Site5 Web Hosting Blog

Take the Senior Systems Engineer Challenge (and Win a Dream Job)

Posted by Matt Lightner, June 2nd, 2007

Do you live and breathe systems administration… both literally and metaphorically? If so, we have some great news: you could be the next Senior Systems Engineer at Site5. No, really. You could–the job can be done from anywhere, so long as you have a computer and reliable Internet.

What, specifically, does the world-renowned and highly-respected Site5 Senior Systems Engineer do? It’s hard to nail down specifically, because all SSEs wear many hats. All of the hats, however, involve 31337 technology stuff. Here are examples of things a Senior Systems Engineer might find themselves doing:

• Recompiling kernels
• Building RPMs and deploying them across our fleet
• Tracking down and fixing bugs in our control panel software (only kidding, our software doesn’t have bugs… it just develops “unexpected features”)
• Providing support to our Systems Administration and Customer Service teams by handling issues needing higher-level attention
• Locating and fixing performance bottlenecks
• Automating various tasks and ensuring consistency across all servers in the fleet
• Planning and implementing system and network infrastructure upgrades
• Designing and evaluating new hardware configurations

That’s all a bit ambiguous, but the point is that you will no doubt be called on to handle any manner of high-level technical task. While you may not know the answer off the top of your head, you should have a strong enough systems administration and development background that you can figure it out relatively quickly.

Not sure if you’re the right candidate for the job? We’ve put together a list that might help you figure it out. Without further ado, you might be a Site5 Senior Systems Engineer if…

• You find yourself writing scripts to automate any tasks you have to repeat more than once.
• You routinely find yourself short on monitor space because you have a dozen or so terminals open at any given time.
• You have ever told someone that your first language isn’t English, but rather Bash, Perl, Ruby or some other language adored by sysadmins.
• You have found yourself wanting to pipe real-world conversations through grep to extract relevant content.
• You’ve been using vi since before you were potty-trained.

A Senior Systems Engineer is half super systems administrator and half developer. The job involves not only maintaining but improving upon our hosting platform, so a solid programming background is a must. You needn’t be a computer scientist or professional software developer, however you should be very comfortable using a higher-level language (preferably Ruby, but Perl is also acceptable) in a *systems administration* capacity (no, writing a website in PHP doesn’t count).

Ready to apply? Excellent. To get started, make an HTTP POST request to http://sseapp.site5.com/how-to-apply.cgi with your name as the “name” parameter and your email address in the “email” parameter. Further instructions await you there…

David Felstead, our Chief Software Architect, ran through the challenge in well under 10 minutes (which included helping me find a couple bugs in the system). How does your time compare? If you’re anywhere close, congratulate yourself–he’s one of the best developers around!

Want to skip the test? Completing the above challenge will let us know that you’re serious about this position. It should only take 10-20 minutes for the right kind of applicant, and it will give us some level of assurance that you’re up to the challenge that a Senior Systems Engineer will face. That being said, if you get stuck or simply don’t have time to complete the challenge, we still invite you to apply by sending your resume and cover letter to tests-are-not-my-bag@site5.com. Be sure to explain why you didn’t complete the test!

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