Advice for continuing and advancing my career

[HoldTheLine]

Hi all,

I was recently let go from a position and have been finding the job search very difficult.  Have been working with NetBackup since 5x up to 7.5 and worked with quite a few different aspects of it, but when I get to interviews I am told that either my skills are outdated or I am not strong enough.  It is sort of a catch 22 since I spend all of my time looking for work and I have not so much as logged into a master or media in months let alone done any real work.

So I am wondering if there is any advice for somebody in my situation: up until this point I considered myself fairly strong when it comes to NetBackup but that does not appear to be the case when I am asked very specific questions during interviews and have to respond that I have not encountered that exact situation.

Is it worthwhile to persue any of the certifications that Symantec offers?  I am a little leary about the cost since I am not even working but if it will be beneficial then it may be worth the investment.  I just feel like every day that goes by my knowledge and skills fade and makes it that much more difficult to prove to potential employers that I am competent. 

[mph999]

I feel for you - the way to find a good NBU engineer is not to test for stupid questions like what command does this, what option does that, it shows only that they have either run the command in the past, or read the manual and have a good memory.

Of course, you would expect someone to know the common commands, but you get my meaning.

My view - if someone doesn't know the command, but knows where to get the manual to look it up, that's just as good.

I promse you, nobody knows all the options and commands in NBU, and nobody (or very few) know every feature in depth.

What makes a good NBU engineer - someone who can troubleshoot well, and think of ways to narrow down issues.

I've just spent the day on an issue I have never seen before, on a part of the product I have not used.

Sure, it was a bit slow at times, as I had to work out the commands/ look up commands, but I've narrowed the issue down a lot further than it was, simply by the way I thought the problem through, so what if I had to look up some commands.

My view, if someone is so narrow minded that they think 'what if ' questions are the way to run a NBU interview you are better off not working for them.

Martin

[V4]

i agree with martin's  Hope someone with similar view would interview you :)

[HoldTheLine]

Thanks for the replies.  I am trying to stay on top of my NetBackup skills and knowledge in any way I can - does anyone know if there are any personal use releases that I could install locally? i.e. set up a virtual environment so I can stay fresh and experiment with different aspects with master/media/clients.

Every day that ticks by without working with it I feel like it is slipping away from me.

[jim_dalton]

Tricky.

If you dont know the answer, explain how you would go about it. As mentioned if they are reasonable then they might at least appreciate you have the intelligence to investigate and problem solve.

This forum has lots of resources, so if theres areas you think you are weak on then spend some time reading up and so forth.

You have to hope you dont encounter someone that knows it!

If it helps any, I once got presented with about 20 pages of netbackup error numbers and was asked to write down what they meant, and how to resolve. Thankfully I didnt get that job.

Jim