Monday

Tag: Career

Starting Your Cybersecurity Career

Cybersecurity as part of an overall Information Systems environment has existed for many years, but recent cyber-attacks have forced companies of all sizes to focus on cybersecurity to enhance security, protect sensitive customer and employee data, and to prevent damage to their corporate brand. Maybe you are looking to jump into a cybersecurity career? I have some basic tips to help you make the leap to a rewarding career in cybersecurity.

  1. Skills – A company only wants to hire the best employees, usually for the lowest wage possible. Your salary is usually based on your skills, experience, and the local market. If you haven’t got any relevant experience, and you can’t demonstrate relevant skills, you may never get a cybersecurity job and you’ll definitely be underpaid if you do get a job. The best way to demonstrate skills without experience is an industry recognized certification. While having a degree in cybersecurity will open some doors, an EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), CompTIA Security+, or many other certifications will help demonstrate you have the knowledge and skills to tackle the complexities of cybersecurity. Look at job postings to see what types of certifications are needed or common for the type of job you want to pursue. You can get a free certification called Certified in Cybersecurity from (ISC)², the same cybersecurity professional organization known for the popular CISSP certification. Just sign up as an (ISC)² Candidate. When you’re ready to sit for the exam, you can find your exam promo code on the Candidates benefits page. Please note that you may only use the exam promo code once. To register for your exam at a Pearson VUE test center, visit https://www.isc2.org/Register-for-Exam
  2. Experience – This can be the most difficult thing for a beginner to accomplish. How can you be expected to gain experience if you can’t get a job without experience? You can try internships, a part-time job, freelancing for a few friends or associates, volunteering at a local non-profit, or complete Capture-the-Flag (CTF) challenges. These are all great ways to gain hands-on experience in cybersecurity, maybe without giving up your normal job. These initial experiences will not only help you determine if this career is right for your personality and lifestyle, but it will also build your skills and experience to enhance your resume.
  3. Awareness – Most of what is happening in cybersecurity isn’t mainstream news. You need to follow some basic industry news sites (securityweek.com, thehackernews.com, bleepingcomputer.com, etc.) to learn about new attack methods, attend cybersecurity conferences to listen to experts and vendors, participate in free webinars to learn new skills, and join online or local communities to meet your future coworkers. These relationships and information are usually free (or low-cost) ways to stay informed about emerging threats, hacking tools, and industry best practices in the field. Being a well-informed cybersecurity professional adds value to your portfolio and can attract interest from an organization during an interview.
  4. Relationships – By networking and building professional relationships, you can create a strong professional network that can possibly offer you mentorships, job referrals, information about recent job posting, or just someone to talk to when you need a pep talk.
  5. Attitude – You’ll probably meet a few people who still think of security professionals as teenagers living in their parent’s basement trying to hack into the Pentagon or the local video game store. You’ll need to demonstrate your professionalism in actions and appearance. Cybersecurity professionals have access to critical and sensitive business information, so you’ll need to demonstrate you can handle that responsibility with the highest standards of conduct, ethical behavior, and professional demeanor. This includes while at a job interview, attending a conference, and while talking to colleagues or friends. Don’t give anyone a reason to second-guess the opportunity to recommend you for a job.
  6. Focus – Learn everything you can and stay focused on the prize. Don’t take half steps toward getting that dream job in cybersecurity. There are entry-level jobs out there, you just need to be persistent and patient to find the hiring manager willing to give you a chance. The more you know, the more you’ll find out how much you don’t know about cybersecurity. Accept your limitations and lean into finding an entry-level position. Stay curious and accept you have a ton to learn, but demonstrate a willingness and ability to learn.

These are the basic building blocks to finding a rewarding career in cybersecurity. Some people find it easy and get an entry-level job a few weeks into their job search, while others can spend months without any luck. It doesn’t mean you are doing something wrong. Stay positive and focused and you’ll eventually find success.

How to Spot a Bad Boss During an Interview

In a Harvard Business Review article by Sara Stibitz, she outlines how to spot a terrible boss during the interview process. The process is a fairly well-known list of items to watch for during an interview, but it doesn’t hurt to remind you of those items you should be aware of during this important process.

You should know what kind of person you respond well to, and make sure your new boss meets those requirements. You might not have a choice when looking for that new job, but if you do have a choice, you should also interview that new boss to make sure he or she is someone you can spend a lot of time with.

You should also trust your instincts to make sure if it feels wrong, abort the process and look elsewhere for an open position. The interview process is a lot like dating in that everyone is on their best behavior during the interview process. People dress up and at least act like they care about you and the company. If you can’t stand them or if they appear to have habits that seem annoying or unprofessional, it probably won’t get better after the job starts.

Ask a few well-crafted questions to determine how the day-to-day assignments are handled and whether the overall management style will fit with your work style and personality. If you like a little extra flexibility in how to complete tasks and the description from your prospective manager indicates they like to exert a lot of strict controls, you might not be a good fit for this position.

Always do your research before you appear for your scheduled interview. Check for specific comments about the company or department, and also see what you can find out about the prospective manager. Most people start with LinkedIn and Facebook, then go to sites like Glassdoor to get the details on complaints or former employee reviews. If you have doubts about someone or a company, it doesn’t hurt to start asking questions to anyone who might have some answers.

Principles to Remember

 Do:

  • Pay attention to how the manager treats you throughout the interview process
  • Research the manager, and if possible, find former employees to ask for their perspective
  • Request to spend a half-day at the organization so you can interact with your potential colleagues and boss

Don’t:

  • Ignore your gut instincts about the manager as you go through the interview process.
  • Ask direct questions about leadership style — you’re unlikely to get an honest answer, and they might signal with their response that you don’t want the job. Feel out their style using simple questions to determine if they manage or lead their team.
  • Neglect to look up your potential boss’s social media profiles.

How to Be More Productive

Wake Up With More Energy

Many people feel tired in the morning not because they didn’t sleep enough but because they have low blood sugar. Stabilize you blood sugar and get more/better sleep. Right away, a lot of people will go from feeling groggy to feeling alert when they wake up.

Double Your Reading Speed in Five Minutes

Write down a sentence, any sentence that has eight to 12 words and fills a single line on a page or screen. If you read it by starting your fixation on the first word of the line and ending on the last word, you’re wasting about 50 percent of your peripheral vision on margins. Instead, simply make your starting point two or three words in from the left side and your ending point two or three words in from the right side; you will double your reading speed. You can try this by underlining that portion of the sentence as a guide. You still see the edges of the text, but you’ve eliminated the margins. Continue reading “How to Be More Productive”

Eight Years Later

It has been over eight full years since I started this technology blog. I originally created this blog as an easy to search reference for SQL Server information, really for my own personal use. This started as a place to store example scripts, techniques, and information about SQL Server. It has now grown to include information about many of the subjects I deal with in my professional life. These subjects include programming, cybersecurity, certification, and project management.

Here are some basic facts to entertain you on this historic occasion:

  • This site has been in place for eight years, and I have posted over 1500 individual posts.
  • I was posting at least one post for each calendar day for the first three years, but now I try to post each Monday morning.
  • The site now gets about 1500 visitors per week (more than 200 visitors per day), with about 250 page views per weekday. There doesn’t seem to be as much interest on the weekend.
  • When this blog started on December 8, 2013, I was getting an average of 4 visitors per day.
  • The top 5 counties that have visited this site is the USA, India, United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany.
  • Someone from over 150 counties has visited this site in the last 12 months, with over 75,000 individual page visits.

I hope you continue to visit this site and you should encourage your friends to visit as well. I really appreciate your support. Thanks.

10 Ways to make the Wrong Impression on Your First Day

Congratulations, you finally landed a new job as technology, like database administrator, cybersecurity analyst, etc. It can be easy to make the wrong impression on your first day. Now all you have to do it survive your first day at work, without doing just about everything the wrong way. If this is your first real job, or your first new job in a long time, you might need a few pointers to prevent your first day from being a disaster.

By avoiding these 10 annoying behaviors, you get start your new job without sticking out or making enemies.

1. Know It All – You might be the smartest person you know, but you probably don’t know everything about your new company on the first day. There might be plenty of things you will see and hear that sound like they are doing it wrong, but they have been doing it that way before you got there. The key is to absorb the information and take plenty of notes. Once you have been there for a while, you can start making recommendations on process improvements. Telling people that they are doing something wrong on your first day is not the best way to make friends or impress your co-workers.

2. Fatigue – Make sure you are fully rested and on time for your first day. First impressions are important, so it is better to be early than late. You want to be fully rested and ready to spend the entire day working hard and learning everything you can about how your company does what it does. Don’t expect a long lunch and don’t even think about leaving early.

3. Dress Code – One of the things you want to get straight before you arrive on your first day is what you are expected to wear. As you attend your interviews or if you make visits to the office, note the what everyone else is wearing. If you are given conflicting messages or aren’t sure what to wear, over dress. It is better to be known as the guy who showed up on their first day in a suit when everyone else is wearing jeans, than the guy who showed up in shorts and a tee shirt when everyone else is wearing a suit. You can be prepared to change your clothes if you need to dress down a little as the day goes on. You can always remove a jacket and tie, pull on a sweater, or even change shoes, if required. People judge books by their covers and you by your first-day attire.

4. TMI – Too Much Information (TMI) is a nail in the coffin of a first-day employee. People are going to want to get to know you a little so they will ask you questions about your personal life or previous employers. Keep the stories short and without very much depth. People don’t want to hear all about your romantic relationships and previous bosses. Once you get to know your co-workers a little better, you will also get to know more about who you can trust or who is the office gossip.

5. Romance – I don’t care how interesting or attractive a co-worker is, you must keep your distance on the first day. Be polite and warm, but avoid any appearance of flirting or romantic attraction to anyone and everyone. While office romances are a bad idea in general, you definitely don’t want to be doing anything that looks like an office romance on our first day. You want the first-day reputation as that smart new person, not the jerk who kept flirting with Pat in accounting.

6. Complaints – There will be issues the first day. You might be given assignments that seem too simple for your level of training or experience. You might have trouble getting your lunch break or finding the bathrooms. Keep everything negative to yourself. Don’t be seen as someone who complains about anything. Anything. You are the person that solves problems and never complains about anything. You will gain the immediate respect of your coworkers and supervisors. Later, after they get to know you little, you can start complaining and standing your ground.

7. Social Invitations – Your co-workers may ask you to go to lunch with them or ask if you want to stop by the local bar for a drink after work. If you say no you might be branded the person who doesn’t want to spend time with your co-workers. Do you think you are too good to spend time with them? Try to accept a reasonable invitation (safety first), but also control yourself. Even if you are buying your own lunch, keep the order to a reasonable quantity. If your boss or co-worker is paying, order something simple and inexpensive. Even if everyone else is drinking alcohol, you need to stick to soft drinks or water. You want to be seen as that great new employee, not that new drunk.

8. Comparisons – You might be willing to make comparisons to how you used to do things at you last job or what you were told in a college class. Unless you are asked, you keep that information to yourself. Things are done a certain way at your new job, and you just keep your mouth shut. You might have some great ideas on ways to do things better, faster, or easier but you just need to make good notes and keep your mouth shut. No one wants to hear the new guy tell them all the things they are doing the wrong way. All your ideas can come out after a day or two of gainful employment.

9. Excitement – You are going to be a little confused and lost your first day, but don’t forget this job is what you wanted. This should be a happy day, full of wonder and excitement. Don’t be afraid to let people know you are glad you took the job offer, how you are happy to be there, and how you are excited to begin this next step in your career. This will remind them that you are willing to learn anything they want to show you, you are capable of being a valuable member of the team, and that you have a contagious level of excitement. You co-workers may have forgotten why working for this great company is so great, and you are there to remind them how lucky they are for working there.

10. Thank You – Training a new employee takes a lot of time and effort. These people are taking time out of their normal assignments to train you on the mundane tasks that make up their daily activities. Even if you already know how to do the task or you only spent two minutes talking to them, always make sure they understand you appreciate their time and always say “Thank You”.

These behaviors are just recommendations for your first few days. These behaviors are not sound advice for normal corporate life, but are just applicable for your first day or two. Once you get to know everyone and understand what they expect from you, you can open up a little and be a little more casual.

11 Things A New IT Manager Must Do On The First Day

11 things a new IT Manager must do on the first day.

 

Updated: Includes notes for COVID-19 Protocols for remote working

Congratulations, you have found a new job as an IT Manager. This new job could be leading a software development team, managing a group of system administrators, leading the cybersecurity team, or any other management position in the IT group. How you approach your first day at the new company will make a huge difference, putting you on the path to success or making your new role a struggle. You may not have been promoted to a management position at your last company, so you might not have any experience starting at a new company as a manager.

Don’t let you title go to your head. Don’t begin ordering people around and watching their every move. Act like a professional, observe team actions, and strive to understand before you recommend any changes. Many people have made career-killing mistakes by failing to adapt to a different way of doing things at a new company. Even if you have been with your current company for a long time, you are now at a different organizational level at a new company and you will need to learn about the new management culture to be truly successful.

Continue reading “11 Things A New IT Manager Must Do On The First Day”

Seven Years Later

It has been over seven full years since I started this technology blog. I originally created this blog as an easy to search reference for SQL Server information, really for my own personal use. This started as a place to store example scripts, techniques, and information about SQL Server. It has now grown to include information about many of the subjects I deal with in my professional life. These subjects include programming, cybersecurity, certification, and project management.

Here are some basic facts to entertain you on this historic occasion:

  • This site has been in place for seven years, and I have posted over 1466 individual posts.
  • I was posting at least one post for each calendar day for the first three years, but now I try to post each Monday.
  • The site now gets about 1500 visitors per week (more than 200 visitors per day), with about 250 page views per weekday. There doesn’t seem to be as much interest on the weekend.
  • When this blog started on December 8, 2013, I was getting an average of 4 visitors per day.
  • The top 5 counties that have visited this site is the USA, India, United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany.
  • Someone from over 150 counties has visited this site in the last 12 months, with over 65,000 individual page visits.

I hope you continue to visit this site and you should encourage your friends to visit as well. I really appreciate your support. Thanks.

CISSP vs. CISM Certification – Which is best for me?

Now is a perfect time to be certified, and why not choose to be CISM or CISSP certified? With so many people working from home, you may have some extra time on your hands to study for a certification exam instead of being stuck in a long commute, so why not select a cybersecurity certification to study for in 2021. Recent reports indicate with a near zero unemployment rate for cybersecurity professionals there may be more open positions than qualified candidates.

CISM and CISSP are two of the most highly requested certifications for cybersecurity practitioners, but the requirements for certification aren’t insignificant. They both require a significant investment of time to learn everything covered in the exam, and over $700 just to sit for the exam. Let’s take a look at the requirements for both certifications to help you make the correct decision on which exam you should take in 2021.

Continue reading “CISSP vs. CISM Certification – Which is best for me?”

Six Years Later

It has been over six full years since I started this technology blog. I originally created this blog as an easy to search reference for SQL Server information, really for my own personal use. This started as a place to store example scripts, techniques, and information about SQL Server. It has grown to include information about many of the subjects I deal with in my professional life, including programming, cybersecurity, and project management.

Here are some basic facts to entertain you on this historic occasion:

  • This site has been in place for six years, and I have posted over 1411 individual posts.
  • I was posting at least one post for each calendar day for the first three years, but now I try to post each Monday.
  • The site now gets about 800 visitors per week, with about 150 page views per weekday. There doesn’t seem to be as much interest on the weekend.
  • When this blog started on December 8, 2013, I was getting an average of 4 visitors per day.
  • The top 5 counties that have visited this site is the USA, India, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Canada.
  • Someone from over 110 counties has visited this site in the last 12 months, with over 36,000 individual page visits.

I hope you continue to visit this site and you should encourage your friends to visit as well. I really appreciate your support. Thanks.

10 Cybersecurity Interview Questions

If you are interested in getting a job in cybersecurity and starting a rewarding career in protecting information systems, you should be prepared to answer a wide range of questions to demonstrate your knowledge of the subject matter. Generally speaking, cybersecurity is the protection of information or data stored on computer systems from unauthorized access and malicious attacks.

I can’t predict the specific questions you will be asked, but I know the general category of the questions relevant for this type of position. Interviewers are interested in the candidates who have the necessary general technical knowledge, and any specific skills relevant to the specific position posted.

Continue reading “10 Cybersecurity Interview Questions”

Five Years Later

It has been over five full years since I started this technology blog. I originally created this blog as an easy to search reference for SQL Server information, really for my own personal use. This started as a place to store example scripts, techniques, and information about SQL Server. It has grown to include information about many of the subjects I deal with in my professional life, including programming, security, and project management.

Here are some basic facts to entertain you on this historic occasion:

  • This site has been in place for five years, and I have posted over 1350 individual posts.
  • I was posting at least one post for each calendar day for the first three years, but now I try to post each Monday.
  • The site now gets about 420 visitors per week, with about 80 page views per weekday. There doesn’t seem to be as much interest on the weekend.
  • When this blog started on December 8, 2013, I was getting an average of 4 visitors per day.
  • The top 5 counties that have visited this site is the USA, India, United Kingdom, Hong Kong SAR China, and Canada.
  • Someone from over 110 counties has visited this site in the last 12 months, with over 22,000 individual page visits.

Year One

Year Two

Year Three

Year Four

I hope you continue to visit this site and you should encourage your friends to visit as well. I really appreciate your support. Thanks.

Output is Better


You work hard. You know you work hard, your co-workers know you work hard, and your customers know you work hard. No one cares that you are working hard. What really matters is output. What have you gotten done? It has been shown through numerous studies that people will feel more value in a process that seems more difficult. People feel vacuums are more powerful if they are louder, cars are more powerful if the engine makes more noise, and that software must be really powerful if it took you more than a couple of 10 hour shifts to develop.

But the key to happiness is getting work done without so much effort. One of the things that is supposed to be a benefit of experience is things are supposed to get easier with age. Don’t fool yourself into believing that working harder is working better. What lessons have you learned that can make your job easier? If it is still taking you the same amount of time to do most of your tasks, you have to ask what you are doing wrong.

Continue reading “Output is Better”

Four Years Later

It has been over four full years since I started this technology blog. I originally created this blog as an easy to search reference for SQL Server information, really for my own personal use. This started as a place to store example scripts, techniques, and information about SQL Server. It has grown to include information about many of the subjects I deal with in my professional life, including programming, security, and project management.

Here are some basic facts to entertain you on this historic occasion:

  • This site has been in place for four years, and I have posted over 1300 individual posts.
  • I was posting at least one post for each calendar day for the first three years, but now I try to post each Monday.
  • The site now gets about 300 visitors per week, with an average of 50 page views per day.
  • When this blog started in December 2013, I was getting an average of 4 visitors per day.
  • The top 5 counties that have visited this site is the USA, United Kingdom, India, Canada, and Australia.
  • Someone from over 110 counties has visited this site in the last 12 months, with over 15,000 individual page visits.

Year One

Year Two

Year Three

I hope you continue to visit this site and you should encourage your friends to visit as well. Thanks.

22 DBA Responsibilities You Should Know About

Being a Database Administrator (DBA) is a tough job, and knowing what responsibilities are involved before you commit to that career can be very important.

In this article by Craig Mullins, we get his list of 22 DBA responsibilities:

  1. General database management.
  2. Data modeling and database design.
  3. Metadata management and repository usage.
  4. Database schema creation and management.
  5. Capacity planning.
  6. Programming and development.
  7. SQL code reviews and walk-throughs.
  8. Performance management and tuning.
  9. Ensuring availability.
  10. Data movement.
  11. Backup and recovery.
  12. Ensuring data integrity.
  13. Procedural skills.
  14. Extensible data type administration.
  15. Data security.
  16. Database auditing.
  17. General systems management and networking skills.
  18. Business knowledge.
  19. Data archiving.
  20. Enterprise resource planning (ERP).
  21. Web-specific technology expertise.
  22. Storage management techniques.

You can read the entire article, part 1 and part 2, to get all the details.

5 Reasons Your Best People Might Quit in 2017

As a manager, you have to be thinking about the people that work for you all year long, but the first of the calendar year can be a time when some of your people decide to make a career move.

Understanding their motives and reasoning for this thinking, you have to look at the most common reasons for moving to a new job.

  1. Lack of Communication – Good communication can mean different things to different people. Some people might need much more face-time than some of your other people. This is a significant risk at the end of the year when the traditional holiday season might distract your team and prevent the same level of communication as they might get during the rest of the year. If you’ve been neglecting your team, apologize to them explain how you plan to be a better communicator this year.
  2. No Transparency – We all say we value transparency and make everyone to be authentic and honest. We need to look at how we communicate with our team and make sure we are keeping them in the loop about what is happening in the company. While everyone understands their must be some information they just can’t know about today, your team must feel you aren’t keeping secrets from them. Verify you use clear and open communication with everyone on your team, and stress that they can come to you about any concerns they have.
  3. Boredom – It can be easy to keep your best people assigned to perform the the same tasks every day. You can’t wait for someone on your team to request new or challenging tasks. You should be constantly nudging your team members to do something new or something that makes them unsure about their skills. Great employees want to be challenged and you want great employees. Look for ways to force individuals to expand their skills or use their skills in a different way.
  4. Flexibility – People are always looking for more flexibility in the way management deals with them and their relationship with the company. This includes the ability to work remotely, the ability to use new tools, or a desire to explore more workplace perks. Talk to your people and make sure you understand what is important to them and them work help make it possible.
  5. Stagnation – While some people are perfectly happy in their current position, many want to grow and learn new skills so they can seek promotion and greater responsibility. You will need to find a way to help them grow by providing constant feedback and, when possible, a mentor to help your people realize their dreams.

Three Years Later

It has been three full years since I started this technology blog. I originally created this blog as an easy to search reference for SQL Server information, really for my own personal use. This started as a place to store example scripts, techniques, and information about SQL Server. It has grown to include information about many of the subjects I deal with in my professional life, including programming, security, and project management.

Here are some basic facts to entertain you on this historic occasion:

  • This site has been in place for three years, and I have posted over 1200 individual posts.
  • I have posted at least one post for each calendar day for the last three years.
  • I have never missed a day in three full years, which is much more difficult than it sounds.
  • The site now gets about 170 visitors per week, with an average of 40 page views per day.
  • When this blog started in December 2013, I was getting an average of 4 visitors per day.
  • The top 5 counties that have visited this site is the USA, United Kingdom, India, Russia, and Ireland.
  • Someone from over 110 counties has visited this site in the last 12 months, with over 14,000 individual page visits.

Year One

Year Two

I hope you continue to visit this site and you should encourage your friends to visit as well. Thanks.

5 Database Administrator Mistakes to Avoid

Everyone makes mistakes, but some mistakes can be huge. If you are a database administrator (DBA) you can’t afford to make mistakes. In this article by Yaniv Yehuda we learn about his list of the top 5 mistakes, and how to avoid them.

  1. Don’t forget test your backups!
  2. Not being careful about security access restrictions can be costly!
  3. Don’t overlook consistent maintenance of your database!
  4. Don’t wait until your system is having issues to start monitoring database activity levels and workloads!
  5. Don’t disable page verifications!

You can read the details here.

When to Abandon a Technical Interview

If you have talked to people about your history searching for jobs, they will usually ask about your worst job interview or even if there was anyone you interviewed with that you just wouldn’t take the job. Every company has their own issues, but some are clearly not as good as others. There are things that you like or dislike about a company based just on the brief interview process. You hope you asked the right questions during the interview to establish if this is a company you are going to enjoy working for, if the people you will be working with are going to annoy you, and if you will just have an enjoyable work experience.

There are a few items that are red flags for most people, and they are easy to find if you ask the correct questions, and actually listen to the answers.

Management Dysfunction

You don’t want to work for a company if they are operating under management that is confused, dysfunctional, or absent. When you are asked if you have any questions during the interview, ask the interviewer if the department has solid, written, widely-used documentation for external support, internal support, software development processes, system change control, and if they have recently updated management policies. If they seem confused by the question, change the subject, or maybe they just explain they don’t have those yet, you might need to apply the brakes and look for an exit from the interview (unless you are specifically looking for this type of opportunity).

While some very small shops can get by with a seat-of-your-pants approach to information technology processes, a shop of more than a couple of people needs written procedures and policies. A really strong manager can lead a small group without formal written procedures, but this is fairly rare.

Do you want to come into a department that is in chaos? A department without clear expectations, no written policies, and disorganized team procedures? What you are probably looking at is a deeply ineffective IT team. You shouldn’t be the one person hired to set the entire IT department on the road to written procedures, creating a solid development environment, creating a enhanced relationship with internal and external customers, and fixing everything that needs fixing while working with a management team that doesn’t have the knowledge, authority, or ability to do these things before you were hired.

No company is perfect. There will always be process improvements that can be made to get better results from any team. What we are talking about here is a really bad department with no formal processes or written documentation and a management team that doesn’t see an issue with that situation. An exception might be if you are specifically being hired to correct these known issues, but it is important to understand the exact status of the department.

Poor Interview

The art of the interview is something that you have to learn. Most interviews fall in the average range, but you have probably seen really bad interviews. You will be more impressed by the department leadership, and the entire company, if the interview goes well.

  • Are they excited about technology? Do they understand the technology being used by their company, why they use that technology, and what skills are required to maintain that technology?
  • Have they read your resume? If you can’t be bothered to read the candidates resume, are you really serious about the process and focused on finding the best candidate for the position? If you have ever been in an interview when the interviewer obviously hasn’t even looked at your resume, you know what I’m talking about.
  • The company can’t get the correct people into the interview, they are too busy and are using their phones during the process, or are confused about who you need to talk to next might be signs they ar not ready for your involvement.

Too Formal

A business is expected to be business-like, and that requires a certain amount of formal work-related items like standard work hours, dress code, cubicles, etc. You have to look around and ask questions to determine how strict are these basic business requirements. Some things are big turn-offs and you should really consider you options:

  • Strict 8-to-5 work hours – If they expect you to support the production systems 24×7, and still be present each morning at 8 am, that is a sign they are focusing on process over people. What is your acceptable work-to-life balance?
  • Community Involvement – If they don’t support time out of the office for local user group meetings and SQL Saturday’s, how hard will it be to get a week or two out of the office for training each year?
  • Old Technology – If they aren’t willing to try new technology, that could spell real long-term issues if you have to support aging technology because no one trusts or understands the new technology. Are they still running SQL Server 2000 and Windows XP?
  • Cubicle Hell – You ask about an office, but they tell you this position can’t have an office? If that isn’t something they are even willing to discuss, this could mean there are some fairly strict company policies that might be illogical or too formal and aren’t challenged by your team management. What else is out there that you will have to address after you take the job?
  • Suits and Ties – Are you willing to “dress up” for work each day, or are you more comfortable with a t-shirt? You have to consider the environment if you can’t compromise on dress code requirements. You also have to consider the extra cost of maintaining extra work-only outfits.

Ask Tough Questions

Other items that might set off your “bad company” radar are:

  • No computer, cell phone, or remote access definitions. Who supplies your technology? How often are you allowed to get a new laptop or cellphone?
  • They want to you to be on-call 24×7, but they don’t supply a cellphone?
  • Ask about vacation and sick days, Not just allowed vacation days. When was the last time someone on the team took a vacation? It might be a difficult subject to bring up in an interview, but if they haven’t been allowed vacation days in a long time, maybe you don’t want to work there either. You will have to think of a tactful way to bring up the subject, without making them worry about your intentions.
  • Who looks at new technology? If new projects are requests from other departments, is the analysis of new technology supported by IT management?

Sample questions you might want to ask during your interview:

  • Why is this position available?
  • What kind of turnover does this department/company have?
  • What happened to the person that held this position before? Was he promoted or fired?
  • What do you like the most/least about working for this company?
  • Can you describe the work environment?
  • Can you describe the opportunities for training and professional development?
  • What do you feel are the strengths/weaknesses of this company compared to the competition?
  • Who investigates new technology at this company?

Listen to the answers and don’t be afraid to pass on those jobs that don’t fit what you are looking for in a career. Can you think of additional questions you might ask to expose more about a company during the interview process?

I hope this helps you understand that the questions you ask during the interview are important.

Importance of Teamwork

We have heard about the importance of teamwork since grade school gym class. We all know that a team that works together is better than a group of people working towards their individual goals. As you look toward the impact of teamwork on businesses, the importance is usually measured in dollars. Numerous studies have been conducted to accurately measure the impact of teamwork on business profits, and the value of teamwork is well established.

More recently there have be studies as to what kinds of teams are most effective, and in this article by Denise Cummins PhD, we learn a little more about how important it is to have both males and females on an effective team. This is relevant because many technical teams are usually predominantly male. Teams that are diverse have been shown to outperform teams that are not diverse by a significant amount.

The research in this area seems to point to the following conclusions:

  • Teamwork improves output productivity and morale in work settings.
  • Gender-balanced teams routinely outperform men-only or women-only teams.
  • Both men and women devalue women’s contributions in teamwork projects.
  • Men’s careers benefit from collaborations with women because team successes are more likely to be attributed to men’s efforts, whether this is true or not.
  • In order for women to ensure that they receive fair credit for their work, women should work solo, collaborate only with other women, or ensure that their contributions are explicitly documented and acknowledged when working with men.

6 Hot New IT Jobs

Recent survey efforts by CompTIA have helped identify some new and hot IT job titles that you may not have read about yet, but they are picking up steam because of recent technology changes. You may not have heard of these before, but you can expect to hear more about them in the coming months and years.

In this article by Bill Snyder we see a list of new career choices that could significantly increase you overall income.

  • Cognitive computing engineer/machine learning specialist
  • Blockchain engineer
  • GPU cluster engineer
  • Virtual reality engineer
  • Internet of things architect
  • Computer security incident responder

How to motivate your technical team

As a manager of a technical team, you will be forced to determine what motivates your team and what you can do to get the very best results. Here are a few ideas to get better results from your technical team.

      1. Encourage Solutions over Problems – You will hear problems from your team, and your challenge is to encourage solutions over listing problems. Sure, every team will run into issues and the solution isn’t always the first thing that your team members will think about. You need to encourage the team to not focus on the problem, but the best possible solution. It will motivate your team to think through the issue and invite them to develop their own ideas for solving a problem. Remember to praise the effort, even if you don’t act on their proposed solution, to encourage the proper behavior of thinking past the problem.
      2. Reward Results – Every job has its good and bad days, so make sure you reward the team when everything goes as planned and the results show everyone has been working as hard as our expected. You have to remember that the work your technical team perform is often very difficult and frequently not appreciated by the rest of the organization. As a leader, your job is to get the best results from your team, so measure their contribution and provide rewards to encourage premium results and builds a sense of teamwork.
      3. Honor Expertise – A technical team has a level of knowledge that is unusual when compared to other teams in your organization. Don’t allow them to be treated like everyone else. Your technical team are experts in their field,  so of course you should treat them as experts. When talking to other managers and leaders in your organization, talk about your team as experts,  which will boost their reputation internally. To also boost their reputation internally and externally, encourage them to contribute to industry debates, technical publications, industry conferences, local user groups, and also look for ways to share their technical knowledge internally with mentoring junior colleagues and training opportunities.
      4. Communication – You need to find time to sit down and talk to each member of the team. Knowing why something is happening helps people tackle the work with a sense of understanding that is far more motivating than simply being told what to do. Poor communication is cited as the core issue in all failed projects.
      5. Avoid Troublemakers – You have to identify the troublemakers and keep them away from your team. The primary source of trouble are the people who constantly have negative things to say. While it isn’t always possible, identify the people who are not providing positive energy for your team and make sure they don’t have contact with your team.
      6. Embrace the Pain – Generally speaking, people make mistakes. Unless the mistake is as a result of intentional carelessness, use the mistake as a chance to show the team how to deal with issues the correct way. Start looking bugs or program errors as opportunities for improvement in processes or procedures. Hold a postmortem review and ask the team member who made the error to present the events that lead to the situation, asking the team to comment on what should have been done differently in a nonjudgemental environment.
      7. Encourage Growth – People want to feel there is a real opportunity for professional growth, so you need to delegate work to your tech team. They need a chance to take on non-technical or traditional managerial tasks on occasion so they can get a feel for what they might like or dislike about management.
      8. Promote Innovation – You people will have lots of ideas and new ways of doing things that could lead to significant productivity enhancements. Look for those moments of innovation and be prepared to reward anything that is adopted as a new best practice.

You need to treat your technical team with respect and challenge them to do truly remarkable things while they have fun and feel valuable to the organization.

Deadly Developer Career Mistakes

Lots of people can tell developers what to do, including the best choice for language, best new technologies, etc. What this article is trying to tell you is what not to do. In this article from Paul Heltzel, we learn his top 7 tips:

  1. Staying too long – He says that you should stay at least 2 years, but not longer than 4 years.
  2. Job Jumping – Varies by type of position, but stay at least through the current project.
  3. Passing on Promotion – Promotion means more money, but at what cost. Skipping promotion opportunities might also signal you aren’t committed to the company.
  4. Not paying it forward – Always find time to mentor junior developers.
  5. Sticking to your stack – Broaden your knowledge to make yourself more valuable.
  6. Neglecting soft skills – Learn social skills to be a better person.
  7. Failing to develop a career roadmap – You need a plan on where you want to be, and create a plan to take you from where you are today to that target destination.

I think those are all really great notes, and I agree with them all. My one criticism is it leaves off my number 8, focused on business:

8 . No Business Knowledge – Learn how business works, not just how to leverage technology. Leverage your knowledge of technology and a better understanding of business to drive better decisions, better solutions, and better ideas.

 

SQL Server Interview Preparation

Preparing for a successful job interview can be stressful and can take significant time. If you follow some basic steps, you can reduce the stress as well as abbreviate the amount of time required. The first thing to remember is that preparing for an interview is very important and you must allot enough time to prepare for the interview so that will be successful. Adequate preparation time will result in decreased anxiety, better performance, a more relaxed interview experience, and you will leave a more positive impression on your interviewer.

  1. Review the company website – A great interview requires a conversation between the interviewer and the candidate. The company representative will ask you questions, and you are expected to give good answers. The part that people often forget is the candidate is expected to ask intelligent questions that demonstrate a knowledge about the company and the industry they serve. You should read through the company’s website and understand their place in their market. Ask yourself  what makes them special in their industry or to their current customers. Make sure you understand what challenges exist for them today, and that will help you understand why hiring you might address some of those challenges.
  2. Review your resume – This is going to be challenging to some, but if you have ever hired someone before this might be slightly easier. Read you resume like you are a hiring manager and looking at your resume for the first time. What items on the resume are impressive, and which items would be something a hiring manager might be worried about? Items that might concern a hiring manager are gaps in your employment, short-term assignments or frequent job changes, changing from one industry to another, missing skills, etc. Now is the time to change your resume or think about how you might address questions about these items. Do not lie about what you can or have done to make yourself look better, because this will come back later and could cost you the new job.
  3. What is important – Think about what is important to you and what it would take to make you happy at your new job. Write down 5 relevant questions that will tell you if this new company will make you happy. What did you really enjoy about a past employer that you want to see in this new employer? Are their specific technologies or solutions that you feel you are important? Make sure you ask about their use of technology today or plans for the future that might bring solutions important to you into this new environment. If telecommuting is important to you, as about the opportunity during the interview.
  4. Close the gap – While you might be the best at many different technologies, you might still be missing one or more skills that are important to this new company. That doesn’t mean you aren’t a great candidate, especially if you can identify that gap and explain your plan for closing the gap. Explaining how you know you aren’t the idea candidate because you are missing the one skill, but you can explain what it will take to learn that one skill, how long you think that will take, and explain one or more of your other skills is above average might seal the deal. This shows self awareness, problem solving, and time management skills during the interview.
  5. Practice answering questions – Start with 10 questions you might be asked about your ability to perform the new job responsibilities. Write down the questions, and then write down your answer to each question. You will probably have to refine your answers until they are concise and perfectly worded. Once you have these 10 questions solved, start with the next 10, then 10 more, etc. Review these questions and answers before your next interview, practicing listening to the questions, answering the questions, and studying your body language in a mirror.

If you take the responsibility of a job search seriously, less stressed during the process and you will be more successful overall.

Why Do We Still Go to the Office?

For most of us, we get up each morning and commute to work. We then sit at a computer all day, usually working with systems connected via a network, that could be at the other end of our building or the other side of the planet. We might even have a telephone meeting with one or more people at a distant office. So why do we travel to one location to talk to systems and people located somewhere else? Can’t we just stay home and get the same amount of work completed, and save on all the commuting expense? Couldn’t your business save on expenses by not renting all that office space?

In this article written by Carlo Ratti and Matthew Claudel, we hear their take on what options might be possible to solve this issue, because we are closer to a solution than ever before.

The well-known prediction by U.S. professor Melvin Webber seemed imminent: “For the first time in history, it might be possible to locate on a mountain top and to maintain intimate, real-time, and realistic contact with business or other associates” (Webber M.M., 1973). Instantaneous communication with everyone else on the planet — even from the summit of Mount Everest — would soon render traditional offices obsolete.

History has charted a far different course. Today’s technology does allow global and instantaneous communication, but most of us still commute to offices for work every day. Telecommuting from our homes (let alone Mount Everest!) has not picked up as much as many thought it would. Meanwhile, lots of corporations are investing significantly in new or renovated office spaces located in the heart of urban areas.

What early digital commentators missed is that even if we can work from anywhere, that does not mean we want to. We strive for places that allow us to share knowledge, to generate ideas, and to pool talents and perspectives. Human aggregation, friction, and the interaction of our minds are vital aspects of work, especially in the creative industries. And that is why the quality of the physical workplace is becoming more crucial than ever — bringing along watershed changes.

 

 The transformation of our work environments is only just beginning, but it could have a major impact on architects, developers, corporations, and society at large in the years to come. Far from making offices obsolete, as the digital pioneers of the 1990s confidently predicted, technology will transform and revitalize workspaces. We could soon work in a more sociable and productive way, and not from the top of a mountain. The ominous “death of distance” may be reversed with the “birth of a new proximity.”

Why The Waterfall Model Failed

The Waterfall Model was a very early process introduced as a very easy to understand way to develop software. When using the waterfall model, each phase must be completed fully before the next phase can begin. This type of model is basically used for a project which is small and there are no uncertain requirements. At the end of each phase, a review takes place to determine if the project is on the right path and whether or not to continue or discard the project. In this model the testing starts only after the development is complete.

Most non-technical people tend to think that software is easily changeable, since there are no visible hardware to adjust and nothing to manufacture. While building software isn’t the same a manufacturing an automobile of building a house, the overall process is remarkably similar to other complex processes. Like any mechanical system, software has a design and structural building component.

In modern business, software requires constant changes. Most of the time, these older development process models fail to effectively address quickly changing business needs. Using the Waterfall Model, these changes were usually impossible to manage because the development cycle takes too long and business processes change too rapidly.

Many organizations, such as the United States Department of Defense, have stated their preference against waterfall type methodologies. Some advocates of agile software development methods argue the waterfall model is an ineffective process for developing software, and point to the rapid development that is possible with agile methods.

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