In the company I'm working for, we need to get system administrators. However, we are a programming development company and it turns out that we have no idea how to tell a good system administrator from a bad one*. We just needed someone to set up the server, plan the layout of the LAN cables and to set up policies on the security of the Wi-Fi.
We didn't realize that we have a problem with our hiring until we found out that the two administrators we hired didn't do the job properly. We found out we have problems two months later when:
- we started getting static on the phone and we traced it to the cabling.
- a visitor told us that the network security is ineffective and demonstrated this.
- we have to replace the server they recommended since the old one was inefficient for our company.
Is there any standard way of recognizing a good system administrator?
Are there any interview tests that we can give to weed out the poorly skilled ones?
* You would think computer programmers would tell the good technical staff from the bad ones but programming and system administration are two different fields.