AOL and Time Warner Split – FINALLY!

I was never a big fan of this merger back in 2001. It just didn’t seem right. You didn’t need to be a M&A expert to know this would not have worked.

I have been an AOL subscriber since 1990. I remember using AOL v1 over dial up. The glory days of chat rooms and email. When you would get diskettes in the mail for an upgrade. AOL has been good to me.

This week, Time Warner Inc. said that it will finally split off AOL, fully unwinding the disastrous 2001 deal that joined both powerhouses.

My how times have changed. For those of us in tech we knew this would not have been a good marriage.

That was then and this is now. What is ahead for Tim Armstrong, former Google exec, and the man that must helm the ship. Well he will have to rebuild the AOL brand. Rebuild a company that has suffered from staff turnover, internal squabbling, a major decline in subscribers, and a decline in ad sales. And he has to face the juggernaut that is Google and new kids on the block like Bing and Twitter.

The task ahead will not be easy. Only time will tell if AOL will survive in the coming years.

Bing Is Coming. Are You Excited?

When I first heard the name I thought it was referring to Stanley Bing in Fortune magazine. I like his writings and want more. But no….

It is Microsoft’s new search tool (http://www.Bing.com). This new service will be rolled out worldwide by June 3, 2009. This is Microsoft’s challenge to Google’s dominance.

According to Microsoft Bing is a new search experience and consumer brand, outlining a new approach to helping customers use search to make better decisions.

This “Decision Engine” approach focuses initially on four key user tasks and related areas: making a purchase, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business. How about finding a job? I am all in for that. Maybe a developer could sneak that in for the unemployed. That function might be a big hit.

Like all things Microsoft, the surface is shiny and full of eye candy to suck us in. Microsoft is great at appealing to our basic human senses but fails to engage us long-term. I will leave what is behind the curtain for others to judge.

I will try Bing when it is released next week to see if it really is the Google Killer or will it be the next Vista destined to be a monumental failure. Only time will tell.

Good luck Microsoft. We will be watching

Into The Cloud – An Executive Summary

Cloud computing is the latest buzzword bandied about the web these days and often attributed to different things. The simplest answer is this technology uses scalable and virtualized resources over the Internet. The functions and usability is generated from within the Internet or “cloud” (which is the symbol used to represent the Internet on network diagrams).

Applications like SAP and Oracle have always been too expensive and complicated to maintain. They require datacenter space, power, cooling, bandwidth, networks, massive amounts of storage, and a team of professionals to install, configure, and run them. All of which costs money.

Cloud computing allows your business to run your applications in a shared data center. This costs less because you do not need to pay for the all the people, products, and facilities to run them. In addition, applications are more scalable, more secure, and more reliable. When you run applications in a cloud, you do not buy anything. It is rolled up into a predictable monthly subscription. You pay for what you use.

There are positives and negatives to cloud computing. All of which will need to be weighed before an organization engages in cloud computing. I will discuss some of these points in future postings.

Did You Hulu Today?

Okay. I am not a big fan of watching movies on my computer. I get tired of sitting in my chair in my office. And my kitchen is downstairs. So a quick jaunt for popcorn or a cold beer becomes a journey. Also I have a great sound system on my TV. So even though I have an iMac the sound will never compare.

On occasion and when I am killing time I do like to watch a quick clip of my favorite episode of Family Guy.

Hulu allows you to watch television when you want it and where you want it for free. I am not just talking clips but full-length episodes. And you can fast forward, pause, etc. And the quality is great.

I am not sure what there business model is or how they plan to make money. But that is not my concern once I get my favorite episodes of Family Guy.

10 Biggest Tech Failures of the Decade

Time Magazine recently published what it judges to be the 10 biggest tech failures of the decade . The article mentions several of the industry’s best-known names lost significant market share and competitive edges as a result of launching products that turned out to be duds. As IT executives we are very familiar with these products.

Microsoft Vista
Gateway
HD DVD
Vonage
YouTube
Sirius XM
Microsoft Zune
Palm
Iridium
Segway

WSJ Article - The New Résumé: Dumb and Dumber

There is a great article in the Wall Street Journal today about resumes and how job hunters are dumbing them down to get interviews. It is sad, but the current state of affairs in the search for jobs.

The New Résumé: Dumb and Dumber

Résumés – Are You Lost? Here Are Some Clues

As a follow up to my post “Resumes-Are You Lost?” I received some great comments. When I wrote the post it was more of a humorous look at resumes and the confusion around them.

Being confused about resume is part of looking for a job. There is no magic bullet when it comes to resume writing.

Chris Osborn wrote the following:

Does the advice help tell your story? For instance, does the advice relate to something significant in your background or qualifications that might help market you for the sort of role you seek? If the answer is “yes”, then I suggest following the advice. If the advice is more about format or the style of the resume, I suggest polite listening, and then take only the advice that makes intuitive sense to YOU.

It is your resume, so you need to own it. After all, you are the person who has to deliver the goods in an interview or networking meeting.

So – my advice (and take only what you want!) is to:

1. Tell your story. Make sure the resume makes the statement you want to make about your qualifications for the targeted opportunity.
2. Make sure your resume shows how and what sort of value you can add in your next role.
3. Use the stories you would most want to tell during an interview as guides for accomplishments.

Lui Sieh wrote the following:

The lesson(s) is that “our story” is complicated and so we’ll need to have different versions of it. I frequently had 2-3 resumes depending on the audience and my target role. For headhunters, it’s about the “key words” – because that’s how the HR system works. For personal networking with potential hiring managers, it was more about the experience and the story should fit more to how they would like to know/read about your story. Sometimes, I had to ‘dumb down’ my resume as well – just to get in the door.

To summarize...Resumes are about your “Brand”. Focus on what your strengths are and try to create a story about yourself. With this approach, your accomplishments, capabilities, and talents yield a resume that is very focused and direct. In today’s job market, that is extremely important because of the exact and specific requirements of the jobs available.

Good luck...

Culture – CIO to CIO

Culture is very important in any firm. A good CIO is one that understands, respects and does not fight it. I have tried to be a student of understanding culture. After all, I was head of IT for an America subsidiary with a foreign parent. Let us just say there were times when there was a culture clash. Culture became an important factor in my job and understanding it allowed me to excel at what I did.

Every company, department, organization, and profession has its own set of norms, values, beliefs, and accepted ways. These elements come together to form the culture of the organization. To really understand culture, a CIO must understand that culture is ever changing and not static.

An effective IT leader recognizes the importance of culture and seeks to leverage it. A CIO that fails to perceive the significance of culture often misses opportunities to improve IT and its overall effectiveness and how it is perceived by the business.

What specifically should a CIO do to influence culture? First, they must assess and analyze a company’s existing culture. Second, they must reinforce elements of that culture. Then CIOs can use this knowledge of culture to maximize and improve IT performance.

Are You Twittering? If Not You Are Missing Out

As a technology executive, I must admit, I am a little amazed by Twitter. It is a free tool that let’s everyone else who are also tweeting know everything you want them to know in the space of 140 characters. 140 characters does not sound like alot but it is.

What are you using Twitter for or better yet what can you use Twitter for? It is after all a tool and tools in the right hands can move mountains.

What can you use Twitter for:

1. Getting the word out. If you are blogging then it is great medium to update everyone that you updated your blog or web site.
2. Looking for a job. Use #tweetmyjobs or go to the website. Do searches and find people or companies that are Tweeting. You will be surprised who is out there.
3. Follow other people's tweet that interest you. You never know what may come out of it.

Steps to get Twittering:

1. Like your other profiles, make sure your profile is friendly. Keep it professional.
2. Add a picture of yourself. It makes your profile more real. It adds a face when you tweet.
3. Start following people you are interested in. Do a search and just follow people. Treat it like a social networking project.
4. Update your Tweet at least once a day.
5. Have fun...

So what are you waiting for? Go out and start tweeting...

Disasters From A to Z

It amazes me that in this day and age there are firms out there with absolutely no disaster recovery plans. I am not talking about a comprehensive 200-page manual but just a simple calling tree. How can any business operate without some level disaster recovery preparedness?

Let’s first define disaster. I would define a disaster as any event that adversely affects your operations. These events can affect your computer operations in any number of ways. Recovery back to normal operations can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.

Having worked in NYC for my entire career, NYC has been the center of many events. Many of which I have been through.

Here is a list of disasters that a firm should be prepared for:

Acts of God, Air-conditioning failure, Arson, Blackouts, Blizzards, Boiler explosions, Bomb threats, Bridge collapse, Brownouts, Brush fires, Chemical accidents, Civil disobedience, Communication failure, Computer crime, Disgruntle employee, Denial of Service, Earthquakes, Embezzlement, Explosions, Falling objects, Fire, Flood, Hardware crash, High winds, Heating/cooling failure, Hostage situation, Human error, Hurricane, Ice storm, Interruption in public service, Internet outage, Coup d’état, Pandemic, Water main break, Terrorism, Labor dispute, Lightning strike, malicious destruction, Military operations, Mismanagement, Personnel non-availability, Plane crash, Phishing, Public demonstrations, Buggy software, Radiology accident, Railroad accident, Sabotage, Sewage backup, Snowstorm, Software failure, Sprinkler failure, Telephone problems, Theft of data, Transportation problemsVandalism, Viruses, Water damage, Worms, Gas leaks

Résumés – Are You Lost?

Wikipedia Definition - A résumé is a document that contains a summary or listing of relevant job experience and education. The résumé or CV is typically the first item that a potential employer encounters regarding the job seeker and is typically used to screen applicants, often followed by an interview, when seeking employment.

A Curriculum Vitae (loosely translated as course of life) provides an overview of a person's life and qualifications. It differs from a résumé in that it is appropriate for academic or medical careers and is far more comprehensive. A CV elaborates on education to a greater degree than a résumé. A résumé is tailor-made according to the post applied for. It is job-oriented and goal specific. One of the key characteristics of a proper résumé is conciseness.

(Definitions pulled from Wikipedia)

Those of you that read my blog know that I have been out of work since September 2008. During this time I have met with or consulted with a variety of professionals: large scale recruiters, boutique recruiters, career coaches, life coaches, outplacement counselors, professional résumé writers, human resource professionals, etc. It is interesting to hear each professional’s take on what the resume format should be.

Here is a short list items that have been said to me - in no particular order:

1. Keep your resume to 1 page
2. Keep your resume to 2 pages
3. Senior executives should summarize on their resume
4. Use details to convey your accomplishments
5. Use bullets points
6. Don’t use bullet points
7. Use dates sparingly
8. Use dates where you can
9. Have a summary statement that is eye catching
10. Don’t use a summary statement it is out dated
11. Use tag words to pop up on searches
12. Don’t use too many buzz words
13. Quantify and qualify your work experience and its impact to business
14. Use hard numbers
15. Don’t use specific numbers
16. Use more business jargon
17. Your experiences should be painted in broad strokes
18. Be creative
19. Take chances
20. Resumes should convey “Shock and Awe” (This is my favorite)

See what I mean? It is confusing. I have revamped (totally overhauled) my resume several times based on the advice I was given. Honestly, while I have been around for sometime and have years of experience under my belt there are only so many ways to say something.

With millions of Americans out of work and the only thing to represent you is an 8-1/2 x 11 piece of papyrus, what should the resume format and message be? If the professionals cannot come to a consensus, how is the average Joe/Jane suppose to know?

Is the resume out-dated in these times?

Networking 101 - How To Work A Room

So I have been attending various networking events around the tri-state area-events that specifically cater to senior IT executives.

I was a little apprehensive to attend functions like this because I really did not see the value for myself. Can a room full of other out-of-work IT executives provide any good leads? We are all looking for the same type of job. If anything, this is my competition. Why would anyone help the competition? But I digress….

People would come up to me and recite their resume – their elevator pitch. I have to be honest, I am not good with names and I am definitely not good remembering the intricacies of your last job. I am, however, good at remembering trivial details about a person. I think most people are good at that.

Here are a couple of points to consider when you are planning to attend a networking event:

1. What are you trying to get out of the event? Is it knowledge transfer, critique of you resume, making contacts? Go in with a game plan.

2. Don’t regurgitate your résumé to people. Honestly, the people I remembered the most were the ones that just talked about themselves, not the ones that spoke about managing a global ERP implementation. It makes it easier to remember you in a room full of other people that have also done ERP implementations. Know your audience.

3. Be yourself. Not your last job.

4. Be happy. You are in a room with other people out-of-work. It makes no sense to cry about your situation. Everyone is going through similar or worst ordeals in this economy.

5. Carry some business cards. Go to Kinkos (or FedEx Office – whatever they are calling themselves these days) and make 100 business cards for $30 and put your information on it and hand them out to people as you talk to them. A business card still goes a long way. Have fun with it be a little creative. And do not forget to add your LinkedIn profile address and blog.

I would like to hear stories from you about the networking events you attend and any tips you may have.

Happy networking…

Keeping It Simple – The 3 ‘S’ Rule

I was talking to a new network manager the other day. He was picking my brain for ideas on how best to manage his small network. He is a staff of one and therefore must be everywhere all the time. We have all been there at some point in our careers so I wanted to give him some help to calm his fears of being overwhelmed.

When I first started in IT, I was schmoozed by many a vendor. What did I care at the time? I did not know better and this was a time when everyone was beating down my door. Aahhh the good ole days….

One of the first tools I needed was tool to monitor my core/edge and server heart beat. Many vendors came in and I paid a lot for various software and hardware packages to do the job. I won’t name names but after the first three or four months the various solutions I purchased seem to fail, break or go berserk. Of course the vendor was nowhere to be found or blamed my environment. My CFO was not happy with me. Lesson learned. Don’t be swayed by salespeople.

I found a product by chance because I was tired of coming in on the weekends for false alarms and outages. The product was WhatsUp Gold by Ipswitch (http://www.whatsupgold.com/). I started using this at version 2 and now they are up to version 12.4 at the time of this post.

What attracted me to Ipswitch was its simplicity. You can perform a simple heartbeat with very little traffic congestion being generated. You can have it email you when equipment goes down. And you can have reports generated on the health of your network. There is an annual service agreement based on the number of devices being monitored which gives you phone support and updates. It is far cheaper than what other products cost. Whats’Up has a very small footprint. Once up and running it required very little care and feeding. And is this not what we all want.

What’sUp saved me many times. As my department grew we expanded monitoring for each group so they would be able to monitor their equipment accordingly. As a manager I was able to get a snapshot of my entire environment to show how healthy the environment was doing. 100% uptime is a great number to throw around to corporate management.

So what lesson did I learn from all this and what lesson should new IT managers follow - Keep It Simple. Bells and whistles are great but too much of a good thing is not. Any new product should follow the 3 ‘S’ rule - Simple, Stable and Scalable.

Once you follow this you will be a happier IT person. Good Luck

Qualities an IT Manager Should Possess

Whether your title is CIO, VP, or just plain IT Manager, you should certain qualities that allow you to manage an IT shop effectively. If you are striving to manage your own department then these are the qualities you should have and be proficient at:
• Think like a leader. Stimulate ideas. Encourage staff. Bring out the best in people.
• Treat Information Technology as a service. All facets of technology under your responsibility should be function smoothly.
• Ability to Communicate. Demonstrate the ability to intelligently articulate ideas and strategies.
• Be an Agent of Change. Business is not static and therefore IT should not be static. Because you will need to align technology needs, you should constantly be evaluating technology solutions. By treating technology has an organic discipline you are better able to be an agent of change.

12 Secrets To Finding a Job in a Down Economy

Yesterday I attend my first TENG meeting. The Technology Executives Networking Group. LLC (TENG) http://www.theteng.org. TENG is a great forum with various chapters across the country.

Last night they had 3 speakers come to discuss recruiting and how best to market oneself.

Let me paraphrase some of what was said:
1. Senior executives should not post their resumes on free sites like Dice, Monster. There are unscrupulous recruiters out there who will use your resume without you approving.
2. LinkedIn should be used wisely and discretionarily. Do not add contacts for the sake of adding contacts.
3. Keep your resume to a one page. Senior executives by their very nature should be able to summarize information including their career history. This forces you to remove the fluff and keep your information current. Who cares if you interned at Company XYZ in your senior year of college.
4. Your resume should be like a first date. Only provide enough information to get a second date. Anymore and you have the possibility of scarring of the other person.
5. If you have been working for sometime, it is not necessary to provide college information. Use this space for details about your current position. Again, who cares about your GPA 15 years ago.
6. Create an eye catching summary statement. You are selling yourself. SO SELL YOURSELF!
7. Be creative. In this market, you have to stand out from the pack.
8. Stay in contact with your network. Send periodic updates to them.
9. Be wary of recruiters that cold call you. They are just trolling for information or mining you.
10. Job postings on web site usually mean the position has been filled. Very few senior executives get jobs via websites.
11. Build relationships with some recruiters. Have a handful of recruiter names in your rolodex that you have met and know your skillset.
12. Take chances. In a down economy, those that take risks get big rewards.

Mac OS X 10.5.7

I just updated my iMac with the new update 10.5.7. So far no issues.

Like previous updates, this updates the general OS. Enhances the stability, compatibility and security of the OS. There is no added functionality or new features.

It is rumored that this is the last update before Snow Leopard is released later this year. So far this is the most stable OS I have worked with. I am not naming names but you can figure out whom I am speaking about.

I am looking forward to the Iphone update later this summer.

Apple just keeps on improving on something that is already perfection...

15 Tips to Using LinkedIn

1. Keep your name simple. Do not add extraneous information.
2. Your profile should be managed like a professional website. Formatting should be simple and clean and filled with tags that are search friendly.
3. Add a photo and keep it professional. Headshots are the best. Photos add personality to your profile.
4. Update the section “What you are going now” at least a few times a week.
5. Personalize your "public profile" to reflect your name. This allows greater search ability.
6. Make sure the jobs you choose to list compliment each other.
7. "Experience" is a great place to show your accomplishments. Be creative and aggressive. Take chances.
8. List your certifications and licenses.
9. Get Recommendations.
10. Join groups that are relevant to you and invite those members to become your contacts.
11. Add contacts that are of value. Do not build up hundreds of contacts. It reflects poorly on you.
12. Use "Answers" sections to position yourself as an expert and to get exposure.
13. Use Answers section to get free advice.
14. Always be courteous.
15. Give back. If someone you do not know contacts you for information provide information to that person. A helping hand will go a long way to building relationships.

Belief in Yourself

I am not one for motivational ideologies but I read and interesting discussion on LinkedIn today (http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers&discussionID=3204760&gid=48613&commentID=3450705&trk=view_disc). The discussion turned more towards the frustrations people are facing in their job hunt.


It lead me to start thinking about people and what impetuous carries us through tough times. You read about how people turn to their faith and family to get them through ordeals. We turn to things that are stronger in our lives to help us move forward.

Over the last several months, I have read and met people that have been out of work or will soon be out of work. It is frustrating to say the least, especially if you have been working for a long-time and had seniority and a career. All that is gone. And you are like 12 million other people out of work.

It is important to believe in yourself first. It is only you that will get you through these times. In a year or two when the economy recovers and chugging along and we are all working again, we will look back and say we made it. We are stronger, wiser, and better people for it.

That which does not kill us only makes use stronger…

Disaster Recovery – A Beginners’ Guide

I have built several and moved several production and disaster recovery datacenters over the years. If you have been charged with this task and are in the initial planning stages this guide should help you get started.

First, you will want to rationalize and ask yourself what you want your DR site to accomplish?

Do you want to recover all your processes or only critical ones? Do you want to be operational for only a few days or for several weeks/months? Different businesses have different requirements so I would recommend forming a DR/BCP committee comprised of IT and business people. It will be important to get their input and requirements.

Once you begin asking yourself these questions you then will need to figure out if you need to recover all your servers or only a few. Again what is critical/not critical? Then you should start putting together a budget of costs: opex/capex to present to management and get approval before proceeding.

I have seen budgets make or break a project. But when it comes to DR planning, the sky’s the limit. So plan carefully and know your target audience.

Here is a brief list of some costs that I have encountered to get you started.

• Are you building your own DR site from scratch or outsourcing to a DR firm.
• Software licenses. Some vendors require you buy additional licenses for servers.
• Are you going to build DR servers with fault tolerance or not.
• Travel costs to and from site.
• Will the site be manned 24x7.
• Copier/fax/ printer costs.
• Maintenance costs of your equipment
• Security
• Hot/cold site costs
• Declaration costs
• Networking costs
• Replication costs
• Server Cosst (option for OS preload, Image loads, etc)
• Test time costs
• Data backup costs
• Locker costs
• Consulting costs

Once you have answered your questions and put hard numbers to your requirements then the next step is to build a disaster recovery site.

So good luck…

Blogging – The New Way To Make Friends

I have a few friends that have started their own blogs.

No Debt World Travel
Brian Peters discusses how he can travel the world on the cheap. It is great to see how someone travels the world on very little and have a great time doing it. Read about his adventures here at NoDebtWorldTravel.com 

SSP BPI Group
Chris Osborn is a Senior Coach with SSP BPI Group. His blog contains information about a variety of coaching topics such as the current job search market, success stories, use of social networking sites, etc. Read his blog here at SSP BPI Group

Lindaraxa's Garden
Julieta Cadenas was a Wall Street veteran who now turns her attention to food and entertaining. Read her blog here at LINDARAXA'S GARDEN