nanog mailing list archives
Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers
From: Bill Nash <billn () billn net>
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:07:13 -0700 (MST)
'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 inan ISP's operational/NOC environment as Network Engineers.In my humble experience, i have came across people that i just feel they arenot right for such technical jobs, people would act and take their goldenfingers to the devices without logic and others who has more of a structuredapproach 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
Current thread:
- Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Kim Onnel (Feb 16)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Bill Nash (Feb 16)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers R. Irving (Feb 16)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers R. Irving (Feb 16)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Joel Jaeggli (Feb 16)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Bill Nash (Feb 16)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Kim Onnel (Feb 16)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Kevin Oberman (Feb 17)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Justin Shore (Feb 17)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers R. Irving (Feb 16)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Gadi Evron (Feb 16)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Bill Nash (Feb 16)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Henry Linneweh (Feb 17)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers R. Irving (Feb 17)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers Jerry Pasker (Feb 18)
- Re: Interpersonal skills needed for Network Engineers R. Irving (Feb 17)