Forgot to hit send to list, apologies. On 08/23/2010 03:50 PM, Joe McDonagh wrote: > On 08/22/2010 10:17 PM, Luke S Crawford wrote: >> Joe McDonagh<[email protected]> writes: >> >>> I don't really see what the point of hiring a networking guy is if you >>> plan on kicking up your networking skills? >>> >>> It seems like you should just hire a guy who knows networking better >>> than you and invest in upping your skills in other areas, maybe >>> management. >> Have you ever been managed by someone who is completely non-technical? >> Have you ever tried to hire and manage someone whos skillset is >> completely >> outside of your own? >> >> I mean, sure, if you are management, managing people who know more than >> you do is your job. However, if you don't know /anything/ about what >> they are doing, you are relying on blind trust. I mean, I need an >> accountant, right? Of course, I am going to get an accountant who >> knows more than I do about accounting. But, I am in a /much/ better >> position if I know a little bit about accounting than if I know nothing; >> really, the more I know, the better chance I will be able to identify >> the right accountant to hire, and the better chance I'll be able to get >> that accountant to do what I want. >> >> Now, of course, if I'm managing a hosting company, I probably don't >> want to spend a lot of time learning accounting. I'm probably better >> off >> relying on trust and references, etc... than primarily relying on >> learning accounting myself. (I probably want to do that some, though.) >> But, if my job was to manage accountants? then I'd probably be best off >> spending a whole lot of time learning accounting.) >> >> I know it is often said that if the people who work for you aren't >> better >> than you are, you aren't doing your job (as a manager) and certainly, >> for the generalized manager who manages several types of employees, >> this is >> the case. But really, the more you know about a particular specialty, >> the better people you will be able to get. This is /especially/ >> important >> when managing a more focused group. If your job is primarily to manage >> SysAdmins, you probably should be an expert SysAdmin... and in that >> case, >> sometimes it makes sense to hire less experienced people and train. >> My personal standard for hiring sysadmins is not "are they better >> than I am" >> because I can't afford those people. My standards is "Is there a chance >> they will be better than I am in at least one category within X months, >> if I train them?" >> >> So, i guess the question is "how central is managing network admins >> to your job" - If that's all you do, really, you should spend a lot >> of effort learning their craft. it will help a lot. If managing >> network folk is for you like managing accountants is for me, something >> that is important but not central to your job, you probably want to put >> less effort into learning networking, but still, knowing the basics >> will help you a lot. >> > An assumption I have is that if you are a Systems Administrator you > already have a basic understanding of networking. I would not consider > myself a master of networking or a 'network guy', but I sure do know > enough to make sure some basic things work. >
-- Joe McDonagh AIM: YoosingYoonickz IRC: joe-mac on freenode "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
