How do I spin this?

I have a phone interview tomorrow with one of the major hospitals in the area. This has been setup through a recruiting agency. After speaking with them today, they stressed that one area of concern to be had is my lack of enterprise exp. I am a System Admin for a mid to large-size company, I only look after 5-9 servers, 1000+ users.

This new potential job is a Sr. System Admin position and I will be overseeing 100+ servers.

How do turn this lack of enterprise exp into a positive thing? Or can I? I know this is going to be a topic discussed tomorrow in the interview.

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Comments

networker050184

Well, I don't think you are going to be able to put a positive spin on the fact that you don't have experience with the size of network they have. What you can do is show them what you have done with you current environment and stress the fact that you are ready for larger responsibilities. I think you can still come away with the job if you can show them you can handle it.

Good luck!

Plantwiz

networker050184 wrote: »

Well, I don't think you are going to be able to put a positive spin on the fact that you don't have experience with the size of network they have. What you can do is show them what you have done with you current environment and stress the fact that you are ready for larger responsibilities. I think you can still come away with the job if you can show them you can handle it.

Good luck!

Agreed.

Don't lie, but do highlight policies you developed, research skills you have, people skills you have (hopefully), and continuing training/education courses, etc.. that you pursue (if it is true that you do this sort of thing).

Or, let them know if you worked with some 'guru' for 'x' amount of time and he/she shared many of their experiences with you to help you avoid costly mistakes and such.

You'll find something positive. There is little doubt in my mind that if you are at the interview stage that the difference between the 5-9 servers you manage compared with the the potential 100 you may see there...will come up. Find a mentor to help you come up with good short, truthful ways to deal with the objections they may have to see how you handle them.

murdatapes

Good luck with that. I think if you do some of those things like Plantwiz said you should be ok. I hope to be in your shoes soon one day.

dynamik

Maybe they're on a budget. You can say you'll cost less than someone with more experience

Seriously though, I'd try to downplay the differences in the environments. Is it that much more difficult to manage five file servers than two? Try to show that you're familiar with all the technologies, but on a slightly smaller scale.

murdatapes

dynamik wrote: »

Maybe they're on a budget. You can say you'll cost less than someone with more experience

Seriously though, I'd try to downplay the differences in the environments. Is it that much more difficult to manage five file servers than two? Try to show that you're familiar with all the technologies, but on a slightly smaller scale.

I would do this from the jump as soon as you get in there.

GAngel

Managing a 100 server network is completely different from one with 9 especially in health care. How are you managing 1k users on 9 boxes anyway? Talk about your motivation, what drives you and be yourself I actually think I know the job and the hospital you're interviewing at.

GL you'll do just fine.

Kaminsky

Tin_Man wrote: »

I have a phone interview tomorrow with one of the major hospitals in the area. This has been setup through a recruiting agency. After speaking with them today, they stressed that one area of concern to be had is my lack of enterprise exp. I am a System Admin for a mid to large-size company, I only look after 5-9 servers, 1000+ users.

This new potential job is a Sr. System Admin position and I will be overseeing 100+ servers.

How do turn this lack of enterprise exp into a positive thing? Or can I? I know this is going to be a topic discussed tomorrow in the interview.

VERY SIMPLE - Be up front and say you will do it cheaper than someone who does have that experience !

Zartanasaurus

Remember this... if it were that big of a concern, you wouldn't even be interviewing with them right now.

tpatt100

No difference managing 100 servers or 9, I made the jump from 25 to a few hundred. Only difference is, I "HOPE" they have enterprise tools to manage more servers. Something like event log managers, central patch management etc. I know some companies do not want to purchase licenses for smaller networks but bigger ones it becomes almost mandatory, otherwise by the time you start/complete the 100 servers you have to start over again because so much time has passed.

Paul Boz

tpatt100 wrote: »

No difference managing 100 servers or 9, I made the jump from 25 to a few hundred. Only difference is, I "HOPE" they have enterprise tools to manage more servers. Something like event log managers, central patch management etc. I know some companies do not want to purchase licenses for smaller networks but bigger ones it becomes almost mandatory, otherwise by the time you start/complete the 100 servers you have to start over again because so much time has passed.

I see this stuff all the time. People don't realize that spending a few thousand dollars on a managed infrastructure saves tens of thousands in man hours.