in reply to Re^5: Certifications are dumb.
in thread Certifications are dumb.

Man(*), do I identify with and empathise with your point of view. To me, the phrase "team player" is right up there with "enterprise software", "proactive", "thinking outside the box". Teams aren't built, they form. Or not. Too often, team player is a euphamism for "won't rock the boat".

The best example of a team player I have from real life, is a situation where late one night two members of the team were still around when it became obvious that that nights unattended software upgrade to a server in Russia (from a datacenter in Europe), was going to fail badly.

First thing the following morning, one of the guys arrived early, booked a meeting room. Produced a set of documents detailing the nature of the failures he had seen happening the previous night, the cost of keeping 8x 747 transport aircraft languishing on the tarmac waiting for their manifests, and detailed set of possible causes for the problem and who was responsible for them.

At 9 prompt, the meeting started and all the key players were in attendance. All except the other guy from the night before.

When he arrived, at 11 am, he was hauled into the managers office for a dressing down. It was then that he explained that he had not left until 6am. Had spent the night on the phone with an IT lady at the airport in Russia. Waited whilst she had cycled 8 km home, prepared her kids and husbands meals, and then cycled 8 km back. That he had then talked her, despite her minimal English and his non-existant Russian, through the process of restoring the pre-upgrade backup, manually using xcopy, from a dodgy CD that the automated restore couldn't get past the first read error.

Who were the team players?

(*) Feels weird addressing you with that epithet :)

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Re^7: Certifications are dumb.
by amarquis (Curate) on Apr 09, 2008 at 12:55 UTC

    When I'm interviewing for a position, one of my first goals is to find out whether or not those weasel words in the job description mean:

    - We are looking for somebody who communicates well and will fit in with our existing team.
    OR
    - Will you shut up and do what you are told?

    I try not to go in with preconceptions about the employer when I see them, though, since it is often the recruiter that adds that sort of crap to the posted description.

[reply]
      When I'm interviewing for a position, ...

      It's a good point. Many people forget that the interview is as much about them interviewing the company as it is about the company interviewing them.

      Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
      "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
      In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
[reply]

        Yeah, dragonchild mentioned the (valid and true) employer side of the story, that the employer is assuming a lot of risk when they make a big hire. But the other side of the coin is that the potential hire is as well. A bad fit is terrible for both parties.

        I expect potential employers to be happy to discuss all aspects of the position with me, and I try to be as up front as possible when I'm interviewing a potential employee. The cost of making a bad hire is just too great not to do otherwise.

[reply]

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