Wednesday April 27, 2005

Cut paper and press dot

In my last job before Sun the computing evironment was very much modelled on the mainframe days. In fact when I joined they still had a mainframe. The Sun hardware I managed replaced it. All the printouts from the printers were popped into pigeon holes that each user had and plots were put in a special holder. The HP plotter we used on the Sun server had a large roll of paper and after each plot a cutter had to be used to remove the finished plot, press a button marked with a dot, roll up the plot and place it in the holder. Very often over lunch I would wander in the computer room and if the operators were busy ( some were at lunch ) the plotter stood there waiting for the finished plot to be removed before starting the next one. So if it was in that state I'd do the job of an operator. I was surprised one day when someone made it clear a manager should not be doing that - why ?

During our lab move I had to help. My contribution helped get the lab completed in good time. Even now after a spell on conference calls one on ones etc I often walk down into the lab and if the rubbish bins need emptying or something like that I'll do it. I think if you manage people who do things it is your responsibility to ensure you understand what they do and how they do it and the challenges the face.

A job opportunity in the lab for students.

I decided this year to open up the way we find the students who work with us for a year to my weblog. Basically if you are a UK student and meet the requirements below and think the job sounds up your street please email me at paul.humphreys@Sun.com by Friday May 6th and attach a covering letter and your CV please. The job starts in July 2005 and runs for one year. It is in Surrey, UK. I would stress you must have some kind of Unix knowledge. Ideally having loaded it on your home PC tinkered with it, setup some kind of services, upgraded it etc. Although I cannot discriminate based upon the sex of the candidate I would say we do not get many female candidates. Over the years we have had very successful female students in the team. So don't be put off by any stereotypes you might have on the word 'lab' or feel it is a closed off, male dominated environment. Anyway here is the Job description:

The student will gain knowledge of Suns hardware range, system and application software. In addition he/she will benefit from working within a highly experienced software/hardware team and indeed be part of that team.

The position will be working in the two labs in the Camberley ( Surrey ) office and the successful candidate will have exposure to Sun's latest hardware and software offerings as they are released.

Tasks undertaken by the student may include the following:

Installation, configuration (hardware and software) , tuning and system administration of lab systems and project work in the lab. This will enable the student to gain hands on experience and knowledge of Unix hardware and associated system software.

There will be oppertunities for students to undertake project work in the lab. These may include ongoing planning and development or expansion of the laboratory infrastructure.

Requirements

Willingness and ability to absorb a large amount of information within a short timeframe.

Ability to co-operate and communicate effectively with other individuals.

The candidate MUST have at least one years experience of using Unix, for example Solaris, Linux or similar. The experience must cover installing Unix and other administration tasks. These would cover network (lan/wan) setup, user adminstration, software upgrades/patching and file system maintenance. You should grade yourself as having a good theoretical and practical understanding of your preferred unix platform.

Experience or knowledge in the following technical areas would be a distinct advantage:

Unix skills (user/administration) (essential)

Networking (essential)

Shell scripting (essential)

Experience of PC or Sun Hardware (essential)

Structured programming techniques (preferable)

Scripting languages (perl/tcl/php) (preferable)

Training in some of these areas WILL be given where required:

Typically: Solaris admin, Sun hardware etc.

We also expect applicants to write us a covering letter to accompany their CV explaining why their skills make them a suitable candidate. The letter should also cover what they would expect to get out of the one year working in Sun in this position.

I look forward to hearing from you ! If you are unsure about the job I am happy for you to talk to one of our existing students.