[Gllug] hourly/daily rate for linux systems admins?

[Karanbir Singh]

Hi,

On 11/23/2010 02:10 PM, tid wrote:
>> As another example, when asked to find per-process blockdev i/o rate,
> Personally, I find that interview quiz questions (such as the one
> above) often don't highlight people's
> individual skillsets or their actual working methodologies.

Not sure why you say that - I've almost always found that working with 
people through real world problem solving situations tends to be the 
best way really get a handle on methodologies and expectations - for 
both sets of people.

> of doing it. He knows bugger-all about blockdev so would fail the
> above test but I'd give him a
> job anywhere.

How much of that is based on the fact that you already know him and have 
worked with him for 5 odd years ? In an interview situation ( either 
question / quiz style of doing actual pairing on real world situations ) 
most people don't really have any experience of each other so it tends 
to be a lot of ice-breaking and trying to figure out each other.

> For me, after 20-odd years of recruiting sysadmins, the best method is
>
>   - Phone call to the prospective candidate with a few general Linux questions
>   - If successful, get them in for a dedicated question on paper&  PC session
>   - If successful, get them to work alongside existing staff for a day
> or evening if possible
>   - If successful, offer them the job with a stringent 6-month probabation.

I agree with you, although I've only been involved in a few sysadmin 
recruitment stints. The problem areas I highlighted above were things 
that came up in the 'pair on a few issues that we had to handle in the 
last 15 days'. So what you bring up in point-3.

- KB
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