I thought that it was about time to update my blog to let people know how things are going right now. As some of you may have found out, I managed to find an IT Project and so far have found it to be very interesting. This is a big learning curve for me in the IT area, however, I'm enjoying every minute of it and have been informed that I'm doing very well which is nice to hear.
Also, this week starts the Winter Olympics 2010 and I get to hear wonderful things about this cousin of mine, Kelli Stack who is currently playing a forward on the Women's US Hockey Team. For the past 2 years, she has helped this team achieve an outstanding winning status with several goals which earned them 2 Gold Medals at previous games over the last several years.
I got to hear how Kelli enjoyed the opening ceremonies and she gets to play her first game on Sunday, February 14th at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I'm very proud of her mainly because I know that she is very passionate about her career. This has been her dream ever since she was a little girl and I myself had a similar dream of being on the ice with figure skating but I later found my passion in IT. Interestingly enough, I had the opportunity of winning several times over the course of last year different things and the one that surprised me the most was the opportunity for private ice skating lessons with a former Olympian Silver Medalist. Just for fun, I will schedule that and see how I do with it since it's been quite some time that I have been on the ice myself. That was probably the most interesting time that I had was when I was taking lessons and felt really good gliding around on the ice.
Another interesting thing is that this has been quite an "ice breaker". Being able to go to some of these networking events and casually mention the Olympics and non chalantly mention that there is a relative that I am aware of who is currently going to be in this special event. Just to see interesting by standers raise their eyebrows in surprise at the news. The smiles on people's faces just to hear something like that and the fact that this is a young and successful woman.
Just the idea that when you find what you are most passionate about, is where you will end up succeeding. If you hate what you are doing, things will be tougher. If you love what you are doing, it makes all the difference in the world. Only liking half of what you are doing can also be a big challenge. It's imperative to research everything involved with the career path you choose before jumping in.
The idea here is not about the fame or the money involved with Kelli's career. It's all about her enthusiasm, her hard work, and what she is most passionate about that has made her the successful person that she is today. This has nothing to do with age, money, and not even fame: this is all about what you find that you are most passionate about in life. If you love to take care of people, you can be a nurse or a doctor. If you love to solve mysteries, you can pursue the type of career that involves what you are best at doing.
Anyway, just some things to think about as I enjoy watching some of these games and continue to explore opportunities.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Sunday, November 1, 2009
A Career is something one is passionate about
This week, I'm going to focus on something a little different. I did not get much of an opportunity to get out to events last week and spent most of it working on leads. Instead, I would like to discuss some of the things that places like the One Stop centers have been trying to communicate to those individuals that are currently in transition.
Whether you are pursuing a specific career or starting up a business keep in mind what your vision is. Some people that I have met in the past may often fail in a particular industry simply because their passion for it was not there. In my entire career as an IT Professional, I spent a great deal of time servicing my customers whether it was the company that I was providing my valued services to or speaking with end users over the phone. Over the course of time, I learned to embrace the customer's needs. This was something that I worked on improving over the years as I learned how to communicate effectively with people with different points of view.
For example, in one place where they frequently had new rollouts and upgrades on systems, people would call in frequently trying to figure out the configuration settings. Not only did I spend the time walking them through what they originally called in about, I would also go over some other items with them using a check list to make sure other things were working properly. My reasoning behind this was so they would not have to make repeated callbacks throughout the entire day which normally disrupts their time if they have to do that. They really appreciated it whenever I spent just an extra amount of time with them just to ensure that everything else was working properly on the new setup. They would specifically remember my name whenever they called in for future services just because I would take that extra amount of time with them.
There used to be a time when this one woman that worked on one of our teams tended to focus more on the quantity instead of the quality of the work. She would often say that she did a certain amount of work compared to everyone else. I simply stayed focused on my own work to pay too much attention to her squabblings. There was one person in a leadership role that had challenged her when she first started the position by asking her the following question. "Yes I see that you did take these many calls but what I want to know is what you did to help them?" Of course the woman was a bit taken aback by this question and it was obvious that she didn't like to be challenged on things. She was a very intelligent person with a strong technical background but she managed to be lacking on the soft skills. The leader strongly emphasized, "Keep in mind that these people come to us for help, and instead of racing other people to push these people off the phone, spend just a little more time with them."
This was the same place where we as technical support reps were given the opportunity to earn some certifications including the widely popular HDI, Help Desk Institute certification. I decided to pursue that opportunity even though I planned on eventually advancing in my career. The woman that headed up that program for us, went to great strides in helping us learn the program and achieving our certifications. After that, I happened to be one of the first ones who had taken my test and earned that HDI certification. Later on, I learned about a group that meets quite often, the HDI group. Later on down the road, it was because of this person that I had known that I was able to make a good networking connection to some other individuals. Having the certification opened doors for me as well.
The same thing goes for selling your clients a product that you may not know how to support. For example, one place used to give out these devices to their users and if there was ever a problem with it, they were faced with calling in only to be told that this company does not support it. That was a safe way for the technicians who were giving this product away to cover themselves without having to say it's never been tested to see how it works in their environment. What would have been a better approach is to give them the number to the vendor that does support that product because someone has to support it if they allowed their users to have it. What I would do is take the time to find out what the root cause of the problem was and take steps to research information on this specific product and then document it. I can understand that it could be time consuming to walk a client through it but why give a product away and then not support it?
Valuable knowledge is key along with taking the time to ensure that the client is taken care of because that's what ensures that you will stay marketable and employed within this industry. If one lacks either of these passions, then they are going to have a difficult time with being in this industry . If they just see dollar signs when transitioning into this career, then they will only be disappointed. Also keep in mind that whatever you learn from the textbook is only a part of the entire picture. Each company has a different environment to adapt to. Whether you have the motivation and drive to learn that environment is what will make you either succeeed or fail.
When presenting your star stories during the interview, keep in mind what you brought to a former company's environment that helped them achieve their goals as a company. Their environment may be different from the past company you worked for, however, if you can emphasize in your star stories how you helped them to achieve the specific goal they were striving for, that's when you will be able to show them how well you can adapt to their environment. When asking them questions about what they need, use your existing skill sets that match what they are looking for to provide them with what you can offer them, then provide the star story example. Provide in this story what was going on in that particular environment and what you did to resolve that issue. The story itself doesn't have to be super heroic, it just needs to demonstrate how well you think on your feet to meet the needs of a specific environment.
One last thing, don't spend a great deal of time focusing on who's right or wrong. Instead, meet that other person half way.
Whether you are pursuing a specific career or starting up a business keep in mind what your vision is. Some people that I have met in the past may often fail in a particular industry simply because their passion for it was not there. In my entire career as an IT Professional, I spent a great deal of time servicing my customers whether it was the company that I was providing my valued services to or speaking with end users over the phone. Over the course of time, I learned to embrace the customer's needs. This was something that I worked on improving over the years as I learned how to communicate effectively with people with different points of view.
For example, in one place where they frequently had new rollouts and upgrades on systems, people would call in frequently trying to figure out the configuration settings. Not only did I spend the time walking them through what they originally called in about, I would also go over some other items with them using a check list to make sure other things were working properly. My reasoning behind this was so they would not have to make repeated callbacks throughout the entire day which normally disrupts their time if they have to do that. They really appreciated it whenever I spent just an extra amount of time with them just to ensure that everything else was working properly on the new setup. They would specifically remember my name whenever they called in for future services just because I would take that extra amount of time with them.
There used to be a time when this one woman that worked on one of our teams tended to focus more on the quantity instead of the quality of the work. She would often say that she did a certain amount of work compared to everyone else. I simply stayed focused on my own work to pay too much attention to her squabblings. There was one person in a leadership role that had challenged her when she first started the position by asking her the following question. "Yes I see that you did take these many calls but what I want to know is what you did to help them?" Of course the woman was a bit taken aback by this question and it was obvious that she didn't like to be challenged on things. She was a very intelligent person with a strong technical background but she managed to be lacking on the soft skills. The leader strongly emphasized, "Keep in mind that these people come to us for help, and instead of racing other people to push these people off the phone, spend just a little more time with them."
This was the same place where we as technical support reps were given the opportunity to earn some certifications including the widely popular HDI, Help Desk Institute certification. I decided to pursue that opportunity even though I planned on eventually advancing in my career. The woman that headed up that program for us, went to great strides in helping us learn the program and achieving our certifications. After that, I happened to be one of the first ones who had taken my test and earned that HDI certification. Later on, I learned about a group that meets quite often, the HDI group. Later on down the road, it was because of this person that I had known that I was able to make a good networking connection to some other individuals. Having the certification opened doors for me as well.
The same thing goes for selling your clients a product that you may not know how to support. For example, one place used to give out these devices to their users and if there was ever a problem with it, they were faced with calling in only to be told that this company does not support it. That was a safe way for the technicians who were giving this product away to cover themselves without having to say it's never been tested to see how it works in their environment. What would have been a better approach is to give them the number to the vendor that does support that product because someone has to support it if they allowed their users to have it. What I would do is take the time to find out what the root cause of the problem was and take steps to research information on this specific product and then document it. I can understand that it could be time consuming to walk a client through it but why give a product away and then not support it?
Valuable knowledge is key along with taking the time to ensure that the client is taken care of because that's what ensures that you will stay marketable and employed within this industry. If one lacks either of these passions, then they are going to have a difficult time with being in this industry . If they just see dollar signs when transitioning into this career, then they will only be disappointed. Also keep in mind that whatever you learn from the textbook is only a part of the entire picture. Each company has a different environment to adapt to. Whether you have the motivation and drive to learn that environment is what will make you either succeeed or fail.
When presenting your star stories during the interview, keep in mind what you brought to a former company's environment that helped them achieve their goals as a company. Their environment may be different from the past company you worked for, however, if you can emphasize in your star stories how you helped them to achieve the specific goal they were striving for, that's when you will be able to show them how well you can adapt to their environment. When asking them questions about what they need, use your existing skill sets that match what they are looking for to provide them with what you can offer them, then provide the star story example. Provide in this story what was going on in that particular environment and what you did to resolve that issue. The story itself doesn't have to be super heroic, it just needs to demonstrate how well you think on your feet to meet the needs of a specific environment.
One last thing, don't spend a great deal of time focusing on who's right or wrong. Instead, meet that other person half way.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
working in a team
There were many years that I was involved with a Team of IT Professionals. What is most imperative in any team oriented environment is being able to form a trusted relationship with each of your Team Members. You want to build a positive atmosphere so that it makes a fun and professional environment. Over the years, I have seen teams on both sides of the spectrum , there may have always been one or two extremely negative people trying to influence things in a different way. What I have learned is that those individuals often have some insecurity going on with them and decide to project that onto others so it's best to let those negative remarks slide but do something to try to make it a positive approach.
First off, in order to be trusted as a Team Member it's imperative to be a positive influence over others meaning you want to ensure that all team members are going to learn what they need to learn and grow within the atmosphere. This is not to say that everyone is not going to have their good days and bad days. Several things to stay away from if you want to be a respected team member:
1. Never gossip or complain about a person behind their back. This always leaves room for people not trusting you and even if you have very valuable information to offer, it might turn on deaf ears because of anything said that might be viewed as putting down another person. Keep in mind that everyone is at different levels of knowledge and unless that person does not express any interest in what they are currently doing, it's imperative to find out some things first before jumping to conclusions.
2. Never assume anything about Team Members. Having an open line of communication is important with them. For example, if I happened to know something valuable about a certain process or fix, I would share that information for anyone who is interested. If I was not sure of the information's validity, then I would take the time to research into it. That's what I love to do.
3. Everyone's learning curve is a little different. Some may take a little longer than others and it's imperative to be patient with them when in a technical support role.
4. If faced with a situation where a customer is calling into complain about something and one specific person is mentioned, take the time to quickly apologize about the situation without putting down that other team member. After the call, then it would be appropriate to approach the other team member to inform them of the situation but it's best to do it in a way where they understand that you are really helping them.
One prime example is of a person who approaches another team member who may be venting about management or someone else. You're better off refraining from those complaints so this person feels comfortable approaching you instead of feeling that you are not approachable. It's often better to take your concerns to management directly so that everyone feels like there really is a team and not this big division. While nothing is perfect and everyone has their good and bad days, you want to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
5. Helping others out in a team is very important instead of leaving some hanging. If I'm helping out in a team, then I also expect to be helped out as well during peak times. Make it a two way street and not a one way street where only certain members of it can call the shots. I think that it's imperative for everyone to have a role on the team and maybe a specialty that they can bring to the team.
6. Don't pretend to know something that you may not really know. I prefer it when someone is eager to learn something new and can honestly admit when they are stumped about something. It's often best to find someone on the team to ask questions about a certain process instead of wasting time trying to figure something out or trying to bluff it.
I'll never forget a time where I was very interested in helping the team out with this new automated fix. There was something going out in the field where the clients would call in because their paint mixing system reached a halt as soon as they started pouring the mix. Another former team member had researched into the situation with a 3rd party vendor and it had been discovered that there was what is known as a serial mouse issue. Most of the devices that connected to the CPU unit were using serial ports to connect. Paint Mixing is a very precise procedure so it must be done with great care. What was happening is that the Microsoft Serial mouse was detecting the serial ports at the same time that the mix was taking place and it would disconnect the paint scale. There was a registry fix for this and the other team member provided that information. I decided to go a step further to consider the following:
1. Save money for the company
2. Save time on the phones for other team members
3. Save clients peace of mind that the fix would be conducted properly
Now there were several choices we had: Since there was no remote assistance at the time: walk clients through registry fix which I felt would make them feel uncomfortable, have them ship the CPU unit into the local branch office of this company (expensive shipping costs), and not to mention, waiting for that CPU to take up to 3 days to ship in.
So based on the advice that I had heard at several different Team Lead meetings to "think outside the box", I decided to brainstorm, research, and test out the solution. I had thought about a previous company and how they had handled their deployment issues with upgrading their software. Since most clients with the exception of a few with a large network infrastructure, I decided to automate the process. In most cases, Microsoft would have a Windows patch but I had to think that most of these clients did not have internet access and we did not support it at this company.
I spent time going over it with a few managers and this other team member and was given advice to take the time to test it on some systems there that were setup for a testing environment. So I went ahead with it and after getting the approval, as soon as more calls starting coming in, I went ahead and started sharing with team members the fix. The best way to get this out there was to have this file copied to a CD and then send out to the client. The walk through went much more smoothly because it only required a double click on the file instead of this 6 step process which in my opinion could produce negative results. Clients felt relieved that it did not take nearly as long to fix and that the fix was permanent. This fix was already added to the current images that resided on the servers, however, this fix needed to be addressed to images no longer stored on the servers.
After several months when they carefully observed things, they decided to give me another opportunity to learn how to put together these images on the next rollout and it was a very exciting process.
There are several other examples, but I'm saving those for other blogs, I just thought that I would share what I feel is important in a team environment. Keeping things positive and an open line of communication as well as respecting each other's strengths is very important to team growth.
First off, in order to be trusted as a Team Member it's imperative to be a positive influence over others meaning you want to ensure that all team members are going to learn what they need to learn and grow within the atmosphere. This is not to say that everyone is not going to have their good days and bad days. Several things to stay away from if you want to be a respected team member:
1. Never gossip or complain about a person behind their back. This always leaves room for people not trusting you and even if you have very valuable information to offer, it might turn on deaf ears because of anything said that might be viewed as putting down another person. Keep in mind that everyone is at different levels of knowledge and unless that person does not express any interest in what they are currently doing, it's imperative to find out some things first before jumping to conclusions.
2. Never assume anything about Team Members. Having an open line of communication is important with them. For example, if I happened to know something valuable about a certain process or fix, I would share that information for anyone who is interested. If I was not sure of the information's validity, then I would take the time to research into it. That's what I love to do.
3. Everyone's learning curve is a little different. Some may take a little longer than others and it's imperative to be patient with them when in a technical support role.
4. If faced with a situation where a customer is calling into complain about something and one specific person is mentioned, take the time to quickly apologize about the situation without putting down that other team member. After the call, then it would be appropriate to approach the other team member to inform them of the situation but it's best to do it in a way where they understand that you are really helping them.
One prime example is of a person who approaches another team member who may be venting about management or someone else. You're better off refraining from those complaints so this person feels comfortable approaching you instead of feeling that you are not approachable. It's often better to take your concerns to management directly so that everyone feels like there really is a team and not this big division. While nothing is perfect and everyone has their good and bad days, you want to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
5. Helping others out in a team is very important instead of leaving some hanging. If I'm helping out in a team, then I also expect to be helped out as well during peak times. Make it a two way street and not a one way street where only certain members of it can call the shots. I think that it's imperative for everyone to have a role on the team and maybe a specialty that they can bring to the team.
6. Don't pretend to know something that you may not really know. I prefer it when someone is eager to learn something new and can honestly admit when they are stumped about something. It's often best to find someone on the team to ask questions about a certain process instead of wasting time trying to figure something out or trying to bluff it.
I'll never forget a time where I was very interested in helping the team out with this new automated fix. There was something going out in the field where the clients would call in because their paint mixing system reached a halt as soon as they started pouring the mix. Another former team member had researched into the situation with a 3rd party vendor and it had been discovered that there was what is known as a serial mouse issue. Most of the devices that connected to the CPU unit were using serial ports to connect. Paint Mixing is a very precise procedure so it must be done with great care. What was happening is that the Microsoft Serial mouse was detecting the serial ports at the same time that the mix was taking place and it would disconnect the paint scale. There was a registry fix for this and the other team member provided that information. I decided to go a step further to consider the following:
1. Save money for the company
2. Save time on the phones for other team members
3. Save clients peace of mind that the fix would be conducted properly
Now there were several choices we had: Since there was no remote assistance at the time: walk clients through registry fix which I felt would make them feel uncomfortable, have them ship the CPU unit into the local branch office of this company (expensive shipping costs), and not to mention, waiting for that CPU to take up to 3 days to ship in.
So based on the advice that I had heard at several different Team Lead meetings to "think outside the box", I decided to brainstorm, research, and test out the solution. I had thought about a previous company and how they had handled their deployment issues with upgrading their software. Since most clients with the exception of a few with a large network infrastructure, I decided to automate the process. In most cases, Microsoft would have a Windows patch but I had to think that most of these clients did not have internet access and we did not support it at this company.
I spent time going over it with a few managers and this other team member and was given advice to take the time to test it on some systems there that were setup for a testing environment. So I went ahead with it and after getting the approval, as soon as more calls starting coming in, I went ahead and started sharing with team members the fix. The best way to get this out there was to have this file copied to a CD and then send out to the client. The walk through went much more smoothly because it only required a double click on the file instead of this 6 step process which in my opinion could produce negative results. Clients felt relieved that it did not take nearly as long to fix and that the fix was permanent. This fix was already added to the current images that resided on the servers, however, this fix needed to be addressed to images no longer stored on the servers.
After several months when they carefully observed things, they decided to give me another opportunity to learn how to put together these images on the next rollout and it was a very exciting process.
There are several other examples, but I'm saving those for other blogs, I just thought that I would share what I feel is important in a team environment. Keeping things positive and an open line of communication as well as respecting each other's strengths is very important to team growth.
Local Seminars for Week of October 19th
Last week, there were several events that I attended were the following: First I attended a Board Meeting of the Greater Cleveland PC User's Group. I met with President Bert Boyd, Vice President Jim Evans, SIG Co Ordinator Karl Kuhn, and Treasurer Ed Biesiada last Monday evening to discuss the future events of The Greater Cleveland PC User's Group. Generally these Board meetings are held periodically to help drive the direction that this group is going in. Next General Meeting will take place on Saturday, November 14 at CSU between 9:30AM to 12:00PM. If interested in joining this group to receive some information on the latest in IT Technology, feel free to visit our website at http://gcpcug.org to find out more.
On Tuesday evening, Sam Nassir's SIG group WPF met at Beacon Hill Building in Independence where current SIG member, Sarah Dutkiewicz, gave an excellent presentation on Silverlight version 3.0. She has a blog with many different articles that can be found on http://www.codinggeekette.com. Following this presentation, a group gathered at Mavis Winkles afterwards to discuss many different things related to IT including the launch of Microsoft's latest operating system Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. Sam has another SIG group, C#/.NET meeting this Tuesday, October 27th from 6:30 to 8:00PM subject "Production Debugging". Also on Thursday, October 29th, Stephen Toub will be giving a presentation on Parallel PG MNG from 6:30 - 8:00PM.
On Wednesday, Bob Coppege, CIO of Simplex Technologies had speaker, Mark Geyman, of Ohio Biz gave a presentation on giving Small Businesses a strong marketing presence online with his extensive research and experience in Directory Business. After this event, I attended the Workforce Development event out in Twinsburg where various colleges and technical schools merged together to encourage individuals who maybe in transition to consider returning to school and get their degrees and certifications updated. Also featured at this event were assistance with healthcare finances, resume writing, job interview techniques, and different breakout sessions for those interested in getting into a specific field.
On Thursday, Avvenire Solutions, a company based out of Brecksville hosted an event in the morning at Microsoft Center giving presentations on the following: Windows 7 , Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft Office 2010.
Saturday, there were several events. One being at Cuyahoga Valley Career Center held by The Brecksville Chamber of Commerce where several local businesses met to demonstrate what their businesses have to offer to the community. There was also a pancake breakfast to help raise funds for the Brecksville Community.
In the evening, Benedictine High School's German Club held their Octoberfest. Festivities included a festive meal, followed by music/dance, and a raffle. My family was pleased to participate in the event and were happy to win some outstanding prices including 2 free tickets to see the Cavs for next month.
That's the summary for the past week. Stay tuned for next weeks blog.
On Tuesday evening, Sam Nassir's SIG group WPF met at Beacon Hill Building in Independence where current SIG member, Sarah Dutkiewicz, gave an excellent presentation on Silverlight version 3.0. She has a blog with many different articles that can be found on http://www.codinggeekette.com. Following this presentation, a group gathered at Mavis Winkles afterwards to discuss many different things related to IT including the launch of Microsoft's latest operating system Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. Sam has another SIG group, C#/.NET meeting this Tuesday, October 27th from 6:30 to 8:00PM subject "Production Debugging". Also on Thursday, October 29th, Stephen Toub will be giving a presentation on Parallel PG MNG from 6:30 - 8:00PM.
On Wednesday, Bob Coppege, CIO of Simplex Technologies had speaker, Mark Geyman, of Ohio Biz gave a presentation on giving Small Businesses a strong marketing presence online with his extensive research and experience in Directory Business. After this event, I attended the Workforce Development event out in Twinsburg where various colleges and technical schools merged together to encourage individuals who maybe in transition to consider returning to school and get their degrees and certifications updated. Also featured at this event were assistance with healthcare finances, resume writing, job interview techniques, and different breakout sessions for those interested in getting into a specific field.
On Thursday, Avvenire Solutions, a company based out of Brecksville hosted an event in the morning at Microsoft Center giving presentations on the following: Windows 7 , Server 2008 R2, and Microsoft Office 2010.
Saturday, there were several events. One being at Cuyahoga Valley Career Center held by The Brecksville Chamber of Commerce where several local businesses met to demonstrate what their businesses have to offer to the community. There was also a pancake breakfast to help raise funds for the Brecksville Community.
In the evening, Benedictine High School's German Club held their Octoberfest. Festivities included a festive meal, followed by music/dance, and a raffle. My family was pleased to participate in the event and were happy to win some outstanding prices including 2 free tickets to see the Cavs for next month.
That's the summary for the past week. Stay tuned for next weeks blog.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Recap from week of October 12th
I'm back again this week to give a summarization of the events that I had visited last week. Back on Monday, October 12th, Microsoft was in town giving presentations on the release of the following products: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and MS Exchange 2010. Various IT Professionals and Developers from different companies around the Northeast Ohio area attended to get a sneak peak of what is about to be released come October 22nd.
There were various breakout sessions, in the morning, mostly for the Developers, and during the afternoon, for the IT Professionals. Since I had attended several presentations between Sogeti, Avvenire, and Simplex-IT Technologies on Windows 7, I decided to go with the Server 2008 R2 session. Matthew Hester of Microsoft put on a nice presentation in the afternoon which focused on the Administrator's roles with the Server. He gave a hands on demonstration of the migration from Server 2003 to Server 2008 R2 which was very well presented. Everyone who attended was presented with a licensed copy of Windows 7 Ultimate version.
Some additional websites to check out and learn more about the latest in Microsoft technology are the following: Windows 7 Springboard http://www.microsoft.com/springboard, Talking About Windows http://www.talkingaboutwindows.com/, and Windows 7 Webcasts and Podcasts http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetwindows7.aspx
Another event that I chose to attend was a meeting presented by ISACA.org which it members consist of professional IT Auditors on a global level that form together to discuss best practices for what they specialize in. This group caught my attention because there was a gentleman by the name of David Hadley who gave a very informative presentation on U.S. Cyber Security. After the presentation, they did have a networking event of where various professionals meet from different companies to exchange their ideas on the subject matter.
This is a very interesting way to network with individuals with companies that individuals may be targeting in order to learn more about them.
Next week, there will be some interesting events that individuals maybe interesting in attending. On Wednesday, October 21st, there will be some breakout sessions out in Twinsburg at the following location:
Education and CommunityResource Expo
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
TWINSBURG HILTON GARDEN INN(I-480 at SR 82)
8971 Wilcox Drive,
Twinsburg, Ohio 44087.
This event is for those in transition or thinking of starting their own business. For more information, visit the following website: www.uso.edu/resourceexpo. This basically covers everything from A-Z on career transition, education, finances, etc.
Another event that I plan on attending that might be of interest to others is the Brecksville Expo on Saturday, October 24th from 9:00AM to 3:00PM.
Sam's group will also be presenting WPF for the C#/VB.Net group on Tuesday evening with the following details:
Topic: Introduction to Silverlight, by Sarah Dutkiewicz, MVP
Level: 100
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PMClick here to set a reminder in your Outlook calendar!
Location: Beacon Place Conference Center
Beacon Place Office Building
6055 Rockside Woods Blvd, Lower Level
Independence, OH 44131.
Finally, on Thursday, October 22nd, Avvenire will have another Windows 7 Presentation up at Microsoft Center between 9:00AM to 11:00AM.
That's all the news now for the upcoming week.
There were various breakout sessions, in the morning, mostly for the Developers, and during the afternoon, for the IT Professionals. Since I had attended several presentations between Sogeti, Avvenire, and Simplex-IT Technologies on Windows 7, I decided to go with the Server 2008 R2 session. Matthew Hester of Microsoft put on a nice presentation in the afternoon which focused on the Administrator's roles with the Server. He gave a hands on demonstration of the migration from Server 2003 to Server 2008 R2 which was very well presented. Everyone who attended was presented with a licensed copy of Windows 7 Ultimate version.
Some additional websites to check out and learn more about the latest in Microsoft technology are the following: Windows 7 Springboard http://www.microsoft.com/springboard, Talking About Windows http://www.talkingaboutwindows.com/, and Windows 7 Webcasts and Podcasts http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/technetwindows7.aspx
Another event that I chose to attend was a meeting presented by ISACA.org which it members consist of professional IT Auditors on a global level that form together to discuss best practices for what they specialize in. This group caught my attention because there was a gentleman by the name of David Hadley who gave a very informative presentation on U.S. Cyber Security. After the presentation, they did have a networking event of where various professionals meet from different companies to exchange their ideas on the subject matter.
This is a very interesting way to network with individuals with companies that individuals may be targeting in order to learn more about them.
Next week, there will be some interesting events that individuals maybe interesting in attending. On Wednesday, October 21st, there will be some breakout sessions out in Twinsburg at the following location:
Education and CommunityResource Expo
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
TWINSBURG HILTON GARDEN INN(I-480 at SR 82)
8971 Wilcox Drive,
Twinsburg, Ohio 44087.
This event is for those in transition or thinking of starting their own business. For more information, visit the following website: www.uso.edu/resourceexpo. This basically covers everything from A-Z on career transition, education, finances, etc.
Another event that I plan on attending that might be of interest to others is the Brecksville Expo on Saturday, October 24th from 9:00AM to 3:00PM.
Sam's group will also be presenting WPF for the C#/VB.Net group on Tuesday evening with the following details:
Topic: Introduction to Silverlight, by Sarah Dutkiewicz, MVP
Level: 100
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PMClick here to set a reminder in your Outlook calendar!
Location: Beacon Place Conference Center
Beacon Place Office Building
6055 Rockside Woods Blvd, Lower Level
Independence, OH 44131.
Finally, on Thursday, October 22nd, Avvenire will have another Windows 7 Presentation up at Microsoft Center between 9:00AM to 11:00AM.
That's all the news now for the upcoming week.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Networking Some Insights
I was not going to start another blog until Sunday which was going to be on a different topic altogether. I will still blog about that event next week, however, I decided to discuss a little bit about networking while in transition or while looking for business prospects. I attended some very good sessions on this through various places one being at "The Employment Connection Center" with Bonnie Dick, and a few others through small business group presentations such as the "JLG-Event". There were also some ideas coming from different resources along the way.
Now even while you are not necessarily looking for anything, you most likely already have a network of people with whom you can turn to when that situation does present itself. For example, some business professionals may already belong to a specific organization such as a group of Accounting Professionals who are more often working for different businesses, or whatever other groups that you might belong to. There are also different leaders within our communities who are always interacting with others who might be of great help to you.
There are a few things you might want to take into consideration.
First, it doesn't hurt to try to get into one of Bonnie Dick's presentations to hear her suggestions on the subject matter.
Secondly, I've been hearing many great things about the 30 second commercial. The 30 second commercial is a brief introduction of who you are and what you do. It should highlight at least 3 of your greatest strengths and as the title implies, be long enough to give people an idea of what your skills are but brief enough to not make the person listening to you so uncomfortable that they start tuning out on what you are saying.
Several bad examples that I have seen mentioned at some networking events were the following:
1. People just stating that they are in transition and that's it. They say nothing else and it's difficult to even point that person in any direction.
2. People who have rambled on for beyond 30 seconds and try to spend 40 minutes engaging in conversation with people with a bottled drink in one hand and just constantly talk about themselves.
3. People who go there and hide in a corner with someone that they know and only spend time conversing with the person whom they do know. While it's imperative to still greet people that you may have met before at other events, don't let that completely consume your time if your goal was to meet some other individuals in the process.
4. People who immediately say that they don't need that person even though maybe that person that they don't feel can help them just happens to know the right person that you just happen to be looking for.
5. Individuals who have at the most inopportune time just broadcasted themselves on video in a middle of a discussion on Project Management shouts "I need a job" while trying to share his knowledge on the subject matter which just so happened to fall on deaf ears because everyone was just too shocked to listen after he blurted out his first sentence.
Word to the wise, if you find yourself trying to gracefully exit away from these individuals, just simply look them in the eye and say: "Well I wish you the best of luck", then shake their hand and move on.
Now there are certain events that I've heard termed: "Speed Networking". I'll admit that I did attend one of those events and I must say that I was not that impressed with it. One one of the reasons being is I felt that I was racing against the clock and no one was really listening. The reason being that the room was already noisy enough with so many people in it trying to blurt out an introduction of themselves and a coach holding the timer and pushing people to move onto the next table. There is not much relationship building going on at that time and people are just throwing out their business cards to get to the next table in time - which was advised by someone else is something which you do not want to do.
Another presenter at a JLG Event had mentioned back in July's presentation is that you don't want to come across as being a sleaze. What he meant by this statement is the person who feels that he has to go around the room and hand out his business card to everyone without finding out the needs of the individuals that he is handing his cards out to will not get very far. The reason is he is looking at the quantity alone instead of also including the quality of possibly building good relationships with individuals. Like someone had mentioned, you don't have to meet every single person in the room to reach your goal. You also want to take the time to listen and engage in conversation with that other person that you have met to find out what they are there for.
Networking is not just about meeting new people, it's not just about looking for jobs, it's about building relationships with people so that eventually something good comes out of it. Also another suggestion is just don't collect the business cards after some event and do nothing with them. Keep in touch with the people that you do meet if any interest happens to be there. Network with others while not even looking for a job or a new client.
Another piece of helpful suggestion is take the time to research the companies that you may be looking to either work for or service. There are plenty of online resources that can help you out with this, however, that's not the only way that you can find out information about these companies. While having informational interviews is one approach, how about attending some events where these companies happen to be putting on some type of presentation on their products and services? Now you might ask who would be attending these events? Mostly their potential clients who just so happen to be working for other companies. Let's say you go to these events without stating that you happen to be in transition but you are interested in the subject matter that is about to be discussed at this event. While you are there, if the opportunity presents itself, you can actively participate in the discussions that might occur and can think of any value that you might add to that discussion. In this way, you are getting yourself in front of people without really mentioning that you are actively searching.
The reason why I bring this up is because there are several things going on here:
1. You are keeping yourself up to date with the latest trends within the industry in a different way besides going online to research that information. Companies can see from your participation in the event that you are interested in them.
2. You might just happen to get a call from your target company asking you to provide feedback on what was presented at the presentation. Opportunity here for at least an informational interview and it expresses your sincere interest in them if you happen to follow through with some feedback.
3. You are getting in front of other people prior to them possibly even having a job opening at the time. So by the time that you have already build some type of memorable and positive relationship with them, and they are actually looking for someone who matches the skills that you have to offer, your one of the first who comes to mind. Sure they will still post the job opening, however, they might already have you in mind for that position if you bring value to what they are looking for.
4. Also, dress like you are there for business. It does not necessarily have to be a business suit, but something that one would wear in a business office environment on a daily basis.
It's imperative to create business cards with your contact information so that when someone is interested in setting up a meeting with you, they have a convenient way of contacting you.
The last point that I would like to mention. Let's say that you are just starting out in a new contract project or you just so happen to land in the career that you were pursuing, don't stop t he networking process there. This would be the time to build your relationships with the people whom you are working with. Some people have mentioned to me that they didn't get anything out of their last jobs but I often ask, did they try approaching management about other projects? First you want to build this trust relationship with them and prove that you can handle the tasks at hand that you sold them on when you agreed to work for them. After a certain period of time, if you see another project that you would like to become involved with, then express your interest to them. For example, there was one place where they only had one person who was imaging these laptops and that person did not have a trained backup person to fall back on in case something happened to them. I brought this up with the supervisor at the time and gave my key strengths on what I could bring to this project and she gave me the approval to go ahead with it. From there, I started building several other skills to bring enhancement to my existing skill set.
My theory has always been that the opportunities are definitely there, my question would be, how did you go about seeking that opportunity? If the answer is that you never received that opportunity, then maybe this person did not make an effort to go directly to the decision maker and present themselves as the key person for that particular opportunity. Don't wait for these key decision makers to come to you, find ways that you can present the idea to them and go to them and ask. It never hurts to ask.
Now even while you are not necessarily looking for anything, you most likely already have a network of people with whom you can turn to when that situation does present itself. For example, some business professionals may already belong to a specific organization such as a group of Accounting Professionals who are more often working for different businesses, or whatever other groups that you might belong to. There are also different leaders within our communities who are always interacting with others who might be of great help to you.
There are a few things you might want to take into consideration.
First, it doesn't hurt to try to get into one of Bonnie Dick's presentations to hear her suggestions on the subject matter.
Secondly, I've been hearing many great things about the 30 second commercial. The 30 second commercial is a brief introduction of who you are and what you do. It should highlight at least 3 of your greatest strengths and as the title implies, be long enough to give people an idea of what your skills are but brief enough to not make the person listening to you so uncomfortable that they start tuning out on what you are saying.
Several bad examples that I have seen mentioned at some networking events were the following:
1. People just stating that they are in transition and that's it. They say nothing else and it's difficult to even point that person in any direction.
2. People who have rambled on for beyond 30 seconds and try to spend 40 minutes engaging in conversation with people with a bottled drink in one hand and just constantly talk about themselves.
3. People who go there and hide in a corner with someone that they know and only spend time conversing with the person whom they do know. While it's imperative to still greet people that you may have met before at other events, don't let that completely consume your time if your goal was to meet some other individuals in the process.
4. People who immediately say that they don't need that person even though maybe that person that they don't feel can help them just happens to know the right person that you just happen to be looking for.
5. Individuals who have at the most inopportune time just broadcasted themselves on video in a middle of a discussion on Project Management shouts "I need a job" while trying to share his knowledge on the subject matter which just so happened to fall on deaf ears because everyone was just too shocked to listen after he blurted out his first sentence.
Word to the wise, if you find yourself trying to gracefully exit away from these individuals, just simply look them in the eye and say: "Well I wish you the best of luck", then shake their hand and move on.
Now there are certain events that I've heard termed: "Speed Networking". I'll admit that I did attend one of those events and I must say that I was not that impressed with it. One one of the reasons being is I felt that I was racing against the clock and no one was really listening. The reason being that the room was already noisy enough with so many people in it trying to blurt out an introduction of themselves and a coach holding the timer and pushing people to move onto the next table. There is not much relationship building going on at that time and people are just throwing out their business cards to get to the next table in time - which was advised by someone else is something which you do not want to do.
Another presenter at a JLG Event had mentioned back in July's presentation is that you don't want to come across as being a sleaze. What he meant by this statement is the person who feels that he has to go around the room and hand out his business card to everyone without finding out the needs of the individuals that he is handing his cards out to will not get very far. The reason is he is looking at the quantity alone instead of also including the quality of possibly building good relationships with individuals. Like someone had mentioned, you don't have to meet every single person in the room to reach your goal. You also want to take the time to listen and engage in conversation with that other person that you have met to find out what they are there for.
Networking is not just about meeting new people, it's not just about looking for jobs, it's about building relationships with people so that eventually something good comes out of it. Also another suggestion is just don't collect the business cards after some event and do nothing with them. Keep in touch with the people that you do meet if any interest happens to be there. Network with others while not even looking for a job or a new client.
Another piece of helpful suggestion is take the time to research the companies that you may be looking to either work for or service. There are plenty of online resources that can help you out with this, however, that's not the only way that you can find out information about these companies. While having informational interviews is one approach, how about attending some events where these companies happen to be putting on some type of presentation on their products and services? Now you might ask who would be attending these events? Mostly their potential clients who just so happen to be working for other companies. Let's say you go to these events without stating that you happen to be in transition but you are interested in the subject matter that is about to be discussed at this event. While you are there, if the opportunity presents itself, you can actively participate in the discussions that might occur and can think of any value that you might add to that discussion. In this way, you are getting yourself in front of people without really mentioning that you are actively searching.
The reason why I bring this up is because there are several things going on here:
1. You are keeping yourself up to date with the latest trends within the industry in a different way besides going online to research that information. Companies can see from your participation in the event that you are interested in them.
2. You might just happen to get a call from your target company asking you to provide feedback on what was presented at the presentation. Opportunity here for at least an informational interview and it expresses your sincere interest in them if you happen to follow through with some feedback.
3. You are getting in front of other people prior to them possibly even having a job opening at the time. So by the time that you have already build some type of memorable and positive relationship with them, and they are actually looking for someone who matches the skills that you have to offer, your one of the first who comes to mind. Sure they will still post the job opening, however, they might already have you in mind for that position if you bring value to what they are looking for.
4. Also, dress like you are there for business. It does not necessarily have to be a business suit, but something that one would wear in a business office environment on a daily basis.
It's imperative to create business cards with your contact information so that when someone is interested in setting up a meeting with you, they have a convenient way of contacting you.
The last point that I would like to mention. Let's say that you are just starting out in a new contract project or you just so happen to land in the career that you were pursuing, don't stop t he networking process there. This would be the time to build your relationships with the people whom you are working with. Some people have mentioned to me that they didn't get anything out of their last jobs but I often ask, did they try approaching management about other projects? First you want to build this trust relationship with them and prove that you can handle the tasks at hand that you sold them on when you agreed to work for them. After a certain period of time, if you see another project that you would like to become involved with, then express your interest to them. For example, there was one place where they only had one person who was imaging these laptops and that person did not have a trained backup person to fall back on in case something happened to them. I brought this up with the supervisor at the time and gave my key strengths on what I could bring to this project and she gave me the approval to go ahead with it. From there, I started building several other skills to bring enhancement to my existing skill set.
My theory has always been that the opportunities are definitely there, my question would be, how did you go about seeking that opportunity? If the answer is that you never received that opportunity, then maybe this person did not make an effort to go directly to the decision maker and present themselves as the key person for that particular opportunity. Don't wait for these key decision makers to come to you, find ways that you can present the idea to them and go to them and ask. It never hurts to ask.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Pesky programs yet harmless
The topic for today is going to be about malware programs. The one that I am going to feature today is called "Windows Protection Suite". While the name of it sounds so sweetly sincere close to Microsoft products, beware because it's very misleading by it's name. It's harmless yet very annoying and can make people feel the sense of insecurity that their system is being attacked by an actual virus. The truth is that it is not and may end up costing people a little bit of money in the end to have the pesky thing removed when it may not cost a thing.
I remember the first case of this program while I was working at Parker. We spent a little bit of time on the phone with it because there is another legitimate program titled "Windows Defender" which is a valid product of Microsoft. I believe that this particular program is still free.
Here is the symptom of the "Windows Protection Suite" annoyance. Approximately every 5 minutes, it generates this alert window trying to convince you that you have a virus on your system. Then it asks you if you would like to activate the product. If someone attempts to click on it, it may ask for your credit card information which you wouldn't want to give out anyway. While there are many spyware programs out there that try to lure you into spening between 30 to 60 dollars on a legitimate Ad/spyware removal program, there are better ways to get this removed.
I'm not about to give the manual removal of this software because if I did, you are liable to consult your PC technician. Windows Defender which is free has been known to remove this program. There is one step prior to running the scan and that is to stop several processes through the task manager first.
First press the following keys simultaneously: Ctrl + Alt + Del.
Then select "Task Manager"
Click on the Processes Tab
Find the following files: snl2w.exe std.exe
WindowsProtectionSuite.exe
WI345d.exe ppal.exe uninstall.exe
WI345d.exe CLSV.exe
End Process on each one. You can only end them one at a time.
Then run the scan on your adware/spyware removal program of choice and follow the steps given in the program.
This should completely remove this program from your system.
I remember the first case of this program while I was working at Parker. We spent a little bit of time on the phone with it because there is another legitimate program titled "Windows Defender" which is a valid product of Microsoft. I believe that this particular program is still free.
Here is the symptom of the "Windows Protection Suite" annoyance. Approximately every 5 minutes, it generates this alert window trying to convince you that you have a virus on your system. Then it asks you if you would like to activate the product. If someone attempts to click on it, it may ask for your credit card information which you wouldn't want to give out anyway. While there are many spyware programs out there that try to lure you into spening between 30 to 60 dollars on a legitimate Ad/spyware removal program, there are better ways to get this removed.
I'm not about to give the manual removal of this software because if I did, you are liable to consult your PC technician. Windows Defender which is free has been known to remove this program. There is one step prior to running the scan and that is to stop several processes through the task manager first.
First press the following keys simultaneously: Ctrl + Alt + Del.
Then select "Task Manager"
Click on the Processes Tab
Find the following files: snl2w.exe std.exe
WindowsProtectionSuite.exe
WI345d.exe ppal.exe uninstall.exe
WI345d.exe CLSV.exe
End Process on each one. You can only end them one at a time.
Then run the scan on your adware/spyware removal program of choice and follow the steps given in the program.
This should completely remove this program from your system.
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