Mar 16 2017 05:16 PM - edited Mar 17 2017 04:11 PM
Many technical job postings are accompanied by extensive lists of technical expertise. It’s also common to find roles requiring ten plus years of experience. However, with Office 365 just nine years old, the skills and experience required for many new technical roles in the cloud are unclear and often overstated.
Check out the differences in experience and technical proficiencies between these two job descriptions—both for the role of Sr Systems Engineer:
SENIOR SYSTEMS ENGINEER
Technical Expertise
SENIOR SYSTEMS ENGINEER
Technical Expertise
Are employers demanding too much? What does the ideal candidate skill set look like? How do years of experience translate to years in the cloud?
Share what you think employers should be looking for. Write a job description for your own job or comment about the job descriptions above.
Credit goes to @Simon Denton for suggesting the topic!
Mar 16 2017 05:42 PM
Mar 17 2017 05:27 AM
Big yes here!
"By no means am I saying experience isn't valuable - it absolutely is. What is more important is adaptability and agility, especially around desire and ability to learn."
When I hire for the positions I have, I'm looking for that adaptability and agility, eagerness to learn, and even just plain aptitude. With perhaps an occasional "this is just not a good fit," I can train on a missing skillset. I don't even know how I'd train on aptitude or flexibility.
By contrast, tons of experience but no flexibility is going to bite in the long (or short) run.
Personality and culture fit are big pieces of a good hire, and go into successful networking. There are a lot of "I've never worked with this person but they're a good fit for this company" hires thanks to the power of networking.
One thing I'm not sure of are personality profile assessments--but I haven't really investigated them either. I have been the recipient of them in various companies, usually paired with leadership trying to fix a dysfunctional environment. (As may be guessed, these assessments were given at great cost and then soon after filed away.)
Mar 17 2017 12:48 PM
Just finished up an interview with @Jaap Brasser who showcases the balance of technical and soft skills required in IT today (check out the interview here). It seems that technical experience and skills are in the category of 'mandatory requirements' and soft skills are still in the 'nice to haves' bucket. If we were to build the ideal job description for a modern IT professional (pick your discipline) what would it look like?
Mar 19 2017 08:53 PM
Couldn't agree more. I have a blog post in my head re Tech is no respecter of age anymore.
Mar 20 2017 04:25 PM
Check out @Robert Crane's blog post on 'The traits of a modern IT Professional' on his blog here: http://blog.ciaops.com/2017/03/the-traits-of-modern-it-professional.html
My favourite quotes:
Do you agree?