Confused to Clarity to Comprehension to Comfort to Confident - Fino's Five

here is an email I recieved from Fino - which had some real useful info so thought of sharing with you with Fino's permission. Fino's email is below
--------------------------------------------

I have something I use in my workshops. I teach workshops for customers that are unemployed ... plus I do 1:1 sessions with my customers ... helping them with their resumes, counseling them, and identifying job referrals for them.

Years ago ... I used to teach computer classes at a business college. We had students that would eventually graduate ... after a 6 month program and sometimes after a 9 month program.

I made up something I call:

Fino's Five C's

- Confused
- Clarity
- Comprehension
- Comfort
- Confident

Every week my students would go through Fino's Five C's. Monday ... we'd cover some "totally new material" ... whether in WordPerfect or Lotus 123 or classes like that. Keep in mind ... this was back in 1993 and 1994.

My students would be "totally confused" on Monday as we discussed lots of new topics, etc. By Tuesday after doing some homework on Monday evening ... thinks would look ... "a little bit clearer" ... and the smoke ... would start to clear somewhat ... so to speak.

By Wednesday ... as we were discussing new material ... the students would start to knod their heads ... because by now ... the material was actually starting to make some sort of sense to them ... and they were actually starting to "comprehend" the material.

By Thursday ... I would give my students a quiz. They would take the quiz ... and then work on some more homework ... while I graded everyone's quizes. At the end of class ... we would go over their quizzes ... and use the review ... for prepping for their "test on Friday". My students would go home and study on Thursday evenings.

On Friday ... I would always give a "test". Invariably ... all of my students would ace the test and usually get 95's and 100's on their tests. The would now be totally "confident" on the same material that they found totally "confusing" on the previous Monday.

The following Monday ... they'd be right back in "Confused" mode when we'd take up some totally new material. After a while ... my students ... got comfortable with the fact that they were going to be "confused" on Mondays .... because they knew that by Friday ... they would be in Confident mode.

=====

Here's the cool thing about Fino's Five C's ...

All these years later ... I am still using "Fino's Five C's". I use them now when teaching workshops to our unemployed customers. I let them know that they are going to be "confused" ... when they first come into our centers ... looking for work.

Literally by the end of the week ... after coming to our workshops ... and spending time in our centers ... we will have moved them from 'confused" to "confident" ... and soon they will be getting a new job ... & moving on with their lives and careers.

Fino's Five C's ... helps them "be okay" with the fact that they will be "confused" at first ... but let's them know ... they will get to "confident" ... if they just plug into the system and "allow things to happen" for them.

I've also shown them ... that when they interview for a job & get the job ... as soon as they start their new job ... they will be back to the first "C" in Fino's Five C's ... but "it's okay" ... because it's just a matter of time ... before they will work there way back to the final "C" ... "Confident" ... ;-)

I've had many past students of mine tell me ... "Fino, if it hadn't been for Fino's Five C's ... I may never have graduated" ... ;-)

I hope you find this helpful ... ;-)

Fino

Secrets of Getting IT jobs Software Job Interview Process Maps & Tips on Interview,Resume preparation Flowcharts

How To Get Software Job Mindmap Simple to Understand Image

Quite sometime back I wrote an article on "How To Get Software Job" lots of people liked that article & asked me to write more on it. I've created a video on that but I will share that Video only with those who email roger.smithson@gmail.com & write about your interview experiences. Yes U will get access to Video if you write about your experience of attending an interview & please do write in detail.
Just to make you realise the importance of that article which is highly read by most of my blog visitor find below mindmap of the same article & here is the link to that article titled "How To Get Software Job"

CLICK ON BELOW IMAGES TO SEE CLEAR TEXT LARGE SIZE IMAGE



CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW TO SEE BIGGER DETAILED IMAGE. You like Black - How To Get Software Job Mindmap share your experience & get access to a Secret video explaining this Mindmap


CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW TO SEE LARGER CLEAR IMAGE .How To Get Software Job Mindmap in Grey.

Interview Success Map generated lots of Interest Digital Version is ready for download

I guess you already read the first article on "Interview Success Map" Which simplifies the whole Interview process & gives several tips to help you get better results from software job interviews.

Digital version (downloadable file) of "Interview Process Flowchart" or what we call "Interview Success Map" is ready. You can get it for FREE but you just need to do one simple thing.

1st Step:Enter Your Name,email id : Subscribe to my Emails(News letter)
2nd Step: Mandatory you must do it to recieve the PDF of Interview Preparation Tips Map. You check your email account for a confirmation email from us with a link. Click on that activation link to say that you really own that email box, also you permit me to send you emails with useful information. If you complete these 2 steps you will recieve the PDF in the next email.

Your Name:
Your E-Mail:

Thanks for taking time to read this blog & request your support to grow the content of this blog.

There is one more way to recieve the PDF file of "Interview Success Process Map".
Send an email to just 3 of your friends & CC this email id getbestsalary@gmail.com . Your email should have few lines of how these websites helped you & should have links of http://storage-jobs.blogspot.com/ http://www.StoragejobsVideos.com/
http://VmwareVirtualizationTraining.com

You will get this downloadable PDF of "Interview Flow Chart" as well as some more such FREE products in future too.

I'm getting a Video created by *** who'll explain how this flow chart was created & how effective it is. If you email your friends about this & cc in your email getbestsalary@gmail.com then you will get access to protected page of that Video.

DO email getbestsalary@gmail.com if you need any more info.

How to prepare for a Software Job Interview

"Help Me to Prepare for My Interview" This is a very common question which many have in their mind.So thought I would give some pointers to help. Most of the Software job interview including storage technology jobs have some common format.

They are classified into several areas like
Your Skillset
Specialization
Project Experience
Operating System
System Administration knowledge
Networking knowledge
Programming knowledge or Scripting Knowledge
Ability to understand and follow processes whether it is Software Development Life Cycle(SDLC) processes, Test Life Cycle, Infrastructure management processes, Customer Service Level Agreements (SLA) or any other maturity model process. Knowing about processes is an important aspect if you are aiming for higher or management level positions.

Highlight the keywords of skills or anything related to above topics in your resume.
If you are serious about your Interview Preparation start giving priorities which might be decided by the Job description.
Get some inputs from your seniors or anyone more experienced than you who is willing to spare sometime to let you know what he thinks are the priorities for this job .
Based on the priorities start getting short notes or small content for your study preparation
Start with the toughest topic example : Configuring Linux Clusters & try to grasp them as much as you can.

Skillset
Never forget preparing strongly on your present work based skills or present project details. Most of the times many questions come from this area only.
Usually you will be given some lineancy if you dont answer earlier(oldest project in your resume) project related questions but if you are not satisfactorily answering your present project or experience related questions then - it does not add to your favour.
So make sure you put lot of time to prepare on your present company's projects or work experience.
Make sure you prepare well to answer " Tell me about Your Self " ,
Tell me about your role & responsibility,
Tell me about your initiatives in present role,
How are you contributing to your team's progress
How are you being a good team player
How do you handle customer escalations
Do you interact with customers on a regular basis, what is the process for this
How is your configuration management
What do you mean by Change management
How much time you need to come upto speed in your new job
What are your strengths & weaknesses

Specialization
If you have some certifications or done some real valuable training better highlight them , but also be prepared to handle questions on them. Example would be what are the outlines you learnt from your Sun Solaris Administrator Certification

Operating System
Generally having work experience on some of the major operating systems like Sun Solaris (Latest Solaris 11), Redhat Enterprise Linux ( latest RHEL5), HP UX, Windows Server 2003 (Enterprise Edition) , IBM Mainframes etc adds lots of weightage
But if you are not well versed on all above OS's atleast be good in one of the *nix OS preferably Linux or Solaris.

Having System administration experience is a huge benefit in Storage/telecom industry openings

Even Network administration or atleast good networking fundamentals & networking advanced knowledge is becoming almost a mandatory requirement for most of the job openings recently. The reason being Network has become an integral part of most of the projects or services which IT is focussed on. So start learning more about Switches,Routers,DNS,DHCP,Firewalls,Subnets etc

Programming or Scripting knowledge : I can not say in words the importance of these segments . If you have anything related to these in your resume you should YOU MUST be very very clear & good in them. Thats all I can say for now

Processes : They drive the success of a Company, Team , Project . They make life complex in the middle but make it better at the end. Know you project related processes or processes you follow in your team/project/company etc

I guess this is a very generalized overview of how you should think or partition your interview preparation. Let me know your thoughts. I appreciate your inputs on these articles - Roger.Smithson@gmail.com

How to Win Interviews without getting Stressed

I help many people prepare for their interviews. I have observed frequently that whenever someone is preparing for their new job interviews they will usually by under lot of pressure. I have also seen lots of exceptions where people directly goto a job interview without any preparation as if it is a meeting with a friend or a date with a girl friend. There are also many Guru's who dont need any kind of preparation, their years of experience have build strong knowledgebase for them to handle any tough technical or person interview rounds. I am not writing this blogpost for such Guru's I am writing this article for the normal guy/gal who has not got soo many years of experience. Who has not given too many interviews. I have even seen experienced people getting stressed out when they have to go through a new job interview.

Let me share few tips to help you relax & give a winning performance in your interview.
1. Preparing for an interview is an ongoing process. It is not an even which occurs on the last day prior to the actual interview scheduled date.
What i mean by ongoing process is , even before you have scheduled the interview date start your preparations. Be very focussed when you are doing your normal work or tasks for your present job or while in college. When you configuring your new linux server, when you are tweaking your old application server, when you are troubleshooting your network switch, when you start learning new things about your brand new storage array - when you are doing your normal job be very alert & learn those small & big details , learn with a vision to handle questions on these areas when you are faced with them in your real interview.

2. Try to cover more topics in less time Only if you can absorb it. There is a limit for information absorption for everyone. You can read a whole Brocade manaul & digest within 1 week , I may need a month. You may learn all the administration commands for your new NAS appliance within a day I may need a week. You may learn to do all Linxu Server tweaks within a month I may need a year. Point is when you are preparing for interview I agree you have 10 to 20 major topics to prepare on like
Storage domain
Networking
Operating System
Management Software
Security
Troubleshooting
Performance Improvement

But dont try to read 100 page materials for each topic if you have only 4 days for interview. You wont be able to finish even more than 2 topics. Instead read fast or skim through huge text materials or prepare compressed notes before hand to use as last minute interview quick reference guides.(I am planning to write one such guide email roger.smithson@gmail.com if u r intersted - u gotta pay for it if u need it).It is important u prepare well on all required/essential topics without spending too muc h time on any one,but spending time based on ratio of More time on Topics of your weakness & Considerably less time on Topics in which you are already strong. Also its a very good practise to read your profile(resume) & anticipate what questions may come based on what keywords you have used on your resume. List out all those possible questions and make sure you get answers for all of them before you go for the D-day.

If you have enough time better read some more reference materials on each topics, reading online is good only when you get specific material fast & spend actual time reading that material. What generally happens is people keep searching for right material using google or any other search engine , they search for hours & hours & download all materials. But then they will say I will read them all tomorrow since there are so many materials to go through- chances are he/she never gets enough time to read them. So instead of spending time in searching/googling spend quality time to actually read atleast 20 to 40 pages of compressed materials on each topic based on what you have mentioned in your resume & skillset.

Have some one who is already in the industry with some good experience to track your preparation progress & evaluate you constantly- this is a very strong tip. If you can get this to happen you can surely win the interview. But i have usually seen people are soo busy they can hardly take out time for others. So in that case be ur own mentor & try to evluate ur self as an independent person

Give stress to more hands on or lab exercises it is always important that you work more on practical section rather than preparing all the time on theoritical aspects. This is very much true for any Software or Storage or System administration or Networl administration kind of job openings.

prepare well for that dreaded common interview question " Tell me about yourself " . Make sure you talk only tech & career stuff & nothing personal here.
Prepare a script that includes the information you want to convey. Begin by talking about past experiences and proven success:

"I have been in the Storage administration area for the past five years. My most recent experience has been managin SAN & NAS infrastructure from Vendors like EMC2,Netapp & HP. One reason I particularly enjoy this work, and the challenges that go along with it, is the opportunity to solve complex problems & improve data storage solutions. In my last job, I deployed & succesfully optimised some major Storage solutions resulting in a 30 percent increase in availability ,reducing 15% recurring costs & increasing utlisation by 25% in a matter of months."

Next, mention your strengths and abilities:

"My real strength is my attention to detail. I pride myself on my reputation for following through and meeting deadlines. When I commit to doing something, I make sure it gets done, and on time."

Conclude with a statement about your current situation:
"What I am looking for now is a company that values Storage innovation , where I can join a strong team and have a positive impact on overall team's success"

Practice

Practice with your script until you feel confident about what you want to emphasize in your statement. Your script should help you stay on track, but you shouldn't memorize it ,you don't want to sound stiff and rehearsed. It should sound natural and conversational.

Even if you are not asked this type of question to begin the interview, this preparation will help you focus on what you have to offer. You will also find that you can use the information in this exercise to assist you in answering other questions. The more you can talk about your product -- you -- the better chance you will winning an offer at the end of all the interview rounds.

How to prepare for interviews for Storage Openings

Previous 2 posts mentioned some storage job openings. You can click on EMC2,Dell,HP Openings ,Netapp Storage openings.
If you are worried about how to prepare for these interviews this blogpost is for you.
First Step Do Not apply for all openings when it does NOT match your profile. Making sure you apply for only those job openings which suit to your present profile or your interest is essential. This helps you to avoid the confusion & prepare with a focussed mind .Also this increases your chance of clearing all the rounds of interviews. Since interviewers are looking for persons who have the maximum points in their present profile matching the job requirement of the company.

So always make sure you get detailed Job description before you plan and schedule the interview. Once You have detailed JD(Job description) make sure you have atleast 1 to 2 weeks time to prepare for the interview. Interviewers always try to push you to take interviews very early. But if you request or sometimes even if you push then they will agree for a date of your convenince.

Once a date is fixed be serious & plan how you want to cover the major areas of your skillset. Example would be if you have mentioned below points as your skillsets
2 Years experience in Linux administration
Well versed in SDLC (Software Development Life CYcle)
Expertise in Release Engineering(RE) Process
Good experience in perl and shell scripting

Then you need to see what are your strong areas & which ones are weak areas. Start with Weak areas first & try to finish them early & with more stress.
Example if you feel SDLC,RE process are your strong areas & Linux administration,Perl/Shell scripting are areas you feel you need to improve on then you start with Weaker topics & strengthen yourself. Its always true that whenever u feel u r strong in any topic even if u prepare briefly on those topics you can still manage to do well in interviews. But if you are not at all confident about any topics then you will be shaky & will loose lots of good points/impressions when u are not able to answer or handle them in interview. So my suggestion is always strengthen your areas of weakness & make sure you are in a good enough defensive mode before you take the real interview.

It is always a good habit to go through several MOCK interview sessions or simulated interview sessions before you take the actual Real interview.This gives a clear picture & is a big winner for many of the people whom i have helped to win interviews. Believe it or not almost 60% to 80% of people have done very badly in their first & second mock interview session. Only those who were dedicated enought to prepare & take 3rd or 4th mock interview have done well in mock interviews as well as won their acutal company interviews 100%. These are the guys who came back with a big smile from their real company interview. Since they have fought the interview battle several times before hand .

instead of loosing your best chance by directly going for an interview its always safe & better to go through some simulated or mock interviews . This saves you from lots of frustations .

I will contiue writing about your interview preparations tips in my next post which I will for sure post by tomorrow. For those wise people who want to get personal guidance for their interview preparation I have a paid service where you pay me only $60 and I guide you for 15 days through emails & support materials for your job interview. Email roger.smithson@gmail.com with your interested job openings/job description & what are your expectations. I will do my best to support you but at the end of the day it is your dedication & sincerity in preparation that makes you win any job offer letter.

Sample Resume for Network administrator,System Administrator,Storage Engineer

If you need a last minute preparation guide for your Network administration or Storage or System administration Interview You will get it for just $50.

This is a highly compressed guide with more than 24 topics concentrated for Storage and System administration . This has
interview questions
interview preparation tips
interview handling
companies from which you can get interviews
job profiles for which you can prepare
job descriptions and their respective preparations

This is a MUST guide for anyone who is struggling to clear interviews. This guide is done after lots of research and it is like a compressed format of many best content from this blog. Get it now and increase your chance of clearing storage interviews.

You can pay through credit card or through paypal account by clicking this button

See Interview Rounds at Sun Microsystems

Email ur friends about this blog & CC me roger.smithson@gmail.com . I Will send u links of Storage or Tech Job Video with lots of Real Industry Exposure for every friend you email. I want to spread the word & help more people thru this blog .U'll also get many more Surprise Gifts to Boost your Career & Salary.

Here are some sample resumes on Network administrator,System Administrator,Storage Engineer.




















Email roger.smithson@gmail.com for Storage related resume
Previous Posts on Storage Technology Jobs

Where to start if you are preparing for a job in Storage technology

How To Start Planning & Preparing for a Software Job or a Job in Storage (specifically)
Thanks to Triveni Rao one of the blog visitor for contributing this article.

If you want to get a Job in Storage related technology area, prepare on below topics

Fibre Channel networking fundamentals
HBAs (Host Bus Adaptors)
RAID mirroring Backup and Recovery fundamentals
Basic Understanding of File system
Database storage functions
Basic understanding of Storage Virtualization
Loops and Switches (Networking)
How zoning is applied
How LUN masking is applied
Volume management fundamentals
Media management automation
Basic Ethernet/IP networking knowledge
Grip of OS administration(Linux/Solaris preferred)

Start your preparation by knowing all the above mentioned topics theoritically : which means long hours of studying the Big reference books ( Or reading this whole blog as most of these topics are covered on this blog ).
Try to have a practical lab setup where u can configure switches/networks, create & test RAID, Experiment on Volume Management etc.

Once u are good with theory & done several pracitical lab sessions on the above coverable topics - then u start narrowing down on a Job profile which u are interested to work in. It may start with (Job Roles in Storage domain)
- Storage Support
- Storage Field Engineer
- Storage Testing
- Storage documentation
- Storage Planning
- Storage deployment
- Storage interoperability
- Storage Virtualization
- Storage Disaster Recovery
- Storage Migration

Ur role may keep changing but thats how u learn many things in any technology.
Once u are well aware of whats expected of u in a Job Description or Job Profile - you start improving your theoritical as well as practical knowledge in these specific areas.

Once you are confident about the above steps - start attending MOCK INTERVIEWS. If you want I can arrange for a Mock Interview session provided you have prepared well - FREE SERVICE.

Once u have taken enough Mock interviews - start applying for the real company jobs & get some interviews - attend & keep attending interviews. Also dont forget to improve your Domain strengths & reduce the failures in any other related area like - Softskills,HR,PR etc.

KEEP READING & EMAILING ME roger.smithson@gmail.com & I will workwith you to help you succeed & get a High Paying Job in Storage Technology.

Previous Posts on Storage Technology Jobs

Email ur friends about this blog & CC me roger.smithson@gmail.com . I Will send u links of Storage or Tech Job Video with lots of Real Industry Exposure for every friend you email. I want to spread the word & help more people thru this blog .U'll also get many more Surprise Gifts to Boost your Career & Salary.