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Must be able to solder and understand basic electronics

Not to sound like a broken record, but are you joking? The most technically advanced field troubleshooting I've ever heard of consists of removing all the PCI cards, flashing each to the latest bios, and putting them back in one by one [with the latest drivers] until the culprit is found [and if a culprit isn't found, then you swap out the mobo]. Same principles apply to VCRs, microwave ovens, televisions, 32 bit Compaq servers, and 64 bit IBM mainframes.

I haven't heard of someone soldering a piece of electronics since, like, maybe the Korean War [unless you count all those stereophile gearheads and their Soviet era vacuum tubes].

PS: Totally agree with you on the S-Corp stuff.

We solder all the time where I work.... so much old Korean War-era electronics still in use ;0)

It is amazing how little networking people understand the electronics involved in transferring packets (wireless, cable or fiber) and how important it is to be spot on. An extremly large percent of network bandwidth preformance and connectivity problems have to do with cabling and lack of understanding of how networks communicate.

On another note: The Post below is getting a good response. Several Freepers here mentioned the importance of writing. :)

Writing well gets jobs, saves jobs
Seattle Times ^ | Sunday, July 27, 2003 | Pamela Sitt
Posted on 07/27/2003 9:18 AM PDT by ValerieUSA

People often tell Julie Miller: "E-mail's ruined me."

As a business-writing coach, Miller spends her time teaching professionals — architects, bankers, engineers, you name it — to write better, faster. And it appears that, increasingly, companies of all kinds are realizing the importance of the written word.

"Writing skills are a career-maker or breaker," Miller said. "There's no place to hide now, with everyone having access to a computer, because your writing is on display."

Good writing skills are especially important if you are looking for a job. In a tough economy, employers often are deluged with résumés and cover letters that make the first — and maybe last — impression.

Were you asking if he was joking about a requirement to understand basic electronics? If so:

What if the culprit is the power supply? Wouldn't it be nice to know that your technician has the knowledge required to check the power supply with a multimeter to discover that the +12V feed is missing and that's why all of the hard drives won't spin up?

Or, in the case of the microwave oven (which, by the way, I would not let anyone who didn't understand basic electronics touch--1500V at 500 milliamps will hurt someone BAD), wouldn't it be nice to know that the technician has the knowledge required to check if the fuse has blown?

Not to sound like a broken record, but are you joking? The most technically advanced field troubleshooting I've ever heard of consists of removing all the PCI cards, flashing each to the latest bios, and putting them back in one by one [with the latest drivers] until the culprit is found [and if a culprit isn't found, then you swap out the mobo]. Same principles apply to VCRs, microwave ovens, televisions, 32 bit Compaq servers, and 64 bit IBM mainframes.

I haven't heard of someone soldering a piece of electronics since, like, maybe the Korean War [unless you count all those stereophile gearheads and their Soviet era vacuum tubes].

I used to work for a company that had a third of its staff dedicated to both testing/fixing defects on new boards and modifying existing boards to suit customer needs. Typically this is done by modifying circuit-board connections between, or replacing entirely, much smaller components than you have described above. They also bring on very short term contracting to do nothing but soldering when necessary.

Admittedly those latter people [soldering contractors] are doing what amounts to purely manual labor, since they are merely told to solder point A to point B on so many boards, and not that this will allow the DSP to use this range of I/O channels, or the T1/E1 modules to support that feature, etc.