Anyone job-seeking for a sysadmin position?

[Tyler Aviss]

Even worse than that are those that want exact numbers.
5 Years of X
8 Years of Y

In most arenas, there should be a minimal amount of experience in
using a given system/language, but if somebody's been working working
with X for 1.5-3 years straight I'd say he's probably a pretty strong
candidate, and there could be a big difference between a candidate "1
year working daily with X"  versus one with "3 years using X here and
there", as the first might seem weaker on paper, but is actually
likely a better choice.

The greatest ones though, are requirements that want you to have
impossible experience or skill levels. I remember seeing a bunch of
job ads that specifically asked for 3-4 years of .NET experience when
.NET had only been around for about 1-2 years (and discounted previous
experience in the actual languages such as VB, VC++, etc). Of course
the flip-side to this is when somebody claims more experience than is
possible as well, though there are some fringe cases (those that were
part of the public Beta before software was actually released, etc).




On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 1:31 PM, James Knott <james.knott-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Tyler Aviss wrote:
>>
>> Strange, my experiences with recruiters have been rather muddy. Mind
>> you, initially I was applying from BC (and a few recruiters would just
>> drop me like a hot rock even if I was qualified), but I ran into many
>> who had very little understanding of the position or requirements.
>> I've actually had to explain to recruiters why I *wasn't* qualified
>> for a given job that they were pushing me for... and things such as
>> explaining why my understanding of JavaScript wasn't going to much
>> help me in a Java job.
>>
>> I've also had most recruiters say to *never* ask about compensation
>> (pay, holidays, bonuses) etc during the initial interview... but it
>> seems to me that since those topics are pretty much a deal-breaker for
>> most people, not mentioning them could just end up wasting both my and
>> the interviewer's time.
>>
>>
>> That being said, I've run into a few knowlegable recruiting companies
>> every so often too. I usually try to let them know how much I
>> appreciate talking to somebody who understands the position they're
>> hiring for, and mention that to the employer as well if I happen to
>> interview with them. There must be an awful lot of companies wasting
>> good money on bad recruiters around there though, IMHO.
>
> What's really fun are recruiters who are looking for an exact match, rather
> than equivalent experience.  Many years ago, they wanted someone with, among
> other things, experience with Norton Ghost.  I had Drive Image experience,
> but the wasn't good enough, even though the skills were virtually identical.
>  In a later position, I was working with Ghost and had absolutely no
> problems and very little learning curve with it. On another occasion, I got
> a call from a recruiter, looking for someone with experience with a certain
> package.  I had never even heard of that package, but it had the same name
> as a company I had worked for.  It was obvious that the recruiter hadn't
> even bothered to read my resume and he was calling me simply because of a
> word search match!
>
>
>
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-- 
Tyler Aviss
Systems Support
LPIC/LPIC-2
(647) 302-0942
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