[102481] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bill Nash)
Sat Feb 16 21:08:05 2008
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:07:13 -0700 (MST)
From: Bill Nash <billn@billn.net>
To: Joel Jaeggli <joelja@bogus.com>
cc: Kim Onnel <karim.adel@gmail.com>, NANOG list <nanog@nanog.org>
In-Reply-To: <47B77BB9.90807@bogus.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
'Hi, I'm Bill.. and I took down the network.'
"Hi Bill!"
- billn
On Sat, 16 Feb 2008, Joel Jaeggli wrote:
> There is a topical tutorial for people attending nanog 42 sunday afternoon...
>
> http://www.nanog.org/mtg-0802/zwicky.html
>
> Bill Nash wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, 16 Feb 2008, Kim Onnel wrote:
>>
>>> I am looking for defining what are skills needed in people that will work
>>> in
>>> an ISP's operational/NOC environment as Network Engineers.
>>>
>>> In my humble experience, i have came across people that i just feel they
>>> are
>>> not right for such technical jobs, people would act and take their golden
>>> fingers to the devices without logic and others who has more of a
>>> structured
>>> approach to solving problems and thinking, some that will crank under
>>> pressure and just loose it and others who will act rationally.
>>>
>>> Please correct me if i am wrong and if you believe such skills could be
>>> gained by time/training?
>>
>> I think you're talking very generally about the 'cowboy' type of operators
>> who will reboot first, and then troubleshoot if that doesn't fix it. There
>> are also the territorial types who feel threatened in the face of outside
>> ideas or questions.
>>
>> Speaking as a volatile loudmouth (in recovery), I do think that
>> interpersonal skill training, or at least practice, is useful for folks to
>> be able to inter-operate both with other people, and other network
>> operators. The single most useful troubleshooting skill anyone can bring to
>> the table is a good pair of ears and a willingness to use them. With that
>> as a base, you can move on to good teamwork and best practices.
>>
>> As cliche as it may seem, I readily recommend 'Negotiating for Dummies' as
>> reading for anyone who doesn't want to be the person that no one can work
>> with. It works great when given as an anonymous gift, too.
>>
>> - billn
>>
>
