[Sussex] Appology / continuation

[Geoff Teale]

Mark wrote:
-----------
> I agree with what you say here. Apology accepted.

Thanks.  

> I've always been of the view that if I actually wanted to 
> hire someone who 
> understood computers, I'd value someone with a mix of MS and 
> Unix experience. 
> Realistically, particularly in younger/junior staff, Unix 
> experience means 
> Linux experience these days.

Here here!  The trouble is it is so hard to find those people.  I was
criticised at Thomson for making the exam I set developers in interviews too
difficult because 9 out of 10 candidates didn't make the pass grade. Er,
excuse me?  THAT WAS THE POINT!  The developer who made the grade and got a
job on that basis (Stephen Dye, if you're out there I mean _you_) was easily
the best in the team and woth every penny.  The guys we were forced to take
(because HR said we had to employ someone from the group we'd interviewed
rather than wait for the _right_ candidate) worked out to be :

1\ useless (we let him go at the end of his probabtion period) 

2\ of an average skill level as a VB programmer but with no real knowledge
of how computers worked and no desire to every stray from what he already
knew.    

> I've NEVER valued MCSEs... There was an article in one of the 
> rags recently 
> about how personnel managers valued MCSEs above Degrees... I 
> laughed so hard I 
> cried :-)

The things about an MCSE is that _yes_ it shows some nouse and it garantees
a certain level of exposure to concepts, but it doesn't really give any
idication of quality or standard.  The MCSE's i met rnage from the brilliant
through to the idiotic - that's true of Graduates as well, but at least
there is some indication of grade!  

-- 
geoff.teale at claybrook.co.uk
tealeg at member.fsf.org

"Injustice is happening now; suffering is happening now. We have choices to
make now. To insist on absolute certainty before starting to apply ethics to
life decisions is a way of choosing to be amoral."
   - Richard M Stallman


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