Will, don’t you find in the interview setting you get a lot of real broad questions now. Things like What’s the most difficult problem you’ve had to solve and why? What’s one of your big accomplishments? Then you’d drill real hard on the tech in the resume. If you put down BGP for example you better know as much as possible about that routing protocol.
On Oct 15, 2015, at 10:44 AM, Will Estes <westes575@gmail.com> wrote:
Katherine,
I've got a number of years experience working in and hiring for various IT positions. Here's what I've found:
* A college degree is not relevant in the slightest. If you insist on having one, I'd prefer that you get a degree in something besides a computing field. None of the knowledge I need on a day to day basis was available when I went to college, nor, so far as I can tell, is it taught today.
* Certifications have a very narrow window of usefulness. When interviewing a candidate for a position, my only interest in the certification is that I'll grill extra hard on any area you claim to know something about. In a few cases, there are customer requirements or sales needs that indicate that certifications are worth having. Otherwise, they're at best useless.
* What I am looking for comes down to a few things:
** Are you curious? Have you, in the course of performing your duties, taken opportunities to learn and grow your skills and find better solutions or at least understand the limits and edge cases of the ones you're using?
** Have you made something on your own? Have you taken a technology or idea that you're heard about and done something with it? And "something" could be small.
** Are you interested in the work you do? A lot of us find this sort of work inherently interesting and demonstrate that in the way we approach much of life. That's one indication that you'd be good at this sort of work. For some people, this is just a job. So long as you can show me that you've worked hard, that you consider solving problems and helping people a high priority and a guiding principle in your professional activities, then it's another point in your favor.
Specifically about being blind:
Your job is to convince people that you can do work for them. I come into interviews as an expert on some things, as knowledgeable and experienced in others. That speaks volumes to people who need my skills. I've had a handful of potential employers who didn't get the whole "being blind" things over the years. That being said, most places, it's either not an issue or they take the chance to probe my abilities and find that I can do a ton of stuff.
Does that speak to your questions?
--Will
On Thursday, 15 October 2015, 1:43 pm +0000, Katherine Moss <Katherine.Moss@gordon.edu> wrote:
Hey all, Opinions would be great on this ... which is more powerful in hiring decisions in the IT community these days? (Especially in Massachusetts.) I have a college degree, though it's in English, so I highly doubt it was even considered when I got my helpdesk job here. Someone I know who has no college degree, no IT or industry certifications, and he's sitting here getting all the jobs he wants, while meanwhile, I know someone more talented, not to mention, better at what he does, who's been trying for years to get a job, he's got a certification, and not getting callbacks at all, even though he'd be more than qualified for what he's applying for. You think it's the blindness VS sighted battle again? Or do you think it's college VS no college education? (though correct me if I am mistaken, though aren't certifications nearly as powerful and authoritative as college degrees, especially when you've got someone like me working in IT with a college degree in an entirely different field with zero certifications?) _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
-- Will Estes westes575@gmail.com
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