While casually looking at this job related posting
http//www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=10623/
about two available jobs as civilian in West Virginia Police
http//
Something struck me as "odd" ?
Position INFORMATION SYSTEMS SPECIALIST I – 2 POSITIONS (Grant Funded)
Location Troop 0, Crimes Against Children Unit/Digital Forensic Unit
1 Position – Morgantown
1 Position - HuntingtonPay Grade 17 (35,028 – 64,812)
Description Under direct supervision, performs entry level technical work in installing, implementing, maintaining computers and software that have multiple applications. May specialize in an area of technical expertise, such as networking technologies, data communications, hardware support, software support, training or information technology, forensic examinations, and conducting investigations.
Minimum Qualifications Training Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. Substitution Three years of full-time or equivalent part time paid personal computer or server support experience may be substituted for the required training. Successful completion of twelve credit hours or the equivalent thereof of industry recognized authorized/certified LAN administration, network service/support and/or network technologies training may substitute for one year of the required training. Experience Two years of full-time or equivalent part-time paid experience in information processing, one year of which includes personal computer support and/or training. Substitution Twelve hours of computer science or data processing may substitute for one year of information processing experience excluding personal computer support.
If I get this right, three years of qualified experience are (roughly) equated to a Bachelor's degree, whilst twelve hours of training are (roughly) equated to one year of experience.
Something doesn't sound "right" to me.
Any opinion? ?
jaclaz
Yeah - poorly worded job description.
By extrapolating that measurement I should have 8 PhDs.
This is a typical problem in government or other large institutions, there are jobs pre-defined by HR (or some other entity), there is a need for some task to be performed, what pre-defined job description most closely matches the task? Advertise for that pre-defined job, hope candidates skill set/education closely matches the actual need.
This is a typical problem in government or other large institutions, there are jobs pre-defined by HR (or some other entity), there is a need for some task to be performed, what pre-defined job description most closely matches the task? Advertise for that pre-defined job, hope candidates skill set/education closely matches the actual need.
Sure, but that is another thing, I was talking of the (seemingly) equations
Training
bachelor's degree at Uni (presumably in Computer Science or similar)
BUT
three years experience supporting PC's or servers=bachelor's degree at Uni
and
12 (twelve) hours certified network related matters=one year experience supporting PC's or servers
Experience
2 years of experience
BUT
12 (twelve) hours computer science or data processing=one year experience supporting PC's or servers
If I read it correctly, someone with two years Geek Squad job record, and some 12 or 24 hours of certified courses is eligible? ?
Once set apart the "generic" HR related issues (that you correctly pointed out) about the "base" qualifications being not-the-best-suited-one-can-imagine for someone that is going to work in a digital forensics lab, what surprises me is that you can replace one year (of *anything*) with *some* 12 hours course.
jaclaz
I absolutely agree that it does not make sense. And I will again point the finger at HR. That is an established pre-defined job description, obviously written by a non-technical person (how many years ago?) and maybe written at the State government level. Unfortunately I can almost bet that to change that description would require going before a finance committee and at worst going before the legislature and nobody is going to be motivated enough to do that.
Give me experience almost any time. A degree (or similar) shows you can pass exams and probably shows a base level of knowledge.
I know I am getting 'old' but when I left university a microprocessor was an 8008, and early in career In heard Intel saying that 64K was all we would ever need. I am sure when many of us had 'formal education' what we are currently working on did not exist.
Experience is learning as you go and trying to keep up. 12 hours may spark your brain into knowing a bit about what there is know to know, but you won't actually learn much, unless you are working on those topics at he same time.
12 hours will never let you say ' I have seen something similar before - and we could try…'
Give me experience almost any time. A degree (or similar) shows you can pass exams and probably shows a base level of knowledge.
I do agree ) , but "trading" a bachelor degree for three years of (real) experience is all in all "fair" as I see it, more or less you are exchanging three + or four years of *something* (mostly theoretical) against three years of *something* else (mostly "practical", but that you couldn't possibly have gone through without some basic theory knowledge).
The two pans of the balance seem to me all in all at the same level.
If you put on one side 12 (twelve) hours of *anything* and on the other one year, i.e. roughly 2,000 + (two thousands or more) hours of *anything* else, it seems to me unlikely that the equilibrium can be obtained. 😯
To me doing the above comparison is void of relevance/senseless in *any* field, not only IT or PC related, and it's not like many years ago could have made sense….
Of course people that stayed at a Holiday Inn may be a exception wink .
jaclaz
If I get this right, three years of qualified experience are (roughly) equated to a Bachelor's degree, whilst twelve hours of training are (roughly) equated to one year of experience.
Something doesn't sound "right" to me.
Any opinion? ?
This is most likely referring to 12 "credit-hours," i.e., where a typical college course is 3 credit hours, that would be 4 semester-long courses.
This is most likely referring to 12 "credit-hours," i.e., where a typical college course is 3 credit hours, that would be 4 semester-long courses.
Good ), that makes a lot more sense, wheew.
Now there are "similar" units of measure on the balance, but if I get it right, 6 credit hours mean one year course, so 12 credit hours are two years, and the balance is going the other way round. 😯
But I presume that during the study one gets several courses together, so that there is not a direct translation between "single course" credit hours and "time elapsed". ?
TuckerHST, can you provide some more information to put things into perspective?
A typical bachelor degree in the US should take between 3 and 4 years at college, doesn't it?
How many credit hours one can get during that time?
jaclaz
TuckerHST, can you provide some more information to put things into perspective?
A typical bachelor degree in the US should take between 3 and 4 years at college, doesn't it?
How many credit hours one can get during that time?
Sure, with the disclaimer that I'm not a professional educator. I'm just speaking as a college graduate, a parent of college graduates, and an adjunct professor.
While a simplification, a typical bachelor's degree is 4 years and comprises 5 classes per semester, 3 credits (or "credit hours") each – 30 credits per year, for a total of 120 credits. I believe the notion of a credit hour roughly corresponds to classroom time per week. Thus, a student can expect a 3 credit class (taught over the entire semester) to meet 3 times a week for an hour, twice a week for 90 minutes, or once a week for 3 hours (typical of evening classes geared to professionals). I've heard a rule of thumb that students should be prepared to spend twice as much time out of class (e.g., assignments, studying) as in class. If that's true, students carrying 15 credits should expect to spend 45 hours a week on school.
To attempt an apples-to-apples comparison of 12 credit hours with a year's experience, one might multiply 12 by 3 (hours in and out of class per week), then by 15 (weeks in a semester, more or less) for a total of 540 hours. While significantly shorter than the number of hours in a year of "experience," it's at least in the same ballpark. That's like devoting 10-12 hours a week (every week) for a year. Put that way, the comparison is probably not that unreasonable.