transferable skills

[JimmyZ1]

So i was reading a posting about transferable skills and in the IT industry I've noticed that employers need to be told what skills transfer, and knowing certain pieces of software mean you know other pieces.

Let's start a list, and I'll build a site that shows the correlation in skills.

will post if we get a good list of skills i'll start.

skills in Windows xp = mostly silled with windows vista

 

[ousoonerjoe]

What about Crystal to SSRS? How would you compare the two in the scope of this topic? Some similarities, but a LOT of differences too.

Excel ~ Quatro Pro ?
Word = Word Perfect ?
Outlook <> Lotus Notes ?

Can C/C++ compare to the Unix Shells? Which ones?

Unix -> Dos

"If I were to wake up with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am right now.

 

[Ascalonian]

Unix -> Dos

I would have to disagree with this. The syntax is different, there are different named commands, ls != dir, and many other things that are very different between the two. I do not see taking someone who has used Linux (and never Windows) and have them immediately sit down with a Windows Command window open and move around that easy... or vice versa.

What about:
Microsoft Office ~ Open Office?

 

[MDXer]

What about Crystal to SSRS? How would you compare the two in the scope of this topic? Some similarities, but a LOT of differences too.

I would say the skills are transferable. To me the main reason is that when it comes to creating meaningful reports the skillset is in the report concept, content and layout. Crystal and SSRS are just 2 tools that allow you to do it.

Paul
---------------------------------------
Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
- Daffy Duck

 

[Nuffsaid]

Wanna talk "similar but a lot of differences? Try...

Crystal ~ Cognos

or should it be...

Crystal -> Cognos

or

Cognos -> Crystal

more likely

Crystal <> Cognos

Same overall concepts, but way different tools...


Nuffsaid.

 

[MDXer]

When talking Cognos besure to specify which product and version.

Cognos -> Brain Tumor

Paul
---------------------------------------
Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
- Daffy Duck

 

[RiverGuy]

VB to VBA is an excellent one.

I'm tempted to say C# to VB.Net and vice versa, after all, it is just the .Net framework that is important. However if a company wants 6 years of C# experience, maybe they really do need C# and can't take the time to bring someone up to speed with a VB.Net background--especially for contractors.

Same with T-SQL to PL/SQL. If I was hiring a data analyst wherein SQL queries would be part of the job, I would pick the best candidate based on their analytic skills knowing that they would come up to speed on the new syntax sooner than later. However, if I was hiring a database developer for a new software product, I'd probably prefer someone with lots of experience developing against my specific DBMS.

 

[Nuffsaid]

@ MDXer See ya worked with it .. can be a little

Cognos 8 BI ~ Business Objects

or should it be...

SAP ~ IBM (what's with the acronyms anyway?)

Nuffsaid.

 

[MDXer]

I know java developers that make the leap to C# Better than VB.NET developers.

NuffSaid

Yes for close to 4 years until I was able to convince my compay that SQL 2005 was a better toolset.

Paul
---------------------------------------
Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
- Daffy Duck

 

[SQLSister]

I think alot of the equvalency depends on the nature of the work you are hiring for and the nature of the experience in the other language. I would hire an experienced database designer who only had Oracle experience over a person with one year of SQL Server who had no design experience and little complex querying experience if my task was to design a new database or if I needed complex data querying experience even though I was using SQL Server as my backend. Especially if that person also had a background in the same basic business area (say health industry or insurance or financial industry) as the one I was designing for. However for a basic maintenance job where little to no work was design and where the person was mostly adjusting exisiting queries, I would probably be more inclined to look at the other person. However it is my experience that HR would weed out the people who would really be best at the complex job and the inexperienced SQL Server developer would be the only resume of the two I would even see. I've also noticed if you tell them that SQL Server or Oracle are equivalent experience, they will probably insist the person have both. I've seen very few HR people who can actually do a good job of weeding out qualified from unqualifed people (which is why I insist on seeing all the resumes when I hire) because they want an easy way to filter quickly and considering equivalencies or considering type of experience (how complex were the tasks you did) is too hard. Language is the simplest filter to use, but most of us i nthe industry realize it is often the least effective. Would you rather hire a mysQL person who has been working in a job creating hundreds of imports and exports of data to be the data analyst doing a simlar function on a SQL Server database or would you rather hire the guy who has been wrting select statements and who has created a couple of DTS packages using the wizard? I'd rather have the guy who understands ETL (no matter what database backend he uses) over the guy who has a basic SQL Server skill set becasue it is harder to understand the problems of transforming data from incompatible structure that it is to learn a new user interface or flavor of SQL. However conversely if I had two people of roughly equal skill sets in different languages, the nod would usually go the one using the languages I intend to use in the project. And there is no reason at all to consider the person with beginner level Oracle experience for a senior level SQL Server job.

In fact thinking about it, I would be far more inclined to look at equivalencies only for senior level people who have some depth of knowledge of other things (design, business knowledge, etc) besides the actual languages. A beginner would have far more difficulty switching to a new syntax I think.


"NOTHING is more important in a database than integrity." ESquared

 

[RiverGuy]

If I needed a data analyst--meaning someone who mostly writes reports--I'd look for someone with a lot of success with any reporting tool and expertise in SQL select statements of any dialect. The icing on the cake would be experience using the reporting tools and dbms we were currently using. I'd also be on the lookout for someone with industry experience, but depending on the industry and location, that can be hard to come by.

DBA--definitely someone with lots of experience in the DBMS specific to the company.

Database systems developer--probably someone with good experience with the specific DBMS. Yes, the basics of SQL are the same, but there are also so many differences to take into consideration when developing a system as opposed to writing select queries from a star schema. Different approaches to row level security, cursors, etc. However, someone with 5 years experience in Oracle would probably come up to speed quicker on a SQL Server system than someone with 1 year of SQL Server experience.

One of the issues is that it is so hard to gauge a candidate's problem solving skills. I know I've been to a few interviews in my time where I was surprised that the test I took wasn't harder, or the questions weren't that in depth as far as my skills are concerned.

 

[SANEngInCO]

This is really a great idea JimmyZ1. I spent many hours trying to figure out how to convey to potential employers that my experience on one platform does indeed transfer to others. Since I'm in infrastructure, I will try and convey some of my experiences.

~= Roughly Equal To

Storage Infra
HDS ~= SAN storage in general
(EMC, IBM, SUN, etc.)
NetApp ~= NAS storage in general
(BlueArc, EMC, SUN, etc.)
Brocade ~= SAN in general
(Cisco, McData, QLogic)

Storage is storage is storage. It just comes down to GUI differences and internal architecture.

Server Infra
SUN x86 ~= Intel and AMD platforms in general

Servers differ in design, size, configurations, etc but the basics are always the same.

Hope this helps a little. Let me know when you have it all put together. I'd like to see it done.

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"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Albert Einstein