An interesting interview question
So, I interviewed for a job last week. Some nice people, and someone who I don’t think was enthusiastic about me writing about things like upcoming interviews. Sort of ambivalent on that …
But one of the interview questions that one of the unix guys I talked to asked me really struck me, and I think it’s an interesting point to think about.
The question was: do you consider yourself more of a strategic person, or more of a tactical person?
When I was asked that, I hadn’t really thought about it, so I sort of waffled and talked a bit, but didn’t really arrive at a conclusion. I’ve been thinking about it a bit more, both in terms of what I see myself as and in terms of what it’s asking as an interview question.
Basically, as an interview question, it’s almost a “do you see yourself as perpetually in the trenches, or as a planner/implementer type?” In other words, do you want to be frontline staff or are you aiming to be running the place someday? Or at least something to that effect.
As I’ve thought about it a bit, I think I definitely see myself as more of a strategic type. I don’t mind “putting out fires” when I need to, but I really like having a medium-term plan. Like, having someplace I’m going in the next couple months, in the next year, in the next 5 years. I think I’m happier crafting my own setup than tweaking someone else’s.
Now, in the sysadmin world, everything is someone else’s configs tweaked… every samba config is based on the example samba configs extended and flexed to your own specifications, for example. But I can say the biosecurity content distribution, while relying entirely on the work of other people (cron, shell, ssh, rsync, svn), is my own creation. A custom solution to a potentially difficult problem, that ultimately solves it in an elegant and usable way. I can take pride in the system I’ve crafted, even if it’s made of other people’s pieces assembled in a novel way.
Thinking about it, I like the question a lot. It frames a lot of self-evaluation into a very succinct question. It’s thought-provoking, and novel.
Just thought I’d share 
.