I got job in IBM reading this blog everyday & studying all the materials :Blog Reader Sean Joy

My name is ShiV.(Blog Reader) I got job in one of the biggest company IBM though I came from Mechanical Engineering background. and I am proud to say that i am a regular reader of this blog and it is the first time i am sharing my struggles and experience for a job and in the end getting a job in the biggest IT company. I got a dream job in IBM because of my hardwork & with the help of reading this Storage blog regularly.

I passed out from college in 2001 in Mechanical engineering. but always wanted to build my career in IT field.i was looking for a suitable opportunity to start off as i had done courses like C,C++,java. but at that time job market was in slump and my career was going nowhere inspite of great percentage and strong analytical and aptitude skills.I then started working as a tech support and got frustrated with that job as i did not want a call centre job.i was studying side by side for some software companies interviews .

I hardly used to get time for sleep as I had to work night shift of tech support & also used to come back & make time to read other materials. I started looking for a course which can give me an edge above others.luckily i found out a course comprising of TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager) AIX basics, Windows 2003 Server and Networking and being the first Storage batch i did not have much guidance as its a brand new field so I started learning on my own .I used to regularly come to this Storage jobs blog and seek guidance and knowledge.I read all the articles on this blog which are now more than 150 . I read many pdf's regarding SAN, TSM concepts,configuration, implementation,problem determination guides etc.and also other websites like Virtualization blog , Testing Blog,Datawarehousing Tutorials so I can know maximum about Storage & related technologies . I also concentrated more on command line as my opinion is its easy to lean GUI but if you want to be clear about the basics then use command line.then i sat for IBM interview.

In the Storage Interview the interviewers asked all the basic stuff about storage like :
reclaimation,
collocation,
policy management,
scheduling,
SAN,NAS ,DAS
etc

it was a 3 round interview extremely tough consisting of all the knowledge we had gathered

Ist round was written 100 marks consisting of all knowledge of AIX and storage.Storage part included all basic and advanced concepts of
LUN masking,
zoning,
RAID,
fibre channel classes of services,
FC topologies,
scsi,iscsi etc.(this blog really helped me because all above topics are covered on this blog )

2nd round was the best..they installed Tivoli Storage Manager(TSM) server and client on a m/c and gave us real time scenarios and we had to show them how to troubleshoot on command line some eg . of scenarios :
Issues with database ,
recovery log getting full ,
low scratch tapes no.
disk storage pool full what will happen to client sessions
schedules failed
etc

3rd round was seminar..topic from SNIA website we have to choose.(.I chose Storage Consolidation and Virtualization -when where how and why) i must say one of the videos i found on this blog really did help me it was a guy explaining about the same..

after all this they selected only 6 people and i got through and now joined IBM as TSM system admin .It is a dream come true for me it was a long journey from being a night shift guy handling Tech support to a IT Professional working in a prestigious company like IBM on a normal shift :) in Hyderabad.

My first role will be i think Storage Management,Disaster Recovery administration but i want to gradually learn as much as possible like SAN or Virtualization

hope this experince helps those who are struggling remember one thing :IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING. thanks roger for this wonderful blog

Technical Interview Round for Storage & SAN Support engineer

I had to wait for nearly 40 minutes for the secound round of Technical interview. Read previous post (below post) Wipro Storage Interview to know what they asked in HR round.

There were very few guys in storage/SAN who came for this interview though it was a widely publicised walkin. There were more than 60 guys each for Software Testing, Java Development, Dotnet programming , Oracle ,Networking etc but for Storage hardly 5 guys came for the interview. This boosted my confidence - I was already imagining that I will definitely be given offer letter. Read the full posts to get all the details of this experience.

Second round was taken by two guys one seemed like a lead & another an engineer with little experience. Lead asked most of the questions & the new engineer asked twisted questions out of my own answers - it was more of a verification of my confidence in the subject.

Questions asked in that technical round of interview were like:
1. What kind of Storage Solutions have you worked on ?
2. Describe customer scenarios which you worked in & what problem did I resolve with my Storage knowledge ?
3. What Storage subsystems I have working experience on ?
4. Which vendor equipments I've used ?
5. How did you configure a SAN box from scratch ?
6. How do I plan , provision & manage Lun creation for different teams withing an organization ?
7. What are the difficulties I've faced in optimally utilizing the Storage infrastructure ?
8. What troubleshooting I've done & what are the steps I've followed ?
9. How different is it to manage a FC SAN & an iSCSI SAN ?
10.Mentioned some of the major company Storage products mention their specifications , limitations & performance comparisons ?
11. How will I manage if I have to work with Vmware Virtualization in my infrastructure do I have any exposure with ESX Server Administration or with Virtual Infrastructure management ?
12. What are the High Availability (HA) & Disaster Recovery Solutions (DR) I've implemented & how did I work out all the initial planning,designing,implementation & maintenance?
13. What is Zoning ? Mention types of Zoning & What Zoning options are available in which company products ?
14. What is Storage Virtualization & Storage Consolidation ?
15. Explain RAID5,RAID50,RAID10,RAID6,RAID3 which one is prefered & when ?

More details about how the interview went on will be posted in next 30 minutes keep reading .

Dont forget to see job openings for Storage in EMC2,HP,Wipro & many major companies in Storage Jobs Blog

For People who are interested to learn manual application Testing find real company Testing Interview Questions by clicking Testing Materials Website

A Storage Interview Experience from one of the blog reader

Wipro Storage Interview Experience interview attended on 15 August 2007.

Job : Storage & SAN Support Engineer

Number of Rounds :

Initial screening was done through a HR round where there were usual things like :
1. Tell me about your self
2. Tell me about your previous experience
3. How were the team structure or company hierarchy in previous companies
4. What are the tasks & responsibilities you handled in present/previous job
5. Why are you leaving that job
6. Why This company & How can you say that you will stick in this job for a long time
7. What do you look for in your new job
8. What are your strengths & how they helped in your job
9. What are your weaknesses & how are you working to overcome them
10.Why should we hire you?
11.What are your salary expectations ? What is your present CTC & expected CTC ? Notice period & any issue in relocating ?

Next Rounds will details with questions will be posted in the next blog post within next 30 minutes.

If you want to see many job openings in Storage & System administration find them in Storage Jobs Blog

Check out Software Testing Jobs Blog for lots more Testing Interview Questions

Love Story of a Software Professional : One girl can make a big difference in your life

Everyone has forgotten that a Software Professional is also a human . The whole environment around a Software Pro makes him forget his real identity & turns him into another code churning ROBOT. I too forgot that real people read this blog. One of my blog reader has sent a story from his real life that has forced me to post it on this blog though this may not be the right place for it. I am sharing the story from this Lucky guy just to spread the message of "Love & Friendship" .

One Girl changed my Life.
Yes a simple girl changed my life ,I was a nobody - I was without job, without direction , without any support ,without money & without any hope in life. One girl changed it all & made me realise that I can make wonders happen. She was the reason why I am a succesful person today.She was the only reason why I am still alive today. I wanted to share my story with none but somehow I want to thank her so much that I think this needs to be shared.

I was a guy from a lower middle class family .My parents struggled to get me some decent education & all they could do for me is pay for my fees till 12th class - I am really greatful to them for all that they did for me.After 12th when all my friends were busy preparing for professional career paths I was busy searching for a job. I joined as a salesman in a software marketing company for a salary of 3,000 Rs per month. I struggled to sell softwares but I did not succeed . I lost my job in 1 month & was finding it hard to manage my family & responsibilities.

Then came the angel in my life. I met her by accident as I was searching for a job . I went in search of job into a Book publishing firm & the manager was on leave. His daughter was incharge. I narrated my story to her & said how badly I need a job. I said I would do anything if I can get a job. She said "Even if you get this job how do yo think your future will be ? You are leaving your education & you may never be able to complete your studies again ? Have you ever thought what you will achieve after 5 or 10 years without proper education?" .

I said I have no option I cant think of 10 years in future all I can think of is I need to fulfill my duties today for which I need money & I need a job for that.

I dont know what made her take that decision but that strong decision has made a big difference in my life. She said "I will pay your salary even if you dont work But if you promise to be my friend & do as I say ?" . I was shocked about what she said . She said "I will pay you salary & bear your expenses if you study further & if you promise to rise above your difficulties? More than that I want you to be a good friend of mine & be good in this relationship." Saying yes was easy for me but the later days were not.

She chalked a very disciplined life for me:
She brought dignity in my life
She was the real evidence of dedication & I learnt it sincerely from her
She gave me the reasons to Prove myself
I wanted to win in Life atleast to show how much I appreciate her support
I wanted to make the impossible possible just to see her Smile 'cause she gave me the reason to Live
She showed me how important it is to have an aim in life &
above all she walked with me to support me in reaching my aim

She made it difficult at times but she sat with me & spent time to make me understand the importance of education & more than anything the importance of time.

TIME & EDUCATION : With proper Direction - these are the best gifts god has given in my life through my angel. I thank God for sending such an angel in my life & giving me the Best moments of Life where I learned how a man can grow out of any difficulties. I thank her in million ways for if she was not there I would have been nothing today.

I want to write my story & tell everyone that You Can Make a Difference in Someone's Life : if you really want to . If you dont care about anyone else atleast bring a difference in your own life for better.

How Can I Get Software Job ; What Should I do to get a Software Job

Here are all the information you need - just keep reading these blogs daily & you can learn a lot of things

Salary information of Software engineer's
Salary in Software company

Which company pays the highest
Many of the major companies do pay well if you excel in interview & show lots of expertise in their job requirement skillset

What to study to get Software Job
You need to first decide which path you want to go
You want to be a Software Developer or
You are interested in Server & System administration
You want to be in Networking & Security
You want to build you career in Software testing and Quality Assurance (QA)
Choose your path first & based on which you need to plan in detail again to target respective company's job openings /job requirements

What kind of questions are asked in interviews
Based on the job description & based on your prior experience this will be asked
More than 100 interview questions are shared here Software Testing Interview Questions

Where can I start & who will guide me
Need Guidance to start career
Keep reading this blog & ask questions in the comments section . I will update this blog with all the necessary information to guide you.

many more questions are answered in these blogs which can help U get a "Software Engineer" job in Software Testing, Storage Technology , Virtualization Technology, Datawarehousing technology

http://winjobs.blogspot.com - Software Testing

http://storage-jobs.blogspot.com - More than 140 articles with many interview questions & answers & people sharing interview questions

http://storagejobs.blogspot.com - Only job openings listed with some more info on Salary (approximate) for different companies

http://virtualizationjobs.blogspot.com - Virtualization technology (Microsoft,Vmware,IBM,Netapp are hiring more than 200 guys every month in this technology)

http://datastagejobs.blogspot.com - Datawarehousing jobs with many tips database ,informatica, terradata

Email me if you need any more information

Thanks a lot for your time, I appreciate you taking time to read this email. Please let your friends or loved ones know about this blog so even they can also benefit from it. Anyone who emails his friend a weblink to this blog & CC's my email id roger.smithson@gmail.com will recieve a 150page "SAN Student Guide" & "50 Common HR interview Questions" FREE . I feel what is written on these blogs are very very much helpful so I guess you can benefit from these & also forward to your friends who are looking for learning /studying & struggling to get software jobs.

Regards
Roger

Learn Software Testing in 2 Days for a very reasonable fee

Many job seekers who are interested to do Job supporting course are blocked by some obstacles:
One of the major obstacle is money [Can not pay the high fees]
Another major obstacle for few is time [Can not attend for courses which stretch over several days ]

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The course for now will be conducted in Bangalore only.

This course is for anybody who is interested to learn about "Software Testing Fundamentals" .

The course will cover many real industry examples & many interview experiences. Also there will be more than 100 to 200 testing job interview questions shared in this "Super Software Testing Course" .

The topics which will be covered in this course will be :

1.Testing Process - Answer to question "How do you test in your team ? How your team handles this testing Project" .

2.Test Life Cycle [What are the different phases of Test Life Cycle? how are these implemented in your company? What are the deliverables coming out of each phase ?]

3. Bug Life Cycle [ How defects are tracked in your project ? How you search for previous bugs filed in your testing project & make sure you are not filing a duplicate bug ? Explain all the factors you consider before filing a CR/Defect report]

4. Types of Testing [ What is Sanity testing, Functionality Testing, Regression Testing , Security Testing , Integration Testing, Documentation Testing , Positive & Negative Testing , System Testing , End to End testing , Aplha testing, Beta testing and many more ]

5. Testing essentials / Terminologies
[ What is a Test plan ? How test plans are written ? Write a Test plan for testing Antivirus ?
What is a Test case ? How do you write test cases ? Write 10 test cases ?
What is a Test setup ? Test environment ? Test Suite ? Test Script ?
What is Entry Criteria and Exit Criteria ?
How does the development team & Testing team interact in your company ?
many many more detailed terminologies in Testing

6. Test approach or Test Methodologies

7. Software Development Life Cycle & Different Models of SDLC

8. White Box Testing, Black Box Testing . Manual Testing & Automated Testing [in brief]

9. Interview questions with answers [ More than 200 ]

10. Interview experiences from more than 5 companies [ How many rounds , what each round of interview expected , what salary was offered ]

There will be some surprise bonuses & also good material to study for future reference reading. The material hard copy itself is worth all the fees you pay.

If you guys are interested email & book your seats in advance . This is a very very limited seats session so not many seats are taken . So email today roger.smithson@gmail.com .

If anybody is NOT happy or satisfied with the course his money will be returned 100% . [ only condition is he should report his displeasure within 4 hours in the first day itself & 100 % of the fees paid by him will be returned] . This course is not being conducted to make quick money. I can earn better money Online. I can do better things in the same time & still earn more money.This course is being conducted so people who are constrained by time & money can still get the benefit . But it is not made fully free because people should respect the efforts being put & also should take this seriously. It has been learnt in the hardway that people are serious only when they put their money. Anything you give for free or for cheap people handle it badly.

This course is NOT cheap but it is reasonable at only 4,000 [ Yes only Four thousand Rupees] You yourself will say at the end of the second day that you gained a lot of knowledge in Software testing job segment.

Read http://winjobs.blogspot.com [Software Testing Interview Questions & Software Salary ]
Read http://storagejobs.blogspot.com [Lots of Storage Job Openings info articles]

The person who has been writing all these blogs including this one that is http://storage-jobs.blogspot.com will be taking the classes . So i think you DO NOT need a bigger proof. If you still feel you need proof take time to read all the above mentioned 3 blogs/websites & tell me you need any more proof.

Email roger.smithson@gmail.com NOW