

Ask YC: How do you evaluate a good sys admin? - justin

Justin.tv is looking to hire a great sys admin, but we lack experience in evaluating them. Any advice from the masses?
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cperciva
I'd say that sysadmining is 99% about experience -- if you've encountered a
problem before, you'll be much better at fixing it than if you haven't, no
matter how good your knowledge of the underlying codebase is.

In that vein, I'd say that the best way to evaluate a sysadmin is to ask (a)
what sysadmin experience he has, and (b) what sort of problems he has
encountered which he has needed to resolve.

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astrec
You're looking for a problem solver with an unflappable, even temperament. Ask
them to bring their notebook, or show you their personal wiki - without
exception the best sys admins I've ever met have meticulous notes detailing
solutions to fringe problems, running sheets for curly recoveries, and other
assorted arcana.

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ubudesign
if he/she edits all config files by hand instead of using some tool AND he can
write shell scripts AND he knows how to do builds AND has experince with setup
of any app server...

