[geeks] Thoughts re: corporate software replacement

[Fogg, James]

~ -----Original Message-----
~ I really hate saying that I don't have large environment 
~ experience... or
~ that I have Solaris experience (but then somehow have to 
~ refer back to the
~ fact that it was hobby experience with 2.5.1 back in college... and of
~ course I can't tell them why I had 600 users on my little AMD hybrid
~ 5x86 133... hint XXX) ... eech.  And of course this system 
~ also sported
~ Linux, Openstep 4.2, and SCO Openserver 5 at different times as well.

Experience is experience, and a cluefull hiring manager will listen to you
and see the parallels to the job description.

Many years ago I interviewed for a position at Motorola. I was sent there by
my headhunter, even though the job description was outside my "documented
skillset" (I think he was desparate and had no other candidates). I had been
spending much personal time getting ready to transition from O/S admin to
network engineer, but had little "job time" with those skills. The interview
went to the point of sitting with an engineer for a technical interview. He
asked me if I understood X.25. Damn shit straight I did, but only because I
had spent years playing with AX.25 for Amatuer Packet Radio. This "hobby"
experience was enough to show that I had the undertanding of communications
protocols needed to fill the job description. I was hired as a junior
engineer, and proceeded to drink from the firehose of knowledge that a
department crammed with super cluefull network engineers can provide. It was
the absolute best thing that ever happend to me, and at the lowest point in
my life. You see, I had just recently been laid off twice from companies
that were both crappy and sinking (like yours) and I felt desparate and
worthless.

Never be ashamed (of yourself or your prior jobs/companies) in a job
interview, it casts a bad light on you. Discuss the positive, float over the
negative.