----- Original Message ----- > From: "Brad Bendily" <[email protected]> > Cc: "LOPSA Discuss List" <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, March 6, 2012 4:16:43 PM > Subject: Re: [lopsa-discuss] Candidate Recruiting > In my opinion a lot of Jr people don't apply because they feel > intimidated by the advert. > I have sent job openings to people and was told, "i don't think i > qualify", to which my answer > is usually, "try and see". If you happen to be at the top, of the > bottom of the barrel, then they may > select you. The disconnect, I think, is that ads ask for the whole > pie, where they would > accept a quarter, but they're not worded or explained that way. > > bb
While trying to fill positions last year I had trouble getting enough applicants. I reviewed my job postings and realized they were boring, drab, and dull. So I spruced them up with funny introductions to get people's attention. I also wanted potential applicants to know that the environment they were coming in to could be fun/exciting/entertaining. I even shared the postings with my current (at the time) sysadmins; to this day they periodically ask me to dust them off for a good laugh. With that said, I offer my introductions below to help get the juices flowing: --- begin intros --- = Support Desk Technician = A telecommuter's Internet connection has just slowed to a crawl and she can't do any useful work. She calls you for help. You investigate all the usual suspects. She makes an off-hand comment about her son coming home early from school. You're curious. After some digging you find the son is downloading a torrent of that high-octane, twist-ending, blow-‘em-up, psycho car chase action movie. You suggest she disconnect her son's laptop from the home network and she's back to surfing the web at a respectable speed. He gets grounded. You get accolades. You’re a Support Desk Technician at InforMed, LLC. = System Administrator = The CEO is about to blow his stack; he can’t print his final presentation for an upcoming sales meeting. He’s savvy enough to select one of the other color printers in the office but all of his print jobs are queued up. He finds you. You never get a second change to make a first impression. You hustle and find the server responsible for managing print requests is locked up. You correct the issue. He meets the prospect and seals the deal. The company pays for that awesome uber-shiny, auto-dials-for-pizza wireless mouse you’ve had your eye on. You’re a System Administrator at InforMed, LLC. = Senior System Administrator = InforMed is growing. Fast. The business needs robust and scalable solutions. Faster. You’ve got the experience is takes to seamlessly integrate Linux and Windows systems and the know-how to keep Internet and voice communications operating at peak performance all while building that new inter-office LAN for the latest expansion effort. You’re the reason the term “guru” is applied to people in your position: you’re calm; you have the answers; you find a way to get the job done. You’re a Senior System Administrator at InforMed, LLC. -- end intros --- Disclaimer: I ended up sourcing candidates through a staffing firm to fill the sysadmin positions. I did this based on my manager's recommendations and to reduce the amount of time I was spending reviewing numerous poor resumes. Finally, when I did interview candidates, after the usual nice-to-meet-you-tell-me-about-yourself conversation and discussions about experience, I would ask each candidate the same set of technical questions to assess their ability. I would ask simple questions and tough questions. For the tough questions, I actually expected the candidates to _not_ be able to answer them. If they did, it was a nice surprise. How they went about trying to solve the problem, if they admitted to now knowing, or if they tried to bullsh!t through it, told me more about their (non-) technical ability and character. Ryan Frantz Technical Services Director InforMed, LLC 410-972-2025 x2131 [email protected] _______________________________________________ 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/
