Certification - January 2009 - (Page 28)

INTERFACE Vocational Experience: A Prerequisite at syrinx dEANNA hARTlEY Employers are always looking for qualified job candidates, and interviewers typically scan resumes for relevant certifications, professional accomplishments and universally useful soft skills. But at Syrinx, a software consulting company with expanding national reach, interviewers are focused on one thing in particular: extensive work experience. “People who have a broad range of experiences usually work best,” said CEO Andrew Gelina. “Our original and biggest business to date is developing really large-scale Web applications and Windows applications. [So] people who have experience developing large, scalable systems that deal with a ton of data or a ton of users, or both, is really [what] we need because that’s generally what our clients are calling on us for.” In fact, 40 of the 44 employees at Syrinx are IT professionals who work on the two sides to the businesses: .NET and SharePoint. These professionals range from software developers all the way up to architect-level software developers. A secondary responsibility delegated to several employees is to provide support to the company’s salespeople. “We will either [pitch] in to do one piece of a project or [undertake] an entire project, which could mean from soup to nuts: doing analysis, design, developing software, testing it, [meeting] with the client, deploying it, maintaining the software after it has been deployed [and] usually doing subsequent follow-on releases with them,” Gelina said. Needless to say, a recent graduate who lacks significant on-the-job experience is not a candidate of choice at Syrinx. “Our client needs one or two folks to come in with specific skills to get a project done, so it doesn’t really lend itself to growing someone’s skill set up from zero straight out of school,” Gelina explained. “We usually hire people with 10 to 20 years of experience.” However, that doesn’t mean its new hires can’t aspire to something greater. It is not uncommon for Syrinx employees to join the company as developers but work toward becoming architects, taking lead roles on projects and coordinating the activities of other developers. However, it’s important for candidates to diversify their interests. It would not serve the company well to hire someone who tends to have a relatively narrow skill set and only specializes in one area. “We’re often the folks who are taking stewardship of things and shuttling [our clients] through the entire process,” Gelina explained. “So [our employees] might do front-end development [and] back-end development, design and build databases [and] do integration with other systems.” Gaining a breadth of experience doesn’t have to undermine one’s loyalty to a company or client, Gelina added. He considers it a good sign when someone has had longer stints at just a few companies instead of job hopping every six months. Syrinx also is more inclined to hire IT consultants who have been able to attract new clients, as well as maintain and work with the same clients for longer periods of time. When hiring, the first items Gelina looks is work experience, length of employment at each company and the types of roles. 28 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE January 2009

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Certification - January 2009

Certification - January 2009 Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream Virtual Village Tech Careers Dear Techie Academic Connection Troubleshooting What We Like Look Ahead The New Convergence Formula Cybersecurity: Are You Safe? Interface Lead Applications Developer: The IT Ambassador Inside Certification Ad Index Endtag

Certification - January 2009

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