[colug-432] the /etc test

[William Yang]

On 07/21/2014 04:34 PM, Rick Troth wrote:
> Pronounced "the etsy test".

[...]

> Looking for a sharper edge, someone on that team hit upon "the /etc test".
> The idea was ...
> 
>     cd /etc
>     ls
>     "tell me what each of these is used for"
> 
> 
> It's a Kobayashi Maru. You're going to fail. Something in the range of
> files will be outside your domain of knowledge. But the intent (of the
> interviewers) was to see how far you get. (And maybe also see how you
> handle the unknowns.)

I'm not a big fan of tests that are intended for the applicant to fail (it
sets a bad tone and feeling for the overall work relationship).  I'm
probably an expert by most measures, but I'm reasonably sure I've failed
the /etc test as described on Other People's Systems(tm) frequently,
because administrative culture and practices doesn't feel all that standard
across distro and package maintainers to developers to operations groups
running particular boxes.

(And, I'm pretty sure the best applicants don't have to know the answer:
they have to know how to GET to the answer reliably, quickly, efficiently,
and retain answers they use frequently).

However, I do have a checklist of questions I ask about when interviewing
technical staff for a *IX environment.  One of them is to ask for
descriptions of directories based on the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.

This also gives a much more replicable question base.  The nice thing about
an FHS-based question is that HR can actually ask the questions in a
structured interview, and simply have the answer nodded to by a SME, rather
than having to have an expert ask the question and follow-ups.

	-Bill
-- 
William Yang
wyang at gcfn.net