April, 2009

Some Faint Glimmers of Hope?

Just over a month ago (March 23), I wrote a blog entitled “It’s COLD out there/here.” Therein I reported on my own attempts to find full-time, permanent employment by saying that responses were few and far between — a scant handful from over two dozen direct and online applications — and of such few as did present themselves for consideration, most offers were way below what I would be willing to consider, let alone accept. Seemed like a perfect opportunity to toss around some doom and gloom, so that’s just what I did.

In the past month, some interesting things have started happening:

1. I’ve been contacted by several recruiters and hiring managers, all from or representing reputable mid-sized to large companies. Nobody’s tried to low-ball me on salaries or rates, either, much to my extreme surprise.
2. My volume of freelance work is starting to pick up appreciably all of a sudden. In the past 30 days, I’ve kicked off nearly half-a-dozen new projects, and have brought four significant new customers online. The pace of work from existing customers is picking up dramatically, too, and I’ve had several calls recently from editors with whom I’d stopped working for a while to let me know that new work is (or could be) in the pipeline.
3. There’s enough going on, in fact, that I’ve re-hired one of my former co-workers and associates to act as a full-time project manager to help me keep things flowing and under control. I’ve learned the hard way that without somebody to keep an eye on deadlines, deliverables, and quality, when the pace of work gets really frenetic far too much can go by the wayside, if not left entirely behind in the rush and crush.

Coupled with a recent uptick in global markets, improved consumer confidence levels, and the onset of the influx of government stimulus spending, I’m strongly tempted to observe that things show some signs of improvement. I still think it’s too early to talk about a turnaround or upward trends in employment, markets, and business, but it’s very nice to see some positive indicators popping up in my immediate neighborhood.

I can only hope my friends and colleagues in IT are seeing similar signs in their professional neighborhoods and situations as well. If so, please share those observations by commenting on this blog post; if not, share your impressions and observations to the contrary instead. At this tentative stage of the game, I’m all ears, in full-blown “listening mode” if not outright “hoping for the best mode!” If you have some light to shed on these topics, please beam some my way…

MCPBACK gets you your next MCP exam for $25

Microsoft MCP exams — which include any and all exams that count toward MCTS, MCITP, and MCPD — usually cost $125 a pop. Right now, if you sign up for any MCP that leads to one of those three credentials, you can get it for a mere $25. But you have to act fast: this offer extends only to the first 4,000 individuals who seek to exercise this offer. The only qualification is that you must have taken your most recent certification exam (if any) prior to January 1, 2007. My last one was in 2001, when I took the Windows 2000 installing and configuring exam, so I immediately jumped on this offer for exam 70-620 “Installing and Configuring Windows Vista.”

Here’s how to exercise this offer for yourself (and as far as I can tell,  the SecondShot promo does NOT apply, but at $25, who cares?):

1. Log into www.prometric.com
2. If you don’t already have an account, register to create one
3. Sign up for the MCP exam of your choice
4. Include the promotion code MCPBACK as you work through the payment process

If you’re within the first 4,000 folks to do this, you’ll be able to take an exam for only $25. Between this and the $35 collection for Installing and Configuring Vista available through the Microsoft “SecondShot” program I’m shooting for an MCTS on Vista in late May, 2009, for a whopping $60. Anybody with the luck and/or hustle to qualify for these programs (act fast!!!) can do likewise.

As the old saying goes: “This is too good a deal to pass up.” I’ve already said, “Act fast!” but I’ll say it again just so you don’t forget. See you in the testing center soon!

Is Now the Time to Buy a CertPack Deal?

In handling a series of reader questions recently here on the ITKE, somebody raised the question of whether or not it was worth spending $15,000 to sign up for a combination cert training package that would help him acquire A+, Network+, MCP, and MCSA certification. This is an interesting question for all kinds of reasons that I’d like to explore. But first the answer is: “It depends on who’s paying. If somebody else is footing the bill, it may be worthwhile. If you must pay for this out of your own pocket, or borrow money to cover those costs, perhaps not.”

Now for some cost analysis, and then some explanations:

• As I explained waaaay back in 2002, an MCSA is going to cost you about $1,100 to acquire based on minimal and actual costs for self-study including the exams themselves ($125 x 4 = $500 ), Exam Crams ($30 x 4 = $120), full-length study guides ($50 x 4 = $200), and practice tests ($70 x 4 = $280). BTW, obtaining the MCSA gets you an MCP when you pass the first exam in the series, so mentioning the MCP is a little misleading: you must be an MCP to become an MCSA in any case.
• If you shop for exam vouchers carefully, you can find discounts on Network+ costs, with a low of about $215 (see ITExamVouchers.com for the latest deals). Add in the Exam Cram ($30), Study Guide ($50), and a practice exam ($70) for a total of $365 for self-study costs.
• Ditto above for A+, and you can find a low of about $300 for both of the A+ exams. Add two each Exam Crams ($60), Study Guides ($100), and practice exams ($140) for a total of $600 for self-study costs.
• Total self-study budget: $2,065 vs. package price of $15,000. Need I say any more?

Now some explanations, thoughts, and ideas:

• Why go after the MCSA when you should be thinking MCITP for the latest Windows client and server versions, plus platform technologies, services, and so forth, anyway. Chances are good the MCSA will disappear no later than 2012 anyway. Why spend that kind of cash on a soon-to-be-obsolete credential?
• Network+ and A+ are strictly entry level technician certs. They might get you into a support tech or help desk “starter job,” but they won’t get you much further than that. If you’re expecting a significant return on your training/cert investments, these are just the first elements in what should be a much longer sequence of increasingly serious (and higher-paying) credentials.
• If you really want to get a sequence going, you’d want to think about various MCITP credentials, and possibly also Cisco certifications in the CCENT, CCNA, and professional (CCNP, CCDP, CCVP, CCSP) families. Cisco exams cost $125 (two-step CCNA process) or $250 (one-step CCNA and most other non-CCIE exams) each, and you can take 1 (640-802) or 2 (640-822 which also gets you a CCENT, and 640-816) to earn the CCNA. Most of the Cisco professional certs require 4 exams at $250 each to earn, but are highly regarded in the marketplace.

My final take on this situation is that only those with money to burn, or other people’s money to spend, should be considering a “full boat classroom ride to certification.” For everybody else, the economics of self-study are still too compelling to overlook. Still the very best bang for your certification bucks around!

Layoffs Hit Close to Home

Given that I live in Round Rock, TX, just 6.37 miles from Dell Computer galactic headquarters at 1 Dell Way 78682, I hope it comes as no surprise that many of my neighbors work for that company. In fact, of the 21 houses in my immediate block, at least 9 of those households number (or numbered until recently) one or more Dell employees among its members.

Because my Dad came to visit for the weekend, and my Mom (who’s now a resident in an assisted care facility) asked for a photo of my wife, my son, myself, and the old man by phone yesterday afternoon, I had to get some outside help to take that photo to meet her request. As I stepped outside into the front yard, I ran into my next door neighbor–let’s call him Tom–and asked for his help in making the shot. He not only obliged, but also told me in passing while we were waiting for the other folks to assemble that he’d been laid off at Dell last Thursday (April 16). To the best of my knowledge, he’s the closest co-resident around here to get the axe at Dell. His job had been to orchestrate factory floor and order logistics to make sure that large orders were properly scheduled, parts ordered for timely delivery, and that builds met both specification and quality requirements before being shipped to their (volume) buyers.

When I asked him what he planned to do, he said: “I’m going to take a couple of weeks off, then I’ll start looking for another job” (fortunately, his wife remains gainfully employed so I guess it’s not an immediate crisis). When I asked him what kind of severance package he got he told me it was “about four months pay, plus two months COBRA and two months of outplacement assistance.” From those remarks, and knowing as many current and former Dell employees as I do, I’m guessing further that he had between 5 and 10 years with the company.

When I asked him how he felt about it, he provided an interesting and illuminating response: “I’d been thinking about leaving for some time anyway, and hadn’t been completely happy there, so I guess this will be for the good in the long run.” To me, this shows a healthy response to a difficult and painful situation: first, he recognizes that he had issues with his previous situation and was already thinking about making changes on his own, and second, he’s looking more forward toward what lies ahead, rather than brooding or worrying about what has already happened and probably can’t be undone.

I also have to applaud his decision to take some time to relax and regain his bearings before jumping right into the job hunt. This will probably give him a chance to regain his equilibrium and muster some enthusiasm for the research, interviews, and personal networking activities that await him. While I certainly wouldn’t wish anybody else into Tom’s shoes, I must commend him for a healthy and well-considered reaction to his situation. I’d recommend a similar approach — and outlook — to anybody else who does find him- or herself in those same shoes, particularly if a severance package or pay in lieu of notice makes taking a break both possible and affordable.

Got your own layoff story to tell? Share it with me through the contact form on my Web page at www.edtittel.com, and I may just share it with the readers of this blog. And just as my sympathies and best wishes go out to Tom, so also do they go out to all of us IT professionals who have to surmount this bump in the road of gainful employment.

Random Cert News April, 09

I’ve been trolling the IT certification spaces and have noticed a bunch of new stuff out there. In no particular order, here’s what I’m seeing lately that may be of interest to some readers:

• Cisco’s progressing on the roll-out of its new expert level cert program, the Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE) which complements the wildly successful CCIE program. In August, the company will start to offer the hands-on/lab exam portion for this credential at its Chicago, London, and Hong Kong testing centers. Registration for this $1400 exam (same  price as the CCIE hands-on exam) is now open, and if CCIE sign-up is any guide, you’d best sign up early to get a slot if you want to pursue this credential (visit the CCDE Website for registration and sign-up details). As with CCIE, candidates must first pass a written exam before they can register for the hands-on/lab exam.
• Microsoft has now rolled out its slate of Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) exams for Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5. See the MCPD: Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Web page for details. Tracks are now available for Windows Developer 3.5, ASP.NET Developer 3.5, and Enterprise Applications Developer 3.5 credentials under the Visual Studio 2008 umbrella, and upgrade exams from Visual Studio 2005 to 2008 MCPD (exams 70-566, 70-567, 70-568, and 70-569) went public between March 10 and 26, 2009, to completely fill out these tracks. Those interested in the Microsoft take on “cert games” should check out the company’s online “Are You Certifiable?” game.
• CompTIA is sponsoring a laudable and interesting program to raise money to help miltary veterans and their spouses retool for careers in IT. The organization is accepting equipment donations for auction to raise money and interested vets and family members can learn more about available programs and support at the CompTIA Educational Foundation page.
• Interested in solid state storage? Check out the white papers and other materials that fall under the Storage Networking Industry Association’s (SNIA’s) Solid State Storage Initiative. Cool stuff, perhaps coming in a SNIA cert soon.

That’s it for this month! But if you’ve got a cert program, or cert news you’d like to share with my readers, put me in your mailing list for future updates, please [mailto:edtittel@techtarget.com]. I’ll repeat this procedure in about 30 days (mid-May, in other words).

–Ed–

IT Career Musings on Tax Day, 2009

In prepping for filing my extension for my family’s 1040, I always have to do the following:

• add up how much I made last year: this involves pulling out all my 1099 forms and totting up the total amount. I just barely cracked into six figures for 2008.
• dig up total payments to the IRS for the current tax year: this means jumping into my checkbook register or its electronic equivalent and finding all checks made out to the IRS for that particular tax year. I found a carryover from 2007, plus April 08 and January 09 1040-SE payments, for something in the same neighborhood that I paid them last year (this is always a good thing, according to my CPA, because it shows consistency)
• as a sanity check, I add up the 1099s I paid to others (just over $30K for 2008, in my case), do a rough comparison of the previous and current year’s overall business expenses (about the same for 2007 and 2008), and also provide numbers for IRA and Medical Savings payments for the current year as well. Looking at percentages based on the ratio of income and social security tax paid for that year versus total income and adjusted gross income for those two years lets me know if I’m in the right ball park or not.

Why do I do all this and not file my taxes at the same time? Even though the work involved in finishing my info gathering for the hand-off to my accountant seldom takes more than one or two additional days to complete, there’s something about an extension that really works for me. While I was growing up I watched my Dad sweat through at least one, sometimes two, all-nighters every time tax season came up and resolved I wouldn’t get myself in that kind of lather later in life. So far, so good: as long as you can show the IRS that you’ve paid everything you owe them by Tax Day (I set things up so that I usually get from $1-3K back, which I always roll over for the next year’s tax payment), they don’t seem to get too bent out of shape by late filings. Thanks to years of practice, and a well-worn Excel spreadsheet that my CPA and I pass back and forth between each other, all is and remains well.

What’s not so hot is that my income is on a downward trend over the past three years. I’m learning to live on reduced means, but gosh, it’s certainly no fun for anyone involved, especially my wife and son, who have to put up with the situation without really contributing much coming, though we’re all involved in the going part. I see it as just one more sign of a strained economy and a fraying safety net that we’re coping with only slightly lower costs for food and energy, while also dealing with an income stream that’s down by as much as one-third in some months from what it was in 2006.

Such is life in general, but even more so in particular for the “itinerant self-employed” like myself. Have any tax stories to share? Any good coping strategies for up-and-down-income? Please post your thoughts, and share them here!

Happy Tax Day!!!

–Ed–

Social Networking Picks Up Job Search Mantle

In her most recent (4/6/09) article, entitled “Social Networking Emerges as Job-Hunting Tool” regular ITCareerPlanet contributor Esther Schein, picks up and runs with an idea that’s crossed my mind many times in the last year or so — namely, that the various social networking sites offer great tools to IT professionals seeking work, as well as ample opportunities to catch up with old classmates, colleagues, and friends. I’d have to observe that this becomes increasingly true for social network members as they get older (for the younger set the emphasis is more on “social” than “networking,” while for those of use higher up on the age ladder, myself included, the emphasis is far more often the other way ’round).

And despite Schein’s observations to the contrary, my own experience is that Facebook and MySpace remain far more social than networking oriented in this sense, whereas other, more professional sites such as LinkedIn, Plaxo, and so forth, naturally assume the job search mantle because they’re rather more professionally oriented anywyay. This by no means detracts from the value or import of the article, and isn’t meant as a major cricitism of Shein’s excellent story: there’s no denying that social networks can be very useful to job seekers, especially during the early phases of reconnaissance and targerting where personal connections can make a huge difference in identifying opportunities, and making the first cut between the “nahs!” and the “let’s look at this resume/appliction more closely” stages of candidate qualification.

Shein also observes that once you target a prospective employer, the social networking sites can let you learn a lot about current employees, especially when it comes to understanding the prevailing work ethic, typical employee profiles, corporate/organizational culture, and other aspects of life as a worker at the target company or organization. Of course, this kind of information also leads naturally into interview preparation should an indication of candidate interest provoke a similar sign of interest from a prospective employer.

Personally, I’ve found LinkedIn to be a great way to reconnect with former colleaues, co-workers, and co-authors. In my own case, it hasn’t led me to any job offers, but it has led to numerous consulting and writing gigs, some of relatively long standing and nice remuneration. Working social networks for work purposes turns out to be a savvy and workable approach to today’s job market. If you haven’t done so already, I urge you to give it a try, with LinkedIn at the top of the list. And of course, that leads to my final words on this subject here: always treat your presence on social networking sites as both personal and professional, and don’t post (or say) anything you wouldn’t want a current or prospective employer to see! Otherwise, those words and images could haunt you for years and years to come…

Game Your Way to (Cisco) Certification?

Last Tuesday, April 7, SearchNetworking news writer Dan Morisy interviewed me for a story entitled “Cisco’s Game Face: Can games replace traditional certification prep?” The impetus for  his story is a joint effort among Cisco Systems, Cisco Learning (aka Learning@Cisco), and Larry Holland’s TotallyGames computer game development studio. They’ve created a gaming environment called Cisco Mind Share that covers about half of the content for the entry-level CCENT exam, with an eye to capturing a bigger audience for their learning materials, sold through Cisco Press online and in book stores everywhere. Topics covered include binary notation and arithmetic, IOS fundaments, the OSI model, IP addressing and subnetting, IP routing, switch operation and behavior, wireless networks, and NAT and PAT. Serious (and useful) stuff, in an attractive and entertaining wrapper!

The real questions that arise from this effort might be paraphrased as:

• Will cert candidates use a game as a preparation tool?
• Can gaming work as a reasonable study strategy?

Personally, I’m of the opinion that a game can be like other supplementary forms of cert prep materials, such as Exam Cram books, flash cards, practice tests, and so forth. I remain to be convinced, however that Cisco Program Manager Jerry Bush’s contention “We realistically think someone will use this as a study guide and spend 20 to 30 hours with it just like it was a study guide” holds water. This particular game, in fact, covers IP basics from routing to subnetting, to help candidates get ready for CCENT. But does that mean it will become a primary learning tool? I wonder…

Personally, I think that because most people have to prepare for cert exams in their spare (leisure) time, that when they want to study, they’ll turn to study guides first and foremost, and only then to alternate materials possibly including the Cisco Mind Share game. When they want to play instead of study, I have to believe they may sometimes turn to this game, but for real recreation they’ll be more likely to turn to their favorite MMORPG or FPS extravaganza. Work and play can be hard to mix, and my gut feel is that Cisco will encounter some resistance in getting exam candidates to cheerfully blend these two categories of activity.

But hey, I could easily be wrong, especially for younger demographics. Why don’t you take a look at the online demo — where the first five levels of the game are freely available — and tell me what YOU think? My opinion only goes so far, and I could use some opinions and reactions to what Cisco is offering here. For April this game is available at a 30% discount off the normal $50 list price for $35. Most study guides go for prices in the same range, so from a pure numbers basis it’s not out of line to compare these two types of prep materials. Would you spend either (or both) amounts for this kind of tool? Again, please tell me!

Check Out/Help Out with the TechCrunch Layoff Tracker

Thanks to Don Sears excellent “Careers blog” at eWeek, I learned about the TechCrunch Layoff Tracker earlier this week. Here, I’d like to explain and describe it, then depict its reporting, and talk about how its numbers compare to those from other sources (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Manpower, Inc., and various other employment reporting resources). Finally, I’ll explain how you can help to make this tool better and more accurate, by reporting things you may know that it doesn’t yet reflect.

Basically, the TechCrunch Layoff Tracker is a database that places all company announcements and other verifiable information about high-tech layoffs on a timeline. It starts as of August 27, 2008, and goes right up to the present. Here’s a quick look at its layoff graph, which clearly depicts a spike in layoff in Q1′09 as compared to Q4′08:

Snapshot of dynamic tracking graph/timeline (visit home page for current view)

What this graph represents is a visual summary of the layoff data also available on this Web page. As you scroll down, you’ll see a table that lists all layoffs by company, date, locations, number of laid-off employees, percentage of total workforce, with a link to the source for this information. As I write this blog, there are 455 entries in this table, a smattering of which looks like this:

Data table of layoff info that drives the graphical display

This is a great resource and a very interesting source of information, but it is vital to understand that it differs from normal employment reporting in one important way. Scroll down to the Microsoft entry for January 22, 2009, and I’ll explain what I mean. Note that this item indicates a layoff of 5,000 people. And indeed, that reflects Microsoft’s stated intentions for 2009 where layoffs are concerned. But on 1/22/2009, Microsoft actually laid off only 1,400 people, while announcing their plans to lay off an additional 3,600 over the course of 2009. Other employment reports (like the sources mentioned earlier in this blog) usually get their numbers from state and federal employment tracking agencies, or by using numbers for layoffs undertaken during a specific time period, or on a certain date.

I’m not trying to suggest that the TechCrunch Layoff Tracker is inaccurate or invalid; I’m only pointing out the limits to its reporting and the way it positions numbers in time. It’s a very useful tool, and a great source of information.

All this said, what can you to do help this tool be more accurate? If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll find a comment form where you can provide information about layoffs that their list may currently omit (perhaps yours or that from somebody else you know who works in high tech). You must, however, include a link to some published source for this information, even if it’s only a company press release that mentions the layoff, the date, and the number of employees affected. Do your part! Help make this tool even better…post your information right away!

Manpower Cuts IT Numbers for Q2′09

By contrast with the recently published numbers from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Manpower, Inc. Employment Outlook Survey for the US (published 3/10/2009) is less bullish on IT. The Q2 2009 forecast for the information sector looks like this for the second quarter of 2009, out of 38,000-plus employers contacted:

• 11 percent believe IT employment will go up
• 16 percent believe IT employment will go down
• 69 percent believe IT employment will continue unchanged

That reflects ongoing uncertainty about customer demand (going up? going down? going sideways? who knows?) and makes companies reluctant to change staffing levels. That said, Manpower Inc also forecasts a drop of 5% in total IT employees classed in their “information” sector for Q2′09, though their professional and business services category (where some IT positions will be classified) forecasts growth of 9 percent for the same quarter.

Where is this market going? I’m not sure that anybody really knows, but the numbers coming back from the Manpower survey clearly indicate that employers don’t yet have any feel as to whether the trend is up or down. Outside IT you’ll hear the same story, where the vast majority of responses also fall in the “No Change” category.

In fact, the lowest value for No Change is 58% in Construction and the highest is 76% for Other Services. By contract, those who think things are increasing/on the way up vary from 11% (Education and Health Services, Government, Information, and Other Services) to a high of 25% for Leisure and Hospitality. On the downside, the lowest number is 11% (Education and Health Services, Leisure & Hospitality, and Professional and Business Services) with a high of 22% in Mining.

My conclusion: IT is still going sideways along with the rest of the economy as business, government, industry, and consumers all wait to see if we’ve hit bottom yet, or if another trough opens up in front of us. Stay tuned, and wear your waders plus an extra pair of socks! It’s safe to conclude there’s no IT boom in sight.