"CERT Boot Camp"
http://www.ExamsAreEasy.com
Issue 6 -- Sunday, December 16th, 2001
CERT Boot Camp is published monthly.
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IN THIS ISSUE:
1. A WORD FROM THE EDITOR
2. PITFALLS OF A CAREER IN I.T. AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM (PT 1)
3. JOKE
4. CERTIFICATION UPGRADES – CAN YOU HANDLE IT?
5. CONTACT CERT BOOT CAMP
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1. A WORD FROM THE EDITOR:
Welcome to your CERT Boot Camp Ezine. Christmas is
just around the corner but for us tekkies there is little
respite from study! Hope your brain cells are bearing up and
that you will be able to take some time out over the holidays.
Your feedback is always much appreciated. I would be very
interested to hear what are your biggest career concerns –
Promotion? Getting a first I.T. position? Avoiding redundancy?
Please drop me a line and let me know – and next month’s article
could be on YOUR topic!
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2. PITFALLS OF A CAREER IN I.T. AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM (PT 1)
Part 1: How to Get Experience Without Having Experience
A career in I.T. is uniquely rewarding, and not just because the
financial returns are good. What other kind of job challenges
you to use your brain in new ways every day, and gives you the
opportunity to become a master problem solver?!
However, good things come to those who overcome challenges, and
there are plenty of them for those who choose I.T. as a career.
First of all, getting your first job is a big challenge. It's
the classic scenario of employers wanting experience before
you've got it.
In actual fact, this doesn't impact only those entering the
workforce. Most people in I.T., unless they specialise very
narrowly, will experience this when changing jobs. Often,
experience of the particular industry, for instance finance or
insurance, is required along with experience of multiple
languages and/or operating systems.
It can be very frustrating, and we in I.T. often find ourselves
thinking, "I just know I can do this job, if only someone would
give me a chance!"
The fact is that first impressions count, and in job hunting
this generally means your resume. Usually, unless you have
certain key words on your resume, which the HR department has
been told are required for the job, you won't even be invited
for an interview.
O.K., let's talk about some innovative ideas to solve this
particular problem.
The first thing that you need to do is to get some base
knowledge of the software in question. If you have access to the
internet and a bit of initiative, this can be fun and cost-free.
Pretty much any subject you can think of will have many websites
dedicated to it, with plenty of free information and tutorials.
All that you need is sufficient motivation to go out there, find
the info and use it!
But what employers are looking for is actual experience or
qualifications - or best of all, both! And if you are not
currently in a job where you use the software in question on a
regular basis, your best bet is to do one or both of the
following:
1. Self-study for one or more specific certifications in the
areas that interest you.
2. Get solid, specific examples of projects that you can put
on your resume. And be able to talk about them at length,
if required, at an interview.
Self-studying and passing certifications is definitely
achievable, and we'll revist this topic in Part 2 of this
series. For now, let's concentrate on how you can get practical
hands-on project experience, if there is little chance of you
doing so on the job. After all, hands-on experience is essential
for passing technical certifications, so you will be working
towards two important goals simultaneously.
This is where you need to start using your initiative and
lateral thinking. You need to get away from the mindset of going
to work at 9, coming home at 5, and not doing much in between,
and start working on your career as though it in itself is a
project.
I've listed the main general areas that you should begin by
considering. What I suggest you do is take a big piece of paper,
read the list below and, taking each item in turn, think about
what specific people and situations in your own life you might
possibly be able to apply the idea to. Try to brainstorm as many
possibilities as possible, not bothering to analyse them too
much at this initial stage. Your aim should be to end up with a
great big list of people, places, organisations and contacts
that MAY be relevant or useful.
* Are there any areas in your current job where you could
offer to initiate, design and implement a small project out
of working hours? If nothing springs to mind, is there anyone
at work to whom you could talk to get ideas? For example,
could you approach a busy secretary or admin person, and find
out about some task you could automate for them?
* Are there any past employers that you could contact and
offer to do a mini-project for? You could either do it for
free or for a nominal fee on completion.
* Do you have any friends, friends-of-friends or family
member who are in business? They are an ideal target as
recipients of your free/cheap application you're going to
create!
* What about your old school or college?
* Failing the above, how about a small local charity? They
probably won't want to pay you, but would be very grateful
for any admin automation you can perform for them - and what
could look better on your resume than having given up your
free time to help a charity - meanwhile gaining the technical
expertise you need!
* Another possibility is contributing to an open source
project. If you've never heard of open source projects, have
a browse around this website: http://www.sourceforge.net. You
can offer to join in with other developers to collaborate on
various projects. A side benefit is that you can use
sourceforge's web site to promote your work on your resume.
That's all very well, I hear you say, but I don't have any ideas
of projects to suggest to these good people! The key is to find
a problem and offer a solution. Get around the people you've
selected and start asking them about their jobs and what they do
each day, basically searching for a time-consuming task that can
be fully or partially automated.
Consider offering some of the following ideas - and if none of
them are appropriate to the situation at hand, at least they
will get you thinking along the right lines ...
* An application to track stock / inventory levels
* Automation of simple email tasks, like an automatic
response to emails with a specific subject line
* Setting up a customer database with a nice front end
* A simple application to enable a telephonist to take and
record a telephone order
* A calendar application to help a secretary track her boss's
appointments
* A system of tracking customer appointments and
automatically producing reminder letters (e.g. for a dentist
or optician - or even a vet!)
* An employee administration system, perhaps to track
holidays or training
When you've selected the idea you would like to pursue, be sure
to follow these tips when putting your plan into action:
* Important: KEEP IT SIMPLE. Don't be too ambitious,
especially if this if your very first tech project. Just one
or two simple functions for your application will be enough
to start with. If it goes really well, you can ALWAYS suggest
extensions and further functionality. But be very careful not
to over-commit yourself to start with.
* If the project is at work, make sure you get your boss's
blessing before starting. Present the idea in such a way that
it is a no-brainer - you will be doing the work for free in
your own time, so if it doesn't work out they have nothing to
lose. Tell them what business benefits they will see if it
does work out!
* Remember that you are doing this project as a means to an
end. It should be important to you to get evidence of all
stages of your project. This means doing a design document
and possibly even user documentation, as well as keeping a
copy of the work you have done, or screen shots, or any other
documentation for the project. The actual experience is
important, but so is the physical material that you can
collect for your portfolio. Go ahead and bring this stuff,
neatly filed, to interviews - if the quality of your work is
good, it is sure to impress.
* Another benefit to doing your project is the potential for
networking. Anyone that you deal with in the process, be sure
to build bridges with. Sometimes the most unexpected people
will lead to job opportunities in the future. If you are
doing a project outside of work, it's a good idea to give
people your business card - even if you have to make them
yourself.
Hopefully, the above will help you to generate some original
ideas of your own to get experience where before there was none!
Next month, we'll look at self-study for certifications, and how
you can benefit your career to the max by passing some of these
much-sought-after exams.
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3. JOKE
All Is Fair In Business
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A shopkeeper was dismayed when a brand new business much like
his own opened up next door and erected a huge sign which read
'BEST DEALS.'
He was horrified when another competitor opened up on his right,
and announced its arrival with an even larger sign, reading
'LOWEST PRICES.'
The shopkeeper panicked, until he got an idea. He put the
biggest sign of all over his own shop. It read: 'MAIN ENTRANCE'
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4. CERTIFICATION UPGRADES – CAN YOU HANDLE IT?!
The deadline for current MCSEs to pass the Windows 2000
Acclerated exam is looming. MCSDs are starting to think about
the ramifications of .NET on their certification (see my
article, ".NET: What Does it Mean To You?" in the ezine
archives). I.T. is the industry of change, we knew that when we
got involved, so why does it always come as such a shock when we
need to continually re-train and re-certify to keep ahead of the
pack?
Humans have a natural tendency to want to rest on their laurels
after achieving a goal, and to a certain extent that is fine.
Most of us know that it's always a good idea to reward ourselves
after pushing to achieve something significant - it aids us to
be more motivated in the future.
But many adults in the workforce are tempted to carry this too
far. In fact, a lot of people finish education, get themselves a
job, say, "Well done, me!" and then sit on their laurels for
years. Or even, if you could imagine it, the rest of their life.
How depressing!
To me, there is more to life! Life is like a challenging game
and I want to play it with PASSION, to get up each morning with
a burning desire inside to do all I can do and be all I can be.
Don't you?
In I.T., there is a lot more pressure than in most other types
of jobs to keep re-training and to keep your skills and
qualifications current. Other people may call us "nerds", but
being passionate about and fascinated with what you work on
every day has got to be better than dragging yourself in
thinking, "Oh, no, not another Monday..."
So be proud of the fact that you're always learning, enjoy the
challenge of keeping your certs up to date and, most of all,
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. Remember that you are an infinite child of
God, worthy of all the blessings that are showered upon you, and
a piddly little exam is not going to stop you in your quest to
be the best.
Love and Christmas blessings to each of you.
Cassie
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5. CONTACT CERT BOOT CAMP
Do you have any CERT, techie or career questions? Do you want to
share your thoughts? Would you like to share a top tip with
other subscribers? If so, please send Cassie an email to:
cassiesimons@nospamExamsAreEasy.com (removing the "nospam").
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Copyright © 2001 Cassie Simons.
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