Personal development

And now, a word from/for my sponsors…

It’s too easy to get caught up in the working side of life, and to let it overpower other equally important parts. Perhaps because I have tendencies in that direction, I often find myself thinking about how all the different parts of life fit together, particularly work and family life, as the holidays are upon us. That’s why today’s blog is a rumination on the virtues of balance and perspective where people strive to better themselves by seeking the former, and trying to maintain the latter where the former is concerned!

At any rate, as I found myself assembling various more-or-less-challenging children’s toys yesterday in the wake of a frenzied gift exchange and marathon unwrapping session, I also found myself pondering the work/life balance. I have a nearly-five-year-old son, who “needed” his slot car race set, a couple of cool but poorly documented Hot Wheels stunt sets, a modular set of marble raceway blocks, and a 125-piece parking garage set-up put together yesterday. Some of these tasks were pretty straightforward and just required mechanical assembly; others required visual analysis of operation, so that vital adjustments could be applied (one of his Hot Wheels stunts involved a battery powered race cage, triggered by a car arriving from a another stunt; it took me about half an hour to figure out that rocking the car launch forward in its mounts was the only way for the car release trigger to work properly).

As I chugged through these exercises, sometimes solo, and sometimes with the welcome participation of my sharper-eyed wife, Dina, I couldn’t help but think about this kind of work (the kind that helps families bond, creates good memories, and turns boxes of parts into precious playthings) versus the other kind of work I’d probably have been doing on just about any other Wednesday during the year (the kind that pays the bills, requires thinking about career and personal/professional development, and planning for continued employability and viability).

My ruminations led me to some interesting realizations:

• It’s far too easy to devote too much time, energy, and effort to working life, without always recognizing that “the other life” (family, leisure, personal and spiritual growth, or whathaveyou) has to suffer in that exchange.
• It’s also far too easy to believe that effort on “work work,” especially for those who work very hard and seek to better themselves, their families, and their life circumstances, provides some kind of exemption for the “life work” side of the equation. Alas, it doesn’t, and far too often getting ahead professionally or materially also means falling behind in other areas.
• Building and improving quality of life involves much more than what we do for a living. Stressing work over the other parts is sometimes inevitable, but can’t become an exclusive focus or even a partial obsession.

As we plan and plot out our working lives, and seek to climb the next rung, master new subject matters, and better ourselves and our situations, it’s important to remember this means expending thought, energy, and effort outside the work domain as well as inside its boundaries. Today, I’m thankful for my family, for the crazy and energetic paroxysms of competing goals and objectives, and for the love that suffuses the interactions and play that family life with small kids involves. Going forward, I want to protect and nurture those things as much as I want to keep the work and cash flowing into the working part of my life. That’s what represents balance to me: I hope you’ll think about what it represents to you, and seek to strike a better equilibrium in the year ahead.

–Ed–

How about Networking Certs? Try this survey…

The very nice folks at SearchNetworking.com get my partner, Kim Lindros, and I to update a list of network certification for them on an an annual basis. The latest incarnation is called the “Networking Certification Guide,” and was posted on August 19, 2008. Even though that’s over three months ago as I write this blog, the content you’ll find in this survey of networking related certifications remains over 95% accurate and correct. I’m not sure if that means the survey is especially good, but I can see some relationship between the uncertain state of our current economy and a relatively static IT certification landscape for as long as these “cloudy conditions” persist.

That said, IT professionals interested in taking a look at their certification options in the networking arena are bound to find this collection of items pretty interesting. Here’s what you’ll find as you take a closer look at these three alphabetized lists (by vendor or sponsor organization) of credentials:

• Cisco Certification Guide: this was assembled by the crack editing team at SearchNetworking.com, and larded liberally with quotes from Ed and other networking nabobs, but we nevertheless don’t want to take credit for somebody else’s work). You’ll find all of Cisco’s certs covered in this piece.
• Basic certifications: You’ll find 35 offerings from companies ranging from 3Com to Planet3 Wireless/CWNP here.
• Intermediate Certifications: 24 credentials from outfits such as Aruba to Sun Microsystems.
• Advanced/Expert certifications: 10 credentials from organizations ranging from Alcatel to Network General.

All in all, there are lots of good pointers and information to programs in all kinds of networking related tools and technologies here, where the notion of “something for everyone” (as least for those who work in IT) isn’t terribly far off the mark. Please check it out and use it to help with your career planning and development.

–Ed–

The Human Side of IT: Softly Practice the Softest of Skills

As I try to broaden my personal horizons and learn how to be a better IT worker myself–so as to be better equipped to dispense advice to others–I’ve learned that this means I need to work on my people skills as and when opportunities present. Luckily for me, I’ve got a nearly five-year-old son, and am in a cross-cultural marriage (East meets West, non-tech traditional meets whacky hi-tech Pop culture and philosophy, and native speaker of English attempts to bridge the gap to a non-native speaker). That means I get lots of opportunities to work on such things, and to see how those near and dear to me occasionally struggle with their people skills as well.

If you’re of a certain age, you’ll recognize the lines “Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little-death…” as a clip straight from the Bene Gesserit canon (Frank Herbert’s Dune for those unfamiliar with this cant). I think this is very true, but in watching myself and my family as objectively as I can (MMV, for sure) I think that frustration could substitute for fear in that litany without altering its impact or significance, as could anger. Not surprisingly, this triumvirate often travels en masse, so that as you encounter (or feel) one of them, the others are often not far behind.

So how to deal with fear, anger and frustration? In the workplace, as in life, the secret is to do for and with others what you would like others to do with and for you. Project Management Coach Margaret Meloni, who writes a pretty useful blog on interpersonal skills for ITToolBox.com recommends that modeling good behavior is an excellent way to elicit the same kind of behavior from others. (Interestingly, in Latin “Bene Gesserit” roughly translates as “(s)he shall have behaved well”–gotta love that past perfect subjunctive–so there’s more relevance in my wild sci-fi citation than might immediately meet the eye or ear).

In her 10/14/2008 blog, “Diffuse Anger, Strengthen Relationships,” Ms. Meloni goes on further to suggest the following (I don’t usually quote at this length but it’s great advice, so here goes):

Try this recipe next time anger appears on the menu.

Take these ingredients: An open stance that shows interest; direct eye contact that builds trust; a soft and measured tone of voice and a non-threatening posture (sitting down is good). Combine all ingredients by modeling the behavior you want the angry person to exhibit.

Prevent participants from reaching the boiling point by avoiding pointing, raised voices or sarcasm.

Maintain a consistent level of respect while all ingredients are mixed and measured. Don’t give up, sometimes this recipe can be prepared quickly and other days it needs to simmer more slowly.

Serve with generous helpings of patience and enjoy a healthy professional relationship.

Exactly what she said, plus do the same when fear or frustration trot across the stage as well. Seems to work pretty well with personal/family relationships, too.

–Ed–

Position Yourself Positively, But Don’t Overdo It…

One topic of discussion I see all the time might be baldly stated as “How can I present myself to prospective employers as positively as possible without getting into trouble or promising more than I can deliver?” Besides the obvious answers–namely, “Steer clear of trouble,” and “Don’t claim skills, knowledge, or experience you don’t really possess”–I would urge individuals to answer the following questions as they create resumes, craft cover letters, and present themselves to interviewers during the hiring process:

1. What kinds of things can you do? problems can you solve? Be prepared to provide some history, and maybe even tell a few “war stories,” to back up whatever you claim in this vein.
2. When talking about skills and knowledge, rather than simply providing a laundry list, keep answering the same questions “Why does this matter?” and “How does this relate to the position at hand?” as you dig into these areas with interviewers. This goes double for any IT certifications you hold, especially if they are relevant or critical for the position.
3. Think about your soft skills arsenal: can you write (what have you written)? can you manage projects (what projects have you managed)? can you speak or teach (what presentations have you given, courses taught, etc.)? can you manage people (ditto)?

In general, you want to leave your interlocutors with the impression that you are competent, know your stuff, have a useful array of soft skills to complement your harder ones, and are good enough with people to make a useful addition to the staff. It may be tempting to toot your own horn ceaselessly, or to try to make yourself look better than you really are. Avoid these temptations if at all possible, and settle for a well-rehearsed recital of your answers to the foregoing questions. You’ll be able to play variations on this theme if you have multiple interviews to tackle, and you’ll also get a chance to work on your presentation skills in a pretty serious and meaningful context. You may even want to practice with a friend or family member just to get yourself as comfortable with this material as possible, or perhaps even write out some answers that you can then translate into conversational delivery.

Good luck! I hope you find this information worthwhile.

–Ed–

Give Yourself an Annual (Career) Review

With the end of 2008 now less than three months off, and 2009 chugging resolutely into view on the horizon, it’s time to lift your eyes from the day-to-day near horizon of workaday life, and look a bit further out at the bigger career picture. This means asking questions such as:

• How much longer do I want to keep doing what I’m doing?
• What might I want to do next? (To make things easy on yourself, pick no more than three answers to this question.)
• What must I do to prepare myself to meet those goals? Pay special attention to related training, certification, or degrees that might be required or helpful in reaching your goals.

With this kind of information at your disposal, career planning and development becomes less of a “what if?” exercise, and more of a “how do I get where I need to go?” exercise. Of course, upon examination of the latter items, you may (and probably will) end up abandoning some or all of your anwers to the second item above. But as you zero in on what’s important to you, and what it’s going to take to start making some progress in that direction, you’ll also create a blueprint that will let you start to take action as well.

Life is entirely too drab without the dreams and fantasies that often sustain us when things aren’t going as well as they might. But nothing beats investing in yourself by making definite plans for improvement, and then acting upon them. I think it’s a good idea to indulge in this kind of behavior at least once a year, and hope you will get in the habit as you start thinking about a new year and all the other new (and hopefully improved) things it can bring into your life.

For more details and information on this process, please see my article “Annual IT career checkups help you control your future” at SearchWinIT.