Well, it has been a few days and I feel that I am burnt out looking for work right now. I need to take a day and not worry about work, look for some fun and then recharge my batteries. Looking for work is hard, full time and if you really want work this time of the economy, you had better work really hard.
I, for one, is tired of the lack of good work. I am debating on changing my goals and start looking in other areas. I am leaning to the Account Manager style jobs found at places like Insight, CDW, and other companies that sale goods that I have been using for the last 25 years as a System Administrator. Who knows, it might work out great.
Also, my wife and I have started a home based business of selling Healthy Chocolate and we just attended a 3 day conference on the benefits of the new product that was released on Feb. 14th 2009. It is called XoBiotic, it is a pro-biotic that will help your digestion track stay healthy and it also contains more good or should I say great chocolate. I can testify to that, I use to eat and I mean eat, 12-16 Ibuprofen a day to help with the pain in my back and hands. I started eating 3 pieces a day and after about 1 week, I did not take another pill. That was over 5 months ago. I did take some ibuprofen when I had a 102.5 degree temp, but that was only about 6 in a 3 day period.
The Chocolate is also a way to earn extra money, I hope that my wife and I can get the business up a running to help supplement our income until I find a good job or it becomes our income. So, if you want to know more about it, please see my wife's web site. http://www.mycocoa4life.com/, check it out and let us know if you want to know more about it.
Well, that is all for now, I think I'll take a nap and get rested for another long week of job hunting.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Thing about Job Fairs
I can't believe that I stood in line for 2 hours at Jobing.com's job fair on Wednesday. From different news reports there were about 16,000+ people at the fair. The doors opened at 2 pm and I was in the first 4-500 people that got in. The sad thing is that after I left at 3 pm, the line was around the building almost twice, back a forth, weaving, it looked like a large snake slithering on a hot Arizona road in the summer. It's Alive!!!!!
Now to the real thing, the fair was good for most people, I would say that out of the 150+ companies that were to be there, in reality only about 100 were, if that. I know that for a fact, because once I got in and looked at the program, all 13 companies that I researched, (see previous posting), not one of them were there. I was devastated, smashed, about to explode with frustration. Did I, nope, I went around and talked to the few companies that look like they have IT positions, left a few resumes with them and they wrote IT in the top and threw it in a box. I did find two companies, one called MTI Tech, which I will call back on Monday, and the other A-Tech, a Technology recruiting company that recruits people nation wide.
OK, now that sad part, I am not a specialist, I am a generalist, while working for small companies I had to learn just enough to get the job done and then move on to the next project. I know something about everything, but not everything about one thing. That is what I am finding out is the only drawback that I have, large companies want specialist, small companies can't afford IT specialist but want overall people and they can't afford them right now. So, I am thinking of possibly changing careers, to what, don't know but it will require a sacrifice on me and my family. If only I had a rich uncle that had no kids and he passed away giving me his estate.
OK, that is all for now, time to start researching and looking and emailing and, and, and....
Now to the real thing, the fair was good for most people, I would say that out of the 150+ companies that were to be there, in reality only about 100 were, if that. I know that for a fact, because once I got in and looked at the program, all 13 companies that I researched, (see previous posting), not one of them were there. I was devastated, smashed, about to explode with frustration. Did I, nope, I went around and talked to the few companies that look like they have IT positions, left a few resumes with them and they wrote IT in the top and threw it in a box. I did find two companies, one called MTI Tech, which I will call back on Monday, and the other A-Tech, a Technology recruiting company that recruits people nation wide.
OK, now that sad part, I am not a specialist, I am a generalist, while working for small companies I had to learn just enough to get the job done and then move on to the next project. I know something about everything, but not everything about one thing. That is what I am finding out is the only drawback that I have, large companies want specialist, small companies can't afford IT specialist but want overall people and they can't afford them right now. So, I am thinking of possibly changing careers, to what, don't know but it will require a sacrifice on me and my family. If only I had a rich uncle that had no kids and he passed away giving me his estate.
OK, that is all for now, time to start researching and looking and emailing and, and, and....
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Researching potential employers
I thought it would be easy to sit at the computer and research companies that are going to be at a job fair. Well, it is not easy, not only that but when there are over 150 of them it is over whelming and very tiresome to do.
But in order for me to find a job I need to look at each and every one of them and get an idea as to what they offer. I know I won't apply at each one nor will I drop off my resume to every one also. But I still need to look.
Right now I am looking at two companies that have posted jobs that I can do and work at. These companies I am researching and even started to use the Linkedin network to find information on. But for now, I keep plugging along to find the best job available.
That is all for now, I will stand tall and do the best I can.
But in order for me to find a job I need to look at each and every one of them and get an idea as to what they offer. I know I won't apply at each one nor will I drop off my resume to every one also. But I still need to look.
Right now I am looking at two companies that have posted jobs that I can do and work at. These companies I am researching and even started to use the Linkedin network to find information on. But for now, I keep plugging along to find the best job available.
That is all for now, I will stand tall and do the best I can.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Linkedin Social Networking
Linkedin.com, what is it?
Linkedin is a great way to meet people that could and can help you in your business career. I have seen it make a difference in the things that I have been doing to find work. I have at this time a total of 48 connections that give me over 5700 connections that I can contact within two people of me. I have searched these connections and found people that could help me find a job.
If you are trying to get a business started, find a job, or just plain helpful, you need to get a Linkedin account. It is very easy to get started, and you can add your experience, skills, hobbies, and anything that you like, remember that if you make it public that Google will search your profile. That is the main reason for this is to get seen, to more exposure you have the better you will have at being seen and possibly get that job you have always dreamed about.
Here is my Linkedin profile, David Allred Linkedin profile, check it out and see what you can do to help yourself. My Linkedin will keep growing and growing, I have thought about this and will spend some time to improve my position in the search engines, improve my chances of getting looked at for jobs and hopefully to get a job that will benefit me and my family.
Linkedin is a great way to meet people that could and can help you in your business career. I have seen it make a difference in the things that I have been doing to find work. I have at this time a total of 48 connections that give me over 5700 connections that I can contact within two people of me. I have searched these connections and found people that could help me find a job.
If you are trying to get a business started, find a job, or just plain helpful, you need to get a Linkedin account. It is very easy to get started, and you can add your experience, skills, hobbies, and anything that you like, remember that if you make it public that Google will search your profile. That is the main reason for this is to get seen, to more exposure you have the better you will have at being seen and possibly get that job you have always dreamed about.
Here is my Linkedin profile, David Allred Linkedin profile, check it out and see what you can do to help yourself. My Linkedin will keep growing and growing, I have thought about this and will spend some time to improve my position in the search engines, improve my chances of getting looked at for jobs and hopefully to get a job that will benefit me and my family.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The Elevator Speech, "Me in 30 seconds"
Well, after writing about 10 of these "me in 30 seconds" I have to say it is harder than you think.
A "me in 30 seconds" is a commercial about yourself. We watch commercials all the time and think that it woudl be easy to put alot of information into the "me in 30 seconds" speech. Well, it is not so, in commercials it is easy to convey loads of information because 90% of it is visual. We all know that a picture is worth 1000 words, well, a commercial is worth 1000000 (million) words. When I got right down to it, I had 5-6 sentences to convey what I am to the listener, not a lot of space to put a 25 year history together.
I learned that when building this "me in 30 seconds" commercial, start out by writing down just words that describe your self. I used things like, Honest, Courteous, Helpful, Friendly, Creative, then I took and made a list of the 3-4 professionsl career accomplishments that I did. These can be small or large, just make sure they are the ones that make you proud. After that write 6-8 skills for each one of the accomplishments that you did, can be like Patience, Kindness, product knowledge, creativity, organizational skills, communication, closure.
After these things are done you then get to write 3 sentences of each, 'I am", "I have" and "I can", each one about 6-8 words each using the information in the above paragraph. You will learned alot about yourself after doing this. I sure did. Once you have the 9 sentences, now pick out 4-5 of the best ones and start writing your "me in 30 seconds" speech. I found that these gave me a great starting point and a whole new look on what to do. Then take the first draft, read it out loud and the start revising, have someone listen to you and time you. It will supprise you on how little time 30 seconds is. The first time I did mine I was over by 10-15 seconds, the second time I was under. But it is not easy, make this the most important 30 second commercial about yourself there ever was.
Here is what I came up with, it is not perfect but it is a start.
"For the last 26 years I have been in the Information Technology industry. I have designed, built, tested and maintained data centers with failover and redundancy giving a 99.99% uptime. I have been a Director of IT overseeing all servers, networks, telecommunications, and applications. Through evaluation of the company I was able to reduce the number of servers from 15 to 3, thus saving thousands in operational costs. With my degree, training, and skills I can communicate with people from corporate, technical and non-technical at their level."
That is alot, I come in at 38 seconds, not bad. I think that with a quick introduction like this you get the table on your side then let the interviewer ask the questions.
Tomorrow, Power Statements! make them strong to get the point across.
A "me in 30 seconds" is a commercial about yourself. We watch commercials all the time and think that it woudl be easy to put alot of information into the "me in 30 seconds" speech. Well, it is not so, in commercials it is easy to convey loads of information because 90% of it is visual. We all know that a picture is worth 1000 words, well, a commercial is worth 1000000 (million) words. When I got right down to it, I had 5-6 sentences to convey what I am to the listener, not a lot of space to put a 25 year history together.
I learned that when building this "me in 30 seconds" commercial, start out by writing down just words that describe your self. I used things like, Honest, Courteous, Helpful, Friendly, Creative, then I took and made a list of the 3-4 professionsl career accomplishments that I did. These can be small or large, just make sure they are the ones that make you proud. After that write 6-8 skills for each one of the accomplishments that you did, can be like Patience, Kindness, product knowledge, creativity, organizational skills, communication, closure.
After these things are done you then get to write 3 sentences of each, 'I am", "I have" and "I can", each one about 6-8 words each using the information in the above paragraph. You will learned alot about yourself after doing this. I sure did. Once you have the 9 sentences, now pick out 4-5 of the best ones and start writing your "me in 30 seconds" speech. I found that these gave me a great starting point and a whole new look on what to do. Then take the first draft, read it out loud and the start revising, have someone listen to you and time you. It will supprise you on how little time 30 seconds is. The first time I did mine I was over by 10-15 seconds, the second time I was under. But it is not easy, make this the most important 30 second commercial about yourself there ever was.
Here is what I came up with, it is not perfect but it is a start.
"For the last 26 years I have been in the Information Technology industry. I have designed, built, tested and maintained data centers with failover and redundancy giving a 99.99% uptime. I have been a Director of IT overseeing all servers, networks, telecommunications, and applications. Through evaluation of the company I was able to reduce the number of servers from 15 to 3, thus saving thousands in operational costs. With my degree, training, and skills I can communicate with people from corporate, technical and non-technical at their level."
That is alot, I come in at 38 seconds, not bad. I think that with a quick introduction like this you get the table on your side then let the interviewer ask the questions.
Tomorrow, Power Statements! make them strong to get the point across.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Tech Speak: Virtualization
The Future of Computing.
With the advent of Server Virtualization and the price and speed of current servers being released on the market, the time has come to look into this practice. Virtualization of a multiple servers into a specialized network of servers, storage and networking has made a revolutionary step, a big one. Companies will be able to consolidate old servers that are reaching their end of life and extend the life of the application running on the server.
I have put together a small plan that will allow us to change the way we do business in the IT department and in the company in general. Having the ability to bring new support servers up in minutes and have the application running in hours and not in days can give us the ability to beat others to the market. Being able to take servers, convert them into Virtual Servers (VS) thus giving them faster hardware, more memory and storage gives us the ability to grow and pursue new business and acquisitions.
New full system replacement.
With this setup that is depicted above, will be the ultimate in server technology, giving us the ability to grow and expand with minimal expense and to be able to acquire system into our network.
The ability to have all new servers with a large data storage solution will allow us to grow into the future and the ability to have disaster recovery built into the network. With Critical systems deployed in the server farm, with duplicates of these also deployed in the Offsite location we will be able to have a Disaster Recovery solution with very little down time.
With the way the servers are changing on a yearly basis I have proposed multiple solutions to accomplish the task at hand from the inexpensive shuffle of systems with little expandability to a new full fledge system that will allow us to grow far into the future with no compatibility issues.
In doing all the research I have come across a two really good Server Virtualization companies, VMware and VirtualIron. These are two of the premier companies that give an offering of programs that will accomplish anything or about anything we need to accomplish this change. I have included this excerpt from VirtualIron (VI), both companies have the same structure but VI has the right pricing model.
- “The power of virtualization is it enables the management of your systems independent of the physical infrastructure. As a result new applications can be brought online in minutes. Moving applications to new physical servers can be done instantly without causing any disruption to your business. Virtual servers can easily be copied for rapid recovery - if ever required. Upgrades, bring new applications online, performance management and business continuance are greatly simplified with server virtualization. Virtual Iron provides a true server virtualization software platform with a focus on small and medium enterprise customers. The product includes advanced capabilities and has been deployed in thousands of organizations to support a variety of data center initiatives. It’s cost effective, easy to use and is deployed, integrated and certified with a wide range of server, network and storage solutions. With Virtual Iron, users can:
> Manage virtual machines for upgrades, rapid deployment, performance management and business continuance.
> Consolidate servers and reduce physical infrastructure requirements.
> Reduce power, cooling and floor space consumption.
> Virtualize production applications running on unmodified Windows and Linux.
> Quickly set up development, test and production environments.
> Recover from failures quickly, reliably and cost-efficiently.
> Match resource capacity to workload demands automatically.”
VirtualIron.com
From the above excerpt we see that Virtualization is the new buzz word of all IT Departments. With this technology companies will have the ability to grow in a fast manner without waiting for new hardware to be procured, installed, tested and then brought online for the user to access. We will be able to accommodate and manage growth with fewer personnel and hardware costs.
Virtualization of logical servers into one hardware server requires that the hardware has the capacity to server processor and memory to the new logical server. Many logical servers use only 5-10% of the capacity of the system they are running on. But using 75% of the hardware server as a limit the 0ther 25% should accommodate the spikes of needed processor power when required. The real limitation of the hardware server is the amount of memory is the only physical limitation that has not been overcome yet. With a server of 32GB or ram, each logical server installed on the system will have to carve up that memory, we cannot share memory, and thus we can get 8 systems of 4GB and 1 CPU core each.
With Virtualization and the proper planning a company can utilize all the capacity of the servers with failover and High Availability to their full capacity. Many companies will be able to take advantage of this while most small businesses will not have the capital to even think about this.
This is a part of a white paper that I put together for a company, name removed for legal reasons.
Interviews for Technical Jobs
WOW, I just had an interview for a position in a museum. It went well until the interviewer asked a few pointed questions that just threw my train of thought way off kilter. It is these types of questions that the interviewer will ask to see if you are a true thinker, know your stuff and make sure you can do things when interrupted.
The one thing that I do not like is that the interviewer is constantly checking their phone, email, and answering questions. For the person that is being interviewed it is not good, caused both parties to be distracted and sets a bad tone for the interview. Many interviews end with out any other contact when they are interrupted. For the interviewee, turn your phone off or better yet leave it in the car. If you think it is bad for the interviewer to be interrupted, it is even worse for the person they are interviewing. Give your total devotion to the task, make sure you are focused and ready to answer anything that is thrown at you.
Lastly, for this post, make sure that you are well versed, speak clean and concise, make it know if you do not understand the question, to have it restated. Keep your answers right on the subject and keep their attention.
Good luck on the interviews.
The one thing that I do not like is that the interviewer is constantly checking their phone, email, and answering questions. For the person that is being interviewed it is not good, caused both parties to be distracted and sets a bad tone for the interview. Many interviews end with out any other contact when they are interrupted. For the interviewee, turn your phone off or better yet leave it in the car. If you think it is bad for the interviewer to be interrupted, it is even worse for the person they are interviewing. Give your total devotion to the task, make sure you are focused and ready to answer anything that is thrown at you.
Lastly, for this post, make sure that you are well versed, speak clean and concise, make it know if you do not understand the question, to have it restated. Keep your answers right on the subject and keep their attention.
Good luck on the interviews.
Networking really works
Well, Well, What I have found out is that there are people out there that really do care about you, even if you don't know them from Adam. My wife is a member of a Womens Business Club and through them I have received 2 really good contacts for work. YEA!!
But when you go to the Job Fairs, look at Monster or Jobing web sites for work, so are about 600,000 other people also. So, when looking go to every network group, sign into LinkedIn (great site) and start working the system. I have heard that 80% of all jobs found are through networking. So, give it a shot, don't be shy and be prepared to talk. Get out there and run for it, when I was downsized, I was on the phone driving home, not really happy, but still, I was there talking to a member of our church who is an employment specialist getting information. By the time I was home I had emails of network groups, job fairs, web sites, and most of all classes. The very next morning I was in a class on Resume writing, that evening I was at another class on presenting your self. I have been in 3 network groups and it seems that almost every day I am making headway.
Yesterday I talked a bit about Resumes. Well, I will get back to that in due time, as I am now working on my personal business cards. Again, another post will be given on that.
Have a great day, and remember if some one asks you how you are doing, just reply with this, "I am happy, thank you, and you?" (quote from Ronald Enos, a great man and friend)
But when you go to the Job Fairs, look at Monster or Jobing web sites for work, so are about 600,000 other people also. So, when looking go to every network group, sign into LinkedIn (great site) and start working the system. I have heard that 80% of all jobs found are through networking. So, give it a shot, don't be shy and be prepared to talk. Get out there and run for it, when I was downsized, I was on the phone driving home, not really happy, but still, I was there talking to a member of our church who is an employment specialist getting information. By the time I was home I had emails of network groups, job fairs, web sites, and most of all classes. The very next morning I was in a class on Resume writing, that evening I was at another class on presenting your self. I have been in 3 network groups and it seems that almost every day I am making headway.
Yesterday I talked a bit about Resumes. Well, I will get back to that in due time, as I am now working on my personal business cards. Again, another post will be given on that.
Have a great day, and remember if some one asks you how you are doing, just reply with this, "I am happy, thank you, and you?" (quote from Ronald Enos, a great man and friend)
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Popular Webinars
Well, I registered for a Webinar on what an Executive Resume looks like and how to make yours look great. They made a second showing of the Webinar and that is full also.
It looks like there are loads of ways to make a resume look good, but it is the content that matters. I have found that I can take the same resume, that was prepared professionally, to other resume writers and guess what, every one is wrong and that theirs is the only way to do it. I have or will have 4 different resumes that will be used for different types of job interviews. Here is that they are to be used as and as soon as I can get my scanner to work I'll scan them and put a picture of the front page of each kind. Darn computer/scanner interface, takes a 6 year old to figure it out.
The four types of resumes.
1. Plain paper bag
2. Flowery
3. Technical Jargon
4. Pristine Executive
I will explain these in detail, but for now I have to send off a Resume to a contact, YEA!!!!
brb
It looks like there are loads of ways to make a resume look good, but it is the content that matters. I have found that I can take the same resume, that was prepared professionally, to other resume writers and guess what, every one is wrong and that theirs is the only way to do it. I have or will have 4 different resumes that will be used for different types of job interviews. Here is that they are to be used as and as soon as I can get my scanner to work I'll scan them and put a picture of the front page of each kind. Darn computer/scanner interface, takes a 6 year old to figure it out.
The four types of resumes.
1. Plain paper bag
2. Flowery
3. Technical Jargon
4. Pristine Executive
I will explain these in detail, but for now I have to send off a Resume to a contact, YEA!!!!
brb
Wow, Looking for work
OK, this is the first post in a blog that I intend to keep running while looking for work and after I find work.
I want this blog to be an extention of my Information Technology skills, a place to show case ideas, thoughts, plans, discussions, dealings, about IT stuff.
I am a Junkie when it comes to IT information, but a novice when it comes to Blogging. I will do my best to improve this blog and to place relevent information that I have learned from the past 25 years. I will or should I say HOPE to get at least one post per day. at first as I am looking for gainful employment I will probably post multiple times a day. Things that I remember from 1979 when I got my first Radio Shack Model I to today planning a large Virtual server farm for a company.
There will be personal information placed here and there if it relates to IT, I have some funny stuff about kids and computers, cell phones and other items that are destroyed when dropped into water.
But for now, this is what I have and I will keep things going. Well off to the DMV for a new drivers card picture, I guess with all the grey hair I have it does not match the brown I had a long time ago.
I want this blog to be an extention of my Information Technology skills, a place to show case ideas, thoughts, plans, discussions, dealings, about IT stuff.
I am a Junkie when it comes to IT information, but a novice when it comes to Blogging. I will do my best to improve this blog and to place relevent information that I have learned from the past 25 years. I will or should I say HOPE to get at least one post per day. at first as I am looking for gainful employment I will probably post multiple times a day. Things that I remember from 1979 when I got my first Radio Shack Model I to today planning a large Virtual server farm for a company.
There will be personal information placed here and there if it relates to IT, I have some funny stuff about kids and computers, cell phones and other items that are destroyed when dropped into water.
But for now, this is what I have and I will keep things going. Well off to the DMV for a new drivers card picture, I guess with all the grey hair I have it does not match the brown I had a long time ago.
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