Resourceful BSD/Linux Network Administrator

[Tom Limoncelli]

On Jul 2, 2004, at 5:12 AM, Paul Robinson wrote:

> On Thu, Jul 01, 2004 at 03:49:32PM -0400, jim at carroll.com wrote:
>
>> Don't bother applying if you are sloppy, used to working in big 
>> companies
>> where lots of other people got work done for you. Please do NOT apply 
>> if you
>> need somebody else to tell you minute-by-minute what to do next. 
>> Please do
>> NOT apply if aren't prepared to run your own show.
>
> Translation: we're going to work you like a dog and not apologise for 
> it or
> even thank you for dealing with the chaotic sh**hole that is our 
> company.
> Also, note the lack of details relating to remuneration. So they're 
> going to
> pay you close to nothing to boot. And it requires you to move to New 
> Jersey!

Ha!  You've never worked at big corporate sites where people act as if 
they're being paid to watch everyone else do work, in hopes that their 
project will be cancelled before anyone notices.  I've seen people make 
a career out of this.

My first day at one such company began with my new mentor sit me down 
and explain that he had been there 30 years, and that "the secret to 
success here is don't try to change ANYthing.  Sure, our network has 
problems but if your change breaks anything everyone will notice."  I 
couldn't get anything done until he was moved out of my department.

The advert was, IMHO, perfect.  I've always wanted to say a lot of 
those things in an advert.  All power to him!

And don't pick on New Jersey, Paul.  First of all, Unix was invented 
there (so was the transistor, the laser, the silicon chip, and fiber 
open data transmission... I think you're career was helped my some of 
those things).  Besides, I just had a terrible experience with people 
in the UK and I didn't automatically paint you with the same brush.
You've also shown your ignorance: the town in NJ he mentioned is just 
over the river from NYC and benefits from all the culture and activity 
of New York, the best damn city in the world.


> These guys really aren't selling this position, and personally I'm 
> offended
> that they think the people on freebsd-jobs would be anything but
> professional in their approach, and need to be reminded that they 
> shouldn't
> "coast".

What part of the kernel magically makes FreeBSD people smarter, less 
lazy, or better looking?
Every OS/vendor/haircolor/whatever has smart people and dumb people, 
hard workers and lazy people.  He wants someone with a personality that 
would be attracted by a "it's aint' gonna be easy but we'll do great 
things"-post.

I was impressed that he was concerned with people-skills.  It's easy 
for the best guru to piss off a lot of people and yet walk away 
oblivious.  You can memorize every line of code in the kernel and yet 
still have lousy engineering skills, or lousy "people skills" that 
leave the users with a brilliant network that is completely unusable 
and ill-suited to their needs.


> We're FreeBSD admins. Not MCSEs or Linux admins.

Don't brag.  They're paid more.


Tom
www.everythingsysadmin.com -- my life story, as a sysadmin book



Tom Limoncelli
www.everythingsysadmin.com -- two life stories, as a sysadmin book