Resume generating events? Do you beleive in this saying?

TheFORCE

So I've in a couple of discussions with some trainers and sometimes they would say " always do this or never do this with this tool or that tool" peerfect example is always brought up is Target and how their IT people failed to notify the proper people. So maybe those people got let go. But now every recruiter knows them and recruiters know each other.

So how do you get back into the field? Are recruiters so savvy these days that they will keep track with all these major events? And how do you bouce from it?

jelevated

I think it's mostly a joke but just a good way to express "hey don't do this or really bad things can happen". I've never goofed such as deploying a misconfigured application to 100k nodes outside of a change procedure but I know people who have done this or something similar. If they were competent workers before and the manager does their job, most places won't fire good it personnel over a single incident. Just a stern talking to the first time. As far as recruiters keeping tabs, no probably not. Usually a failure/outage is attributed externally to the entire organization. If someone in the team is gossiping about who did what all the way to the tech level, there are bigger issues going on. Target was a different beast entirely. The sheer scale of that and pressure both internally and externally for change meant that people had to go, even if they had nothing to do with allowing the hack. Hell even the CEO got axed, and when was the last time they checked a firewall config?

Now people who continually break stuff or refuse to adhere to change management procedures get their privileges revoked or get let go.

PCTechLinc

jelevated wrote: »

Now people who continually break stuff or refuse to adhere to change management procedures get their privileges revoked or get let go.

I wish this were always true, but I constantly see members of management with technical skills and admin accounts do stuff like this, and they are untouchable. It's very frustrating when you're trying to get everyone else to be on the same page and do things the proper way.

EANx

If management isn't on-board with a process then that process might not serve its purpose. And sometimes it needs to be someone pretty high up that needs to enforce it.

My organization has several branches and on one side, the group will not use tickets and refuses to use change management We can help more customers by not being caught up in bureaucratic paperwork). There have been several instances where they broke something and it took a long time to troubleshoot. My group tends to take the blame until we do a root-cause. It's taken quite a while but finally upper management is starting to understand the risks of having different groups with different processes.

DatabaseHead

@TheFORCE

Are recruiters so savvy these days that they will keep track with all these major events?

The first question IMO to ask is the information available and I believe the answer is yes. Any mid to large size company most certainly keeps information like this about the previous employees.

Second question, do the recruiters have the bandwidth to go the extra mile outside the normal process? (3rd party employee verification, education, credit and criminal check)? I don't think so, not usually. Maybe if recruiter X worked at a previous company they could reach out and get some information, but other than a one off situation like that I don't think so.

I'd like to know how you all handle releases when your manager is pushing for the release even if you know it has a high probability of having problems? Do you release is? You kind of have to if you exampled your situation and the still want to "move forward"..

TechGromit

DatabaseHead wrote: »

The first question IMO to ask is the information available and I believe the answer is yes. Any mid to large size company most certainly keeps information like this about the previous employees.

I disagree, most companies HR departments only give out the bare minimum when answering reference checks / confirming prior employment. While there are no laws other than slander that preventing them from providing more, few company want to take the risk of a lawsuit from a former employee, even if those risks are remote. There's nothing to be gained by providing detailed information about a former poorly performing employee. Simply put there no up side, only potential downsides. While a company may have a nice thick file on a former employee's screw-ups, getting them to share the information is remote.

As for resume generating events, they are simply major screw ups that cause the employee to be fired based on that one incident. I recall one incident, a highly skilled tech in IT was watching a foreign film at his desk that happened to have nudity in it, a female VP walked by his cube at just the right time to see nudity/sex scene, he was escorted out of the building with all his belongings in a cardboard box by the end of the day. This is a perfect example of a resume generating event. I guess his thought process was it's a foreign film, not a "naughty sex act video/film", apparently the VP didn't agree with his assessment for acceptable material to view in the work place.

thomas_

I wonder if the VP would do the same thing if it had been a female employee instead.

networker050184

They definitely exist. I've seen quite a few of them first hand though it's never happened to me personally. Usually it's negligence on the part of the person. Sometimes you just break the wrong thing and someons head has gotta roll to appease the higher ups or big customers.

Danielh22185

Agreed they 100% exist and I have 1st hand witnessed many in my current company let go after a SINGLE screw up. It's scary but can happen. It also depends on the company. If you work for a big bank like I do upper management can go head hunting when mistakes are made, even just one.

DatabaseHead

@TechGromit agreed HR has the data but won't divulge under "normal" protocol. However....... HR guys and gals love dem some gossip. You would be foolish to think they don't communicate outside of their normal process, they do I know some.

I knew a guy who didn't know the difference between a incremental backup and a full backup. When plants would call in he would kill the back up everytime, huge no-no when month end back up was running.

Well he did this 3 times and he was out. Doesn't meet the 1 and done requirement but it was pretty damn close.

ImYourOnlyDJ

DatabaseHead wrote: »

You would be foolish to think they don't communicate outside of their normal process, they do I know some

I know a retired personnel manager that would go out to eat with managers from different departments, companies, etc... And the off the record stuff was talked about for applicants (both good and bad). With the OPs original question recruiters and IT in general can be fairly tight knit so word does spread around, however I wouldn't worry about it especially in bigger cities.

Resume generating events are definitely real but more commonly used as a joke (with some truth behind it). It really depends on the circumstances, the company, the employee, the people involved, etc. John Smith on the Help Desk writing a script that ruins something could get walked out there, or just a slap on the wrist. On the other hand rockstar Senior Engineer might just get a talking to which I've seen over and over again (helps when you are almost too valuable to get let go).