Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab
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@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@RojoLoco said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
Plus any work I do outside of M-F 9-6 is paid as overtime and scheduled in advance. I wouldn't give that up for $1600 a year.
My guess is that you are a planner. I'm a perceiver. I don't want a strict schedule, that's boring and exhausting to me. I love checking in, finding out that there is no work to do and heading to the bar. I like being the guy that gets called in a panic because there is a disaster and working while there is excitement and taking off when there is not.
What you describe as glorious sounds terrible to me. I would hate that rigid schedule. It sounds like punishment to me. I had a schedule like that when I worked in restaurants and hotels (as the cashier or clerk, not in IT), getting into IT let me escape that and set my own schedule.
This comes down to personal preference, which is what I was getting at. I definitely enjoy a schedule for work. I like to know what the expectations are. With that said, I also enjoy excitement which I think comes with the territory sometimes.
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@guyinpv said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
Find good people first. Train them. Keep them when you got them!
That's what we are trying to find. I've never found someone that loved working in IT and didn't bring the job home with them. Could the two be separate? Probably. Have I seen it, not really. And that's the question that I keep proposing... if you don't use a home lab as an indicator of passion and self learning, what are you using?
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?
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@JaredBusch said
Depending on skill, an hourly rate between $30 and $50.
65K a year for the $30 rate.
109K a year for the $50 rate.I'm unsure of US salaries but what would people compare that to over there?
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@wirestyle22 said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
This comes down to personal preference, which is what I was getting at. I definitely enjoy a schedule for work. I like to know what the expectations are. With that said, I also enjoy excitement which I think comes with the territory sometimes.
If I'm hiring for the help desk, for a purely 9-5 position that can clock out and leave, I could see this nature working in IT. Sometimes, but certainly not always and it would be very limiting. But outside of very limited end user support, once you get into infrastructure, only very limited roles would work with this planned hours strategy. Some engineering could do it, but only very engineering roles. Outside of that, you need full shift workers in most cases to have a shot at it.
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The ability to be flexible allows our team to run lean. There is very little that must be done during the late hours, but we have guys who don't mind doing it. It works for us. If you're not comfortable with being able to relax for most of the day when it's quiet but have to be able to at least respond to an email at 8pm, it's probably not for you. Personally, I love it. I get so much freedom, with the possibility that I might be needed if something goes wrong.
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@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?
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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?
You don't have a smart phone? I have email/internet access pretty much everywhere.
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@art_of_shred said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@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?
You don't have a smart phone? I have email/internet access pretty much everywhere.
Are you going to remote desktop in to your clients infrastructure from your Phone?
Yes... it's doable, especially with the larger phones, but how much would you really be able ^W^W want to do from a tiny phone in an emergency situation?
I mean, you could call your backup / partner...
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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.
