Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab
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This topic came up on SW today and I noted something there that I think might have been missed here and is well worth discussing - one of the key reasons that you want people who are doing IT at home is because those people are more likely to be passionate about IT and bring that passion to work. Happy workers are good workers. But more than that, I don't want to create jobs that people hate. Why hire someone into a job that they inherently dislike and don't want to do when there is someone that actively wants to do that job waiting in line for it? Makes no sense to punish someone that doesn't want to do the job and punish someone who does want it by hiring the person who doesn't like doing the work.
You should WANT to take your work home with you. If you love what you do, there is no reason to desire leaving it behind. Likewise, I'd never ask people to forget their families when they come to work. The idea that work is a place to ruin your life for 40+ hours a week is insane. If someone dislikes IT, it would be best for everyone if they found a career that they loved. Certainly better for them, more than anyone.
It's not about company greed, hiring passionate people is literally a form of compassion.
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@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
This topic came up on SW today and I noted something there that I think might have been missed here and is well worth discussing - one of the key reasons that you want people who are doing IT at home is because those people are more likely to be passionate about IT and bring that passion to work. Happy workers are good workers. But more than that, I don't want to create jobs that people hate. Why hire someone into a job that they inherently dislike and don't want to do when there is someone that actively wants to do that job waiting in line for it? Makes no sense to punish someone that doesn't want to do the job and punish someone who does want it by hiring the person who doesn't like doing the work.
You should WANT to take your work home with you. If you love what you do, there is no reason to desire leaving it behind. Likewise, I'd never ask people to forget their families when they come to work. The idea that work is a place to ruin your life for 40+ hours a week is insane. If someone dislikes IT, it would be best for everyone if they found a career that they loved. Certainly better for them, more than anyone.
It's not about company greed, hiring passionate people is literally a form of compassion.
If you don't love what you do, then why do it?
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@nerdydad said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
This topic came up on SW today and I noted something there that I think might have been missed here and is well worth discussing - one of the key reasons that you want people who are doing IT at home is because those people are more likely to be passionate about IT and bring that passion to work. Happy workers are good workers. But more than that, I don't want to create jobs that people hate. Why hire someone into a job that they inherently dislike and don't want to do when there is someone that actively wants to do that job waiting in line for it? Makes no sense to punish someone that doesn't want to do the job and punish someone who does want it by hiring the person who doesn't like doing the work.
You should WANT to take your work home with you. If you love what you do, there is no reason to desire leaving it behind. Likewise, I'd never ask people to forget their families when they come to work. The idea that work is a place to ruin your life for 40+ hours a week is insane. If someone dislikes IT, it would be best for everyone if they found a career that they loved. Certainly better for them, more than anyone.
It's not about company greed, hiring passionate people is literally a form of compassion.
If you don't love what you do, then why do it?
Exactly. In the SW thread, the first thing that I noticed is how much people who didn't like the idea of having a home lab literaly hated their jobs (and I assume, their lives.) They said things like they would never bring their personal life to work and they'd never bring their job home (and by extension, their career - they seem to connect their job as the sole manifestation of their own careers, which makes no sense - very 1890s industry factory worker mentality.)
I would never want people to ignore their families and personal lives when they come to work. What an awful thing to expect. And I'd hate to hire people who hate their jobs and see coming to work as some sort of punishment for being human. The expectation that work is awful is palpable.
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@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
They said things like they would never bring their personal life to work and they'd never bring their job home (and by extension, their career
Never bringing their job home can also applies to how bad their employer is.
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I've been repeatably telling students about having a home lab that can help a lot with the lessons they learn in school and to add to their resume.
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@black3dynamite said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
They said things like they would never bring their personal life to work and they'd never bring their job home (and by extension, their career
Never bringing their job home can also applies to how bad their employer is.
Except they make this decision before looking at employers. So that doesn't apply here. They seem to seek bad employers.
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@black3dynamite said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I've been repeatably telling students about having a home lab that can help a lot with the lessons they learn in school and to add to their resume.
What's amazing is that people need to be told these things. It seems so obvious to me, and nothing to do with IT. If you want to be a painter, wouldn't you paint at home? If you wanted to be a writer, would you not write at home? If you wanted to be a musician, would you not practice at home?
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I no longer have a home lab. If I need to do something from home I just VPN into the XenServer that way
save my electricity lol -
What if I have home lab and a production server at home? Do I get bonus points?
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I think having some type of home lab or access to a virtual lab is a natural extension for anyone that works and loves IT. I know there are some who can't afford much and that is understandable. It may also be a function of how much you already know, type of home environment you have, and whether you plan on switching jobs at some point.
My home lab is modest but I run and host vm's, have storage, and manage 2 websites where i did everything through Linux. I plan on doing more, a lot more. I plan on putting a small rack in, getting a proper firewall, a large switch, a good router, keep my wiki updated and so forth. There is so much I want to know about I will always have things to tinker around with at home even though I may not get to at work. That still won't stop me as i am still low end IT moneywise. I want to show future employers what i do at home and how much storage I will have. I want to see their faces when i do more than they do at work and possibly have more storage lol. That will also come with being able to explain all those technologies whether it be vm's I host, websites I write for, or storage technologies I can show that I use. It is just something I want to do as long as I can.
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I have a laptop, but no real home lab. I have done the odd thing I've been really interested in, but not often.
IMO, if I need to learn something for work - I learn at work/on the job.
If I don't need to learn something 'IT' for work, i'm most likely not going to spend time learning it at home - I have no use for it.^ of course, at the point it is needed for work, if, then I will learn at work as its needed.
Why spend valuable free time with family learning something that you will possibly never ever use. Learn something when its needed and save wasted time learning something that's never needed.
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YAGNI.
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@jimmy9008 said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have a laptop, but no real home lab. I have done the odd thing I've been really interested in, but not often.
IMO, if I need to learn something for work - I learn at work/on the job.
If I don't need to learn something 'IT' for work, i'm most likely not going to spend time learning it at home - I have no use for it.^ of course, at the point it is needed for work, if, then I will learn at work as its needed.
Why spend valuable free time with family learning something that you will possibly never ever use. Learn something when its needed and save wasted time learning something that's never needed.
Because you are genuinely curious and passionate about technology? I will probably never use KVM on the job but I would like to know how to do things in it if I ever do need it. Many technologies that I implemented in my home lab I have brought to my job as a resource.
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@jimmy9008 said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have a laptop, but no real home lab. I have done the odd thing I've been really interested in, but not often.
IMO, if I need to learn something for work - I learn at work/on the job.
If I don't need to learn something 'IT' for work, i'm most likely not going to spend time learning it at home - I have no use for it.^ of course, at the point it is needed for work, if, then I will learn at work as its needed.
Why spend valuable free time with family learning something that you will possibly never ever use. Learn something when its needed and save wasted time learning something that's never needed.
I don’t think you can really learn something about enterprise virtualization in a limited amount of time, from scratch, and just because your company told you. You need a sort of lab to do trial-error, before making havoc in production.
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@jimmy9008 said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
IMO, if I need to learn something for work - I learn at work/on the job.
So as a potential employer, what I hear is.... I'd have to train you for everything. Why hire someone that needs trained always, instead of someone who learns what is needed? Would you hire a lawyer that hasn't learned law yet? Or a doctor that hasn't learned medicine yet? What profession hires people who only learn the job after being hired?
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@jimmy9008 said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
Why spend valuable free time with family learning something that you will possibly never ever use. Learn something when its needed and save wasted time learning something that's never needed.
Because it is fun, and it is what causes us to move forward in our professions.
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@jimmy9008 said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
YAGNI.
That's a good principle, but doesn't apply to education
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@coliver said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@jimmy9008 said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have a laptop, but no real home lab. I have done the odd thing I've been really interested in, but not often.
IMO, if I need to learn something for work - I learn at work/on the job.
If I don't need to learn something 'IT' for work, i'm most likely not going to spend time learning it at home - I have no use for it.^ of course, at the point it is needed for work, if, then I will learn at work as its needed.
Why spend valuable free time with family learning something that you will possibly never ever use. Learn something when its needed and save wasted time learning something that's never needed.
Because you are genuinely curious and passionate about technology? I will probably never use KVM on the job but I would like to know how to do things in it if I ever do need it. Many technologies that I implemented in my home lab I have brought to my job as a resource.
Also, as IT, we make decisions about what to use on the job. How do you know what to use at work, if you haven't been playing with it?
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@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@jimmy9008 said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
IMO, if I need to learn something for work - I learn at work/on the job.
So as a potential employer, what I hear is.... I'd have to train you for everything. Why hire someone that needs trained always, instead of someone who learns what is needed? Would you hire a lawyer that hasn't learned law yet? Or a doctor that hasn't learned medicine yet? What profession hires people who only learn the job after being hired?
Why assume somebody is applying for a job the description of duties advertised isn't a match? If I cannot do the job, i'd not apply. Of course, if I got the job and needed to learn something, I then would - as its now needed.
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@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@jimmy9008 said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
Why spend valuable free time with family learning something that you will possibly never ever use. Learn something when its needed and save wasted time learning something that's never needed.
Because it is fun, and it is what causes us to move forward in our professions.
Its not as fun as spending time with family. We all have our own needs from life - personally time with loved ones is top priority over learning things I may never use.
