Oh, I missed that too... I also usually stay away from those jobs.... except that I wouldn't have the job I have now had I stuck hard to that rule.
Since to be a Unix System Administrator in Central IT at Kansas State University, they list being able to get a security clearance as a requirement. Though none of the people before me or after me had to go through it. Though the State is requiring background checks for all new hires now. (the new guy was hired after the background check requirement was added, but was exempted because we were hiring him directly out of his student employment position. And, it was before the student RA prostitution & drugs scandal....) They mentioned in the recent search committee training, that we're not allowed to google applicants (or use anything we should find to affect the hiring decision.) Just as they say we in a limited way we can ask if they have legal work status here, but we can't use the answer to affect whether we decide to hire them or not. But, they google'd and did other internet searches on me before I got the offer.... I heard that depending on the position....background search can include them seeing you're entire facebook history, including the stuff you thought you deleted. Though the whole billable work stuff, is a turn off for me. My first gig was for Defense/Engineering consulting company...and it was all about billable hours, except that doing internal IT support (unix system administration) wasn't billable work...and I kept having more and more of it to do (especially after we got an Internet connection.) Until the first round of layoffs came through, and they nixed the guy with the least billable hours. And, it happened instantly, because if you weren't an owner, you were a contractor. Though they did have to pay out all the unbilled billable hours I was owed.... We were working 80-100 hours a week on some projects, but the federal government only allows billing of 37.5 hours a week per person. But, the company then found that they could take those unbilled billable hours and get science & research tax credits.... So they had to pay us for the hours they got money for.... Then half the company quit, because they got rid of the guy that enabled them to get their work done (the Ph.D's could turn out some amazing algorithms, but they cranked out some of the ugliest code on the planet and it lucky if it was at least compilable.) Also the senior IT person also quit....he never liked being interrupted by users. I heard one of the other first things that happened after I was gone, was finance took down the firewall that was preventing them having free run on the Internet from the financial systems. (that is other than the day it was announced that I had been laid off, the shared network printer was spewing resumes.) Didn't seem to matter all the times there would be a lock down, because a virus had gotten on the base network (usually turned out that some researcher at the base had gotten their home computer infected, and they were bring work files back and forth.) These breaches were usually the only interaction I had with the Unix System Administrator on base....though I often wondered if she was single. Though one time there had been a breach of Unix systems on base....and a certain person's name came up in relation to it. Those were fun times....I miss it. After that I did what was to be a 6-month contract to hire....except it took 16-months, and almost didn't happen at all (the company was acquired 5 weeks after I started, and they knew months before that they were going to be acquired...just not allowed to.... Which then meant hiring freeze. And, then the fact that the new company doesn't hire people...it primarily gains new talent by acquiring companies. But the VP of HR was quitting, so she slid me through just before she left...and the company instigated its terminate all contractors/consultants before Y2K policy.) Though those were also fun times that I miss....though don't think there's anybody there to miss. The new CEO had promised revenue growth of 20% each year....previous years market growth was >20% == >20% revenue growth. His first year, market only grew 8%....so revenue growth was only 8%. So, he laid off people to make up the difference, and then laid off people to pay severance, and then laid off people to break leases to close empty buildings, and then laid off people to pay to bring some of them back as contractors to finish development on stuff they had sold but didn't exist yet, and then laid off people so that the people that remained would get raises. And, then laid off some more people....(after which I got a frantic call from my former manager, because when they got rid of the last remaining unix system administrator...he wouldn't pass on the root password to anybody. He also asked about me contracting to finally replace the 12 year old server that runs their CR M system, before the next power outage and they lose at least another drive....) After that I had intended to stay away from contract positions completely. Except that everybody here is either a 12-month contract or 9-month contract employee.... and being in a non-tenure eligible position, gets the phrase "with no guarantee of reappointment.". Though I didn't know about the nuances of all this until after I nearly done with the interview process (6 hours, including lunch and an open session, where anybody could show up....) Also nobody mentioned the 6-month probationary nature of new hires.....originally the manager had said she would do a mid-year review, and then promote us to senior. Except that she claimed that due to the reorg that happened shortly after we were hired, it wasn't possible to do that. But, later the assistant director said it was...and some of goes raises and/or fringe benefits out of a mid-year review. For me, I got to go to my first LISA. One of the things from my recent review is that I'll very likely get to go to LISA this year (said last year it was really just a matter that he didn't get the paperwork in. Because the auditors had come down on us last year, for having budgeted for these things and not spending any of it.) Meanwhile...he's got $300,000 in the hardware budget that needs spending.... Wonder how much the SPARC SuperCluster T4-4 is. ----- Original Message ----- > On Tue, 6 Mar 2012, Evan Pettrey wrote: > > > I completely understand where you're coming from and don't > > disagree. > > However, this position is designed to bring somebody in, get them > > some > > certifications, get them security clearance, and then bill them out > > to > > clients (usually takes about a year). After that year period, when > > they > > move on to billable work, we think bring in another jr. person, and > > the > > cycle repeats itself. > > One thing that wasn't spelled out in your first posting was the > requirement to get a clearence. Personally, I don't do clearences, > it's a > decision I made a long time ago. That may be seriously limiting your > candidate pool as well. > _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
