[kwlug-disc] how would you interview potential linux employees?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Tue, 27 Jan 2009, unsolicited wrote:

> Robert P. J. Day wrote, On 01/27/2009 11:19 AM:
> >   here's a wide-open question -- if you could give some advice to
> > someone trying to hire linux expertise, what sorts of questions would
> > you suggest asking?
> >
> >   yes, that's a fairly boundary-free request, but a colleague asked me
> > to suggest a few things.  i figured you could start by weeding out the
> > total posers pretty quickly:
> >
> > * What distros and versions have you used and are using now?  For
> > what?
> > * What other distros are you familiar with?  And what are their main
> > features -- what selling points set them apart.
> > * What hardware have you installed Linux on?
> >
> >   obviously, this is pretty lightweight stuff but i think it quickly
> > shows who's up on their stuff and who isn't.  are there any websites
> > that discuss this?
>
> I'm not sure about the selling features question, although it does
> seem like a good discussion point. I've seen too many distros - they
> all blur together. Mind you, gentoo (?) does stand out in my mind -
> rolling your own, as it were. Otherwise, aside from red hat based vs
> debian based, it seems more pertinent to ask what they use Linux
> for.
>
> You don't say what type of expertise you're looking for.

  i was thinking of my initial questions above as just a first-level
pass, to weed out people who clearly have minimal exposure to linux.
once you can establish a basic knowledge and competency, the next
level would be more position specific.

rday
--

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Robert P. J. Day
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry:
    Have classroom, will lecture.

http://crashcourse.ca                          Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
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