he would refuse to give local system windows NT passwords-- and he would try to make programmers feel that if he wanted he could selectively force a few to justify their bandwidth usage and even usage of printers--- and he would do that only with the college-fresher programmers-- while being docile and nice to senior people--- he would also selectively deny a few project managers who were new or naive access to softwares their teams needed and satisfy his ego by forcing project managers to run circles around him or one of his guys. As you yourself can imagine--- openness and tech competence became a no-no--- and since he held the keys to each of the sysadmin's salary and salary hikes-- and even continuation at our site--- the sysadmins who could propogate his power game--- of keeping people worried and harried got ahead-- and those were the ones who apart from getting promoted got umpteen attempts at the competence exams. Perhaps, the sysadmins who were acting oversmart-- denying people access--- actually believed they were doing a good job--- perhaps they actually felt that the guys standing up to the MIS deptt actually were the villains. Also, you yourself can understand-- that any sysadmin who knew more but was not "trusted by the boss"-- would be milked for knowledge-- but not given credit or positive appraisals for his technical knowledge or skills. Also, anyone in this IT deptt who took initiative or was cooperative-- would be shown as deviating from the company's IT policies and "overlooking process compliance norms". You yourself can imagine the kind of hell-hole that was--- and you yourself can imagine that if programmers-- were stressed and harassed--- what the situation of the guys who were actually the sys-admins would have been. ----- Coming from such a environment--- which I am sure-- is much worse in the Desi-Khandani-Karobaar type of companies... you yourself can imagine what the environment is... I personally would suggest and recommend to all my sysadmin brothers to please guys--- dont let the system ruin you--- keep learning; keep talking--- and keep helping users-- because that's what will take you to the top-- no matter what some beaureaucrat with british-era-jailer type of fantasies thinks. That's why sysadmins, have a look again at my last mail... and share comments if any... and dont ever give up serving the customer-- because that's where you really learn and evolve. Regards, NS _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
