On Sun, December 6, 2009 21:47, Brandon Stout wrote: > On 12/06/2009 07:05 PM, Aaron Toponce wrote: > >> Mike Nelson wrote: >> >>> - If I teach you something once, I don't want to ever teach it to you again >>> >> Don't get me wrong, but that really isn't something you want to put on a >> job advert. And for only $35-$60K? Are there any benefits that will make >> up for the pay? > > Thank you Aaron, for saying that. Those were my thoughts exactly, as a > job seeker. I think I learn quickly, and I have a long 19 year history > of good grades to prove it, expecting someone to remember everything the > first time, perfectly? That's ridiculous. Einstein failed math once. > Michael Jordan didn't make his high school basketball team the first > time he tried. That one line "If I teach you something once, I don't > ever want to teach it to you again", was the reason I didn't apply for > this job. Other than that, I might have applied. I'm even caring about > the wages less. I just want full time work and benefits so I can start > moving forward again. > > A good mentor is one that has patience - one who can teach the same > point different ways to custom fit every individual. He has patience > and a drive to make the person they are mentoring succeed. Someone who > *never* wants to teach the same point twice is no mentor.
Perhaps the issue here is not the concept, but the presentation. I understand the desire for brevity, short is often better. Sometimes adding a little color to a statement can go a long way. If I teach you that executing rm -Rf /some/dir is a bad idea, because you may accidentally put a space in front of 'some/dir' (thus wiping out the system), I would expect any sys admin to always remember that. If I teach you about a highly complex system containing tens of thousands of hosts and dozens of products... I expect you will not remember specifics even after repeated training. Another way to say this might be: -The candidate should be capable of quickly committing regular system configurations and common procedures to memory. What people might be hearing is: -I expect you to recall everything I tell you, forever. It is impossible to know what meaning was really intended without additional explanation. Perhaps it was a trick statement, designed to promote an emotional response to weed out undesirable candidates. Maybe it was simply a joke to see who had a sense of humor. And no, I don't have one. I'm like the large sign I saw above the TSA checkpoint at the San Diego airport: "Joking is Not Allowed." I laughed for 19.8 seconds, until it was my turn to submit to strip search. They confiscated my humor. I now no longer find tubes of toothpaste and shampoo being considered potentially deadly weapons funny, in any way. Please join me in support of a ban of fruit on all flights as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piWCBOsJr-w -Ryan /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
