Job Hunting -- Job 1 Post-mortem

Job 1:

I was still in last 2 weeks of school when this opportunity arose. Bit of background, the job was 3 hours from where I live, but near my family. I applied online. Boys and girls, this is how I think you should do an interview process.

First, the Superintendent himself calls me. He tells me the job would like be a significant pay cut. (Yay! Set expectations early! This is good). I figured that going in so I said that is fine. He asked about why I was applying for a job so far away. I told him the reasons. He says he will call back to schedule the interview.

Two days later, he calls, and we schedule up the interview. He sends me directions, contact information, etc.

A week or two later, we have the interview with his team. They were looking for a different skill set than I brought to the table. Happens. I ask about timelines, etc. He set the expectation of about 5 days to expect them to select the candidate.

A week later, the Superintendent calls me. He says they went with another candidate. This is a hard call to make for most folks, but you gotta do it. He did. I told him thank you for letting me know and wished him well.

Overall, it was a positive experience. Personal calls and contact were made. Expectations were set from the get-go. Dates and timelines were generally kept.

Job Hunting or How to Lose a Candidate in 30 days

I've finished the degree. Yay! I've had a celebration vacation. Now it is time to start the job search and skill growth phase. I'll try to do some postings of the, uh, funny things that have happen so far in the job search. Stories 2 & 3. I'll tell story 1 soon enough.

I've recently applied online for a couple of jobs. Greatness. Anyhow, both resumes made it past the first bridge troll in HR (or automated troll) to get onto the next phase of review.

Job Two:

Sent me a series of email questions asking for responses. I know I'm IT oriented, but this was simply WRONG. Seriously, if one of the questions is salary range which can be a weed-out question due to an applicants requirements being outside of the range, why even ask the other questions. They wanted me to provide real depth to what I did in writing to questions like:

·Please describe the topology of the network at your most recent position and your role. Please be specific and include the vendor and model numbers of the equipment you managed, as well as the protocols used to connect neighboring devices and remote data centers.

· Please describe your Unified Communications experience, and any conversion projects in which you have participated. Please be specific, include your role, and the dates.

· What network tools did you manage and/or use to perform your daily job functions

Then don't ask what are your salary requirements in the same questionnaire if an applicant will be disqualified based upon that number. Go ahead and state it up front to the applicant. Otherwise, you are wasting my time and yours. I understand working in the public sector or in education. Sometimes, you are capped. Go ahead and state it up front what the range is, especially if it is a hard cap. I always had my Admin Asst call any applicant who were potential candidates and give the salary range. Saved a lot of wasted time for both parties. I also used that phone call to ask, if the candidate would share, what was an approximate salary they were looking for so we could potentially adjust our pay rates. Never happened -- the adjustment --, but at least it was easy to say why the process took so long or we had to take a candidate we'd have to train up. Lesson for all the HR people or hiring people or whoever will listen. If there exists a range, post it, let the candidates know. Sometimes, good tech people will take a pay cut to get the better hours, better work life balance (no on call 24/7!), new opportunity, etc.

Job Three:

Applied online. About a week later, a computer sent me an automated email asking me to schedule an interview online. Okay. Done. Scheduled it. Then the automated scheduler sent me a response to email the Admin Asst. confirming my interview. Sure. Done. She responded a day later. First real human contact. First clue on the environment.

Interview takes place. It runs 45 minutes long. Most of the time that means it is going well.

Week one goes by.

Week two goes by.

Week three, day 1: One of my references listed lets me know he's been contacted to schedule a call. My reference asks what to say. I tell him to do whatever he wants. He will anyway. Make shit up, tell the truth, don't care. Please note, the prospective employer hasn't contacted me.

Week three, day 3: Same reference says I'll likely be the finalist based on his call. Guess he wowed them. I hope it was with reality.

Week three, day 5: email from prospective employer asking me to fill out the rest of these forms as I am the finalist. Seriously. No other contact. No phone calls. No pay-rate discussions. No follow-up. Wow. On top of that, the emails say these are automated emails, and request that I don't respond to this address. However, the email later states I can contact them if I have any questions. No contact phone number nor email was listed though. 

Lesson for all. If you are hiring someone, stay in contact with the candidates. Use human methods, not automated emailers, regardless the size of your organization. Interviewing is like dating. You have to call, send email, text, whatever. This must be done with the preferred candidate often. Once every 2-3 days at worst. People like to be flattered. They like to feel important and wanted. Yeah, dumb human instinct, right? However, if this is my first interaction with you as a company and organization, how do you want to me to think of your organization? 

• That you called. You followed up. You kept me in the loop. You made sure I knew you were there if there were any questions I had. You thought I was important.
• You were quiet. You never said anything. You just disappeared. 0 communication. I'm just another cog in a machine.

Job Three is a pass based upon these simple things. I don't know if I'll even look to find out how to decline the opportunity. You get what you give. 

 

Job Three Update:

 

Today, the computer has asked me to go get fingerprinted via an automated email. So the standing orders from the computer are:

• Give us your personal info so we can run your background check
• Give us your college transcript so we can verify you went to school
• Give us your fingerprints so we can run your criminal history
• Give us your bank information so we can setup direct deposit
• Give us your citizen and ethnic status

Things not done by the prospective employer (or computer)

• Stay in contact with me. That includes no contact information to follow up. Nada. Zilch. 0.
• Notify me in a personal manner that I was the finalist.
• Discuss salary, job specifics, or anything related to the job since the interview.

Wow. Its almost like the computer wants to steal my identity. Automation and Technology has its place boys and girls, but when you are hiring for a position, you are hiring a person. Treat them as such.

I'm sure there will be more to this saga.

Job Three Update #2:

They finally presented an offer, in email of course. It really looks like a form email, but sometimes HR is told to keep it bland to ensure no "bad' things can happen. Its on okay offer. Probably about the same per hour as when I left to get a degree. I find it amazing no one from the group I interviewed with has chosen to make a personal attempt to contact me for nearly 4 weeks. Yes, I know, if I wanted the job, I'd do the contacting. However, I have received 0 contact information except for the Admin Asst's email.

Job Three Update #3:

I declined the offer stating the position didn't match my career goals. Now, they are asking if it is the pay that cause me to decline. To no one's surprise, the question was in the form of an email. Again, you are hiring a person, not an email correspondent. Time to politely formulate an answer.

Job Three Update #4:

Ha! A phone call from the person with the position asking what they can do to get me in there. This is almost comical. Its hard to maintain some sort of professionalism with all this automation and actually pick up the phone and return the call now.

WGU Capstone and Capstone Proposal Done

Got official confirmation from TaskStream my Capstone passed. That makes the degree plan 125/125, graduation. YES!

Thoughts -- SBT1 -- Tech Writing
Tip 1: Ok, everyone...absolutely everyone says follow the rubric. DO IT. Don't be smart, don't assume the grader will find you satisfied the rubric buried in your paper. Simply follow the follow rubric using the template. It'll save you headaches. I had to resubmit my SBT1 due to failure to define objectives clearly. I had goals and deliverables, but my objectives (goals-->objectives-->deliverables) weren't clear. Resubmit and I passed.
Tip 2: if you have to make up a project (I did), do something you are good at and tie it back to your degree. I'm a network goober at heart, but my degree is IT Security. I did a pseudo-network redesign for pseudo company. Securing the edge was only part of the solution. Anyhow, you don't have to make the project explicitly about your degree program. I was going to do a wireless security project, but it was going to get out of control quickly. Not a good idea. You have to incorporate your emphasis somewhere, and that's it. Don't make it hard. Its a lot of writing as it is.
Tip 3: Yes, it is the department of redundancy department. You will feel like you are repeating yourself throughout. Just the nature of the beast. stick to the template. If you choose to review the capstones, don't over-analyze. Some are 3 years old, some don't have the same layout as the current templates. Use the current template.
Tip 4: have someone else read your paper. Doesn't matter if they are technical our not. Just need a grammar and structure check. You've read it too much. you know what you mean to say. they don't. let 'em read it and fix it. You aren't perfect. I'm not. No one is. Let your best friend, spouse, whoever help on the review. Plus it'll count on your 10 items list if you do it right.

RGT1 -- capstone
This is fairly straightforward. Don't overthink it. Do the conversion as given, and write the new sections. I did mine in 2 days (8 hours each). Most of the heavy lifting is in the SBT1. I created pseudo network diagrams, network schemes, etc. Dreaming that up took 4 hours. I got a 4 on the rubric for the add-ons. I dunno if the depth of information helped, but I'm going to guess it does. Make sure you had some depth to the project. SBT1 is just a dream. RGT1 is real. Make it tangible. Produce the paperwork you would for a job. Network diagrams, IP info, whatever your boss or you'd want your junior engineers to have after you were done. Make it come to life. And if you don't have the software, grab the timebombed versions and install them. (office/visio).

Anyhow that's it. i'm done. good luck on your adventures.

WGU Update -- MGC1 & TPV1 Done

I passed the TPV1 today, Project+. I thought it was relatively easy compared to some of the other courses. The prep material from uCertify was perfect for the course. I studied 6 days for this one. Only recommendation is use the uCertify material, and READ the questions and how they got the answers. Remember there are 5 phases, answers from the 4th phase will not be right for the planning phase questions. If you have a good vocabulary, that will help. Also, taking the MGC1 right before actually helped as Project+ had the stages of teams (yay!) plus the types of conflict resolution, and last, the types of organizations (matrix versus functional vs project). Nice carry-over.

I took the MGC1 course 12 days before and passed. Typical test. Study what they tell you. Do the practice test at least twice with at least a mid-80 grade. As noted above, this course carries over really well into the project+ course. In hindsight, I'd probably do the Org Behavior, followed by Principles of Mgmt, then project+ back to back to back. The concepts stack and less relearning. If you were feeling ambitious and wanted to go off track/do a victory lap, doing the ITIL Foundations would fit nicely at the end of these 3. It isn't quite the same as stacking of concepts, but a lot of the ideas/concepts are interrelated to these 3 courses.

That's 36 hrs this semester currently. Have the Tech Writing and Capstone to round out the degree making it 43 hrs total for this one with 25 the previous plus semester. Yay me.

CIW v MS v Cisco v WGU v CompTIA Exams

(Updated) -- I've seen people post what tests/providers are the hardest in the WGU lineup. I'll go ahead and post my thoughts. I'm doing IT w/Sec Emphasis so my experience may be different than yours. I have over 15 years of real world experience from Desktop goober to Network geek to Boss. I've also had the technical alphabet soup after my name in the early 2000s (MCSE, CCNP, A+, Others...). Translation, I've taken a few test in the past 20ish years. Mostly passed too. Shocking. My personal order of difficulty from easiest to hardest as for 2014/2015 from a WGU point of view:

1. WGU assessments
2. CIW
3. MS
4. CompTIA
5. Cisco

On the WGU test, the amount material can be overwhelming as in the bio course. However, the bar tends to be set low. Most of the time, you can get it down to a 50/50 coinflip on the questions you don't know. The material always seems to match the test. No question will be a surprise topic. Plus some of the recorded lectures tell you how to take the test well. Last, you get to stay home and take it so the comfort of home helps (provided your house is quiet, the neighborhood is quiet, etc...)

CIW has seemed to be the easiest testing-center test makers. Part of it is due to the fact the questions are truly from the material. There haven't been any surprises taking this line of testing. In addition, it seems like some of the concepts are common sense and can reason your way into the right answers, especially if you know the definitions of the words/terms. These test also seem to be simply definition/term based. Unlike the Cisco, MS, and CompTIA, there wasn't a lot of application of knowledge to a situation.

It may shock you to see MS next, but the 2 tests were entry level tests for Win7 and something else. The material provided by WGU seemed to be sufficient with my experience to pass these fairly easy. I would not be shocked to hear the more advance server courses had some difficultly and were harder than the CompTIA.

CompTIA. I actually thinks these are some of the more interesting tests with the scenarios they offer. The study material offered past the A+ needs some updating within the curriculum & course of study. The material WGU offered for Project+ was spot on, especially the uCertify resource. Net+, Sec+, Linux+/LPI all took outside resources. I'd list the difficulty within these sub-tests from easiest to hardest:

• Net+ (Its what I do/did so only had to learn 1 section)
• Project+
• A+
• Sec+
• Linux+

The carry-over of my network life helps a lot on the first 3, but the Linux to a windows person required some hands on retraining. As for the people who will say CompTIA deals with outdated tech, I'd argue most environments will have some flavor of outdated equipment you'll have to support, or help upgrade. Knowing how the old stuff works will help make good choices when proposing and upgrade to your boss/customer/spouse. The last pro on the "old" information is that you can communicate with the people who got off their tech career tracks a while back and are coasting it home to retirement. These people exist (sometimes in high places). The reality of work and life.

Cisco. Disclaimer, I failed the CCNA Sec the first time (888 vs 898 - not happy). I thought the material was ok (Books + Video), but the other material on Cisco's site is a must. The site material was the difference between pass/fail. I didn't take the CCNA (ICND) within WGU as I came in with it. These tend to have a very high bar to reach for a passing grade(85% or higher), require some hands-on, and know some random ass stuff buried within the material. Plus, its difficult to get true hands-on practice for this one. WGU says use GNS3 (which I advocate too), however, getting an IOS to run is challenge.

I've also taken the CWNA and ITIL exams in the recent 18 months. Below is how I'd group all the tests I've taken in the past 2 years from my point of view.

1. Relatively Easy: WGU courses, CIW (ALL), Entry MS courses
2. Moderate: ITIL Foundation, A+, Net+, Project+
3. Somewhat Difficult: Sec+, LPI exams/Linux+, CCNA R&S
4. Difficult: CWNA, CCNA Sec

 

CJV1 Passed -- CIW Database

Took the CJV1/CIW Database exam. 84 points achieved, 74 needed.

Test vs Material: the course and WGU material pretty much covered the test. Again, the practice questions aren't word for word the test, however they provided a good overview.

Test itself: Was actually fairly readable for an IT test. 50 questions, and only had one, maybe two questions where I had to decipher the phrase/word the test makers were dancing around. Again, nothing unexpected or new on the test.

Study Method: read the material end to end. Did chapter quizzes and exams. re-read 1-6 quickly. Did the 6 domain area quizzes. Did the domain area exams. Took test. Was making 90-94 on domain exams/quizzes. I didn't do any of the labs. I had enough practical experience in my few efforts query a DB to know the basic commands. SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, CREATE, DROP, ALTER, ...etc.

Onto MGC1. Took the pre-assessment and made a 76. Guess I should schedule it...

Network+ Done

Took and passed network+ with an 865. Woo, missed 4 questions. I think I whiffed a scenario, but I'm not sure. Funny.

Anyhow, regarding the material and test. Sorry, this wont be much help for a lot of folks.

Material: I quick glanced the material from WGU (Testout?). I took 4 notecards of notes. normally, I take a pile of them (50-150 cards depending). I had to beat into my head the 568A & 568B and 110 blocks. Ended up using WAG, BOW and BLOG for the scheme, A-GW (WAG), B-OW, Bl-O-G. The other cards had stuff on them. Don't even recall what. I took the practice tests, and did the scenarios in about 2/3rds of the sections. The ones testing ping, nslookup, dig, etc, I skipped. I've done these way too often in real life.
ping yourself
ping the gateway
ping your destination...

Took the full practice test, made a 96.

The test vs material: since I only quick-glanced it, I can't say how much it mapped up.  I simply used my experience (CWNA, CCNA, CCNA-Sec) to ferret out most of the answers technical answers. I think the study material gave me 3-4 questions I would have missed or 50/50'd. I still love "choose the BEST" solution questions. Basic things to know

• IP networking (subnetting, broadcast, Classes, etc. One of the questions was on a CCNA level I thought. Good question, had to think and know your rules).
• OSI model and service at each level and device relationships to said model (Physical - cables,hubs; datalink - bridge/switch; etc;)
• devices to service provided (Firewall vs router vs switch vs packet filter vs content filter)
• Ports and protocols (FTP, SMTP, SNMP, etc)
• Cabling standards
• troubleshooting steps
• WiFi (a,b,g,n; security options/flavors; radio freqs; antenna basics; )

Test itself. 80ish questions, and like most of the CompTIA lead with scenarios. I think I had 6-8 out of the gate. One was a good question, but I'm guessing a lot of people get it wrong. Actually had to use the notepad to do the math. The rest of the non-scenario questions are straight forward. I thought most had the right answer well defined and the other choices weren't really an option, but that might be experience. Felt there were 10 questions where it was down to 2 answers, and it was pick the best. (IE, asking a layer 2 OSI model question, 2 answers were router and hub, other was switch and bridge -- pick the best).

Anyhow, there is a lot on this one. experience helped a ton and made it relatively easy for me. knowing the OSI to services helps a lot for this test. Probably need to know it very well.