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I feel pretty comfortable with my Unix abilities, and have held ops roles in the past, and I would have bombed this question.


I doubt that. The only way to bomb it is to make shit up, and I don't think you're the sort to do that.

I don't score it by how many option-letters people know. I score it by how well they demonstrate familiarity with a basic ops activity, which is finding out what's running.

Even if somebody said they never used ps, or like below, only use one incantation, that isn't a problem, because my follow-up there would be to ask how you'd find out what's using all the RAM or what's using a lot of CPU.

Maybe they're just used to using different tools, in which case I can ask for details for those tools. (And then check manually later to make sure I'm not getting snowed.) But if they've done a bunch of ops stuff, they'll demonstrate the sort of know-from-doing level of familiarity with something.

In theory I could just ask the broader question to start. But some people are good talkers, and I'm looking for evidence that people are good doers. All that said, I've shifted mainly to more experiential interview processes, as actually doing is the best way to see if somebody's a doer.




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