What would you prefer

If you were employing someone and you had to choose from the following:

(A) 3 years hands on experience + relevant exams (MCITP:EA, Virtual, CCNA + others)

or

(B) 1 years hands on experience + 4 year Computer science degree.

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Comments

networker050184

It would come down to the individual in the end. I'd take a person with lower qualifications as long as they had a good head on their shoulders and seemed like a good worker.

I'd lean towards someone with more experience over a degree though.

LoMo

What type of position are we talking?

erpadmin

I'm with networker on this one. If it were me, based on the above criteria, I would go with the one who had more experience AND I feel he would work well with myself/the team, I'm hiring the one that exhibits that the best.

Either of those guys are hirable though.

MrRyte

LoMo wrote: »

What type of position are we talking?

That would be my first question as well.

Is the position entry-level or managerial? If it's lower-level stuff I'd hire the person with the degree. If it's more critical like admin level stuff then I'd go with the person with more real-world experience. Just my two cents....

erpadmin

MrRyte wrote: »

That would be my first question as well.

Is the position entry-level or managerial? If it's lower-level stuff I'd hire the person with the degree. If it's more critical like admin level stuff then I'd go with the person with more real-world experience. Just my two cents....

I'm assuming the OP meant non-managerial. A more valid question would be if the position was more entry-level or mid-senior level. I can't see a guy with one year experience expecting a job asking for 5-7 years, though I'm sure that happens...especially if the person is unemployed.

NinjaBoy

LoMo wrote: »

What type of position are we talking?

I second that. Also there are other things to take into consideration:

1. Soft skills, eg communication skills, interpersonal skills, dependability and conscientiousness, etc.

2. Non-technical skills and qualifications, eg ITIL, FITS, team leading/management, etc.

3. Relevance of the experience of the person. It's all great to go for the one with 3 years experience, but if that person has 3 years of helpdesk and the position is for someone who can set up servers, would that 3 years of helpdesk be more useful than 1 years experience of working with servers?

-Ken

Sykk

Lets say for a junior network administrator/server/third level support role...

Tackle

Sykk wrote: »

Lets say for a junior network administrator/server/third level support role...

Sign me up. I'll trump both of them! JK.

Just going by all the infromation you have provided, I'd take the one with more expierence and related certs. It could change depending on their personality and how they seem to handle themselves.

rsutton

Sykk wrote: »

Lets say for a junior network administrator/server/third level support role...

If you are working on production servers you really need more than a years worth of experience.

LoMo

LucasMN wrote: »

Just going by all the infromation you have provided, I'd take the one with more expierence and related certs. It could change depending on their personality and how they seem to handle themselves.

My opinion.

EDIT: Under the assumption that they are the exact same person of course just with different credentials.

eansdad

Sykk wrote: »

Lets say for a junior network administrator/server/third level support role...

I'd interview them both but A has a large advantage.

VAHokie56

Assuming I get no other information then what you provided in the OP, I would take A.

SdotLow

erpadmin wrote: »

I'm assuming the OP meant non-managerial. A more valid question would be if the position was more entry-level or mid-senior level. I can't see a guy with one year experience expecting a job asking for 5-7 years, though I'm sure that happens...especially if the person is unemployed.

Don't know if you've checked recently, but even entry level positions ask for 5-7 years experience

Sykk

Ok this question is slightly self related!

Ill be Mcipt:sa certified with three years network admin experience (exchange, ad, file/print, firewall, SQL, phone, project, support) and basically everything that comes with it.

I work with one other IT guy and we support around 160 users over 10 sites. I don't have a degree and I don't want it to come back and bite me in the arse! I'm 21 so if I'm to do one, the time would be now while I've (relatively) small responsibilities outside of work!

Michael.J.Palmer

SdotLow wrote: »

Don't know if you've checked recently, but even entry level positions ask for 5-7 years experience .

I've seen that as well... which I find redundant... doesn't that defeat the purpose of "entry level".

Sykk

Can't edit on my phone! Meant to say I'll have 3 years exp and sa by Christmas!

kingslayer

Too broad a question, guy A sounds better in theory but:

Guy A could have 3 years logging calls and browsing facebook.

Guy B could have 1 year in a small understaffed company, given tons of responsibility early on and gained a lot of experience.

Not all experience is the same and to say one person's experience is better than another's because 3 > 1 is not too clever.