Hire some based on underling knlowdge or systems knolwdge

shodown

I've been thinking about this as I have been going on job interviews recently since moving away. I did some interviews for systems I haven't touched yet, but I understood the technology behind them. One of them I was passed over for and the other I will be doing a face to face. I was passed over cause I didn't have specific system knowledge of there VOIP system, but I told them everything they wanted to hear about H323, SIP, RTP, Vlan's trunking, and routing. This is a job that they found me for so I'm wondering for those of us out here who take part in interviewing how would you handle this?

networker050184

Personally I'd be more inclined to hire someone with the a better underlying knowledge rather than just knowing how to operate a particular system. I didn't have much experience on the specific products at the company I'm currently working for, but a solid understanding of the technologies is what got me on board. That and a good sense of logical thinking and troubleshooting.

shodown

another funny part about this was that it was a nortel system and that wasn't the focus of the job, it was to be more a route/switch guy and assisting with that when needed. This is one of the most silly rejection emails, I've ever gotten. I wish I could tell them never to contact me again, but this is one of the ones where its best to just leave it alone.