Hiring the technically gifted - OR - How to find a job in the tough IT marketplace

Resume Tweaking for the job you want

2011-12-15T07:09:00.000-08:00

First off this is a quick one. JUST WRITE GOOD AND EDIT TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE NO MISTAKES. if your sentences are crappy or your spelling is bad then your statements about "attention to detail" and all those areas where you say your GOOD seem to have less meaning. Hell sometimes it throws me so far off that I just give up on thinking in your direction. NEXT don't put an objective. NO S&^%, you want a challenging job that allows you expand your skills, work within a team and further your career. SO DOE EVERYONE ELSE. use this space to expand on what you can do or have done. "Over my past 20 years of experience within the IT field I have designed full scale networks, worked and led multiple teams of individuals to successful completion of their tasks and have worked and managed multiple efforts which have saved millions of dollars in software licensing, manpower and time. My experience is further detailed below" This may not be the best write-up BUT it can be something that entices the 'resume reviewer' to be curious about what you have done. ALSO update your skills and make sure you list the skills you have acquired on your most recent job. IF you have NO new skills and your just looking maybe look into a ONE day class that can increase your current skills and give you that ONE little differentiating factor over your competitors.

Be diligent and review your resume and make sure when someone contacts you based on a resume they have seen that the it is in fact your most recent. Try to add a DATE to your resume and then you can know for a fact it is most recent if not ask them if you can e-mail and updated version.

Notes from an IT hiring manager

2011-12-14T11:15:00.000-08:00

I am a hiring manager, yes that one person that you can sit in front of and I can either say Yes you're hired or Nah not this time. First thing I'm going to do is tell you a little about myself and then go onto how to find jobs then maybe some tips on Resumes and a few more on interviewing and maybe some other stuff. But mostly I will give you my experiences and encounters with those I hire and those who I don't hire. I will NEVER give names nor will I tell you who I work for other than a generalized amount of information. Here is my background. I am prior U.S. Air Force, I worked in one of the few Combat related career fields while I was in controlling Ground Attack Aircraft and directing them onto targets. (Maybe I'll go into that later) I worked in multiple Special Operations Units until a Parachuting Accident ended my world-wide mobility and choose to get out at 15 years of Service. While I was in a got multiple Microsoft Certifications including my MCSE. I also went to School and recently graduated from Saint Leo University with my Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with a Specialization in Technology Management.
I currently work for a Major Department of Defense Contractor and am a hiring manager that hires for positions supporting our IT contracts.

I don't have a stellar resume BUT it gets me the job and supports me very well which is exactly what a Resume should do. More about that later. Also I have to have a disclaimer I'm not the most educated and I'm not perfect which I betting 99% of you fall into the same boat. SO you CAN get hired and maybe some of the things I say can help.

FORCE Outlook to USE a SPECIFIC NIC

2009-10-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

OK here is the Scenario. I have 2 NIC's one connected to an External ISP and one connected to an Internal Comapny Network. IN order to get E-mail via MS Outlook you have to use the Internal Company Network. IN order to get speed when using the Internet you can use the "External Network".

Internet Explorer (Uses External NIC for Browsing the Internet)
Microsoft Outlook (Uses Internal NIC for Connecting to Company E-mail)

To force Outlook to use the Internal NIC you have to force any requests for the "E-mail Server" to route to the "Internal Gateway"

1. Identify your Exchange Server IP Address and Internal Gateway.

To do this find the E-mail Server IP address.
a. Open Outlook and go to TOOLS -> Account Settings -> double click your e-mail account and right down the Exchange Server name.
b. Open a Command Prompt run the folling with ONLY the Internal NIC plugged in.
c. ping "Exchange Server Name"
d. The IP address is returned
e. tracert "Exhange Server IP"
f. The first IP address should be your gateway connection to your internal network.

**Now that you've identified the Gateway for your internal connection you can set a persistent route that Microsoft Outlook will always use when attempting to send or receive e-mail.
-- You should have these two pieces of information.
**Internal Gateway IS e.g. (154.141.9.1)
**EXHANGE SERVER IP e.g. (192.168.156.45)

2. Set a persistent route for e-mail to use.

a. Open a Command Prompt
b. Type the following command.
c. route -p add 192.168.156.45 mask 255.255.255.255 154.141.9.1

** Now that you've setup a persistent route you can plug in your external NIC and send E-mail through only the Internal NIC and all other network functions will use the EXTERNAL NIC.

SIMPLIFIED STEPS.

1. PING exchange.server.name
2. write down exchange server IP (192.168.156.45)
3. TRACERT 192.168.156.45
4. write down the gateway (usually the first IP in the route) 154.141.9.1
5. ROUTE -p add 192.168.156.45 mask 255.255.255.255 154.141.9.1

SharePoint Architect Interview Questions

2008-05-14T06:41:00.001-07:00

Interviewing for a SharePoint Architect Position. Here are some basic Questions that you should know. If you don't know these then maybe you don't know SharePoint.

Question 1.) What is the Main difference between Windows SharePoint Services and MOSS

Question 2.) Describe an architecture/topology for a Portal that will host 5 seperate distinct sections of an organization that has approximately 50,000+ users, Lets say 10,000 users per site.

Question 3.) Explain Content Types.

Question 4.) What is the purpose of Application servers in the Portal Architecture.

Question 5.) How does Enterprise Search in SharePoint Work.

Question 6.) Explain a basic back-up Startegy for a Portal.

Question 7.) How would you virtualize SharePoint.

Question 8.) Explain the purpose of Windows Workflow Foundations.

Planning for your SharePoint Architecture

2008-04-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

Ever needed to build your SharePoint architecture and would like to know how many Web Servers, Database Servers and Application servers you need. Well Microsoft helps by giving you the tools to help build your architecture. Check out the "SharePoint Capacity Planning Tool (SCPT)" It gives you two models to simulate the capacity you may need and assist in determining your correct architecture.

You will need two tools to make it work first is the "System Center Capacity Planner 2007 (SCCP)"

Download (SCCP) HERE

Download (SCPT) HERE

SharePoint Musings

2007-03-07T13:44:00.000-08:00

I have been using SharePoint since about the middle of April 2004. I consider myself to be an expert on SharePoint. I by no means know everything but I have learned a lot and continue to learn everyday about the things that make SharePoint actually work and about the things that make it NOT work. One thing that I would like to pass on to any person that thinks that SharePoint is just another web site is this. 'Put it in front of a user and tell them, there you go there is your web site'. Guess what, you just gave them a web site. (nothing on it, no content, no users, no interaction) they will never return to that site because they don't know what to do with it and even if they did go to it there is nothing there for them.
Now take that same user. Sit them down in front of the "web site" you have given them, show them how to add users, show them how to upload a document, show them how to add a link to a link list, show them how to make a discussion, show them how to add pictures and create their own sub sites and you have just given them the ability to take everything that they currently have on their own computers and share it with every other person they work with. This is what SharePoint is about, its about giving people the power to take control over the information they currently have and share it with the people that need that information.

SharePoint Interview Questions

2007-03-07T05:08:00.000-08:00

Here are a few SharePoint interview questions that may help you out. Whether your HIRING or being HIRED.

Target Candidate:(Overall SharePoint knowledge including Development, Administration and Architecture)

What is the difference between WSS and SPS?
What is the primary reason for dual NIC's on your web front ends in a Load Balanced Architecture?
What is the size limitation on Site Templates?
When would you use a Site Template and When would you use a Site Definition.
Why would a page that was modified in Front Page have problems when migrating from v2 to v3 SharePoint?
Explain the reason behind the degradation of Performance when a page is edited in Front Page?
Can you list the Events that can occur inside a Document Library?
Are you familiar with the Double Hop issue?
How do you solve the errors caused by Double Hop?
Explain a Web Part.
What major authentication change was added with SharePoint Service Pack 2
What is Kerberos? When would you use it?
How do you force a site to use its OWN database?
What is the reason behind a site using its own Application Pool?
What is the GAC?
Can you explain the basic use of a content editor web part?
What is the difference between Manifest.xml and webpartName.dwp
Can you give one example of a Custom Web Part that you may have to build?
Can you describe each of the SharePoint Server Farm Architectures?
For a Starting point how many users can each SharePoint architecture Support? Small, Medium and Large.
Can you tell me the differences in WSS Search and SharePoint Portal Search?

Each of these answers can delve into many other possible conversations, but for a starting point the most basic of answers follows.

Q1. WSS are the collaboration sites of the portal this is where the Content is produced. SPS is the aggregator the place where all of the content that is produced is collected and distributed.

Q2. The first NIC handles incoming HTTP requests from users while the second handles the back-end connection to the database servers.

Q3. Site Templates with "include content" enabled are limited to 10mb.

Q4. Typically a Developer would use a Site Definition and an end user would use a Site Template. If you will be modifying a site after deployment changing a Site Definition by anything other then adding will BREAK existing deployed sites. Site Templates can be modded and will change the current site but not sites already created.

Q5. Pages that are modified with Front page would be unghosted and this in turn creates its own template to specify layout. MOSS uses master pages to specify layout and may cause problems with pages that were modified in front page.

Q6.Front page makes a page unghosted which means that it follows its own template. Pages that have not been modifed are ghosted meaning they follow a base template. The difference according to Microsoft can be as much as 30% degradation. i.e. One Thousand sites using One Template (ghosted) or One Thousand Sites using One Thousand Templates(un-ghosted).

Q7.Insert, Delete, Copy, Check-In, Check-out,Cancel-Check-Out,Move or Rename, Update

Q8. Double Hop is when you access SharePoint or any other .Net Application and integrated security Allows you to access the page your on but does not allow the application or a web part to access a SQL Database. Basically your credentials are passed to the application (1st HOP) then from the application to the Database(2nd HOP) they are not passed.

Q9. Implement Kerberos, or Implement a Single Sign On solution.

Q10. Web parts are web based controls that are utilized by SharePoint to give functionality and interaction to SPS or WSS. They can be added, removed and moved on each site and can be reused.

Q11. When installing SharePoint it asks if you want to use NTLM or KERBEROS as the authentication method.

Q12. Kerberos is a ticket based authentication system that allows your credentials to impersonate the priveleges of a more priveleged user or service. Use it to allow access to Databases and third party tools that would need higher permissions then those granted to your own user account.

Q13. In SharePoint Central Administration open the "configure virtual server settings from Virtual Server List Page" --> Choose the Virtual Server by Clicking it. Choose "Manage Content Databases" -- > Click the Content Database --> change the Maximum Number of sites that can be created in this database to 1

Q14. A site using its own application pool will isolate its processes. Therefore a Crash of the Application or Site using its own application pool will not necessarily break the entire portal as long as the portal is using a seperate application pool.

Q15. Global Assembly Cache allows assemblies stored here as long as they are strongly named to have full trust. Placing items here may have more permissions then needed.

Q16. Content Editor is used to display code or allow a user to create a web part using content editor to display HTML, or scripting languages code.

Q17. The .dwp file is the XML description of the web part the manifest.xml is the file that describes the pieces of a web part to be placed in a .cab file to install a web part.

Q18. A web part that accesses a custom database that allows you to View,Insert,Update and Delate Data.

Q19.

Single - All SharePoint Aspects installed on ONE Server.
Small - One Web Front end Server and One Database Server.
Medium - One or more Web Front end Servers, One Dataabse Server, One Job and Index Server.
Large - One or more Web Front End Servers, One or more SQL Servers (can be clustered), One or more search servers, One Index/Job Server.

Q20.

Single/Small - 10,000 users
Medium up to 100,000 users
Large more then 100,000 users

Q21. Both use Full text Search capabilities as specified in SQL Full Text Indexing. But SPS Aggregates all searches and can index other resources such as shared folders and email resources then it Indexes the results for retrieval of the information from multiple sections or the SharePoint Sites. WSS searchs only the CURRENT Site and no others. WSS cannot search Sub Sites of the top level site collection each site searches its own site.

Feel Free to add comments as you feel are needed. I am aware that there are caveats to each of these answers and they are intended as a Basic Answer that can be elaborated on.