Dealing with unqualified people

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First, please add spaces in your certifications list, it is too long and spells over the topic content.

I can't help you with dealing with unqualified people, but I can help with the presentations part.

Are you doing this to show off your skills and your superiority to the others, or do you want to teach them something?

If you want to teach them, then look for easier topics that they can understand.

And remember "[FONT=&quot]If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."[/FONT]

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DZA_

Our organization recently launched an initiative to assess the skillset in each of the ITS departments, they call it a capability assessment. This is done in an form of a survey to see which areas need improvement and where they can identify the strength in the teams. Essentially what it is the knowledge gap between current state to a state where they would like to be. The organization advises that the assessment does not affect the individjal employee performance review. Can I suggest that perhaps you can do the same thing to gauge the skill level of each of the individuals? Assuming if they take it seriously, you will get a better understanding where the team operates. If they dont, then there will be some serious bias in the results.

iBrokeIT

kMastaFlash wrote: »

I've also done a presentation on validating sql injection, XSS etc. with easy and clear examples, provided **** sheets for tool usage and troubleshooting steps to exploit x or y vulnerability and they still don't understand it and they ask me to validate the vulns anyways. I'm running out of ideas because I feel these people are there for the job not the passion.

This sounds like the root of your problem, not your presentation. If these people are coming to you for help and you are bailing them out every time by doing their work then there really isn't an incentive for them to learn on their own. You need to start pushing back by asking them questions which require them to demonstration some level of effort on their part like "what have tried?", "where are you getting stuck?" and then point them towards the resources you provided. Just because you are technically capable of solving their immediate problem doesn't mean should.

Jon_Cisco

Three things quickly come to mind.

1 - It is common for people to learn just enough to do their job and stay employed.
2 - If your getting blank stares you are loosing them.
3 - Sometimes forced interaction is better then presentations.

Are you allowed any flexibility in your training? Perhaps run a discussion based on an actual event that happened. This might force participation.

My only suggestion is not to expect to much of the training sessions. Do a great job and give them the chance to learn. Work with the ones that are interested and let management deal with the others. Probably by allowing them to keep doing what they have been doing.

Tekn0logy

kMastaFlash wrote: »

Since I personally see that these people on my team are unqualified/lack basic foundation knowledge, how and why would a company keep them there?

Tread lightly, the fact that they were hired as your peer might tell you that they know someone higher up the food chain.

EANx

It's not just that they might know someone higher up the food chain. I could be mistaken but I'm sensing some arrogance in this thread. Smart people that cause waves sometimes get booted while the people who don't do as much but don't cause waves stay around. Remember, even idiots have friends and talk.

Your job isn't to figure out why a firm has kept someone around. Your role is to do your job and ensure that if the company decides to get rid of the group, that a bunch of people know you're a team player with a positive, can-do attitude.

And for Pete's sake, put spaces in between those certifications. The ones on the left side, not the ones in the signature,. This is also called "attention to detail." The key is to make sure your house is perfect before casting stones.

Danielm7

Jon_Cisco wrote: »

Are you allowed any flexibility in your training? Perhaps run a discussion based on an actual event that happened. This might force participation.

I'd agree with this, and most of the other points too. (Including fixing the sig! I had to copy/paste parts of the text to even read it...)

If people don't care about a topic, you can't just force them to care, but you can at least make it more interesting to them. Just talking at people, in a topic that you are trying to make them excited about can just make them feel like something is being forced on them.

For reference, my workplace does tabletop IR exercises every year. This year I was asked to take it over and changed it a lot to have tons of interaction, different challenges and got other groups outside of IT involved. We got all really positive reviews this year, tons of interesting questions from Sr management outside of IT so everyone was very engaged. If I just went up and did a long presentation about security most of the room would have fallen asleep. I used many real life examples that happened in the company, lots of wide eyes from the crowd of the potential reality of it all.

1776

"above and beyond", "during lunch" problem solved.

dave330i

OP - If you're presentation is anything like the wall of words you've used to start this thread, I'm not surprised by lack of engagement.

jwdk19

Training during lunch? I am a big believer in a proper lunch break (I do not get yo take one half of yhe time). Personally, it gives me a mid-day mental break and allows me to reboot if only for 20, 30 mins.

If I were forced to attend training during my lunch break....I would pay attention but likely wouldnt ask very many questions either, so as to "speed the event along".

ally_uk

OP, you sound a arrogant, Maybe the guys you were training were fed up of you coming across as a big head / know it all. So they intentionally zoned out....