Fantasy Football Playoffs – A Toastmasters Speech
January 1, 2012 Leave a comment
Enjoy this speech I gave about Fantasy Football Playoff time. In this speech, I focus on using body language and gestures during the presentation.
Watch These Movies if you Want to Work at Google
November 29, 2011 Leave a comment
How Many Characters are in this Blog Post?
Do you remember being taught math when you were young? If you were anything like me you hated word problems. That was the only time during math class that we could not just use mechanical processes. Instead, we had to think about how to apply those processes to real world problems.
The natural evolution of word problems in the adult world is Brain Teasers, those pesky puzzles that are supposed to be fun but, more often, are frustrating. For most people, the skill of solving riddles and impossible estimation problems has never had much use. That was until clever software companies, such as Microsoft and Google, famously began asking these types of questions during job interviews. The legends of these companies’ interview tactics are so predominant that they have essentially become their own category of technical interview questions.
How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?
Unprepared candidates confront brain teasers with shock and horror. A feeling of futility drapes over them like a giant rain cloud. Fortunately, all the candidate needs to understand is that he or she does not necessarily have to answer the puzzle correctly to “pass” the test.
The Interviewer’s Perspective
Brain Teasers are great because when they work, they are a simple way to lighten the tone of an interview. They are also great at unearthing important traits of the interview candidate:
- How does the candidate handle pressure, such as a seemingly impossible problem?
- How well can the candidate express his or her thoughts regarding a difficult solution?
- Is the candidate capable of “thinking outside the box” or are all proposed solutions too straight-forward?
- Specific types of puzzles test the candidate’s ability to estimate large unknown quantities.
“A hunter sets up camp, walks 10 miles south and 10 miles east. He shoots a bear and drags it 10 miles north back to his camp. What color is the bear?”
My Perspective
Through years of practice, I became comfortable with the word problems in math class. It was a required step in progressing in mathematics. Likewise, Brain Teasers become conquerable with practice.
Personally, I love Brain Teasers now. I enjoy when a friend sends me one I have not before heard. I find it worthwhile to stretch my mind by thinking about different types of problems.
Still, Brain Teasers are rather overused in interviews. As stated above, they can be useful when they work but, when they do not work, they often fluster an otherwise good candidate. Some puzzles require a certain basis of knowledge that can lend itself to bias. Consider the puzzle about the hunter above, the answer is “White.” Why? Because the only place on Earth that someone can walk X distance South, X distance East or West, X distance North and then arrive at the same point again is at the North Pole. Polar bears are the only type of bears that live there. Polar bears are white. The candidate may be able to logically reason through the problem, but sometimes a small piece of “common knowledge” becomes a roadblock.
Lastly, Brain Teasers take too much precious time during an interview to not uncover anything of import. They test the “A-Ha moment” of the candidate, a long period of silence followed by the sudden discovery of the answer in the candidate’s mind. In cases where the candidate solves the problem right away, it usually does not mean that the candidate is brilliant but that he or she has heard it before.
Tips for the Interviewee
As I mentioned, it is not required of the candidate to solve the problem. In most cases, the interviewer is trying to gain insight into how the candidate thinks and describes his or her thoughts. Therefore, the #1 suggestion for approaching these problems is to communicate your thoughts while you are reasoning through them. Talk aloud about alternative solutions you are considering. Ask questions of the interviewer about the constraints of the problem. If you cannot come up with a solution, explain some option that would get you close. Going back to the polar bear problem, it would probably be enough to understand that the hunter is at the North Pole.
For more tips and great job interview Brain Teaser examples, I recommend the book How to Ace the Brain Teaser Interview.
Brain Teasers in the Movies
Some of the most fun Brain Teasers to discuss with friends are those from movies. It’s interesting when someone has seen the movie and remembers the solution, but when you propose it again after some time, he or she does not remember it. Below are some examples of the best movie Brain Teasers (hopefully YouTube won’t remove them).
Metro (Retrieve a cap from a bottle)
Labyrinth (Which door to knock on?)
Die Hard with a Vengeance (How to get exactly 4 gallons of water)
Batman TV Series (Top 10 Riddler riddles)
Post your favorite Brain Teasers in the comments and good luck on your interview!
I invite you to connect, but only on your own time
September 21, 2011 Leave a comment
This blog post is the 3rd and final of a series of Anti-Pattern stories
In this last post of the series, I finally take the opportunity to rant a bit. Thinking back to the time when I worked at the aforementioned small company, I realize the reason I became so emotionally affected was because the company seemingly had great growth potential that never materialized. Below is one last story of workplace theatrics accompanied by quotes from my favorite movie of the last 5 years, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
“Do Less… Well no, you gotta to do more than that”
One of my favorite lines from the movie applies to the network monitoring policy at this corporation. For at least some period of time, the paranoia from above was deep, resulting in a robust monitoring software rollout. Whereas some companies track proxy statistics to determine broadband usage and lists of sites visited by employees (a tactic I have no problem with), that was just the beginning in our case. Here, all corporate emails from most employees were published on the network to keep them honest. Additionally, the owner of the company installed software to be able to view keystrokes and screenshots from each employee’s computer usage on the network. Details about this product’s existence as well as the tracking information collected were only supposed to be accessible to the owner. When a Network Admin noticed a peculiar “SpyWare” program on the server, the “cat was let out of the bag”. In retrospect, we all should have had some suspicions based on the broad statement allowing company collection of data in the Employee Handbook.
Knowledge of keystroke logging was held in a fairly close circle, shielded from new employees. Therefore, I did not find out about it right away. Granted, I do not like the idea of anyone being allowed to track keystrokes, as that provides all the information needed to login as me on the network and possibly additional websites, etc. However, the network monitoring policy that frustrated me the most began when “questionable” sites became blocked, inaccessible to users on the network. Some of the obvious sites you would think of were on the list of blocked sites (Gaming, Personal Email, MySpace) but also blocked were those not so obvious sites (Personal Banking, LinkedIn, YouTube, Random Blogs). Many times during the day I would be blocked from information on the Internet I needed to do my job, such as tutorial videos on YouTube or programming help on a blog. The “straw that broke the camel’s back” for me was when I received a LinkedIn Connection request from the owner, but I was not allowed to accept it while on the company network. How can the site be considered valuable and reputable enough for the owner to use it to connect to employees during work hours but not reputable enough to actually allow them to reciprocate while on the job? It was as if we were being asked to “Do Less.”
“So then do something about it”
If working at this place was so dreadful, why did I continue to work there? Well, for one, I didn’t have the option to create a rock opera about Dracula (I kid). But as stated above, I truly believed that the company would grow and along with that would come personal opportunities. The key benefits to working for this company were:
- Growth Potential
- I was given tremendous amounts of responsibility early, which was frequently a rewarding challenge
- I viewed the job as a resume builder, thinking that I could land any job after about 3 years
- My colleagues were great to work with and are some of my best friends today
- I got to work on brand new Microsoft technologies
“It’s really good, Peter. I just don’t understand it”
3 posts now have revolved around my time working at this company. It’s time to get to the point by explaining what I learned by constantly having to “walk on egg shells.”
- It pushed my leadership ability to a new level. I was forced into making technical leadership decisions within a short period of time after beginning the job. Because of the high turnover, I went from being the 3rd most experienced technical person in the company to the 1st. This meant that I had to learn to make decisions without the reliance of someone who had relevant experience.
- I learned when and how to speak up, to voice my opinion.
-
I learned that it is important to be able to articulate the points for or against a decision.
- When responding negatively to news about a decision, I learned to be able to describe reasons why a decision made me uncomfortable.
- When presenting, it is important to start with an “Executive Overview”; don’t assume that the audience knows immediately what you’re talking about.
- When selling an idea, I learned to prepare for critique and to validate benefits.
- When responding negatively to news about a decision, I learned to be able to describe reasons why a decision made me uncomfortable.
Perhaps most importantly, I began to understand how stressful it can be to own/bootstrap your own company. For the owner, his or her entire livelihood is at stake every day. The occasional emotional response to bad news can be expected.
Hire ‘em and Ignore ‘em – Another Anti-Pattern
July 14, 2011 1 Comment
This blog post is the 2nd in a series of Anti-Pattern stories
As I wrote in my last post, turnover at one of my previous employers was abysmal, a dreadful 50% each year. I don’t know the industry calculation for employee turnover but here’s mine:
Count the number of people at the company on January 1.
If half those people are not there a year later, then that’s 50% turnover.
I also mentioned in the last post that the company was fairly small. I think it’s fair to say the company’s growth was restricted by the continual loss of (mostly) talented employees. Nevertheless, you would think that a company with so much experience filling vacant roles would have become effective at training and onboarding new hires.
On the contrary, this company’s orientation process was inconsistent at best, nonexistent at worst. Instead of a new employee’s excitement being maximized during its peak, it was met with a complete lack of direction. Whatever willingness to learn and sacrifice the employee had was quickly drained with feelings of boredom, irrelevance, and defeat. The culture had become so rotten that some company members actively avoided new hires until they had “established they could cut it.” In other words, it was not considered worth the time to introduce one’s self to a new employee until he or she survived a certain minimum number of weeks on the job. Another common scenario was that new employees were not given any tasks or attention when they started. They were just left at their cubicles to stare at their computer monitors and look busy. They usually did not know who to ask for help or for more work to do so they became frustrated with the lack of mental challenge and began wondering what alternative employment options existed.
As I alluded in my previous post, a more dramatic scenario occurred when new hires were introduced to their first “dropped bomb,” when an ambiguous “corporate catastrophe” was explained in a monthly meeting. They were incidentally led to believe their jobs were in jeopardy, leading them to revert to their recent yet unsatisfied job search as a fallback option.
It is my belief that new employees require attentive treatment and care in order to rapidly train them how to do their jobs and more importantly to reduce turnover. In many cases, companies are willing to spend time and money on recruiting talented employees, but next to zero time on them once they have signed an employment agreement. With a thorough employee orientation program, new hires are incorporated into existing teams and they feel confident about their efforts, abilities, and the organization. They begin to produce results earlier begetting momentum and a sense of accomplishment. Doesn’t this sound like a better outcome?
Accordingly, if you remember only one thing from this post, remember this:
Employees in orientation must still be recruited!
Below I outline a few recommendations for new hire orientation. They may seem like remedial suggestions but I can assure you they are new concepts to at least one company. Picking and choosing even a few to implement should increase morale and productivity of new employees.
Introduce the new hire to people with whom he or she will interact regularly
One of the goals of employee orientation is rapid integration into the existing team. Introduce a new hire to close (in proximity or function) employees on the first or second day. If the company is small enough, introduce him or her to everyone in the organization.
Take the new hire out to lunch with the team
Ideally this would take place on the first day. When the new hire is eating lunch with peers, he or she can begin to ask less formal questions about the job or company history.
“Pair up” the new hire with someone knowledgeable
Ideally, there will be an experienced member of the new hire’s team in a similar role. The experienced member should teach techniques and best practices to the new hire. Additionally, this semi-formal pairing provides comfort to the new hire that there is always someone that can answer questions.
Formally train the new hire
For smaller organizations this is not as practical, as most knowledge is tribal. However, medium-to-larger organizations with established roles often spend the first few days or weeks training new hires in a classroom. Such focused learning of company-specific knowledge reduces experience needed to perform the job.
Implement a formal mentor/mentee arrangement between different departments
Pair a new hire up with an experienced company member from a separate department. The experienced member should be given knowledge of what is expected of a mentor in such a capacity. The mentor schedules regular (e.g. weekly or monthly) meetings with the mentee. This setup provides new hires the opportunity to ask questions about corporate culture or specific difficult scenarios without concerns of corporate politics.
Develop a central knowledge base
This often takes place in the form of a wiki. New hires should be directed to an internal web application that can be searched for information that has helped employees in the past.
Setup a new hire’s computer and working environment
.NET developers like me encounter this anti-pattern frequently. We show up on our first day and are given a laptop with a fresh installation of Windows on it and administrator privileges. We are expected to spend the day (or however long it takes) installing the software needed to perform our jobs. Visual Studio alone takes about half a day to install, so you can imagine the extremely unproductive time wasted on staring at progress bars. I recommend setting up the computer to a point past all the down time. It should be easy for a current developer to work on his or her own computer while another one is plugged in at its side getting important programs installed. If there are specific development environment configuration settings that a new developer should know, leave those incomplete for a learning experience.
Retaining newly-hired employees is essential for organizational progress. Great opportunities are lost when employees leave your company before significantly contributing to its success. The company loses money and time on recruitment, training, salary, and also could lose the opportunity to hire the second-best candidate, who likely has joined another company already. By implementing an orientation program with some of the above strategies, turnover of new hires can be greatly reduced. And if a company-wide “restructuring” must occur, at least show some sensitivity to the employees that are considered valuable so that they feel secure in their positions.
Don’t Be Lured by the Fringe Benefits
May 8, 2011 Leave a comment
It seems common for software developers to question their career direction after several years of experience. I have gathered through my own feelings and conversations with others that there is a point in one’s career, usually after about 4 years, at which one wonders how long he or she can continue to build business application after business application. What once was challenging and exciting has become repetitive and mundane because the pace of learning has greatly decreased. The motivation to create yet another CRUD application (one that is categorized because it only involves the most typical business functions: Create, Read, Update, Delete) has been lost, resulting in many introspective hours staring out the window thinking about greener pastures.
What can be done to renew the sense of excitement and urgency that comes from developing something new? Myself, I thought that working in a “cool” industry that I was already interested in would solve the issue. I figured I already loved sports and casinos. If I got a development job in those industries it would make the dull tasks less dull. I would be able to tell myself, “Well, I hate clicking through smoke tests again but at least everything is sports-related!”
Having worked at an Information Technology (IT) department for a professional baseball team before, I figured I would be able to leverage my experience and professional network to get an interesting new job. Granted, my work there was more of an internship than anything, but a role in such high demand serves as a recognizable selection process and it has been a great conversation topic during job interviews. It was a wonderful overall experience and I appreciated the opportunity. Therefore, I focused on new jobs with professional sports teams, video game development companies, and casinos.
Casino – For someone going to school in the middle of Ohio, I spent a lot of weekend time in college at casinos. I enjoyed Black Jack and was constantly searching for the perfect system to make money. I even wanted to be a professional poker player for a little while. I also toyed with the idea of taking a winter off to learn to be a Black Jack dealer. There is something about fiddling with those heavy clay chips that is both riveting and relaxing at the same time.
Sabermetrics – Growing up I was obsessed with baseball and individual player statistics. I played on a baseball team and played board games like Strat-o-matic. I made my own scoring sheets and even used to make my own player cards to represent my friends in the board game. During my job search, I joined SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research, and immersed myself into baseball statistics again thinking I could become a full-time statistician or statistical application developer.
At this particular time in my life, I knew I was moving out of state, so I figured it was a perfect time to make an industry change. However, at the time I was not comfortable with the prospect of not getting paid so I took one of the first jobs that was offered to me until something else presented itself. A funny thing happened at that company. As it was a small software product company, I learned that the environment there was close to what I had wanted all along. It was an old company by software standards, but it still had a “startup feel.” I learned what I wanted and what would keep me motivated:
- The transparency of a small company makes it easier to absorb new knowledge about other business functions (e.g. Marketing or Recruiting)
- There is a shorter feedback loop from working at a small company. This creates more accountability and helps employees to learn what is working faster
- Being a software developer at a software company is a critical role and treated as such
Although the company had its share of problems, it showed me what I was looking for in a long term position. I wanted the growth potential and commitment to progressive technology that comes from a software product startup.
While working in a “cool industry” does come with perks, fringe benefits, interesting subject matter, and it may turn out to be generally awesome for some, I caution software developers to think about some of the hidden drawbacks to these types of positions.
Positions are in High Demand
Positions in interesting industries are both scarce and in high demand. If you are interested in a professional sport, does the city you live in even have a team at the highest level? If not, that’s scarcity. If you are lucky enough to see a job opening you are interested in, you must realize that there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of other applications. That’s demand.
As a result, salaries tend to be lower and expectations of working hours are much longer, especially during busy seasons or big events. Additionally, people hired into these jobs stay around for a long time. Because of the low turnover, it can be difficult to gain more responsibility by moving into someone’s role that has just left, limiting opportunities for promotion.
Technology comes at a Cost
By definition, the interesting industries mentioned do not focus on technology. They are generating revenue through entertainment. Therefore, it may make the job more entertaining but it changes the perspective of technology throughout the organization. Employees outside of the IT department view technology as cumbersome, productivity-restricting, and expensive. Any time there is a trivial bug in internal software, it will be treated as an urgent support request. Did I mention developers will be doing technical support?
To summarize, the key problem here is that the organization does not exist for the sake of progressing in technology. The IT department is a cost center. Any mistakes that cost money for the company were not budgeted for and get escalated quickly, making for a stressful environment for technologists.
Think it over
There are smaller drawbacks to consider too. Working somewhere that garners the awe of family and friends comes with requests to trade favors (e.g. introductions or getting event tickets). Additionally, sports teams and casinos are highly competitive with one another, so they are protective of advantageous processes and knowledge. I prefer to be able to learn from peers both inside and outside of my company as opposed to being a slave to competitive information silos.
In reviewing the pros and cons of working for a professional sports team for this post, I have almost talked myself back into trying to work for one. The fringe benefits are great (e.g. free game tickets and meeting athletes), it helps build a resume, and colleagues are all intelligent and ambitious. However, it is my intention to bring up these drawbacks to shed light on the entire package that comes with the job and to remind myself that I really want to work for a software company. To marry the two concepts would be the “Genius of the and.” By working for or creating a web retailer like Zappos, who needs technology to thrive, one can work in an interesting industry, like fashion, AND be a crucial cog in building revenue for the company.
“6 Simple Steps to Getting Certified” – a Toastmasters Presentation
May 4, 2011 2 Comments
Since October I have been attending Toastmasters meetings and occasionally giving speeches to improve my public speaking ability.
Below is my 4th speech:
6 Simple Steps to Getting Certified
- Ask your boss & peers which certifications are valuable.
You don’t want to waste time obtaining a certification that will not ultimately help you to achieve your goals. Ask your boss to find out about certifications that would aide in advancement within your current job. Ask peers to find out which would provide opportunity outside of your current employer. Ideally, you should choose a certification about which you have some relevant knowledge already. Otherwise, the preparation process will be significantly elongated.- Research the governing body’s website or magazine to determine what is required. Find out:
a. The format of the test (e.g. multiple choice, essay, etc.)
b. Recommended training materials (e.g. text books, practice tests, etc.)
c. Additional requirements (e.g. years experience, a verbal presentation, etc.)- Study
a. Obtain the recommended training materials
b. Review fundamentals
c. Spend extra time learning new concepts- Practice Tests
a. Take practice tests to get familiar with the testing environment
b. Write down notes about surprising answers and concepts with which you struggled
c. Schedule the official exam when ready and confident. In many cases, your company will pay for the exam fee.- Cram: study for an hour or two right before the test.
Focus on those concepts you struggled with as well as facts & formulas that will be beneficial to have memorized. No matter how much you study before-hand, always cram. It’s important to have that information in short-term memory going into the test. Trust me, you don’t want to fail a test because of something trivial that you would have known if you had just done a quick review of the material before the test.- Pass the Test
a. Many certifications last a lifetime
b. Update your resume
c. Now you can add those letters after your name on your business card
I have only been attending for 7 months, so I have plenty of room for continual improvement. However, I have already been helped by the members of my Toastmasters club to use fewer filler words and display fewer nervous ticks. I hope to become more comfortable, so that I can focus on my message while on stage instead of being so nervous my mind goes blank.
Toastmasters is useful because of the feedback given at the end of a meeting. It is helping me develop a sense for how long (in time) someone is speaking (including myself). I get to learn what I did well and what are areas for improvement. In the specific video above, I received the suggestion to not look back at the PowerPoint presentation but instead to create speaker’s notes to keep in front of me. My presentation could also have been helped with a personal, specific example.
I am looking forward to improving my public speaking by giving more speeches, receiving the feedback of others, videotaping, and personally reviewing my speeches. In fact, I look forward to improving the quality of my videos. I apologize for the poor video quality this time (I used a digital camera from 2004). To record my voice, the best option I brainstormed (that was mobile and not very distracting for the audience) was to use a blue tooth headset with my iPhone, call into a Free Conference Call number, and record the call. I later merged the audio and video. If anyone has any cheap, wireless recommendations for microphones that will work with my iPhone I am open to trying them.
Drama Queens versus the Status Quo
April 14, 2011 Leave a comment
I realized leading up to my wedding 2 years ago that I have grown up dreading being the center of attention. Throughout my engagement, I held a heavy fear of the wedding weekend because I was nervous about all the attention. I did not feel comfortable giving a speech (the night of the rehearsal dinner) nor tossing the garter. I’d lived my life until then blending in. I wouldn’t say I am a conformist, but definitely someone who avoids confrontation.
Is it possible to be successful with such tendencies? I say no. Well, not unless you’re a rare exception, one who has a mentor that teaches you all the tricks so that you’re never facing an unknown challenge.
The more stories I hear or books I read, the more I realize that folks get ahead in life and business by being consistently more effective than others. What is the best way to be consistently better? By looking for shortcuts, seizing opportunities, and doing the important things that others hate to do.
Apparently, the normal person is like I was. He or she shrinks away from conflict, hides from uncomfortable situations, and refuses to communicate the whole truth. Exceptional people have bucked the trend of fitting in. They challenge assumptions and find that there are often easier ways to accomplish great things.
A number of authors that I’ve recently read use this as their primary thesis. As Timothy Ferriss says in The 4 Hour Workweek, “What we fear doing most is usually what we MOST NEED TO DO!”
- Tucker Max – I Hope they Serve Beer in Hell
- Tim Ferriss – The 4 Hour Work Week
- David H. Sandler – You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar
- Jim F. Kukral – Attention! This Book Will Make You Money
The advice from these books is completely logical, so why are Computer Programmers so conflicted when trying to apply it?
Most computer programmers chose the profession because it does not require interaction with other people, allowing them to continue to avoid difficult social situations. On the other hand, most programmers are skilled at seeing shortcut solutions to problems, optimizing processes, and reducing unnecessary tasks. They just won’t do anything that could be potentially embarrassing.
I think back to my childhood, when I socialized with some children like me and some who were drama queens, those who captured all the attention by whining that nothing ever went their way. Did the drama queens grow up with an advantage? They are used to asking people for things, do not take no for an answer, and shine with the spotlight. I contend that as long as a drama queen is not completely unlikeable, it is a great way to grow up with an advantage in our culture.
To those programmers who fit into the above personality, I say to become dissatisfied with the status quo. Learn to do things differently and opportunities will present themselves. Then seize them.
Carpe Diem
Is there any hope for the ideal bookstore?
April 7, 2011 2 Comments
Borders – My favorite bookstore
Recently, Borders Group Inc filed for Chapter 11 and closed a local Cincinnati store that I frequented. You can find details about the filing here. As I have explained in a previous post, I love to work at bookstores. They offer a great way to stimulate my mind while also offering the essentials (Internet and power outlets) to do actual work if I want to. We all knew that bookstores, in their current form, were going away. However, because I still love them is why I feel compelled to write about the disappointment that comes with their closing.
I remember hearing about Borders’ attempts at changing the layout and offerings of their stores with a new model. They were supposed to open one such store here in Cincinnati (the Kenwood area) about a year and a half ago. I waited with excitement to see how they attempted to approach a changing information market, but never was able to see it for myself. The construction project became a debacle and Borders, along with other companies, eventually backed out.
Borders realized that people are becoming less likely to purchase full-priced, bound books at the store. The demand is clearly not enough to warrant thousands of square footage for store space. People can both browse the information at the store for free (and then not buy anything) and find the exact piece of information needed online. It is rarely necessary to take a book home, and when it is it can usually be shipped home more cheaply.
Drastic changes must be made to save the bookstores…
Is there any hope?
Is there any way to fix the dying bookstore industry and make a brick and mortar store work? After all, there are an increasing number of people who can work without an office. Does that mean there is a growing market of people who would pay for a workplace at a bookstore?
Let’s analyze the benefits of bookstores versus other similar establishments (e.g. Libraries and Coffee Shops)…
Bookstore Pros
- Social gatherings – bookstores are a great place to meet with friends to chat.
- White noise – they realize conversations can get loud, so they try to please those trying to concentrate by piping music over the speaker system to generate white noise.
- Food is served – is there any reason to leave when there are vital nutrients and caffeine within a cricket pitch from my table?
- Research – bookstores have magazines and a wide variety of recent non-fiction books with which to perform research. When a topic can’t be found, just go online (with the free Internet service) and try to fill in the gaps.
- People watching – for those of us who get a little more enjoyment occasionally working around people.
- Store hours – bookstore hours are not usually as flexible as coffee shops but are much more so than libraries.
Library Cons
- Less Noise – theoretically, loud library-goers are supposed to be shunned. At least, that’s how they were when I was growing up. Nowadays, with constant cell phone interruptions, it seems people no longer treat libraries as a quiet place for reading.
- Food/Caffeine prohibited – I am getting sleepy, very sleepy…
- Obsolete resources – most libraries now have free Internet, which is a savior because very few of their nonfiction books are useful anymore.
My ideal bookstore
I don’t know if it can make any money, but as I alluded to in a previous post, I have an idea for the ideal bookstore.
It would combine all the best aspects of current bookstores, coffee shops, and bars.
- Books/Resources/Internet – this is a great benefit to current bookstores. If a goal is to reduce floor space, then books can be made available in electronic form but can only be accessed from within the bookstores’ provided Internet connection.
- Coffee/Food/Alcohol – follow a similar formula to normal bookstores but provide alcohol as well. If Chipotle can serve beer, can’t a bookstore too?
- More people watching – current bookstores are pretty good social environments as they are. However, for those people who want to be around others but not subject to their noise, there is no solution. My ideal bookstore would have social (loud) and focused (quiet) gathering areas. The quiet area would be surrounded by glass walls so as not to carry sound but to enable visibility.
- Great location – a nice perk would be to have an outdoor seating area or a window that overlooked heavy pedestrian traffic.
As I have never been employed in the bookstore industry, I do not know if my concept could even make money, but that is not my concern. I just want someone to build it so I can live/work/play there.
Ponderous Thought: I have found that I often get “in the zone” during .NET User Group meetings and Firestarters, which leads me to believe that if my bookstores could somehow incorporate training or presentations that they could be even more valuable!
Were my Microsoft Certification Exams Worth it?
March 2, 2011 3 Comments
As important as it is for Software Developers to keep current with emerging technologies, it is equally important to choose wisely when it comes to learning them. Indeed, there is a finite amount of time to devote to self-improvement. This truth became evident most recently while I’ve been thinking about my personal goals for the year and trying to decide whether or not I should try to obtain the more recent Microsoft certifications on .NET 4.0, such as Web Developer or Azure Developer on Visual Studio 2010. It got me to thinking about all the time I spent at the beginning of my career getting certified and whether or not that investment has paid dividends.
As described in Contrasting 2 Job Rejections, I was scared about my job prospects after graduating college. Once I got a job, I felt that I needed to ensure I had opportunities going forward and figured getting Microsoft Certifications would be the best way to differentiate myself from the candidate pool. I took 14 tests in less than 3 years, passing 12 and failing twice. I obtained the status Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA), and Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD). You can see my transcript here (enter transcript ID “677424” and access code “insights”).
Some of the tests were paid for by my employer, some were not. I usually studied using the officially released self-paced training kit for each test, but I’ve also purchased expensive training videos, exam crams, used free web casts, etc. I was completely immersed in the certification process. I actually understood all the options and the Microsoft certification path, of which there are now many. Since it’s been almost 2 years since I’ve taken any, I find myself out of the loop, wondering if it makes sense for me to re-enter this world.
At the time of this writing, I have about 7 years of professional software development experience, enough to significantly reduce the amount of studying required to pass a certification test compared to earlier in my career.
| Microsoft Certifications |
Expected Study time (hours) | Completed Study Time (hours) | Practice Tests (hours) | Days Studying | Hours Per Day | Test Date |
| 70-270 (Microsoft Windows XP Professional) |
45 | 51.00 | 9.50 | 35 | 1.73 | February 12,2004 |
| 70-290 (Windows Server 2003 Environment) |
31 | 28.00 | 3 | 23 | 1.35 | March 10, 2004 |
| 70-291 (Windows 2003 Network Infrastructure) |
47.5 | 78.00 | 11.5 | 122 | 0.73 | July 9, 2004 |
| Took Test on July 9th | — | 9 | 4.5 | 12 | 1.13 | July 21, 2004 |
| 70-293 (Windows 2003 Planning a Network) |
22 | 12 | 4 | 15 | 1.07 | August 5, 2004 |
| Took Test on August 5th | — | 30.50 | 8.5 | 64 | 0.61 | October 8, 2004 |
| 70-294 (Windows Server 2003 Active Directory) |
21 | 14.08 | 4 | 31 | 0.58 | April 2, 2005 |
| 70-297 (Win2003 A.D. & Network Infastructure) |
16.5 | 16.92 | 2.5 | 17 | 1.14 | April 19, 2005 |
| 70-228 (SQL 2000 Administration) |
55 | 53.42 | 5.5 | 72 | 0.82 | May 27, 2005 |
| 70-229 (SQL 2000 Development) |
24 | 23.50 | 3 | 151 | 0.18 | October 29, 2005 |
| 70-315 (Web Apps with Visual C# .NET) |
34 | 45.50 | 13.5 | 81 | 0.73 | January 24, 2006 |
| 70-320 (XML Web Services with C# .NET) |
40 | 34.00 | 3 | 42 | 0.88 | May 2, 2006 |
| 70-316 (Windows Apps with Visual C# .NET) |
14 | 15.42 | 3.25 | 22 | 0.85 | June 6, 2006 |
| 70-300 (Solutions Architecture & Req’ts) |
12 | 7.58 | 9 | 47 | 0.35 | September 28, 2006 |
| 70-553 (Upgrade MCSD to MCPD : Part 1) |
82 | 16.00 | 4 | 428 | 0.05 | April 12, 2008 |
| 70-554 (Upgrade MCSD to MCPD : Part 2) |
55 | 0.00 | 5 | 22 | 0.23 | May 5, 2008 |
| Took Test on May 5th | — | still counting | 0.00 | February 28, 2009? | ||
| 70-502 (.NET 3.5 – Windows Presentation Foundation) |
14 | 14.00 | 6 | 108 | 0.19 | December 13, 2008 |
| 70-561 (.NET 3.5 – ADO.NET) |
12.25 | 12.50 | 0.5 | 18 | 0.72 | May 2, 2009 |
Would obtaining more certifications be valuable? Looking back, I feel that it was worth it to work towards achieving the certifications that I did. They served 2 purposes:
Milestones for Self-Motivated Learning
By deciding to get certified, I was declaring a personal goal that was tangible and had benefits other than just self-improvement. Many of the topics involved in certification were topics that I wanted to learn about anyway, especially early in my career. For example, I was assigned to my first professional web application project about the same time that I was ready to begin studying for the related certification. Since my professional life and personal interests were colliding, I found it much easier to be motivated to study and create small side projects to practice what I had learned. Better yet, knowing the milestone of passing the test would aid in job security added to the incentive to learn.
Measurable Proficiency
I have heard people in the IT industry downplay the significance of certifications, especially those from Microsoft. Some have argued that the tested topics do not accurately reflect skills that are required to perform well on the job. Others state that the proliferation of “brain dumps,” practice tests that have actual questions from real exams (and are considered cheating), marginalize what the tests represent.
My feeling is that there is a lot of truth to these points. However, employers still seemed to have placed some value on certifications. They may have asked, “If certification tests are so trivial, why doesn’t everyone have them?” I found in the years after my achievements, that it did help in my job search. I believe it exhibited measurable proficiency in topics that I claimed to have experience in. This differentiated me from others who could merely state something to the effect of: “Experience = ASP.NET – 2 years.” The achievement generated conversation in interviews. When asked about my certifications, I got to explain how I set personal goals and followed through on them, learning a great deal of relevant skills in the process. @MikeWo also reminded me on twitter that companies need certain certification requirements of their employees to keep partner status, yet another benefit to hiring someone who has them already or displays the ability to pass them quickly.
Having established that it was worthwhile to get certified in the past, does that mean I should set a goal for future certifications?
It is yet to be determined, but I don’t think so. The direction I am trying to take with my career is not to spend focused time learning the details of the next version of ASP.NET, for example. I have also already built my resume to a point where “getting my foot in the door” is not the problem it used to be. Therefore, the benefits listed above do not quite align with what I want to achieve going forward. I could always afford to learn more about Microsoft technologies, such as .NET, but I already know enough to be effective. I am more interested in learning non-Microsoft technologies these days, like jQuery, Mercurial, or anything Google, so I may be convinced to take a test for a new, interesting technology once it is released and known to have value throughout the industry. Lastly, I believe that the best way to get a great job is a great network and by establishing the ability to get things done.
Time to buckle down and get things done then…
Exam Tip: No matter how much you study before-hand, always cram: it’s important to have that info in short-term memory going into the test. It’s also highly beneficial to gauge your readiness by taking a practice test with a company like Transcender.
LinkedIn
Stack Overflow