[Beowulf] cluster admin employment

[Mike Davis]

Mark Kosmowski wrote:
> For Mike and the rest of you:
>
> If one of these unqualified applicants had accurately mapped out their
> deficiencies and let you know that they would need a little training,
> would said applicant have been considered at all or would their resume
> have been filed in the "circular file" (slang for the trash bin)?
>
> Does someone who has maintained a personal cluster for their graduate
> research have any reasonable chance of landing some sort of admin
> position?  Given that state of the economy, I've been kind of hoping
> that I could look into admin positions as a backup plan if a position
> in my field is not readily available once I finish my doctoral studies
> - it would be helpful to know whether this is a realistic possibility.
>
>   

I think that type of person stands an excellent chance of being hired. 
One of the best admins that I ever had was finishing his PhD. His case 
was a bit different in that he had started the PhD, been hired by a 
computer company, worked for them for 5 years and then been laid off.  
The way that he learned all of that in the first place was doing it for 
his research.

When I built our first linux cluster as a proof of concept in 1998, I 
had to learn the details via reseach and trial and error. Thge ability 
to learn and a good work ethic will go a long way.

Mike