Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab
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@dafyre said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@art_of_shred -- But how does it work if you are out and about with no access to a laptop and a client has an emergency?
Basically, don't be a 1 man band. If you are the model never ever works. This is why teams are important.
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I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
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@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
Add me to the Been There Done That club. All glory to the smart phone and preserving my bar time.
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@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
Add me to the Been There Done That club. All glory to the smart phone and preserving my bar time.
Both me and others are probably curious, what type of issues do you resolve from a phone?
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@Breffni-Potter said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
Add me to the Been There Done That club. All glory to the smart phone and preserving my bar time.
Both me and others are probably curious, what type of issues do you resolve from a phone?
Whatever we can, ha ha!
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Server restarts, password resets, admin credentials for downloads, virus stuff, pretty much anything I can do from my desktop. I LOVE Screen Connect.
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@Breffni-Potter said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
Add me to the Been There Done That club. All glory to the smart phone and preserving my bar time.
Both me and others are probably curious, what type of issues do you resolve from a phone?
It really depends. Generally, if I am resorting to using my phone I am not in a "work" scenario. Like most IT people, I triage on the call first and talk my way through it or delay it or delegate it if I can. When that all fails, well thanks to ScreenConnect working so well, I just pop in and see/handle whatever it was that was such an emergency. I have reset passwords, restarted servers, removed and rejoined a machine from a domain, changed firewall settings, etc., all from my phone.
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@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@Breffni-Potter said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
Add me to the Been There Done That club. All glory to the smart phone and preserving my bar time.
Both me and others are probably curious, what type of issues do you resolve from a phone?
It really depends. Generally, if I am resorting to using my phone I am not in a "work" scenario.
By this I am not implying some random 2am call. Honestly that has only happened once. Generally I mean this because I am either traveling or spending unscheduled time with the family or some other random activity that I choose not to interrupt long enough to get out my iPad or laptop or go back to my desk, just to handle the call
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@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@Breffni-Potter said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
Add me to the Been There Done That club. All glory to the smart phone and preserving my bar time.
Both me and others are probably curious, what type of issues do you resolve from a phone?
It really depends. Generally, if I am resorting to using my phone I am not in a "work" scenario.
By this I am not implying some random 2am call. Honestly that has only happened once. Generally I mean this because I am either traveling or spending unscheduled time with the family or some other random activity that I choose not to interrupt long enough to get out my iPad or laptop or go back to my desk, just to handle the call
This is exactly the same scenario for us.
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@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
No one is saying that it is the only factor or that you have to have one for every role anywhere. But when you are looking to hire someone passionate, what would you consider a good alternative indicator?
To be honest, I don't know!
It would be nice if the candidate already studied the company, knows what it's about and what it does, and expresses desire to work in this exact environment and position.
That would be opposed to the candidate who seems to have blasted out generic resumes to as many people as possible to see what sticks.Another sign of passion might be work history. Where are the coming from and why? Are they looking for a new job just for a raise? Or because they are currently not in the exact industry they want? I would think it's a small sign of passion if they are willing to uproot and change jobs for maybe equal to barely more wage just because they want the different work.
If all they want is money, the work won't matter as much. But if they really want the work, money won't be their top priority, but rather opportunity and training in the field.I had an interview once where they gave me a screwdriver and sent me a table full of random devices and just said "have fun, tell us what you see". They wanted to watch as I figured out what each device was and if I knew my stuff and how interested I was in each piece, etc. Did I "enjoy" fiddling with lots of different tech, etc.
And maybe one last one. Just shy of a full home lab and datacenter, you can simply ask them what they are learning or doing in their spare time.
I would think most people don't spend a ton of time trying to learn things that don't apply to their job. But on the flip side if my job is sitting at a desk working with spreadsheets, but I spend reasonable personal time studying mobile app development (home lab or not) it shows my interest/passion in said field.I don't personally need a home lab for the stuff I work on in my spare time. Just a few programs and the odd VM spun up. But to be fair that's web dev and not classic IT.
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@guyinpv said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
It would be nice if the candidate already studied the company, knows what it's about and what it does, and expresses desire to work in this exact environment and position.
Actually, I totally discount that. I want someone who loves what we are about, but to love or be really interested in a company that you don't work at I always feel is a bad sign or a weird sign. Sometimes it is okay, NTG is well known and people tend to come to us pretty excited about what we are about. We are pretty unique and pretty exposed in a way that is different than most companies. But as an enterprise hiring consultant, I always tell people not to look for people who are researching the company, that's not a logical thing for candidates to do, it has no real value, it's of no value to the company and it's generally misleading anyway.
It's passion for the field that we want, not passion for us. Passion for us is fine, but it's extra.
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@guyinpv said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
That would be opposed to the candidate who seems to have blasted out generic resumes to as many people as possible to see what sticks.
What's the negative there? You can't know what place is good to work until you work there. Interviewing lots of places gives you the best potential insight to find out if a place looks good. And only 1% of companies are hiring at any given time. A candidate that researches companies heavily tells me that they are bored and desperate with lots of time to kill. It's not a trait I want in a candidate.
Blasting out resumes is no different than posting it online. It lets companies know that you are available and allows them to initiate conversations when they make sense. Not blasting holds back critical info for no reason.
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@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@guyinpv said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
It would be nice if the candidate already studied the company, knows what it's about and what it does, and expresses desire to work in this exact environment and position.
Actually, I totally discount that. I want someone who loves what we are about, but to love or be really interested in a company that you don't work at I always feel is a bad sign or a weird sign. Sometimes it is okay, NTG is well known and people tend to come to us pretty excited about what we are about. We are pretty unique and pretty exposed in a way that is different than most companies. But as an enterprise hiring consultant, I always tell people not to look for people who are researching the company, that's not a logical thing for candidates to do, it has no real value, it's of no value to the company and it's generally misleading anyway.
It's passion for the field that we want, not passion for us. Passion for us is fine, but it's extra.
I've heard this both ways - you should research the company so you know it's a strong growing one that will be around, then i've heard that you should talk to others who work there to find out the real story of what it's like working there.
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@guyinpv said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
Another sign of passion might be work history. Where are the coming from and why?
Possibly, but if anything doesn't that tend to just reward people who grew up in areas with famous companies or reward people for working for well known companies rather than good ones. Lots of the best companies are small and you would not know them and lots of big ones sound good but are not (like I would not even accept an interview with Google because they are not a good shop, yet most people looking at resumes might think that they are more impressive than the high end financials that I've worked for that normal people don't know because they are the banking companies that run countries and pay double or more what Google does for the same jobs.)
I think judging people for passion based on where they have worked is very difficult at best and counter productive more likely. I'm not even sure how you could do it reasonably.
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@Dashrender said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I've heard this both ways - you should research the company so you know it's a strong growing one that will be around, then i've heard that you should talk to others who work there to find out the real story of what it's like working there.
Problem is, that kind of research is useless. You can't find that out. The health of a company is not public. That research time is wasted AND the health of a business is not a good indicator of if you want to work there. Its value to you or your career is not tied to its current success rate. Having worked for three decades, even if I know all about all the companies I have interviewed with, I have no idea how I could have used that information usefully.
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@guyinpv said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I don't personally need a home lab for the stuff I work on in my spare time. Just a few programs and the odd VM spun up. But to be fair that's web dev and not classic IT.
And to be fair, that's a home lab.
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@guyinpv said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
If all they want is money, the work won't matter as much. But if they really want the work, money won't be their top priority, but rather opportunity and training in the field.
I understand the point, but the most passionate people I know often follow the money. It might not be the money that matters, but money is the only comparable, reliable comparative between positions and the only sure way that you can protect against other unknowns in job changes. The amount of money that someone will pay is a good indicator of how much they value you, respect your opinion, will give you flexibility, will see you as an important asset, how well positioned you will be for moving to another job, etc. Because of how non-transparent the job world is, money becomes an important factor for things that aren't financial as well. So I would never use that in that way, money is too important for too many reasons. I know what you mean, but I don't think that you can easily use the desire for a raise as an indicator of anything. And you have to empathize, if they are more experienced now than the last time that someone hired them, and they are passionate, why would you not want to pay them more?
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@Breffni-Potter said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
Add me to the Been There Done That club. All glory to the smart phone and preserving my bar time.
Both me and others are probably curious, what type of issues do you resolve from a phone?
For me, almost everything (except for installing Linux on a laptop.) My work pushes 100% phone.
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@dafyre said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@art_of_shred -- But how does it work if you are out and about with no access to a laptop and a client has an emergency?
How does it ever work? You have multiple people with multiple layers of coverage. I might be needed on a Linux question, but I only need to talk someone through it. Or get on the phone with the customer. There is a difference between not being needed or available every moment, with not being flexible and working when it makes sense.
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@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@guyinpv said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
Another sign of passion might be work history. Where are the coming from and why?
Possibly, but if anything doesn't that tend to just reward people who grew up in areas with famous companies or reward people for working for well known companies rather than good ones. Lots of the best companies are small and you would not know them and lots of big ones sound good but are not (like I would not even accept an interview with Google because they are not a good shop, yet most people looking at resumes might think that they are more impressive than the high end financials that I've worked for that normal people don't know because they are the banking companies that run countries and pay double or more what Google does for the same jobs.)
I think judging people for passion based on where they have worked is very difficult at best and counter productive more likely. I'm not even sure how you could do it reasonably.
I'm just curious: How would an ideal candidate for NTG look like? For example: Would you hire me? Let's assume I would be a native English speaker and live somewhere near NY. I am a fast learner, have a real passion for IT, know a few things, have a home lab (both virtual and physical) etc. Worked for all kind of companies from 1 to 70.000 employees in a lot of different sectors (ISP, Shipbuilding, Regenerative Energy, Media, EDU, ...) and also as a freelancer. Oh, and no fancy degrees or certs.
This is a hypothetical question, just want to understand what you expect from a candidate.
