Tech contact for Qwest?
Vadim Antonov
avg at kotovnik.com
Mon Aug 23 06:41:07 UTC 1999
Michael Dillon <michael at memra.com> wrote:
> That 10% mentor is more important than the percentages would suggest
> because it acts as a catalyst for the other 90%. A good mentor will help
> a less experienced engineer to make most effective use of their time in
> learning the trade. It's not enough to just be available to answer
> questions.
Absolutely. Unfortunately being a teacher is a completely different
profession which requires completely different talents. A lot of very
good engineers are poor teachers. Having tried to teach professionally
i know that it is much harder than it seems.
--vadim
PS Actually, i do not see shortage of clueful network engineers. What
i see is complete lack of clueful managers. Engineers are often left
without any useful managerial support, and all too often are simply
screwed up by the bad management. That's why i think the fact that
good engineers are getting more expensive is positive. When management
if forced to pay through the nose for the professional expertise, they
more likely feel compelled to follow the offered advice.
It is quite possible to run a large backbone with two-three top-notch
engineers - providing they can pick their assistants and don't have
to spend most of their time dealing with bureaucratic idiocy.
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