Re: eBay is looking for network heavies...

[Ruairi Carroll <ruairi.carroll () gmail com>]

On 11 June 2015 at 06:46, Alex White-Robinson <alexwr () gmail com> wrote:

> Matthew Petach <mpetach () netflight com> wrote:
>
> > On a slightly different note, however--while it's good to
> > have an appreciation of the past and how we got here,
> > I think it's wise to also recognize we as an industry
> > have some challenges bringing new blood in--and
> > treating it too much like a sacred priesthood with
> > cabalistic knowledge and initiation rites isn't going
> > to help us bring new engineers into the field to
> > take over for us crusty old farts when our eyes
> > give out and we can't type into our 9600 baud
> > serial consoles anymore.
> >
> > Matt
> > CCOF #1999322002 [0]
>
> I've seen very little attention paid to junior talent in the last few
> years, and know a few people who would have been talented engineers that
> never got a chance to show it.
> They moved into other industries because of the lack of junior roles.
>
> I know very few people in network engineering that are under thirty, and
> not that many under thirty five.
As someone who is under 35, this comment strikes a chord with me. I started
self-studying networking when I was 15ish, yet I had to wait until I was 26
before I could get a full time job in the industry. I even had to move out
of my home country. Getting a solid start in the industry was exceptionally
hard, and I see no difference now.

What I found is that back in early-mid 00's, the industry was a black box.
Unless you knew someone inside of the industry, it was quite impossible to
get clear career advice on how to a) get an entry level (support) job and
b) how to move out of the entry level into an engineering position. We
still suffer this lack of clarity, and it's *hurting* us. We should ask
ourselves when is the last time we provided career advice to someone who
was under 20, and strive to help more teenagers onto the networking path.
Someone once suggested that we go back to our high schools and talk to the
kids about a career in IT to help give them insight into what we do, and
hopefully win over more mind share.

/me goes back to being a hip youngster



> On Thu, Jun 11, 2015 at 2:01 PM, Matthew Petach <mpetach () netflight com>
> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 7:57 PM, Jay Ashworth <jra () baylink com> wrote:
> > [...]
> > > And this... is NANOG!
> >
> > Needs more ellipses and capitalization...more like
> >
> >
> > This...IS...NANOG!!!
> >
> > building up to a nice crescendo roar as you kick the
> > hapless interviewee backwards down the deep, dark well
> >
> >
> > On a slightly different note, however--while it's good to
> > have an appreciation of the past and how we got here,
> > I think it's wise to also recognize we as an industry
> > have some challenges bringing new blood in--and
> > treating it too much like a sacred priesthood with
> > cabalistic knowledge and initiation rites isn't going
> > to help us bring new engineers into the field to
> > take over for us crusty old farts when our eyes
> > give out and we can't type into our 9600 baud
> > serial consoles anymore.
> >
> > Matt
> > CCOF #1999322002 [0]
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [0] Certified Crufty Old Fart