Q: So, Mark I got to know your work first hand as a software architect and developer on our Sharepoint Intranet project here at Hudson. How did you come into contact with Hudson?

A: My relationship with Hudson started in 2005 working as an IT contractor on an 8 month assignment with General Growth Partners. As is typical with good contract jobs, it became a permanent gig for me when my contract ended. After another full-time engagement at OfficeMax doing a highly involved Sharepoint implementation, I kept in good contact with Todd Harootyan, my Hudson recruiter. Todd knew that Hudson was embarking on a Sharepoint implementation internally and needed a senior consultant to get them over the hump. So, here I am today helping you guys build out YOUR Sharepoint Intranet.

Q: It’s great having your expertise here Mark, believe me! I’m curious, how did you get so involved with Sharepoint?

A: I have always enjoyed large Enterprise implementations. I spent a few years as a Plumtree consultant going through some long and painful projects. When mid-2000 rolled around, I saw that Microsoft was dipping its toe into the Enterprise Portal space and I began to investigate Sharepoint. I began to see first hand that large and small organizations were embracing Sharepoint because of its low price tag (free at the time), and fast-developing feature set.

Q: What is the advantage that Sharepoint has over some legacy portal development platforms?

A: The BEST part of it is the high chance for success that a Sharepoint implementation has right out of the box. Sharepoint developers are highly satisfied because of how robust the software has become in a few short years. With some thoughtful configuration, the system meets 60-70% of an organization’s needs right out of the box. Plus, the development, support, and third party control communities are hugely helpful whenever you hit a roadblock.

Q: Is Sharepoint the future of Microsoft?

A: Well, $1 Billion in revenue for Microsoft and 17,000 clients is a pretty impressive install base. I’m convinced it’s the next generation platform that will be here for the long haul. As the enterprise has moved away from the PC client (Outlook) to the Web Browser as the center of the universe, Sharepoint is positioned perfectly. It is no surprise that we’ve heard Sharepoint mentioned as the centerpiece of Microsoft’s Cloud Computing strategy.

Q: Do you have any advice for IT talent with regards to Sharepoint?

A: Hitch on to the Sharepoint wagon! This platform will provide excellent learning opportunities and job prospects for the foreseeable future. Once you conquer development become more of a consultant by moving your skillset up the value chain. Every Sharepoint team currently needs people who can help with needs assessment, requirements definition, systems architecture, and training to better map their Sharepoint solution to the needs of the business.

Stay tuned for our next entry where we’ll give you a peek at the Sharepoint Intranet Mark helped Hudson to build.

Related posts:

1. Mark Tebbe Was “IT” Back Then
2. Don’t Get Caught In The Weeds With MOSS!
3. IT Pros on the Web this Week - November 7, 2008

Here are a few easy tips to quickly build a savvy network on Twitter and in the IT profession:

• Be Conversational: Creating a two-way dialogue by responding to Tweets, maintaining your @ replies and retweeting (RT) interesting tweets.
• Learn Etiquette: CIO.com offers a quick overview of etiquette with their Five Dos and Dont’s post.
• Integrate Accessibility: Integrate all of your social media pages and devices. Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to stream your Tweets to your profile page, however stay away from it if you Tweet more than 10 times a day. The settings tab on Twitter allows you to connect from a mobile device whether it has internet capabilities or not.
• Quality over Quantity: As you engage your network, always remember the benefits of quality over quantity for your job search. Check out the analysis on the  TwiTwips post, “Twitter Followers: Quantity or Quality?”
• Post Interesting Tweets: Follow the right people and catch their interest with interesting posts and linking to articles relevant to your industry. Have a question? Ask your followers for instant feedback.
• Use Hashtags: Don’t underestimate the power of tracking on Twitter by using hashtags (#). Adding a hashtag in front of a word allows that word (your tweet and you) to be grouped with a certain topic making you and the topic more searchable. This can prove to be very useful when posting information relevant to your job search in the IT industry. Search Hashtags using HashtagDictionary or #hashtags.org.

Remember, using a social network as part of your job search strategy means that you must engage your contacts to reap the benefits.

Image by garyslevin007’s

Related posts:

1. Building Your Network of Followers on Twitter
2. Your Next Job is Only a Tweet Away
3. Job Searching Via Social Networking

Professional Networking on Twitter

I suggest that you think of your presence on Twitter as a new avenue to pursue your career interests. Notice that I didn’t say use Twitter as a new way to tell the world you are desperately seeking work. The speed with which you will get to a ‘Do you have any jobs available’ conversation will be proportional to how quickly you add value to the Twitter network. As you follow people at companies where you would like to work, or follow some excellent recruiters, they can immediately refer to your Twitter page and your stream of ‘tweets’ to gauge your knowledge in the IT industry. They can also view your resume or online portfolio by following links in your bio. Sharing this information would normally require an online application or 2-4 emails, but can be done by one direct message or @ reply instantaneously via Twitter.

Finding Your Following:

Of course, the greater your network of followers, the more response you will have to your networking efforts. Third party resources have created numerous sites to facilitate searching Twitter ranging from people or business searches to a Twitter application search. You can view a comprehensive list of fifteen directories with Mashable’s article, “Find ‘Em on Twitter: 15 Twitter Directories Compared.” Here are four I narrowed down to maximize your job searching network:

• Twellow: Known as the Twitter Yellow Pages, allows you to search people by name, bio, location or category such as: information technology or recruiting. Twitter users can add themselves to Twello and its categories (max 20), modify their profile to include more links and extend their bio.
  For Example: IT Recruiter Search
• NearbyTweets: Allows you to localize your Twittersphere by searching for fellow Tweeples via city, zip code or address. You can also search with keywords and limit the search radius to find those with similar interests to you who are just a jump away.
• Twitpacks: Allows you to search by creating packs of people based on topic, interest, location, company and events.
  For Example: There is a pack for technology.
• Twibs: IT businesses are on Twitter too. Follow them to see when they land new business and might be hiring.
  For Example: IT companies

I hope you’ll follow these easy to learn tips to increase your network and take your job search into the Twittersphere.

Photo by designer-wg.de

Related posts:

1. Engage Your Job Search Network Using Twitter
2. Your Next Job is Only a Tweet Away
3. Job Searching Via Social Networking

In this installment, I find out that the background of your video resume can either add to, or detract from your presentation to prospective employers. Where you are matters as much as what you are talking about. You’ll see more in my first exploration: The Whiteboard Background.

While I might not end up sitting in front of a whiteboard for my video resume, it got me to thinking about some other potential options.

5 Good Video Resume Backgrounds Around the House

Unless you are looking to get really adventuresome, odds are that you will shoot your video resume at home. Here’s a list of a few ideas to stage an interesting background at home:

1. Home office: Sit at your clean, uncluttered desk with your laptop. Show your tools.
2. Kitchen: If you have granite counter tops show them off. They make you seem more valuable.
3. Study/Den: Make sure there are a few books in the background. They make you seem smarter.
4. On the couch: Think Diane Sawyer TV interview. It makes you more seem more relaxed.
5. Wall with framed art and greenery: Neutral and professional

5 Bad Video Resume Backgrounds Around the House

For every great video resume setting at home there is an equally bad idea. Here’s five that come to mind.

1. The bedroom: Don’t even think about it, unless you are looking to make it in a certain industry.
2. The bathroom: The fact I get inspired in my shower caused me to consider it briefly. Don’t.
3. The backyard: Really. Unless you work outside, which most IT people do not, outdoor shooting offers all sorts of distracting sights and sounds that add no credibility to your video resume.
4. The garage: No one wants to see your bike, beer fridge, or woodworking hobby
5. The car: Action movies seem like they’d be fun, just not for communicating your potential IT prowess

All of this poking around the house got my wheels spinning about ways to make it seem like I’m not at home shooting the video resume at all. My first thought was obliterating the background altogether. I see an awful lot of this at conferences and on the celebrity red carpet interviews. Throw up a sheet behind someone especially with a bunch of sponsor logos on it, and voila.

I intentionally used a blue sheet in my previous attempt because the nerd in me REALLY wanted to know how to do bluescreen/greenscreen chroma-key. You know the technique where you can make it look like you are on the Death Star battling Vadar. Well, it turns out, the technique is pretty challenging. If I choose to go this route, I will need to refine my lighting and background material so that I look a lot better than in this example.

So, what do you think are the best ideas for a video resume background? Do you think it makes a big difference? Feel free to submit examples of what you think does or does not work.

Related posts:

1. Kris’s Video Resume How-to Project
2. Video Resume How-to: Selecting a Camera
3. 5 Ways to Boost Your Visibility in Online Resume Databases

Is it possible that while sales plummet (and commissions for sales pros along with it), somehow companies value their IT operations and talent enough to dole out raises? According to the WSJ, the study found, “Overall, IT managers had the highest salaries, raking in $111,998 in 2008. Database administrators made $89,742, and network engineers took home $72,496. System developers were the only group tracked by Dice.com to get a pay cut in 2008, with the average salary dropping 1.3% to $87,211.”

Maybe we are getting to a point where the heartbeat of an effective enterprise, its technology, is finally getting its due. Perhaps the top brass is saying “Let’s examine everything, but don’t touch anything that would keep the computers from running and the billing systems from humming. In fact, let’s invest.” This doesn’t sound right. Is anyone in IT not experiencing pinched budgets, hiring freezes, and delayed projects? Maybe 2008 is the lag year for salaries still built on prior year success. If IT is a good place to go in 2009 for a salary increase, let’s agree not to tell anyone. Otherwise we may awaken the scrutiny of a higher authority.

Photo by stuartpilbrow.

Related posts:

1. IT Pros on the Web this Week - November 7, 2008
2. Look Beyond Salary in Your IT Job Offer Decision

I spent a few days figuring out video blogging enough to post my first YouTube video (which required its own camera selection). So, here’s my first video on…well…video.

Use What You Have, or Can Get Your Hands on Inexpensively

So, if we aren’t going to pay a pro are we going to spend just as much money on a righteous camera to do the job? Well, that would be pointless. The 3 options I present here all cost me under $200. You should seek out the best camera you can to get high quality video of yourself into your computer. Look for a combination of image and sound quality. If you need to borrow from a friend for a few days, so be it.

Quality is Key

I know from our recruiters that IT people don’t spend a lot of time formatting their paper resume and making it look pretty. Don’t have the same attitude with your video resume. YOU ARE AN IT PROFESSIONAL. People think you have some knowledge of high tech things. If you can’t master a video camera should we trust you to program the next financial billing system? If you don’t care enough to compose your shot and get the sound right, do you have the attention to detail it takes to manage a complex web project? I’m not saying my first video blog post is high quality. What I am saying is that by the end of this, my video resume is going to look good.

Camera 1: Kodak Zi6

This camera was the easiest to capture high quality video. The video was simple to get into the computer to edit. However, the sound was of marginal quality due mainly to the editing software used. With better editing software, this would likely be my winner. By the way if you want a geek review of this camera check out Chris Pirillo’s review of the Kodak Zi6.

Camera 2: Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks

With its finicky light settings I’m just not sure I could create a video resume that didn’t have a webcam look to it. It captured adequate sound, and the native file format is easy to edit in Windows Movie Maker.

Camera 3: Sony Handycam (DCR TRV-30)

This is the camera that kept me up til 3am. The actual image capture was a breeze. With a remote control, a tilt LCD screen for viewing myself, and a great lens, the camcorder is the way to go for video quality. I spent quite a bit of time testing the Radio Shack lapel microphone. After swearing at and breaking its cheap plastic clip, I tried to figure out why I was capturing only mono sound. Using a lapel mic definitely reduces that echo chamber feeling you get when listening to most video resumes. I’m just not sure if it is too distracting to hear my voice out of only the left speaker. I’m just curious if a stereo lapel microphone will work with my camcorder. More investigating to do.

The editing adventure took me to iMovie on a Mac this time, as my PC would not recognize the FireWire connection from the camcorder. Re-learning how to use a 3rd piece of editing software for this series proved time consuming, and I still don’t feel I have the ultimate right answer. None of what I’ve tried so far puts out HD and I don’t think its fair to all of you IT Pros out there that I use anything Mac for this project. IT is a Windows world, and I’m going to make my video resume on a PC so help me God.

Related posts:

1. Kris’s Video Resume How-to Project
2. Video Resume How-to: Choosing the Right Background
3. 5 Ways to Boost Your Visibility in Online Resume Databases

I would also guess that the vast majority of the job seeking world has yet to consider doing a video resume, especially if you aren’t in the YouTube generation. If you are like me, the thought of putting together a video about yourself comes with all sorts of questions, not the least of which is “won’t I look like a total idiot?”. Well, I’m going to take one for the team here. If my boss can get on stage and sing, then certainly I can chronicle the process of creating a video resume.

A DIY Video Resume

Over the coming weeks I’ll go through the video resume building process in depth. I have a ton of questions as I’m sure you do too. I’m going to use this post to document all the burning questions I have so far, and then I’m going to use further posts in the series to explore those questions and get some answers. Sure, I can just Google a bunch of advice and spit back some links for you, but that has no credibility. I need to try this - experience this process and show you what it takes. The end result will be my video resume for all of you to critique. Oh, and this is for all you DIY’ers. There are professionals out there to help you do this, but I want to know what it takes to do it yourself.

Initial Questions About Video Resumes

Right now I’ll have to admit, I’m pretty intimidated. Like many of you, I have a paper resume and some limited experience shooting home videos of my kids. I don’t even have a decent webcam. There are some basics I need to understand before I even get started:

• What kind of camera should I use?
• What should the background be?
• What kind of clothes should I wear?
• What should I say?
• How long should the video be?
• How can I get good sound?
• Should there be titling, music, flaming logos?
• What should I use to edit the video?
• How should the video be edited?
• Where should I host the video when I’m done with it?

Ulterior Motives

No. I’m not actively seeking a job. I see this as a great opportunity to add some video content to the blog, and for me professionally to learn some new tricks. I know that how-to content is some of the most sticky there is. So, I’m hopeful that this series becomes a useful tool to help thousands of job seekers get out of the paper world and into the video world. If the series sucks, or I’m not cut out for video I’m sure you’ll let me know about that too. Stay tuned.

Related posts:

1. Video Resume How-to: Selecting a Camera
2. Video Resume How-to: Choosing the Right Background
3. Showing Your Face, Personality and Credentials? You Must Be a Vid-iot!

Even though most companies wait until after the new year (to make a hire), they do interview during the holiday period. They like to get candidates lined up for meetings after the first of the year. And if recruiters are in during the holiday period they like to do screening interviews.

Now, I’m not saying that there will be a ton of recruiters milling about our offices throughout the holiday week, but there will be some.

Take Advantage of Late December and Early January

This time of year is especially slow in IT recruiting. Just have a look at how recruiters plan their business. They are going to be hitting the phones hard in January to tee up Job Orders (client requests for employees) for second and third quarter. If you make yourself a Most-Marketable-Candidate (Hot Candidate) now, you stand a better chance of being placed. Let me explain.

At Hudson ITa “marketing” call to a client is an easy way to start a meaningful dialog with a potential hiring manager. When our recruiters call in and say “I know an amazing IT Business Analyst with 8 years of experience in Biotech that just started looking”, the conversation goes way better than, “Hi I’m Bill from Hudson do you have any needs?”. So, play to that need. Contact a Hudson IT recruiterand start to build a relationship. Tell them how eager you are to be marketed to the clients that are currently looking for your skill set. Then kick back, relax, and have another nog. The best thing you can do for your job search is to have a recruiter doing the heavy lifting for you!

Links for your Holiday Job Hunting Enjoyment

Here’s some other quick advice regarding your holiday IT job search.

• Holiday Season Job Searching tips from About.com
• Find a Job During the Hoidays Videofrom MyFox Detroit
• How to Job Hunt During the Holidays

From all of us at Hudson, Have a Happy Holiday Season!

Related posts:

1. Using a Recruiter vs. Job Boards for Your Job Search
2. 5 Ways to Boost Your Visibility in Online Resume Databases
3. Thoughts from a non-cheesy, non “used-car-dealer-like” Recruiter

Now is the perfect time to get on the Twitter bandwagon. Not because Barack Obama won an election with it, or because BusinessWeek tracks Twitter’s every move, but because you can learn a TON from very smart people in IT without having to leave your seat. In this post, I’d like to give you a few ideas on how to use Twitter to learn. First though, let’s get over the common objection.

Twitter Is Just a Waste of Time

People who don’t use Twitter at all, or have used it but don’t “get it” fall into these general areas:

• I just don’t have time to sit there all day long and tell people what I’m doing.
• It’s 140 characters, what’s the point?
• I don’t want to know what random people are eating for breakfast, or whether their flight is late

To you objectors, shut your pie hole and go join Twitter now. You can even read a newbie guide to Twitter to make yourself comfortable, then c’mon back. Like email, Twitter can be a waste of time, but I’m going to show you how to use it productively to boost your knowledge fast.

Be a Fly on the Wall

The reason Twitter is such a compelling professional learning tool is that you can be a fly on the cubicle wall of the best thinkers in IT. Think of it like the world’s biggest shadow program. Instead of reading another dry Ruby on Rails book, you can follow the guy who invented it, David Heinemeier Hansson, or sit next to Sam Stephenson as he programs with it every day.

Get the Pulse of the Industry NOW

While 140 character tweets will keep you informed of where your favorite IT heroes go to lunch, you’ll also get the latest industry buzz. People tweet relevant news, links to blog posts with code hacks, or project management tips. You’ll also find lots of everyday struggles with technology, software, or vendors. This gives you a keen view into potential project pitfalls and key inside information. Remember that 140 characters prevents long URLs from being inserted into tweets. You’ll likely see most tweets contain a “shortened URL” like this http://bit.ly/10f8J from popular URL shortening services like bit.ly, or tinyurl.

Attend Conferences You Wouldn’t Normally Attend

You’ll find out very quickly the important industry events and conferences people are attending. Sometimes attendees will ‘live-tweet’ the conference to provide the most salient information to followers. Usually they will link to presentations, or supporting information mentioned in conference sessions. To get a sense for live-tweeting watch Stephen Colbert do it on election night.

Even more useful is when hundreds of conference attendees tweet from the event. To aggregate all of the tweets together, you’ll see a hash tag like this #smj08 which leads to a recap of all tweets that were related to the event.

Meet Important ‘Tweople’

Perhaps the best reason to use Twitter is for how easy it is to discover new people. Within any tweet you’ll often see mention of other Twitter users. For instance, someone might say “tx @KrisRzepkowski for the great advice.” Click that person, and you’ve just found a whole new expert from which to learn.

Get a Tool

Get a twitter client for your computer and/or your phone. You will get FAR more value from Twitter than just using your web browser. For your PC, I recommend TweetDeck. With it, you can save searches that will show tweets on particular areas of inquiry. When you are getting tweets from others who are also struggling with their latest Sharepoint project, you too will learn Twitter’s value. On my iPhone, I use Twitterific, a compact app that lets me tweet while on the run.

Follow, Follow, Follow

People on Twitter like to be followed, that’s called having an audience. The people you follow don’t need to approve you doing so. Get out there today and follow as many people as possible that can help you learn more about IT. I guarantee that the effort you put in will be at least worth the cost of that training session your boss canceled on you.

If you have feedback on using Twitter to learn you can follow me on Twitter. Or leave it in the comments below. I’d also love to hear who your favorite IT Twitterers are. You are welcome to leave your Twitter handle in the comments for all to follow.

Related posts:

1. Your Next Job is Only a Tweet Away
2. Engage Your Job Search Network Using Twitter
3. Building Your Network of Followers on Twitter

A Snapshot of the Super Project Manager

Jay Rollins at TechRepublic explains how to step beyond a PMP certification to provide the most value as a PM. To elevate your role to the level of Super, you need to stretch your business thinking beyond managing schedule risks, scope creep and sign-offs.

This Super PM is not typical. Most PMs that I have seen focus on the documented requirements and point out to the business manager that he signed off on these requirements if he complains that the product is not meeting his expectations. If there’s an issue on schedule risk, he notifies the CIO so that he can try and lead the team to overcome obstacles. This type of PM becomes overhead very quickly.

An Awesome Enterprise Architect at IBM Tells Her Story

Deb Perelman at The IT Grind profiles awesome IT pros on a regular basis. I enjoyed this week’s profile of Martine Combes who works out of Paris, France on large scale architecture projects. Here’s some advice of hers that I took to heart:

Build a strong network: You will learn from your peers and colleagues. In your network, include managers and executives that set an example for you, they will provide you with good advise. If you stay isolated, it will be difficult for you to progress. Your network will help you to grow.

This is a particular challenge for people like me who work from home. Too much of my ’strong network’ is built on Twitter and LinkedIn profiles. It’s time to step away from the laptop and step into the office. I also find it is very easy to stay in my comfort zone with only my immediate supervisor and direct colleagues. My large scale projects naturally get me into contact with others in my organization, but consciously extending beyond that group for advisors is a strong recommendation.
 

SaaS Web Developer Talks About Life in the Cloud

I liked the profile of Nicholas Ramirez from the series In the Trenches over at Dice. He talks about being a developer within a Software as a Service company which is increasingly the business model for most major software. Ramirez begins to reveal the future of web development as programmers will increasingly need to worry more about interpreting API’s and data transfer protocols and less about particular programming languages.

Because we’re positioned on the Web, we’re able to transfer data to and from other Web sites (currently implemented via a hodgepodge of legacy and modern methods). So, there are times when I’ll need to call up developers and discuss the setup or maintenance of these systems. Some are much better versed in protocols and technologies than I am, while others much less so. It helps if you have a basic familiarization with the languages and setup of other platforms. Also, it’s good to be able to understand and troubleshoot code that was written by someone else years ago.

With data flittering all over the cloud instead of your desktop operating system, how you get and transfer information will be as important as what you do with it.

If you see some interesting IT pro stories on the web, let me know in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Software and Web Developers, What’s Your Motivational Carrot?
2. Ask Mark Vogt: There’s a Big Future in Sharepoint.
3. PM’s and BA’s in the Trenches