> Honestly, I almost prefer to start with a blank slate these days
This is about Technical Support training (not programming) and is from my recent experience.
When I was running a small customer service team on a Linux based product, and needed new staff, I thought that the best idea was to get people who had 'significant' experience in Linux.
That was until I discovered (from a bad hire) that people lied about their experience (resumes) and motivation (interview).
This was an older guy - he wasn't motivated at all and treated me like a babysitter..
It wasn't about his age - he was just useless - and he had managed to fool me.
That hire was my fault..
And although I utterly hate ageism (being 50+), I was turned off by this experience..
The next two I hired were younger guys (sorry ladies, no resumes submitted).
Those two (somehow??) took to my particular style of training really well - and were able to take over all but the most advanced cases after 3-6 months of training on a bespoke php application.
- one loved all the SQL I could throw at him
- another loved getting deep into networking issues and how to solve them
Between us we were able to work through a ~200+ case backlog down to 0 by the time I left the company.
I am very proud of what these two guys put into their work (bash/shell/vi remote primary tools - all mostly alien to them to start with).
Not sure that I could do the same with training a programming role..
This is about Technical Support training (not programming) and is from my recent experience.
When I was running a small customer service team on a Linux based product, and needed new staff, I thought that the best idea was to get people who had 'significant' experience in Linux.
That was until I discovered (from a bad hire) that people lied about their experience (resumes) and motivation (interview). This was an older guy - he wasn't motivated at all and treated me like a babysitter.. It wasn't about his age - he was just useless - and he had managed to fool me. That hire was my fault..
And although I utterly hate ageism (being 50+), I was turned off by this experience..
The next two I hired were younger guys (sorry ladies, no resumes submitted). Those two (somehow??) took to my particular style of training really well - and were able to take over all but the most advanced cases after 3-6 months of training on a bespoke php application. - one loved all the SQL I could throw at him - another loved getting deep into networking issues and how to solve them
Between us we were able to work through a ~200+ case backlog down to 0 by the time I left the company.
I am very proud of what these two guys put into their work (bash/shell/vi remote primary tools - all mostly alien to them to start with).
Not sure that I could do the same with training a programming role..
Staff (personal) motivation is the key I think..