Some thoughts. a) A sign of talent is the ability to learn from a poor mentor or no mentor at all. The opposite is a sign of the lack of talent. Not that a good mentor could not help even if you have what it takes, but if you find that in spite of your true honest best efforts you cannot succeed as an IT professional without a good mentor, perhaps you have chosen the wrong profession.
b) Learn to learn by osmosis. Ability to teach and ability to program or sysadmin are orthogonal, or in other words, a good teacher does not always make a good programmer, and a good programmer does not always make a good teacher. You can, however, go a long way by working alongside somebody who knows the ropes. I'd rather be alongside an exceptional programmer who is a poor teacher than the other way around because at least there is a live source of wisdom to draw from even if the interface is poor. c) The brevity of the requirement was beautiful. If you do not see the beauty, you should probably not apply for the job. d) In the job market today the employer can have all sorts of requirements. Consider it a blessing to have a job. c) -- Sasha Pachev AskSasha Linux Consulting http://asksasha.com Fast Running Blog. http://fastrunningblog.com Run. Blog. Improve. Repeat. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
