Network technology in higher education. Sad experience in finding young professionals
I think it is no secret to anyone that over the past few years the demand for IT specialists in the labor market has been inexorably increasing. Many educational institutions are trying to adapt to these requirements and are trying to introduce new specialties or increase the number of places for applicants to existing faculties.
Despite all these efforts, the shortage of qualified IT specialists is only increasing.
This article is a kind of cry from the heart after several dozen interviews with various young candidates for the position of “Network / System Engineer” in a company that deals with system integration.
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It all started when the company needed to dramatically increase the staff of system engineers due to the large volumes of future work. There was a time left, so we decided to hire young promising specialists - graduates of the telecommunications faculty and the like. Now I will not name the specific names of universities, institutes or colleges, but in our city there are plenty of them. Naturally, we understood that the qualifications of graduates would not allow them to be immediately used in projects and planned to organize internal corporate training, already in specific areas (cisco, checkpoint, s-terra). In this way, we would get specialists who are “sharpened” for our needs at very insignificant costs.
There are of course a lot of opinions and disputes about which experts are better to hire, experienced, not experienced, up to 30 or older, the article is not about that. I would like to talk about the level of training of our graduates. If someone is interested in this story, welcome under the cat…
As it was already written above, we didn’t have any special illusions about students and graduates. We understood perfectly well that serious work was to be done in training beginners. The calculation was on the flexibility of the mind, a large amount of energy and the curiosity of young candidates! Expectations did not materialize ...
The following are the main problems encountered when interviewing graduates:
1) The first and most important problem is the lack of knowledge about the most basic things in the field of computer technology. A person cannot answer the difference between a MAC address and an IP address. Does not understand why you need a default route. Does not know the difference between the switch and the router. Then immediately there are questions to the educational institutions that produce these specialists. What could teach a person 6 years old (master) at the Faculty of Telecommunications, that he does not know even basic things ???
2) High candidate requests. A person who does not even have time to find out what the company is doing, wonders how much he will receive and whether career growth is possible. At the same time, he has obvious problems from paragraph 1. Remembering my early years, I was ready to take on any kind of work for practically any money, wanting to get at least some real experience and work experience.
3) Frank lies in the resume. Looking at a summary of young professionals you can immediately see such “tags” as: Windows Server, Advanced Linux user, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, knowledge of the TCP / IP stack, work with Cisco equipment, D-Link, etc. When you begin to ask the job seeker in detail, it turns out that he has no idea what the Cisco CLI is, how to view the contents of a text file from the command line in linux, whether the Windows server can act as a DHCP server. Most recently, a person was unable to answer the question: “How many levels are there in the seven-level OSI model?”. Why write to the resume of what you have no idea? Does anyone really hope that he will be hired for a beautiful resume?
4) Lack of initiative. By closing our eyes to the first three points, we gave candidates a chance to prove themselves. They offered to perform a test task. Some refused immediately, saying that they did not have time for this. Those who agreed, we gave a link to the Course of the young fighter with a request to look at the first 12 lessons, and then come to us again and complete the task. Most candidates had 12 lessons for more than a month, arguing that they have many other cases. Naturally, such “fast” guys we have not considered.
As a result, out of 20 interviews, we could not find any suitable candidate and in the old manner took a person who was a good friend of one of our employees. They vouched for him. We gave him a course and a task assignment, which he had already done with ease in a week. Now the person has been working with us for 4 months and gives great hopes. He actively studies new materials and is absolutely independent. He did not graduate from universities (he graduated from the Energy College).
I was surprised by the quality of education in our universities and institutes (perhaps this applies only to our city). To study for several years and to enter the labor market is completely unprepared. Could it be something sadder? Something is wrong with this education. Maybe students don't want to study? Or maybe the training program is too weak and relaxes young professionals? I will not now raise the question “do I need a higher education or not?” Referring to Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. But something I just have to mention. It is clear that the knowledge gained at the university is completely inadequate for real life. Therefore, I wanted to appeal to teachers and students.
To students. As Steve Jobs used to say: “Stay hungry. Stay reckless. ” Do not feel sorry for yourself while you are young. Stay up late at the computer while learning new technologies. Sign up for online courses. Now a huge number of FREE courses from the most eminent educational institutions in the world. You can explore anything. Practice more! Fortunately, now there are no problems with this, you can use various simulators / emulators (speaking of networks). Find yourself a mentor. You have less time than you think. Eagerly absorb knowledge. The education you are given is simply not enough for normal employment right after the university. Anyone without a higher education, having completed two or three monthly specialized courses, will have a good head start in front of you.
I can not advise anything to teachers, because I was not on their side and I know little about the process of studying at universities. One request - practice more with students. On one theory you will not get far ...
PS I apologize in advance if I offended someone. All of the above is merely the result of one’s own thoughts and conclusions and, of course, is not the absolute truth.
Despite all these efforts, the shortage of qualified IT specialists is only increasing.
This article is a kind of cry from the heart after several dozen interviews with various young candidates for the position of “Network / System Engineer” in a company that deals with system integration.
')
It all started when the company needed to dramatically increase the staff of system engineers due to the large volumes of future work. There was a time left, so we decided to hire young promising specialists - graduates of the telecommunications faculty and the like. Now I will not name the specific names of universities, institutes or colleges, but in our city there are plenty of them. Naturally, we understood that the qualifications of graduates would not allow them to be immediately used in projects and planned to organize internal corporate training, already in specific areas (cisco, checkpoint, s-terra). In this way, we would get specialists who are “sharpened” for our needs at very insignificant costs.
There are of course a lot of opinions and disputes about which experts are better to hire, experienced, not experienced, up to 30 or older, the article is not about that. I would like to talk about the level of training of our graduates. If someone is interested in this story, welcome under the cat…
As it was already written above, we didn’t have any special illusions about students and graduates. We understood perfectly well that serious work was to be done in training beginners. The calculation was on the flexibility of the mind, a large amount of energy and the curiosity of young candidates! Expectations did not materialize ...
The following are the main problems encountered when interviewing graduates:
1) The first and most important problem is the lack of knowledge about the most basic things in the field of computer technology. A person cannot answer the difference between a MAC address and an IP address. Does not understand why you need a default route. Does not know the difference between the switch and the router. Then immediately there are questions to the educational institutions that produce these specialists. What could teach a person 6 years old (master) at the Faculty of Telecommunications, that he does not know even basic things ???
2) High candidate requests. A person who does not even have time to find out what the company is doing, wonders how much he will receive and whether career growth is possible. At the same time, he has obvious problems from paragraph 1. Remembering my early years, I was ready to take on any kind of work for practically any money, wanting to get at least some real experience and work experience.
3) Frank lies in the resume. Looking at a summary of young professionals you can immediately see such “tags” as: Windows Server, Advanced Linux user, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, knowledge of the TCP / IP stack, work with Cisco equipment, D-Link, etc. When you begin to ask the job seeker in detail, it turns out that he has no idea what the Cisco CLI is, how to view the contents of a text file from the command line in linux, whether the Windows server can act as a DHCP server. Most recently, a person was unable to answer the question: “How many levels are there in the seven-level OSI model?”. Why write to the resume of what you have no idea? Does anyone really hope that he will be hired for a beautiful resume?
4) Lack of initiative. By closing our eyes to the first three points, we gave candidates a chance to prove themselves. They offered to perform a test task. Some refused immediately, saying that they did not have time for this. Those who agreed, we gave a link to the Course of the young fighter with a request to look at the first 12 lessons, and then come to us again and complete the task. Most candidates had 12 lessons for more than a month, arguing that they have many other cases. Naturally, such “fast” guys we have not considered.
As a result, out of 20 interviews, we could not find any suitable candidate and in the old manner took a person who was a good friend of one of our employees. They vouched for him. We gave him a course and a task assignment, which he had already done with ease in a week. Now the person has been working with us for 4 months and gives great hopes. He actively studies new materials and is absolutely independent. He did not graduate from universities (he graduated from the Energy College).
I was surprised by the quality of education in our universities and institutes (perhaps this applies only to our city). To study for several years and to enter the labor market is completely unprepared. Could it be something sadder? Something is wrong with this education. Maybe students don't want to study? Or maybe the training program is too weak and relaxes young professionals? I will not now raise the question “do I need a higher education or not?” Referring to Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg. But something I just have to mention. It is clear that the knowledge gained at the university is completely inadequate for real life. Therefore, I wanted to appeal to teachers and students.
To students. As Steve Jobs used to say: “Stay hungry. Stay reckless. ” Do not feel sorry for yourself while you are young. Stay up late at the computer while learning new technologies. Sign up for online courses. Now a huge number of FREE courses from the most eminent educational institutions in the world. You can explore anything. Practice more! Fortunately, now there are no problems with this, you can use various simulators / emulators (speaking of networks). Find yourself a mentor. You have less time than you think. Eagerly absorb knowledge. The education you are given is simply not enough for normal employment right after the university. Anyone without a higher education, having completed two or three monthly specialized courses, will have a good head start in front of you.
I can not advise anything to teachers, because I was not on their side and I know little about the process of studying at universities. One request - practice more with students. On one theory you will not get far ...
PS I apologize in advance if I offended someone. All of the above is merely the result of one’s own thoughts and conclusions and, of course, is not the absolute truth.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/269117/
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