job screening question

Tue Jul 10 13:45:39 UTC 2012

On 07/10/2012 03:56 AM, Bret Clark wrote:
> On 07/10/2012 03:32 AM, goemon at anime.net wrote:
>> On Mon, 9 Jul 2012, Jeroen van Aart wrote:
>>> William Herrin wrote:
>>>> This is, incidentally, is a detail I'd love for one of the candidates
>>>> to offer in response to that question. Bonus points if you discuss MSS
>>>> clamping and RFC 4821.
>>>>
>>>> The less precise answer, path MTU discovery breaks, is just fine.
>>> I would say that the ability to quickly understand, troubleshoot and find a
>>> solution to a problem (and document it) is a far better skill to have than
>>> having ready made answers to interview questions learned by heart.
>>>
>>> It should take a skilled person less than 30 minutes to find the answer to
>>> that question and understand it too. The importance of knowing many things by
>>> heart has become incredibly moot.
>> If you are applying for a network position, you better know the *basics*.
>> Having to look up the basics is not a good sign.
>>
>> Do you really want to hire someone who is going to have to look up basic
>> networking concepts for 30 minutes every time they are in a meeting and
>> asked a question?
>>
>> -Dan
>>
> Hence the reason he mentioned "skilled" person...

This all has to be tempered with the zeitgeist as what is "basic knowledge"
now, will be "charming history" at some point. All of it. No, a vampire tap has
nothing to do with Twilight. No, the difference between 74 and 54 series
logic is not 20. All of us oldsters would do well to try to keep up with what's
new and hip coming out of schools and grill them in an intelligent fashion.
Better yet, let them teach you something which shows if they understand
or whether they're just parroting stuff back.

MIke