Current Events > Alright, so... work related dilemma...

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CableZL
11/08/19 4:14:37 PM
#1:


So I've been underwater with work for a long time, and have been asking management to hire more network staff to help me out...

They hired a contractor a few months ago and he listed a bunch of certs on his resume, including:

CWNA
CWSP
CCNA
CWNA Wireless
Cisco Advanced Wireless Field Specialist
Cisco Advanced Wireless Design Specialist
Aruba Network Professional

I decided to have them bring this guy in because of his expertise in wireless as well as having network implementation experience

We're working on opening a new store pretty soon and I decided to let him do the subnetting for the store

He put public subnets in our IP address management software for the guest wifi and other networks meant for non-employee purposes...

Then I pointed that out and he said you could still use them privately... Except they're public subnets owned by another company... He said he'd change them... So I checked on it later... He put more public subnets...

wtf

I'm now thinking there's no way this guy has ever had a CCNA, let alone the other stuff

What

do
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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk
11/08/19 4:17:02 PM
#2:


IIRC CCNA has an ID number or something attached to the person who earned it - get HR to ask for that and verify it. You might have to get him to lock into it

Check his references too and find out what they thought of his work

Also start covering your ass. Like legitimately email this fuck and tell him "this is what you're to do" if he doesn't do it then you go to your boss and your boss should chew him out for it
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Tryhaptaward
11/08/19 4:18:24 PM
#3:


Sounds like a CEman who listened and lied the shit out of his resume
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__aCEr__
11/08/19 4:18:32 PM
#4:


Is there not a database somewhere that keeps track of people's certifications?

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CableZL
11/08/19 4:19:34 PM
#5:


__aCEr__ posted...
Is there not a database somewhere that keeps track of people's certifications?

There is, but people don't often check and neither did we... He didn't list any certificate numbers on his resume either.
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Romulox28
11/08/19 4:21:03 PM
#6:


if you're suspicious you could probably call up cisco and confirm he has those certs.

my guess is that he might be some dude that has little to no real experience, so he just started stacking certs. im assuming most of those certs are like the CCNA where there are no prereqs, so in theory if you are someone that is good at taking tests and you have nothing better in life to do, you could easily bang out a bunch of certifications and not really learn anything from it.

my money is on him having lied or greatly over-embellished his experience, when i see someone with a thousand certifications that looks awfully fishy to me
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CableZL
11/08/19 4:22:02 PM
#7:


Romulox28 posted...
if you're suspicious you could probably call up cisco and confirm he has those certs.

my guess is that he might be some dude that has little to no real experience, so he just started stacking certs. im assuming most of those certs are like the CCNA where there are no prereqs, so in theory if you are someone that is good at taking tests and you have nothing better in life to do, you could easily bang out a bunch of certifications and not really learn anything from it.

my money is on him having lied or greatly over-embellished his experience, when i see someone with a thousand certifications that looks awfully fishy to me

He's said repeatedly that he let his certs expire and he would need to retake them... He has network implementation experience and has deployed physical network equipment for a few stores already, but I was handling all the subnetting...

hmmmm
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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk
11/08/19 4:22:42 PM
#8:


CableZL posted...

He's said repeatedly that he let his certs expire and he would need to retake them... He has network implementation experience and has deployed physical network equipment for a few stores already, but I was handling all the subnetting...

That's bullshit. They expire every 3 years. If he's doing contract work he'd need to keep up to date unless he was working at a permanent position for the last 2+ years
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CableZL
11/08/19 4:25:13 PM
#9:


RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...
CableZL posted...

He's said repeatedly that he let his certs expire and he would need to retake them... He has network implementation experience and has deployed physical network equipment for a few stores already, but I was handling all the subnetting...

That's bullshit. They expire every 3 years. If he's doing contract work he'd need to keep up to date unless he was working at a permanent position for the last 2+ years


Yeah, they expire after 3 years, but you don't suddenly lose the skillset from the certs you had when they expire.

I'm just doubting he ever had a ccna at this point because subnetting is a big part of the CCENT and CCNA exams he would have taken
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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk
11/08/19 4:27:32 PM
#10:


CableZL posted...

Yeah, they expire after 3 years, but you don't suddenly lose the skillset from the certs you had when they expire.

I'm just doubting he ever had a ccna at this point because subnetting is a big part of the CCENT and CCNA exams he would have taken

What I mean is that if someone is contracting they'll stay up to date and generally be ready to prove it.
Might be different in Ireland but here recruiters will literally refuse to work with most contracters if they're not up to date.
Would your company pay for him to sit it at all? If so ask management ot make the offer of "sit it and y ou pass, we pay otherwise you pay/it's removed from your salary" and see how he takes it
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CableZL
11/08/19 4:32:38 PM
#11:


RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...
What I mean is that if someone is contracting they'll stay up to date and generally be ready to prove it.
Might be different in Ireland but here recruiters will literally refuse to work with most contracters if they're not up to date.
Would your company pay for him to sit it at all? If so ask management ot make the offer of "sit it and y ou pass, we pay otherwise you pay/it's removed from your salary" and see how he takes it


It'd probably be more trouble than it's worth, honestly... We're like knee deep in preparing for new stores and I don't have time to train a new person up unless it's in addition to him being here
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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk
11/08/19 4:34:15 PM
#12:


CableZL posted...


It'd probably be more trouble than it's worth, honestly... We're like knee deep in preparing for new stores and I don't have time to train a new person up unless it's in addition to him being here

You need to let management know at the very least the new guy isn't up to scratch
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CableZL
11/08/19 4:35:29 PM
#13:


RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...
CableZL posted...


It'd probably be more trouble than it's worth, honestly... We're like knee deep in preparing for new stores and I don't have time to train a new person up unless it's in addition to him being here

You need to let management know at the very least the new guy isn't up to scratch


Yeah, I'm gonna be doing that... I'm planning to leave the company pretty soon and they probably won't want him running the ship by himself.
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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk
11/08/19 4:44:14 PM
#14:


If you're leaving don't stress. Just let them know
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treewojima
11/08/19 5:11:05 PM
#15:


dude, nobody with even the slightest bit of networking sense would use a public IP range owned by owned by another entity internally unless you were either learning and experimenting or playing some kind of weird joke

even I know that and I don't have anywhere near your chops

get rid of this dude
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CableZL
11/08/19 5:38:51 PM
#16:


treewojima posted...
dude, nobody with even the slightest bit of networking sense would use a public IP range owned by owned by another entity internally unless you were either learning and experimenting or playing some kind of weird joke

even I know that and I don't have anywhere near your chops

get rid of this dude


This is legitimately bothering me, lol... There's just no way he's ever had a CCNA if he thought this...

There's a "What have I done?" feeling mixed with a "What the hell do I do?" feeling

like... I can just recommend that he use a subnet calculator because subnetting isn't that hard to learn, but...

Holy crap, what a thing to overlook when choosing to have someone come in as a contractor...

To be fair, they didn't give me the opportunity to interview him... they just kinda brought him in when I said his resume looked better than the other guy's resume for what we need...
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treewojima
11/08/19 6:11:49 PM
#17:


do you really think it's because he doesn't understand subnetting? that's just wild to me, it's one of the most fundamental aspects of IPv4 address management

scary
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CableZL
11/08/19 6:18:16 PM
#18:


treewojima posted...
do you really think it's because he doesn't understand subnetting? that's just wild to me, it's one of the most fundamental aspects of IPv4 address management

scary


He seems to be able to figure out subnetting on his own, but he clearly doesn't know when to use a private subnet vs when to use a public one... Nor does he know why, even from a routing perspective,why you shouldn't just use some random public subnet locally...

He's gonna crash and burn quick if I leave and they have him try to run the network on his own
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CableZL
11/08/19 6:20:56 PM
#19:


Like... I chose his resume over the other guy because I felt like we have a good mix of skillets, but... Essentially, I've been unknowingly shielding him from this glaring hole in the knowledge he should have
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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk
11/08/19 6:23:28 PM
#20:


You're blaming yourself on this.
You didn't get to interview him so you have zero responsibility here.
A resume can easily be filled with lies. It's why interviews are set up to make sure the person has the right skills. You're clearly the only person there who could have judged that and you didn't get to. So fuck 'em.
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treewojima
11/08/19 6:59:37 PM
#21:


CableZL posted...
treewojima posted...
do you really think it's because he doesn't understand subnetting? that's just wild to me, it's one of the most fundamental aspects of IPv4 address management

scary


He seems to be able to figure out subnetting on his own, but he clearly doesn't know when to use a private subnet vs when to use a public one... Nor does he know why, even from a routing perspective,why you shouldn't just use some random public subnet locally...

He's gonna crash and burn quick if I leave and they have him try to run the network on his own

Ah, gotcha. That's actually... more frightening, because it means he knows enough to be dangerous, without constant supervision. Yikes.

RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...
You're blaming yourself on this.
You didn't get to interview him so you have zero responsibility here.
A resume can easily be filled with lies. It's why interviews are set up to make sure the person has the right skills. You're clearly the only person there who could have judged that and you didn't get to. So fuck 'em.

I don't usually agree with Brutal, but he's on the nose on this one. You didn't interview him, you just glanced at his resume and gave your opinion based on that. Resumes are pieces of paper, nothing more.

If someone raises a stink, tell them you want to partake in the interview, even if you were to be a second interview step to test their knowledge. Leverage your position, dude. Let them know, professionally, that you would like input on the candidates for positions contracted out, even if just as an observor.
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treewojima
11/08/19 7:07:10 PM
#22:


But if you're really considering leaving, then you might want to ride it out and maybe mitigate the damage to avoid burning a bridge... or just play it by the book and let him do his thing despite your concerns. I don't know your position right now. I still think you should at least voice your issues, professionally, so that if it really bites your company you can at least say you told them so (hopefully after you've moved on).

Also, @Godnorgosh , I know you'll get a kick out of this
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CableZL
11/08/19 7:44:19 PM
#23:


Yeah, I'm trying to think about how I'm going to play this... This is nuts. He clearly shows knowledge and experience with physical network implementation, but I never would have guessed that he didn't know this... It's very basic in the scope of what we do...

4th and final interview at the new company should be some time next week... I'm REALLY hoping they hire me... But at the same time, I don't want this network that I built so much of to go down in flames if he tries to do this crap in my absence... It wouldn't be my problem at all in that situation, but... Man...
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Crazyman93
11/08/19 8:50:24 PM
#24:


If you're leaving, let him crash and burn.
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CableZL
11/08/19 11:22:13 PM
#25:


Crazyman93 posted...
If you're leaving, let him crash and burn.


The problem with that is if the network crashes and burns, then the company is feeling a lot of pain because of IT, and I don't want to have people who really have nothing to do with the network have their jobs put in jeopardy because of that.

I talked to a couple of my old bosses about this, and I think I'm just gonna go over IP addressing with him as part of a network overview so he can learn.
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CableZL
11/10/19 7:56:21 PM
#26:


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CableZL
11/11/19 2:39:11 PM
#27:


Found a way to bring it up... He says he wasn't thinking about it and just made a rookie mistake.

Whew, I was so freaking worried that he just didn't know
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