What makes [me] stand out?
Possibly the HR question du jour of the past five years is 'What makes you stand out?'. I've heard it used many times and in a number of different ways. I have also been advised to ask it when interviewing candidates. It is difficult to fully assess a candidate's skills in an interview and summing up your life experience into an elevator pitch is a difficult task. That is why I have a very succinct reply.
"Adjacent Context" is a term used to describe the knowledge domains that are related to a current problem domain. When faced with complicated problems, for which there are no known solution patterns, we have to reach into those other areas of our experience to try to find a solution. I don't know how many times I have heard the phrase 'get creative'! used in a board room, but it is more than a few. Knowing a lot about one thing is great. Knowing a lot about one thing and a moderate amount about related fields? That is experience that finds solutions.
Yes. I started developing software professionally in 2000 (17 years, and counting). I have worked with
numerous programming languages ranging from COBOL (for the CICS 3270), Java EE applications, developing
websites using the LAMP stack, scripting with Python, to inline packet manipulation with proprietary languages like packetC.
Yes, I have development experience.
Well, I would never claim to be a network engineer but I am comfortable with most daily operations on a Juniper. I've done my time in server rooms racking and cabling. Likewise, for system administration. I'm very comfortable on a Linux or Windows, and with managing virtualized environments. Yes, I have experience with networking and system administration.