jobs in Linux / IT

[billt-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org]

I generally agree with Chris on this topic, but I have several things to add.

1) Many jobs that require that level of 'fit' are not identified as such and it is only found out after the fact. This causes many problems that could be avoided before they happen.

2) Many companies treat people as field replacable units (FRUs) but are annoyed when they need to replace those people. If you are creating a tribe mentality you should also doing things to foster that tribe mentality.

3) Companies need to be realistic about their requirements. If you want 24x7 uptime, then hire enough people to provide it and don't expect people to give up there free time (even if paid for) for the sake of that goal.

Bill

> > and more of "will the candidate fit in" with the current tribe.
> 
> There can be occasions when things get particularly, erm, "tribal,"
> where it is actually pretty important whether or not the candidate
> will "fit."
> 
> I have watched candidates *not* fit, and *not* work, even though there
> was reasonably considered care in their selection.
> 
> In the cases I particularly have in mind (and some might feel
> telepathic about this ;-)), inability to fit into the "current tribe"
> was in truth a severe loss because that specifically hindered
> learning.  They weren't already experts; they needed to learn from the
> people around them.  Failure to learn prevented them from becoming
> competent.
> 
> This can be true in any kind of environment where it is unlikely that
> people will come in as "experts."
> 
> In a "high availability" context, there is another aspect to this,
> namely that if HA is needful, you can NOT have a multiplicity of kinds
> of "operational doctrines" in play.
> 
> Right or wrong, an organization needs a well-defined set of
> "operational doctrines" otherwise anyone can do anything and you no
> longer have systems capable of being kept running at a high pace 24
> hours a day, 365 days a year.  Someone who doesn't "fit with the
> tribe" is, ipso facto, a liability to the goal of "24x365", whether
> they're nice, smart, or have good ideas.  If they're not "with the
> tribe," then they are injuring the capability of running those systems
> 24x365.
> 
> That's not the entirety of all industry, but I'd hazard the guess that
> this is likely true for all of the cases where you heard people
> saying, last Tuesday, that they were having trouble finding the kind
> of people they need.
> 
> The guys running a financial trading floor don't need cowboys coming
> in with the attitude of "Oh, let's replace that with some Fedora Core
> N machines."  They're not interested in how much faster KDE may run on
> Slackware, and bringing up Gentoo as anything other than a joke likely
> won't fit in there.
> --
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