[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk Jobs

[Rusty Dekema]

On 1/8/06, Douglas Garstang <dgarstang at oneeighty.com> wrote:
>
> I'm not sure if the fact that my boss is an open source advocate is a good
> thing or not... ie yes it's great to work with Asterisk and see all the
> features coming together (especially with Polycom phones). On the other hand
> I wonder how useful this experience will really be. I see a lot of VOIP jobs
> requiring Cisco experience.



The answer to your question probably depends on what type of "IT Guy" you
are (nope, we're not all the same), and the nature of your career goals.

If you are the kind of guy who will learn, from working with Asterisk, a
good overall view of the technologies behind and issues with
semi-traditional and IP telephony, in addition to developing a sense of how
things work and how to get things done with telephony systems in general,
then I think it will be valuable experience.

If you either aren't particularly interested in gaining a high-level
overview of telephony systems, and/or if you are just not the kind of guy
who will get that kind of a "big picture" by working with only one specific
platform or system, then it may not be so valuable to you.

Even if the latter is true, I don't think that would make you any
less-qualified or less-skilled as an IT worker; I have simply noticed that
people in the field see things and learn about systems in totally different
ways. Some learn more by focusing on the specifics of various systems or
platforms one by one, and some learn by constructing and updating a
conceptual framework that contains within it the specifics of whatever
system (Asterisk, in this case, but may include Cisco, etc in your future)
is being worked on.

If you learn things the former way, by focusing on a specific system at a
time, your Asterisk experience will probably not be as valuable to you in
terms of future jobs as would equivalent Cisco experience. But, if you tend
to learn things in the latter way, your Asterisk experience is probably
pretty much just as useful as if it were Cisco experience, or experience
with any other vendor.

Also, if you want to work for a large, formal company that places a lot of
importance on titles and buzzwords, your lack of specific, major-vendor
experience may present a problem. On the other hand, if you want to work for
an outfit that is perhaps less formal and more unconventional, your Asterisk
experience could stand you in very good stead, since Asterisk is such a
flexible system, and since experience with it may indicate that you are a
flexible programmer/net/sysadmin :).

Anyway, those are my two cents on it.

-Rusty
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