What is your job description?

[aartist]

Where I can find work done on job as described by the developer, rather than by manager. For example, I figure out which Perl Module to use for a specific task, or I read the man pages from linux man pages for grep. Is there a place where people have put it. If not, can you provide one?

Thanks.

[jeffa]

I presume you are referring to Job Postings in regards to obtaining employment. In order to find out what the real requirements are, you rarely will obtain those from HR or Management. However, during your interview(s), you can always ask these questions to the people who interview you:

1. What do you think the responsibilities of this position are
2. What do you expect from me in this position
You know how you are always asked if you have any questions at the end of the interview? Well, now you have some good candidates.

Short answer -- you find out at the interview. Remember, interviewing works both ways. You do not have to accept any offers if you discover the requirements are nowhere near as accurate in reality as they were in the Job Posting. Good luck!

[aartist]

Thank you for the answer.

My real point is to list the core functional skills which can become backbone to any job in the infotech industry.

[moritz]

core skills? (I'm not sure what you mean with "functional", so I'll ignore it):

• dealing well with people
• solving problems
• staying motivated

That's really the core of what you need.

[TJPride]

It might help to describe, in as much detail as possible, -why- you want this information, since your post by itself is rather confusing. Need more clues before we can give you a good answer.

[Anonymous Monk]

Most job postings and descriptions have no real bearing on what the expectations actually are.   Consider the difference between these:

• Knows how to use hammer, nails, and power saw.
• Knows how to build a house.
• Knows how to build a house and will contract to do so by March 31st for $195,000.00 and will guarantee the work for one year and has been profitably in this business for 25 years with a long string of happy customers.

[aartist]

Interesting and provides a good insight as what job market requires. I am looking from the first perspective of yours, (namely hammer,. nail and power saw) which will decide the precision of job being done.

At the same time, I definitely promise myself to learn how to build house and established myself as a good contractor.

[TJPride]

Ok, now that I know more what you're talking about...

I would say that the most important skill is knowing how to find and install Perl modules. I love writing my own code, but there are a lot of specialized tasks that even I prefer to offload to specialized modules.

You also need to know how to construct, navigate, sort, etc. complex data structures; have a strong grasp of Perl regex; know at least the important Perl variables; know how to interact with databases using Perl (start with MySQL); etc.

And outside of Perl, it's useful to also know some Unix commands and have a strong grasp of math / algorithms in general. Sometimes things are best done outside of Perl, and it's not terribly useful to be an expert Perl coder if you don't know how to frame a solution in your head first.

[sundialsvc4]

Dunno ... I would call “knows how to install Perl modules” merely the work of an apprentice .. not even a journeyman.   A developer is someone who designs computer software, not just implements it:   this is a creative process, not just a rote task.   “There’s More Than One Way To Do It™” carries many meanings and implications.

I do not know of anyone who did not acquire their pragmatic education “on the job, and nowhere else.”   In the not-so old days of trade work, you signed on indentured yourself as an apprentice and you schlepped a lot of trash-bins and (very carefully) cleaned up the metal tailings around the lathes, and you learned by watching and doing.   To say that the job consisted merely of knowing what knobs to turn and what buttons to push is to ignore the value of experience.   I always suggest that job-seekers should try hard to get even a glimpse of the environment of the workplace ... of whom they will be working with, and how autonomous (or not) they are expected to be.   The viewpoint of any manager vs. that of any line-employee will be different because the roles are (entirely) different.

[cavac]

My official job description, which was agreed upon by my boss and me, reads something like this: "System administrator and software developer for the production IT at the automotive supply company Magna Powertrain in the production plant Ilz".

It doesn't really list individual skills or specific jobs, except the department internal distinction between the Office team, the SAP team, the production IT team (my part) and the networking team.

To put it simply, if it's a computer that runs in some kind of machine that produces automotive parts (or parts for that parts), it is the responsibility of me and my three coworkers. Plus i have to maintain and develop server software (and the servers) for the central managment of those machines and the data they produce. My job description implies that i a) either already have the required skills to fix it, b) quickly be able to learn the required skills or c) find a company that can do a specific job.

So, it's more a MacGyver like job than having a highly focused skill set. Working with cool stuff (production lines, industrial robots,...) and sysadmining generally is, btw...

In effect, if you want a job like mine, don't focus too much in specific topics. Learn to learn fast and try to think on your feet. It's stressful at times, but it's seldom boring. Got new challenges everyday, which makes it quite a fun...