Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Thanks For Calling

As we all know, the economy is not in good shape right now. There are a lot of people that are out of work. There are a large number of Americans collecting unemployment. The people who have jobs are not doing well either. Many employers are cutting their workforce and asking employees to handle the load of 2 or 3 positions while not getting any extra salary or benefits in return. This is causing a lot of people to look for new jobs. From what I have seen and heard from many of my friends, and colleagues, it's happening all over the IT world.

I've been looking for a job for a few months myself. I actually have a job at the moment but I am severely underpaid (by about 25k) and have a work load that causes most people to stutter and repeat, "You have how many users?". During my job search I have found one undeniable truth. Recruiters suck. It seems they want to call you in for that initial interview since they like to put a face and a personality to a resume. Then like a date gone wrong you never hear from them again. Or in other cases, you hear from them regarding positions they have no business calling you for. I'll give you a couple of examples.

I'm very picky about the position I am looking for. I'm looking for a full time, non-contract, in-house Admin role dealing with Windows networks and VMware. I have a minimum salary that I want to achieve and I want to work in midtown NYC. That's pretty much my requirements.

I don't think that's too complicated. I just don't want to leave my current position and a steady paycheck for something that's not going to make me happy. Luckily I have that luxury unlike most people. Since I've discussed this with every recruiter I've met and put this in detail on every job board, such as Monster, HotJobs, Dice, etc. why is it that recruiters feel the need to send me almost exclusively contract positions? On top of that, it seems most of the positions I get emailed to me are for Linux Support, or Cisco Engineer positions in the middle of New Jersey. Just because I have experience with Cisco or Linux doesn't mean I want to commute 3 hours for a job dealing with it. Do recruiters even read cover letters or resumes in detail anymore? It seems that after the initial call, you're supposed to do all of the leg work. They have hundreds of candidates, how can they be expected to do their job and find the best ones? That's so much work. I had another recruiter contact me yesterday for a "Windows Administrator contract in NYC" position. He didn't give me any details though. I don't want a contract job but I figured I'd get some more detail before I completely disregard the email. I shoot the recruiter an email asking for a description of the job, salary, location, etc. and was floored by his repsonse.

"Unfortunately the company does not have a job description, they just asked us to find some consultants."

Are you kidding me?

Seriously.

Dude, really?

How can you fill a position properly if you don't know what the position is for? I just can't believe the stupidity in some companies. I just don't think it's possible to find the right candidate for a job when you can't figure out what skills the person needs to have. I'm starting to understand why there are so many unemployed folks out there. If these are the people trying to get them hired, we could be in for a rough future. Yet another reason why IT is HELL!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Importance Of IT Certifications

There is a long standing argument in the IT World about the importance of IT certifications. Some people swear by them and won’t hire someone without them. Others think they are great when you run out of toilet paper. I’m one of those people who is in the middle. Personally, I hold a number of certifications, ranging from Microsoft to Cisco to A+ to my newly acquired VMware certification. I think they are important as a learning tool, yet, I do not think they should be required. Nor, do I think that they are an accurate gauge of someone’s technical skills. The clip below highlights my point exactly.


 When I first started in this industry it was the late 90’s when Windows 98 and NT were revolutionizing the way we did things. Plug & Play (or Pray, like I called it) was everywhere. Microsoft was taking over the world. IT certifications were new at this point and not a lot of people had them. That was until Microsoft unveiled their new MCSE certification for Windows NT. Overnight, it seemed like, people were adding initials to their business cards and signatures and walking with a little more pep in their step. They were official, Microsoft said so. Bill Gates personally signed a document that said these people are awesome. The problem was (and still is) that not everyone was.
As I said earlier, I think certs are a good learning tool. I also think that they are somewhat watered down as an achievement. There are many ways to pass a certification exam. A lot of people put in the hard work and build a lab at home or in their office and actually learn the material. That’s the group that I fall into. I always thought that learning about what I was working on was more important that the signed paper from Mr. Gates. Not everyone thinks that way though. A lot of people study what the book says or what questions will be on the test without actually understanding what the book or question is saying. They just know that the answer to Chapter 3 Lesson 2 Question 7 is B. Some people go even further by purchasing brain dumps or “Real Tests” and they just memorize questions and answers. That’s where they go wrong. When the time comes and they are on the job and are faced with setting up a server, they don’t know what to do. They didn’t put the work in, they just passed a test.
I’ll give you a case in point. The guy that was just hired to work with me is in school. He’s taking an MCSE course and looking to get his certification. He already passed his A+ Certification (Kudos to him on that by the way). He’s done with one of his courses and in the middle of test prep for a Microsoft exam on Windows Server 2008 networking. He’ll be dealing DNS, DHCP, Active Directory, etc. I’ve actually been studying for the same test. So every day I throw a few questions at him. Nothing crazy, just questions to keep him on his toes. I asked him the other day, “What is an A record?” He proceeded to try and regurgitate what he remembered from the book. The only issue was, he didn’t understand what he was saying. Nor did he get what an A record actually is. That’s what troubles me. DNS is a requirement for Active Directory which almost all other Microsoft services are built on. If he can’t get that down, how can I expect him to get the more advanced topics? For those of you who don’t know, an A record is a mapping of a domain name to an IP Address. It’s what allows you to type in www.google.com instead of 74.125.226.179. That’s all I was looking for. The answer is as simple as "it maps a name to an IP".
The scary thing is he’ll be an MCSE before I will. Yet when it comes down to configuring a server network, he’s going to be lost in the sauce. The moral of the story is when you’re evaluating someone’s skills. Don’t just go off what you read on their resume. Make sure that they can back up what they say they know. Give them a quick exam if you have to. The hands-on type, because they probably have your questions memorized.
I still think that IT professionals should try to acquire certifications. Just make sure that you do it for the right reason. Do it to better yourself as a professional instead of just trying to get that "piece of paper". In the end, if you know what you're doing you'll have more paper than before. It'll be the green kind in your wallet.

Monday, March 7, 2011

We've moved!!

After some urging on from some of our followers, we've decided to move to our domain name. Please update your shortcuts and bookmarks. We can now be found at www.itishell.com. We hope that you make the move with us. Stay tuned for some more posts, coming shortly.