A techie guys view

Please hire the right people.

There are many approaches to hiring in the tech industry. There are some people who "get it" but most dont. It seems as a company grows they get worse at hiring good technical resources.

IMHO there are two types of Managers/Directors/VPs. Those who are afraid and those who are not.

The ones that are afraid tend to hire people who have less experience / skills than they do. This makes them feel smarter. And their teams end up being huge.

The ones who are not afraid get the best. In my past management experience I always try to hire people that are smarter than I am. If they are not smarter than I am they almost become a waste of my time. I have to spend too much time explaining what I want and then teaching them how to do the implementation.

Face it. Your staff is what makes you succeed.

This is especially prevalent in non-technology companies. In so many of them IS/IT is put under finance. So you have a CFO who really doesnt understand the actual technology side of things. What does he end up looking for? Degrees. He usually prefers an MBA. WHY? Why do you look for this in someone who is leading technology in your company? So he makes it easier for Mr CFO to talk ROI, CapEx, depreciation, etc. but most of the time he is blowing smoke up your....

He then goes out and really does not know what to look for in the people under him. Who does he turn to? Oh usually IGS, EDS, etc. Then? Company gets old technology at inflated prices.

It happens all the time. The reason I bring this up is I was looking at doing some work for a company. The exact situation happened. I was referred by someone who WAS working for the company. He got pissed off and left. They just called me this morning and needed to talk about limitations on their SAN. Not the SAN that I had recommended but the smaller, cheaper one they ended up with after "working with" highly regarded technology company. Now? 100k SAN out the door because it will not scale with their needs.

I have seen this over and over. The CFO driven org that scrimped on Load Balancers only to have to upgrade in 14 months. The cage that filled up because "4 racks is enough." The DB servers that "will last us at least 3 years."

Best one ever was a company that purchased a SAN without doing any looking into the lifespan. After using it for 14 mos they received an End of Support notification from the manufacturer. Who did they buy the SAN from? CDW.

Who actually buys a SAN from CDW? You would not believe how many people do. Consult a great independent contractor or at minimum a trusted VAR. They are out there for a reason.