Re: Resume inflation (was Re: [SAGE] Tests for SystemsAdministrator interviews.)

[Brad Knowles <brad@stop.mail-abuse.org>]

At 8:08 PM -0700 2004-09-15, Trey Harris wrote:

>  When I see the word "expert" on a resume, I expect the interviewee to be
>  able to carry on an intelligent conversation about not just the whats, but
>  the hows and whys too.  If the candidate only knows the knobs and buttons,
>  but otherwise the technology is a black box, then the candidate cannot
>  claim expertise.

	I never claim to be an expert in anything.  At least, I don't 
ever do it consciously.  I'll tell people that I've got twelve years 
of experience specializing in a given field, but I won't call myself 
an expert.  I will be able to discuss in depth the whats, the hows, 
and the whys, but I won't call myself an expert.

>  Further, I think that even a very experienced sysadmin can only be truly
>  "expert" in a handful of things simultaneously--four or five tops.  (And
>  it's very common for people to pass in and out of expertise in various
>  technologies as their career progresses.)

	This seems to fit pretty well with my own experience.  It's been 
long enough since I've done large-scale mail systems that, even if I 
did use the term expert, I don't feel that I could longer call myself 
an expert in this area any more.  Same with large-scale DNS systems. 
That said, I think I've still got enough experience in these fields 
that I could still be immediately productive at most any site this 
side of AOL.  I have since gone on to learn about doing medium-size 
USENET news servers, and more recently getting into the Network Time 
Protocol and Mailman-hosted mailing lists.  And I want to learn more 
about how clustering is done -- hopefully with the help of people 
like Lee Damon.

>  5.  "Expert" means you can push it to do things nobody's done before, can
>       teach it to others with aplomb, would be ready to tackle any
>       troubleshooting problem, and have a solid understanding of its
>       internals.

	You see, this is why I refuse to call myself an expert.  Yes, 
I've done things with mail and DNS that I don't think anyone else had 
done before (as of the time I was doing them), but only because of 
the scale of the operation I was dealing with.  As to just exactly 
what was being done on the technical side, it wasn't really any 
different than what plenty of others had done before me.

	And the teaching aspect is really troublesome to me.  I believe 
that a guru-type is good at teaching others, while a wizard-type is 
better at doing and not so good at teaching.  I can get up in front 
of a crowd at LISA and give a good talk, but I don't believe that I'm 
good at teaching on a smaller/more personal scale, and I could never 
teach much of anything to anyone "with aplomb".

	Doing things no one else has ever done before (so far as I know), 
I can deal with.  Troubleshooting and internals, I can deal with. 
But not teaching.

	I guess I cannot ever be a true expert.  ;-(

>  Is anyone else feeling the pain of these awful resumes?  Does anyone else
>  want to help take a stab at trying to do something about it?

	Do you have any proposals?  I'm not convinced that there is 
anything that can be done about it, except to deal with each 
offending person as you encounter them.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad@stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.