Whether it’s an informal happy hour or a far-flung company retreat, the essential bonding will take place over a beverage, so you’ll want to choose wisely.  To alleviate your anxiety, we enlisted our own Craft Beer guru, Mr. Kevin Mocci.  When he’ s not guiding IT consultants into challenging, mission-critical project work , Kevin authors a blog dedicated to Connecticut’s artisan beer industry.  He curated a foolproof guide for any summer affair, along with food pairing and tips to impress even the hardcore beer enthusiast.

Around the fire pit:

The brew: India Pale Ale (IPA) / Double India Pale Ale (Double IPA/ 2xIPA/ Imperial IPA)

Need to know: ”These beers are extremely hoppy and bitter and not for timid taste buds.  They can also be quite high in alcohol content, with most IPAs hovering around 6% ABV and 2xIPAs around 8% ABV.  These are not considered to be “session beers,”  meaning beer that is lower in ABV and thus easier to consume more than 1 in a “session.”

Sip with: smoked meats (brisket/pork/ribs), grilled lamb, strong & spicy food (i.e. anything with curry), bold-sweet desserts (carrot cake).

Local Favorites:

Chinook IPA / Triumph Brewing Company (Princeton, NJ)

Resin 2xIPA / Sixpoint Brewery (Brooklyn, NY)

Road 2 Ruin 2xIPA / Two Roads Brewing Company (Stratford, CT)

For good reason: these are business executives mindful of the far-reaching consequences of their IT decisions.  They know what it takes to advance the ball in their organization and expect to see these qualities on display during the interview.

IT professionals, buoyed by recruiter overtures and hype over the technology “skills gap,” can be caught off guard when their job interview goes beyond mere formality.  As our Senior Technology Recruiter, Andrew Sokol, points out, confidence can be a double-edged sword.  Candidates should remember: while their credentials landed them in the interview chair, it’s their attitude, research and strategic insight that will be under scrutiny.

To help our IT community navigate these waters, we’ve compiled a few tips from Andrew and other career experts.  Herewith, the New Interview Essentials:

Be an active listener.

Mapping out common interview pitfalls in the Huffington Post, writer Scott Willyerd advises candidates to remain fully present:

“While it’s always beneficial to rehearse an interview beforehand, it’s just as important that you stay actively engaged during the interview.  Taking time to listen will give your body and mind a break from being on the hot seat where it feels every nuance is being detected.

“When asked a question, be careful not to simply recite a scripted response. Actually listen to the question being asked and make sure you understand it before giving a response.”

Most professional interviewers, when surveyed, report that the most memorable interviews are the ones they recall as conversations more than interrogations.

Don’t veer off-course.

Our own Andrew Sokol, a 15-year veteran IT recruiter, has seen many a candidate derailed by taking a “kitchen sink” approach.

“Lately, the issue that comes up most often is a candidate who oversells themselves during their interview and fails to focus on the essential aspects of the job. Since the last recession, we have seen our clients wanting to do more with less. This has created many candidates with diverse skills sets and they are eager to share the experience they have acquired.

However, we’ve learned from client feedback that many candidates fail to concentrate on – and speak to – the main job responsibilities of the position. They think they are showing a client the benefit of hiring them, when in fact the takeaway is, ‘he or she is overqualified’ or, ‘they wouldn’t be happy doing this job role.’”

Sokol cites one recent example of a programmer who touted client interfacing experience, while interviewing for a heads-down programmer position – a tactic that ultimately backfired.

Polish up your storytelling skills

While selling these targeted skills, take a page from the narrative playbook of great public speakers.  Renowned career coach Arnie Fertig advises candidates to flesh out their accomplishments with a few polished examples:

“As you prepare for your interview, think about what kind of qualities and personality the employer might deem best, and assume that you will encounter some questions that will probe to see if you fit. Come to your interview prepared with stories that demonstrate how you have exhibited these kinds of actions in your current or past roles. You will likely find an opportunity to tell your stories in response to questions that begin with something like: ‘Tell me about a time when you… [fill in the blank].’”

With a company’s very mission on the line, technology’s stakes have never been higher.  Even the most sought after IT skills need to be packaged in a strategic, professional light.  To connect with Andrew about career opportunities or interviewing tactics, email andrew_sokol@howardsystems.com.

Image credit: Snelling

Howard Systems is seeking Business Process Analyst to oversee the implementation of Student Information Systems, ensuring that they are completed in accordance with established process mapping methodologies.  Candidates MUST have ERP implementation experience within a Higher Education environment.  This is a long term contract/road warrior opportunity based on-site at our client’s Northern NJ campus.

The Business Analyst will work collaboratively with the project teams to map business process changes to operating units and individuals and to make adjustments to work roles and responsibilities as necessary.  He/She will be responsible for identifying the material and personnel resources necessary to fulfill the business process review and revision agenda.

Responsibilities:

• Assess software application technical impact during fit/gap.
• Support workflow design.
• Build workflow processes and routings.
• Support data migration between new and old administrative system environments by mapping information requirements and flows.
• Assess integration point impact for each functional area.
• Collect data to map impact of new administrative system implementation.
• Support overall change activities in the client project
• Analyze data to facilitate change management activities.
• Conduct process analyses to support integration of 3rd party applications
• Develop role based security recommendations based on process analyses and workflows.
• Visually document process lows for external user group evaluation.

Skills Required:

• ERP Implementation in a University setting, specifically in support of Student-related Information Systems.
• Familiarity with higher educational environments and business processes and involvement in an administrative system project of this size and scope that must include at least one end-to-end project life cycle.
• Exceptional communication and collaborative skills.
• Professional demeanor and ability to institute Best Practices methodologies across multiple teams.

Resumes and referrals to kevin_mocci@howardsystems.com or contact Kevin via LinkedIn.

As IT professionals, we embed ourselves into business strategy and operations, marketing and innovation.  The brightest among us find balance in a guiding philosophy, an inner compass.  We’ve compiled a few glimmers of insight from the leading lights in our industry, for those moments when deadlines and colleagues disturb our equilibrium:

“You have to control what you can control.  It doesn’t do any good to bellyache.”

- San Francisco Giants CIO Bill Schlough on the perception that business leaders underestimate the value of IT in InformationWeek

‘As CIO, you cannot change the perception of IT by yourself, so you have to find a group of “true believers’ in the business… You cannot push a stone up a mountain by yourself.”

- Stephen Shaffer, CIO, Beechcraft Corporation in CIO

“First of all, we need to think differently about ourselves. The way you see yourself–whether as an organization or an individual–defines your presence in the company. So, we consider ourselves a part of the business.”

- Adriana Karaboutis, Global CIO, Dell in CIO India

“Helpfulness is the most tangible, certain attribute I can think of, perhaps the most valuable one on earth. My prediction: Those who commit themselves to the helpfulness rule will be fine, no matter what the budget looks like, no matter what IT transforms into, and no matter what the very uncertain future holds.”

- Jonathan Feldman, CIO and Contributing Editor, Informationweek

 “Stay adaptive; continually fine-tune tactics to better align with your project’s underlying business value.”

- Ram Sundaram, Principal, X by 2, in Insurance & Technology

Finally, this Zen koan:

 ”There are no IT projects, there are only business projects.”

- Kim Stevenson, Intel CIO in HuffPost Tech

Share your own pearls of wisdom below or @howardsystems.  Namasté.

]]> http://howardsystems.com/hsipress/?feed=rss2&p=1186 0 http://howardsystems.com/hsipress/?p=1182 http://howardsystems.com/hsipress/?p=1182#comments Tue, 07 May 2013 14:04:38 +0000 APatterson http://howardsystems.com/hsipress/?p=1182 Continue reading →]]> Don Willmott wrote this concise, crisp overview of Big Data, minus the halo of hype.  We couldn’t have said it better.  Read, and prosper:

Why the Future Belongs to Big Data (via Dice News in Tech)

When it comes to buzzwords, Big Data is currently at the top of the technology heap. You may have your own definition, but Michael Minelli, Michele Chambers and Ambiga Dhiraj, the authors of Big Data, Big Analytics, describe it this way: Big Data goes beyond the traditional limits of data along three…

Courtesy Dice 

With an emphasis on quality, reliability and standards, the Insfastucture Specialist will maintain the highest possible degree of network integrity, reliability and availability in a complex multivendor, multiplatform environment. This position requires a self-motivated and energetic individual with a strong technical background.

Responsibilities

• Work with other IT personnel within an integrated multi-vendor multi-platform environment.
• Share knowledge with IT support team.
• Assist in IT training programs for the user community.
• Participate in and take lead role in the planning, design, deployment, and administration of new services and procedures.
• Develop recommendations and proposals and collaborate with staff on various projects, including administrators from other areas of Yale.
• Develop documentation, including handouts, newsletters, and quick-help guides.
• Manage assigned project tasks to ensure timely and high quality outcomes.
• Provide regular status reports on assigned projects to inform the process of establishing institutional priorities for school-wide technology projects.
• Share knowledge with IT support team. Evaluate procedures for effectiveness.
• Provide project consultation and recommendations to IT management as well as end-user departments.

Required Skills

• Technical: Crestron Fusion server, ISIS, Avocent, DAM, Sytems Monitoring, tablet management.
• Solid foundation and hands on experience with Windows operating systems (Windows Server and workstation OS)
• Clear understanding of networking protocols
• Excellent interpersonal and customer service skills
• Team player with ability to work collegially with peers and colleagues
• Ability to work in a fast-paced and changing environment
• Ability to move equipment up to 50 pounds
• Support cooperation, collaboration and the sharing of information
• Provide the highest quality, and document work and ability to transfer knowledge.

Resumes to kevin_mocci@howardsystems.com or contact via LinkedIn.

From the Wild West BYOD landscape to supporting leading edge research to security considerations, IT management must constantly keep pace with new devices and threats – along with constant pressure to provide business value to the university.  Here, a few insights from university CIOs on their IT challenges and priorities:

Rick AmRhein, CIO, Valparaiso University:

“Each fall, we see a new crop of students come in with a whole new set of devices. The whole paradigm has changed from the university indicating what kind of devices they support to the university supporting all of the devices that come in the door. Students are coming from all over the world and they’re bringing devices from all over the world, sometimes with different protocols for connecting. It’s not an option for IT anymore to say, ‘I’m sorry, we don’t support that device.’” (University Business)

Phil Komarny, CIO, Seton Hall University:

“The cloud as our computing platform has given me the ability to leverage our mobile/social culture to affect our bottom line by re-envisioning our processes and how we use technology to better our product. This needs to be a big focus of CIOs in the higher education space.” (Huffington Post/Enterasys)

Ellen Borkowski, CIO, Union College:

“I bring much more focus to the teaching and learning side, whereas the prior CIO was focused more on the administrative computing side. There are so many things that are commodity services and that we can easily outsource. The one thing that I think we can’t outsource is that teaching and learning piece. The faculty have a lot of responsibilities. Some of them are actually interested in new technology, but what they don’t have is time…You can only make the technology so easy. There’s a tradeoff, where the interface can only become so easy before it becomes complex. If you give them something that’s easy to get them in, then it doesn’t have the deep functionality they want.” (InformationWeek)

Luc Roy, CIO,Laurentian University:

“Universities must be ready for the new paradigm of electronic learning. To do so, [they] need a sound integrated electronic solution for all academic and administrative functions. If you are still stuck in the electronic age, you are at an almost insurmountable disadvantage.” (Huffington Post/Enterasys)

Pennie Turgeon, CIO, Clark University:

“You still need to be really good at keeping the lights on, but that’s not enough to be a successful CIO in today’s environment. The IT agenda needs to flow from the university’s academic and business needs, not from a technology agenda. It’s a priority to support the mission of the university through the application of technology.”

Image Credit: University of Otago

Here, for your humpday listening pleasure, a soaring soundtrack by Dorian Bramarov:

Candidates should demonstrate a progressive evolution from a system engineering to technical lead.

Technical Requirements

• Microsoft Server 200X
• Infrastructure configuration and documentation, and topology
• VMware Technologies – ESX (vSphere), Workstation, Citrix XP and UP, Virtualization
• Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, WINS, IIS
• HP Proliant, DL,ML & BL servers, Fujitsu Blade Servers
• Scripting, Unattended Installation, Logon Script
• Citrix, Microsoft Clustering (MSCS), SQL Server SAN

Please send resumes/referrals to curtis_wegfahrt@howardsystems.com.  Howard Systems offers up to $500 for successful referrals.

Our own IT Careers czar Curtis Wegfahrt thinks not.  He notes that Mayer’s move was a strategic shake-up and not a condemnation of the practice.  Moreover,

We’ve had a number of remote engagements, all of them successful.  The common denominator is a manager who provides measurable, deliverable goals at key intervals, a good practice no matter where your team resides.

We have so many tools to interact with peers in a focused, productive way.  Our clients have been able to partner with thought leaders from the world over and use technology to facilitate everything from a conference call to a complex knowledge transfer.

According to CITE World, the remote collaboration model is thriving among companies, not only for accommodating employees with family considerations, but dynamic young talent who shun the traditional 9-to-5 work paradigm.

There are plenty of documented advantages to telework — increased productivity, employee satisfaction, less downtime because of commuting, potentially easier access to clients or services, a lower carbon footprint, cost savings on office space, and a better overall attitude because people aren’t fighting through traffic to get to the office. However, you should have a defined sense of how it will benefit your company… and develop criteria and metrics for determining if the program is successful or how it may need to be tweaked.

Fast Company posted an excellent “lessons learned” piece detailing best practices and essential tools for remote collaboration.  Some highlights:

• Be disciplined and work according to simple rules. Clarify those rules and make sure everyone knows them. For example, at AIIM, employees need to be available by Lync during work hours. If they need a quick response to a question, Lync is the tool, not email. More formal reviews are for email, and Yammer is the place to post information for the team and company.
• Adopt agile development methods for operations; schedule 15-minute morning “scrum” meetings daily to provide short updates and have each employee focus on “what do I need to accomplish today.” Stick to these meetings religiously. The frequency and regular-ness of the meetings bridges the “gap of virtual-ness.” The daily review focuses people on what they need to do and helps keep them from getting stuck. 

In the long run, the hero of any far-flung collaboration may not be tools or tactics, but company culture.  A remote team member who feels connected and valued – and who has a measure of self-direction – can trump an uninspired cubicle dweller in productivity.  As one startup exec explained to PCWorld:

‘I’m a big believer in the ROWE [Results Only Work Environment] movement. It’s all about treating your staff like adults and allowing them to manage their own time,’ says Ben Eubanks, [of] Pinnacle Solutions, who says that Pinnacle doesn’t use any specific tech products to make sure that they’re getting their work done. ‘We have a strict hiring process, and we screen rigorously to find people who meet our core values, which we communicate early and often.’

What’s your experience with remote collaboration?  Please share your opinion, practices or essential tools in our comments below or @howardsystems.

Image credits: remote-conferencing.com, itworld.co.kr