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Exit Strategy
RouteThisWay
Member Posts: 514
A mistake I made at the beginning of my career was not visualizing and executing a proper Exit Strategy. I would like to share my mistake with others, and hopefully they will not fall into the same boat! This is targeted to individuals currently serving entry-level Help Desk roles, DST, etc or who are trying to break into IT.
And of course, this is from my personal experience. This isn't the Bible of IT. You don't need to follow this to a T. These are just some things I wish I would have done when I first started, etc.
Your First IT Job
Congratulations! You have landed your first IT job. That in itself is something of an accomplishment, especially (incoming cliche meme) in this economy. IT is not an easy field to break into, trust me I know. I started out in a computer warehouse shipping boxes out. You take what you can get, to get your foot in the door.
More than likely, you are doing some sort of Help Desk support. You are fielding incident calls, responding to user/customer requests. If you are lucky, you will wear multiple hats doing different things. You may simply answer phones all day, use remote assistance tools all day, you may do face-to-face user support for a corporation or government agency all day. The most important thing is... you are Entry Level. Which means, you will be doing the grunt work.
What Should I Be Doing?
During this time, you should be doing a few things. A couple are obvious, some are not so obvious. So hopefully, this will help give you a few ideas.
One of the first things you need to realize, is that not everyone knows everything in the IT world. And being new to the profession, no one expects you to know it all. So ask questions. If you have a question, ask. No one is going to bite your head off, and I have found that most seasoned vets will be happy to share their knowledge with you, even if it is to show off a little bit. Just make sure you aren't asking the same questions over and over
CYA. Cover Your Arse. Leave a paper trail. Save emails. Make sure there is something verifiable to prove anything you have done. Especially when dealing with customers/users. More often than not, they will bend/stretch the truth if it means getting themselves out of trouble. This is a practice you need to get in the habit of doing.
Develop your soft skills. For some people, this may be the first job you have in a professional/corporate environment. Being able to orally convey your thoughts/ideas/actions/plans/etc in an efficient, eloquent, and appropriate manner is integral to your success. Some people may brush this off, thinking all they need to know is the tech stuff and for some jobs... this is true. But for most, it is not. One of the easiest examples I can think of is this: Most of IT is working in a support environment, and your primary function will be to ensure productivity is up and downtime is down. Less congested network, properly configured domain controllers, etc. And all of this costs money. You will need to justify to someone why you need to spend x dollars on some drive/software/server/etc when they all look the same. And the person who controls the money is usually someone who is not technical. Thats why you are there. I can not stress this enough: Develop your soft skills.
While you are at it, you need to develop a network of contacts. Go to seminars, training events, lectures, etc. These are all great places to meet other IT professionals in your area. In my experience, you would be very surprised who knows who. Coworkers are the best place to start your contact list. It is true, turnover in IT can be a bit high. But this is an opportunity to grow your web. As people move around you, make sure you have their info. You never know when you may need another job, and staying in contact with these people may be the "who you know" that you need to get in the door.
Always keep your resume updated. I preach this in alot of my posts, only because it has helped so many people I know. Do not wait until you go job hunting to update your resume. You won't remember everything you have done. Add onto it as you learn a new technology, complete a project, anything. And then when you go to apply for jobs, trim individual resumes down to skills that pertain to the job you are applying for. Just make sure to keep this organized, so you know who has what resume. If looking for a new job, it may be wise to rename each copy to the company name you applied to.
But most importantly, you need an exit strategy.
Exit Strategy
You need to have a plan in order. If you do not, you will find yourself in a help desk role 10 years down the road. It is extremely easy to get complacent, especially if you have alot going on at work, with family, etc. The last thing you want to do after working all day is come home and, read a book. Watch an IT video, etc. But you need some sort of plan.
First, you need to decide what you want to do. There are alot of career paths in IT. Some you probably never thought of or heard of. But you should have a general idea about which direction you would like to take. Think of it as specializing. Do you want to be a network guy? A windows administrator? Unix admin? DBA? An exchange guru? Security? There is nothing wrong with becoming well rounded in a multitude of skills, however for that hop from entry-level, you will usually need something with a bit of focus.
Once you decide what interests you the most, you need to get certified. There are people who will swear that certifications mean nothing. They don't prove you know the material. And this can be true. However, people are usually prescreened by HR before their resume even touches an IT manager's desk. They look for key words, which usually come in the form of certifications. Certifications are a baseline that show you should know the material and will very much help you get in for that interview. And once you are being interviewed, usually a good IT Manager/Member will be able tell if the person actually knows the material. In my experience, a certification will get you an interview. Thats it. Once you are there, it is up to you to show your potential employer that you have the knowledge. So regardless of what people say, how much they know and look down on certifications, you do need them.
Check job postings that reflect the position you which to move to. See what the prerequisites are. Do they ask for specific certs? Specific experience? Try and get them. This needs to be part of your plan. It is a basic road map on how to get where you want to be.
See if you can get experience with it at your current job. Want to get into networking? Ask your network engineer to let you help with basic tasks, or let you observe. You can use this as work-related experience, just don't lie about it. Buy some equipment to work with at home. That goes a long way to show you are serious. We hired a jr network admin at my old company who had no work experience, but setup his own network at home with a couple switches and routers. This gave him hands on experience above others who had a cert but no experience.
Set a time line. You need to set a time line in which you plan to have x certification completed, y certification completed, etc. Infact, a lot of people I know will purchase the vouchers ahead of time. This ensures they do not waste their money and put it off. As I said earlier, it is very easy to get complacent. Don't!
Entry level IT work is a bit unique in that there is a fine line of too long in your position, and not enough time. If you leave too quickly, it can come off as if you are job hopping, something didn't work out, etc. Can raise a few eyebrows. However, on the flip side, people are also going to wonder why you stayed in a Help Desk role for 7 years. Maybe you liked it, maybe you weren't motivated, maybe maybe maybe. You just don't know. It is a very fine line to cross. I would say the generally accepted time frame is 2 to 4 years. But you need to be able to map out some kind of growth.
So once you have been working in your entry position for a few years, completed a few certifications, received some experience etc... you need to apply for those jobs. You may not meet every qualification they are looking for, but don't be afraid to apply! The worst that could happen is that they don't call you.
I hadn't intended for my post to be this long, however... I just think it is important to have some kind of plan going forward, to at least guide you in a progressive motion. Don't expect anyone to come out of the wood works and says "Hey, I see you have been a Help Desk guy for 3 years. You automatically move up to be a System Admin." It won't happen unless you put in the work and effort. If you do not invest in yourself, a company will never invest in you.
And of course, this is from my personal experience. This isn't the Bible of IT. You don't need to follow this to a T. These are just some things I wish I would have done when I first started, etc.
Your First IT Job
Congratulations! You have landed your first IT job. That in itself is something of an accomplishment, especially (incoming cliche meme) in this economy. IT is not an easy field to break into, trust me I know. I started out in a computer warehouse shipping boxes out. You take what you can get, to get your foot in the door.
More than likely, you are doing some sort of Help Desk support. You are fielding incident calls, responding to user/customer requests. If you are lucky, you will wear multiple hats doing different things. You may simply answer phones all day, use remote assistance tools all day, you may do face-to-face user support for a corporation or government agency all day. The most important thing is... you are Entry Level. Which means, you will be doing the grunt work.
What Should I Be Doing?
During this time, you should be doing a few things. A couple are obvious, some are not so obvious. So hopefully, this will help give you a few ideas.
One of the first things you need to realize, is that not everyone knows everything in the IT world. And being new to the profession, no one expects you to know it all. So ask questions. If you have a question, ask. No one is going to bite your head off, and I have found that most seasoned vets will be happy to share their knowledge with you, even if it is to show off a little bit. Just make sure you aren't asking the same questions over and over
CYA. Cover Your Arse. Leave a paper trail. Save emails. Make sure there is something verifiable to prove anything you have done. Especially when dealing with customers/users. More often than not, they will bend/stretch the truth if it means getting themselves out of trouble. This is a practice you need to get in the habit of doing.
Develop your soft skills. For some people, this may be the first job you have in a professional/corporate environment. Being able to orally convey your thoughts/ideas/actions/plans/etc in an efficient, eloquent, and appropriate manner is integral to your success. Some people may brush this off, thinking all they need to know is the tech stuff and for some jobs... this is true. But for most, it is not. One of the easiest examples I can think of is this: Most of IT is working in a support environment, and your primary function will be to ensure productivity is up and downtime is down. Less congested network, properly configured domain controllers, etc. And all of this costs money. You will need to justify to someone why you need to spend x dollars on some drive/software/server/etc when they all look the same. And the person who controls the money is usually someone who is not technical. Thats why you are there. I can not stress this enough: Develop your soft skills.
While you are at it, you need to develop a network of contacts. Go to seminars, training events, lectures, etc. These are all great places to meet other IT professionals in your area. In my experience, you would be very surprised who knows who. Coworkers are the best place to start your contact list. It is true, turnover in IT can be a bit high. But this is an opportunity to grow your web. As people move around you, make sure you have their info. You never know when you may need another job, and staying in contact with these people may be the "who you know" that you need to get in the door.
Always keep your resume updated. I preach this in alot of my posts, only because it has helped so many people I know. Do not wait until you go job hunting to update your resume. You won't remember everything you have done. Add onto it as you learn a new technology, complete a project, anything. And then when you go to apply for jobs, trim individual resumes down to skills that pertain to the job you are applying for. Just make sure to keep this organized, so you know who has what resume. If looking for a new job, it may be wise to rename each copy to the company name you applied to.
But most importantly, you need an exit strategy.
Exit Strategy
You need to have a plan in order. If you do not, you will find yourself in a help desk role 10 years down the road. It is extremely easy to get complacent, especially if you have alot going on at work, with family, etc. The last thing you want to do after working all day is come home and, read a book. Watch an IT video, etc. But you need some sort of plan.
First, you need to decide what you want to do. There are alot of career paths in IT. Some you probably never thought of or heard of. But you should have a general idea about which direction you would like to take. Think of it as specializing. Do you want to be a network guy? A windows administrator? Unix admin? DBA? An exchange guru? Security? There is nothing wrong with becoming well rounded in a multitude of skills, however for that hop from entry-level, you will usually need something with a bit of focus.
Once you decide what interests you the most, you need to get certified. There are people who will swear that certifications mean nothing. They don't prove you know the material. And this can be true. However, people are usually prescreened by HR before their resume even touches an IT manager's desk. They look for key words, which usually come in the form of certifications. Certifications are a baseline that show you should know the material and will very much help you get in for that interview. And once you are being interviewed, usually a good IT Manager/Member will be able tell if the person actually knows the material. In my experience, a certification will get you an interview. Thats it. Once you are there, it is up to you to show your potential employer that you have the knowledge. So regardless of what people say, how much they know and look down on certifications, you do need them.
Check job postings that reflect the position you which to move to. See what the prerequisites are. Do they ask for specific certs? Specific experience? Try and get them. This needs to be part of your plan. It is a basic road map on how to get where you want to be.
See if you can get experience with it at your current job. Want to get into networking? Ask your network engineer to let you help with basic tasks, or let you observe. You can use this as work-related experience, just don't lie about it. Buy some equipment to work with at home. That goes a long way to show you are serious. We hired a jr network admin at my old company who had no work experience, but setup his own network at home with a couple switches and routers. This gave him hands on experience above others who had a cert but no experience.
Set a time line. You need to set a time line in which you plan to have x certification completed, y certification completed, etc. Infact, a lot of people I know will purchase the vouchers ahead of time. This ensures they do not waste their money and put it off. As I said earlier, it is very easy to get complacent. Don't!
Entry level IT work is a bit unique in that there is a fine line of too long in your position, and not enough time. If you leave too quickly, it can come off as if you are job hopping, something didn't work out, etc. Can raise a few eyebrows. However, on the flip side, people are also going to wonder why you stayed in a Help Desk role for 7 years. Maybe you liked it, maybe you weren't motivated, maybe maybe maybe. You just don't know. It is a very fine line to cross. I would say the generally accepted time frame is 2 to 4 years. But you need to be able to map out some kind of growth.
So once you have been working in your entry position for a few years, completed a few certifications, received some experience etc... you need to apply for those jobs. You may not meet every qualification they are looking for, but don't be afraid to apply! The worst that could happen is that they don't call you.
I hadn't intended for my post to be this long, however... I just think it is important to have some kind of plan going forward, to at least guide you in a progressive motion. Don't expect anyone to come out of the wood works and says "Hey, I see you have been a Help Desk guy for 3 years. You automatically move up to be a System Admin." It won't happen unless you put in the work and effort. If you do not invest in yourself, a company will never invest in you.
"Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture." ~ Vaclav Havel
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forkvoid
Member Posts: 317
Very nice! Well written and very informative. A friend and I wrote up an article a while back that is the perfect complement to this, about how to break into IT. It still needs editing, but perhaps we could turn both into a joint effort for better coverage of the topic.
EDIT: Also, where in Tennessee are you? I'm in Knoxville.The beginning of knowledge is understanding how little you actually know. -
OptionsRouteThisWay
Member Posts: 514
Very nice! Well written and very informative. A friend and I wrote up an article a while back that is the perfect complement to this, about how to break into IT. It still needs editing, but perhaps we could turn both into a joint effort for better coverage of the topic.
EDIT: Also, where in Tennessee are you? I'm in Knoxville.
I live just north of Knoxville, Halls/FC area. Used to live on the south side of Henley Street bridge, could hear the Vols play every Sat lol."Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture." ~ Vaclav Havel -
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tpatt100
Member Posts: 2,991 ■■■■■■■■■□
Excellent post!
I have always been this way since I started. I don't ever take jobs with the intention of leaving but you have to plan for the next job just in case. When I recommend new software/hardware for upcoming projects I base them on reputation but also "what is the most needed on Monster and Dice?" Sounds lame but it was the best way to build your resume for future endeavors.
I just started my current job but I am already planning my exit strategy for 2-3 years from now. Main reason? So I don't find myself in a rut or I am also in a better situation in case I get laid off. -
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GT-Rob
Member Posts: 1,090
Good read for sure. I think it speaks a lot of really good truth to those starting out.
I like the idea of an exit strategy. I actually think its a good idea to have one regardless of where you are in your career. Whenever I tell people I am always looking for a new job they are usually surprised and say "I thought you had a good job and liked it?. I do, but theres always something better out there! -
Optionsforkvoid
Member Posts: 317
RouteThisWay wrote: »I live just north of Knoxville, Halls/FC area. Used to live on the south side of Henley Street bridge, could hear the Vols play every Sat lol.
Ah, awesome. I work for UT doing IT support and live in South Knox. We ought to meet up for coffee or something sometime. I'll be starting my ICND1 next month, which I see you're working on as well. I'm sure we could help other with our studies and pushing the other to keep the nose to the grindstone.
The beginning of knowledge is understanding how little you actually know. -
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Turgon
Banned Posts: 6,308 ■■■■■■■■■□
Good stuff. I like CYA which sadly is very important. Similarly getting as much exposure as you can to *useful* work while you are at work is critical, and if that isn't happening then finding ways to do get it and quickly. Certifications have much to offer but if it takes you two years to tramp down a well trodden road to get your CCNP or what have you and you haven't been doing very much on the job it will only hold you back. -
OptionsRouteThisWay
Member Posts: 514
Ah, awesome. I work for UT doing IT support and live in South Knox. We ought to meet up for coffee or something sometime. I'll be starting my ICND1 next month, which I see you're working on as well. I'm sure we could help other with our studies and pushing the other to keep the nose to the grindstone.
I work up in Oak Ridge as a federal contractor for DOE. We'll def have to get together sometime. Always helps when you have someone else pushing you."Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture." ~ Vaclav Havel -
OptionsRouteThisWay
Member Posts: 514
if it takes you two years to tramp down a well trodden road to get your CCNP or what have you and you haven't been doing very much on the job it will only hold you back.
Very true."Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture." ~ Vaclav Havel -
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UnixGuy
Mod Posts: 4,565 Mod
This is one of the most important posts I read here ! I meet a lot of disappointed fellows who spent 10 yrs in the same company and are wondering how did they waste so much time, and they're stuck and can't go anywhere ! -
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impelse
Member Posts: 1,237 ■■■■□□□□□□
Excelent postStop RDP Brute Force Attack with our RDP Firewall : http://www.thehost1.com
It is your personal IPS to stop the attack. -
OptionsKaminsky
Member Posts: 1,235
Great post ... +rep from me RTW.
One neat trick to getting ahead in IT which i've always admired in an IT person, is not to get too exited but at the same time, not look like your bored with it all. No matter what issue comes up or how many times you have heard that same old issue, be matter of fact, simplistic, helpul and nice about it. We come across this, we tried this and found that this happened because of this person did/didn't do this. We've (never "I've") corrected it now and all is well. Don't get all flappy and "ohhhh Myyy Goddd !!!!!" about it.
Take ownership wherever possible as far as your knowledge allows and learn to be very quick in realising what is beyond you and escalate it. Holding onto it (hoping you can fix it) when you should have passed the ball hours ago will not go well for your career in the long run. Higher teirs have long memories and once a bad rep is set amongst those higher teirs, it becomes very difficult to undo.
Be Human! <- most important in getting ahead in my experience
Be friendly and quickly guage your audience (years of nighclubbing whilst at uni/college help tremendously here ;\ ) and don't speak to them like they are an idiot for not understanding your particular field of expertese. Everyone of us is different and have different potential. IT knowledge on it's own does not earn a company money. All the others around it do.
Understand how their little (and probably quite common) IT problem impacts the work they do for your organisation. You are good at IT. Other people in your organisation phone YOU for help who you often don't realise, are very good at other things and they are more likely to be the ones that actually directly help earn your organisation's money/perform the organisation's service. You have been given your job on the back of your IT abilities (they were hired on the back of their abilities) and your purpose for being in that seat is to help these others interact with the IT tools your organisations provides for them in order to perform your organisation's function. IT is a support function much the same as cleaners, finance, HR and the catering staff.
Years ago I had an elderly and completely non IT savvy secretary, who's PC was quite messed up, wanted an explanation to what was wrong with it and what I did to fix it. Rather than explain the intricasies of the MS file system to her, I just said "it got it's nickers in a twist but i've sorted it out and now it was right as rain". She was a fantastic secretary and could do medical typing over 180 words a minute. She was quite happy with my quick and simple explanation. A few months later her PC was knackered again. My then boss, the PC support manager went in and sorted it. When asked for an explanation, he put his hand on her shoulder and replied, "My dear, I won't bother to explain... You couldn't possibly understand!" Fact of the matter was, she was 63 and a sh*t hot secretary. She complained about his attitude, he was sacked and I was promoted to PC support manager for the whole organisation the same week.. She was persuaded to stay two years passed 65 with financial incentives until she had enough.Kam. -
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veritas_libertas
Member Posts: 5,746 ■■■■■■■■■■
Mathematics is over 3000 years old. Computers are 40-50 years old..... In 3050 years there will be someone that still can't log in !
Isn't that the truth...
For some reason I never took a close look at your sig. Kam! -
OptionsTurgon
Banned Posts: 6,308 ■■■■■■■■■□
Great post ... +rep from me RTW.
My then boss, the PC support manager went in and sorted it. When asked for an explanation, he put his hand on her shoulder and replied, "My dear, I won't bother to explain... You couldn't possibly understand!" Fact of the matter was, she was 63 and a sh*t hot secretary. She complained about his attitude, he was sacked and I was promoted to PC support manager for the whole organisation the same week.. She was persuaded to stay two years passed 65 with financial incentives until she had enough.
Seems a little harsh. Agree on the support function thing. Unless your shop is pure IT it usually is a long way down the pecking order. -
OptionsKujo
Member Posts: 18 ■□□□□□□□□□
Nice post. I agree with everything you said. One of my biggest regrets was wasting 4.5 years as a technical support rep (customer support, not internal helpdesk ) at ATI Technologies at the beginning of this decade. Yeah, I'm the guy you spoke to if you couldn't get your ATI video card to work properly. I did try to move to other higher level technical departments, and the internal IT department, but never got anywhere. I ended up becoming comfortable, and complacent, even though I hated my job with a passion in the later years. Towards the end, my job performance was effected, and I was on the verge of loosing it mentally (almost got fired). I finally quit. I had no business being there more than 2 years (some guys had been there 10+ years, which was unimaginable to me.)
I wish I focused on upgrading my technical skills, and getting certs earlier. I'm currently employed (IT Administrator), but I'm not happy with my current position, and I'm actively looking for better opportunities. I plan to complete MCSA by early next year, and plan to get CCNA. -
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Paul Boz
Member Posts: 2,620 ■■■■■■■■□□
Great post. I think one of the most important aspects which you highlighted is having your own home lab. When I was interviewing for my current position, the CTO asked me what I did in my spare time to develop my skills. I had a network diagram of my home lab in my briefcase and presented it to him. He was blown away at my home network, exclaiming that it was more intricate than the corporate network we have. About a month ago I was in town where he lives and he took me out to dinner. We were talking about motivation and "putting yourself out there" to get a job, and he mentioned how influential my home lab was in getting my job.
If you have the motivation to spend your personal money on equipment and your personal time understanding and configuring it it will go very far.CCNP | CCIP | CCDP | CCNA, CCDA
CCNA Security | GSEC |GCFW | GCIH | GCIA
pbosworth@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/paul_bosworth
Blog: http://www.infosiege.net/ -
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RobertKaucher
Member Posts: 4,299 ■■■■■■■■■■
I second the vote for sticky. Many people have asked questions that this post answers very skillfully. -
Optionsapd123
Member Posts: 171
Certifications do not just get you in the door they will get you hired in my experience. Issue becomes if you don't know your **** once you get the job. Obviously these findings will vary cert to cert, location, economic climate etc.
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Optionsdynamik
Banned Posts: 12,312 ■■■■■■■■■□
When I was interviewing for my current position, the CTO asked me what I did in my spare time to develop my skills. I had a network diagram of my home lab in my briefcase and presented it to him.
You had to interview? Huh, I guess I had better connections -
Optionspert
Member Posts: 250
My only advice is not to focus too much on internal promotion. From personal experience, always accepting projects, being super friendly, always being on time, working hard, and being competent (in that order too, sadly) are the only things that will result in promotion. You lobbying for it and getting certs/degrees will not.
Everyone should as a baseline work hard, be on time, and be friendly so it's not like there is a lot you have to do here. Always accepting projects that are handed to you can backfire, but trust me, the alternative is even worse. In the meantime work on your cert/degree and make sure you can have some accomplishments and a positive performance review to put on your resume.
Don't apply to an internal jobs if you don't meet the requirements, but will in the not to distant future. You'll get an interview, they'll be nice, a more qualified person will get it, and you will not be taken seriously in the future when you reapply even if you now do meet those requirements. I did this and it bit me in the ass horribly. -
OptionsRouteThisWay
Member Posts: 514
I had a network diagram of my home lab in my briefcase and presented it to him. He was blown away at my home network, exclaiming that it was more intricate than the corporate network we have.
That's a really really good idea. Thanks for the tip!
"Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture." ~ Vaclav Havel -
Optionsveritas_libertas
Member Posts: 5,746 ■■■■■■■■■■
RouteThisWay wrote: »That's a really really good idea. Thanks for the tip!
+1, thanks Paul! That is an excellent idea. -
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CChN
Member Posts: 81 ■■□□□□□□□□
If you have the motivation to spend your personal money on equipment and your personal time understanding and configuring it it will go very far.
Aye, a personal portfolio is a great receipt of your knowledge. Labs, technical blogs, notes....whatever you can use to prove your worth.RFCs: the other, other, white meat. -
Optionspert
Member Posts: 250
Aye, a personal portfolio is a great receipt of your knowledge. Labs, technical blogs, notes....whatever you can use to prove your worth.
Is this stuff really effective? I don't know...I think a lot of people I've interviewed with in the past could care less about this stuff. I could be wrong. I tried something similar a few times and while I did get a reaction, I'm not sure if it had a positive impact. I had a print out of my metrics to show how I was at the top of my team in every regard, but I did not end up getting those jobs. That said, they did hire someone with more experience, so it's very possible it did help, but I looking back I don't know... -
Optionsdynamik
Banned Posts: 12,312 ■■■■■■■■■□
I'm sure it varies depending on the person. Aside from a minimal time investment, I don't see a downside to putting a few things together and bringing them with you.
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OptionsRouteThisWay
Member Posts: 514
Is this stuff really effective? I don't know...I think a lot of people I've interviewed with in the past could care less about this stuff. I could be wrong. I tried something similar a few times and while I did get a reaction, I'm not sure if it had a positive impact. I had a print out of my metrics to show how I was at the top of my team in every regard, but I did not end up getting those jobs. That said, they did hire someone with more experience, so it's very possible it did help, but I looking back I don't know...
Everyone I have ever interviewed that brought some kind of material in, be it a portfolio, etc it has always helped, not hurt.
It isn't going to hurt you if you do not bring anything like that in, but it could be that extra leg up that will stand you out from the crowd."Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture." ~ Vaclav Havel -
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mikej412
Member Posts: 10,086 ■■■■■■■■■■
If you have things with you that documents something that comes up during the interview (like Paul's network diagram), then it's a great move to pull it out. But if someone pulls out all their old homework during a job interview and want to engage in conversation about that every time a question is asked about job experience, then it may not work out so well.Is this stuff really effective?.
A portfolio of past/sample work for interviewing for a front end wed design position makes sense. Pulling out actual (and probably confidential) configurations from production routers from current/past employers if you're applying for a Network Engineering position isn't a good idea.:mike: Cisco Certifications -- Collect the Entire Set! -
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gbadman
Member Posts: 71 ■■□□□□□□□□
"Mathematics is over 3000 years old. Computers are 40-50 years old..... In 3050 years there will be someone that still can't log in !"veritas_libertas wrote: »Isn't that the truth...
I'm not so certain. On the contrary, I think in 40-50 years, though there'll still be people who can't log in, they'll be able to find out how at the touch of a button.
A tad simplistic, yes. But I think the fact is that the specialist nature of IT knowledge diminishes as time goes on in the computer age. The other side of that is that there will always be complex architectures that require dedication to master, as in any other profession. So there will be no IT illiterates in 5060, hence no need for desktop support technicians and little need for admins. However there will always be a need for engineers.
[FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties
-[/FONT][FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]Harry Truman[/FONT]
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