http://www.jobster.com/at/person/show/107132?hbxcmp=feed&hbxsrc=rss_user_answers http://www.jobster.com/at/assets/images/jobster/logos/rss_logo.gif http://www.jobster.com/at/person/show/107132?hbxcmp=feed&hbxsrc=rss_user_answers Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:00:30 GMT Most recently updated answers by Wayne Anderson http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/237288?answer_class=AnswerBase I was technically titled as a Technician however the actual job was essentially the duties of a Junior Network Administrator, working with the Network Administrator in maintaining and implementing systems. There are a wide variety of systems in the environment from the normal infrastructures (including many legacy components) to custom in-house software test servers, inventory systems, as well as supporting a full training environment. Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:00:30 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/237288?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/237287?answer_class=AnswerBase Manugistics, at the time that i was involved, really was looking for multi-discipline talent willing to work at relatively low market rates. Since manugistics has been purchased, my colleagues still working there have indicated that the hiring process has changed significantly to be driven far more by HR and less by endpoint technology managers. Mon, 09 Jul 2007 15:59:06 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/237287?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/86165?answer_class=AnswerBase Avanade provides a wide variety of experiences as a consulting organization so I would submit there is no 'typical' day accross the organization. Therefore: If you are on an engagement, you wake up in your hotel, complete your preparation, commute briefly to the customer site. At the customer site you will be working with the project to plan for the rest of the engagement and to work through implementations of the technology that we have been engaged with. You can always expect heavy microsoft involvement and a heavy front-end planning process before we are ever to a point that servers get configured. Depending on the time compression involved in the project, most of the time you finish near regular business hours and commute back to the hotel. From that point on, your time is yours. Often the evenings are spent getting dinner as a group or going to play pool, etc. The after-hours camraederie that is engendered during an engagement is one of my favorite parts of being on-site as a consultant. When you are not on an engagement, you are on the bench. You wake up in your own bed, walk the 10 steps to your computer, sit down, and work on training acording to the development plan that you and your career manager have set out for the year. You do this until end of business or until you want to stop, whichever is later, and then you continue on with your evening. Bench time is extremely flexible, it is up to you to manage your schedule. Understand that Avanade has some base expectations about your general productivity on the bench but how and when you get things done is driven by you. Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:38:25 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/86165?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/86164?answer_class=AnswerBase Understand that you are entering a consulting organization with a deep expertise in the Microsoft space. The consultants are (generally) smart and highly certified. Even management have Microsoft experience and technical knowledge. That being said, you do not have to prove yourself every minute of the day. A common thing to see for new junior consultants is usually the nervous conversation steering towards thier own experience. This is understandable. It is usually because the new consultant feels insecure, I know I did when I joined avanade. The truth of the matter is that your position amonst your peers is really going to be determined by your project work over time and your contribution to the common mailing lists we have at Avanade. During your first few weeks, concentrate on learning how avanade does things, complete the many trainings you will be assigned, and read all the documentation you are given links to. No one expects you to be THE expert right out of the gate so relax and try to make your first few weeks about learning what you can that you did not know about us or the company systems, and less about connecting everything around you to something you have experience with. Sat, 03 Feb 2007 15:25:55 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/86164?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/69523?answer_class=AnswerBase My desk was tucked away in each building that I worked. The view from my desk in the first office was actually rather remarkable as my office mate taught art at one time and had arrayed his desk with various forms of art work. In the second office, my officemate and I were both bordered by windowless walls, Availible to our sight in that environment was our Laptop, VoIP phone, the wall, some overhead cabinet space, a whiteboard, and our door. A view unremarkable, to be sure, but still better than having to work from a cube farm or from public space. Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:19:03 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/69523?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/69522?answer_class=AnswerBase Take the time to relax, do not allow the width and breadth of the campus and data centers to overwhelm you when you make your start on the IBM Boulder campus. An understanding of the layout and memorizing server locations will come to you over time as you work there. Also, make sure that in everything you do at IBM, you follow CYA. Cover Your... well... you know. Its unfortunate that anyone has to do that because it implies there are trust issues in the way a company works but the simple fact of the matter is that most people there wil be recording conversations in the form of saved email or IM logs. Make sure you are doing the same to document requests,etc that come in. If you get a verbal request to do something, make sure it is backed up by a written record (email) before you actually do it because I have seen multiple situations where the technical endpoint gets burned when a higher level PM or account person repudiates that they initiated an action. Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:16:50 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/69522?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/62954?answer_class=AnswerBase While working with a couple of the engineers on a late-night issue brought up by a customer, we started to chat about some of the recent developments in the particular business unit that we worked for while we waited for a courier to bring us a part from the local IBM distribution center. I had noticed that one of the networking contacts that we had dealt with for much of the time I was with IBM was gone. As the gentleman I was working with was the networking team lead for the unit, I asked him about why we had not seen that particular individual. Of all the reasons in the world, apparently this guy had not shown up for 10 days and hence had been terminated. In all the rest of the time that I was with IBM no one heard anything further from that individual and he was asumed to have been arrested.... again. Apparently while employed the engineer was arrested for various charges related to drunken intoxication in public, missed two days of work, and then returned. Probably one of the funniest things I have had the opportunity to hear about while working in what is stereotypically expected to be a serious professional environment. Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:51:41 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/62954?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/62953?answer_class=AnswerBase In the case of being located via a third party placement, essentially you interview with the outside staffing company first. They locate you, they usually complete a phone interview followed by some sort of technical screen and/or personality (in-person) interview to ensure that you are a candidate that the staffing firm feels would represent the quality of availible candidates well. You are then submitted as a resource to IBM with your personell package and the cost proposal from the staffing firm. From your perspective, usually the next step is a narrowing by the individual IBM team in some fashion. In my case at the time it was an in person interview where they started telling us point blank that we werent there to h ave to prove our technical prowess, that hs already been vetted by others and by our references and we wouldnt be at that interview unless a lot of people agreed we had the technical capability to do the job. The imporant thing that they were looking for was team chemistry. Are you someone who can get along with the team in sometimes stressful circumstances, long hours, on call situations. Can they feel that you are someone who wants to be part of the team or do you want to play it lone ranger. This interview was rather unorthodox as I had approached the interview in the standard suit and tie and my interviewers were potential peers who were business casual.... at best. I cannot say that this is the way that the process will be conducted for every candidate, but rather can only relate the process as I observed during my work with the company. Sat, 09 Dec 2006 05:44:25 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/62953?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/62306?answer_class=AnswerBase Avanade uses a four stage interview process. The first step is the recruiter interview. This interview provides the feel for the recruiter to understand if your values and career goals are a good fit for avanade. Do you like to train? Are you interested in constant learning? Are you willing to fight hard to stay on the very front edge of technology? Is travel going to be a problem? The second interview is a technical interview with either a System Engineer or an application developer, depending on your specialization. In this interview, you can expect to be asked a wide range of questions accross the board to generally cover the gamut of your area of expertise. During this interivew, the interviewer will take the time to work with you on assessing your questions about Avanade and the experience as an Avanade consultant. The third and fourth interviews are in-person usually back-to-back. In this interview set, a director and another technical consultant will meet with you in person, ask questions that are more focused to your particular skillset and experience. The second technical interview is a chance for another technical specialist to get an idea of how you answer questions in person, how you conduct yourself in a technical situation, and how you present and explain answers. These are highly relevant skills in the consulting environment that may not neccessarily be required in a normal support or operations environment. The directors job will be to integrate all of the knowledge and recommendations in the first three interviews and then use that information to take a deeper look at the HR and soft skills side of your career experience. The director will utlimately be the one to make the up or down decision on whether or not to extend you an offer. Thu, 07 Dec 2006 05:23:55 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/62306?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/57738?answer_class=AnswerBase IBM is an entirely business casual environment unless you work in a customer-contact position such as sales or direct on-site consulting. IBM has this ongoing image as a hold-over from the 80s when everyone involved with computers was a buttoned down conservative wearing a suit and tie and that is just not the case anymore. Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:11:24 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/57738?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/57737?answer_class=AnswerBase With IBM, there are usually two primary induction paths. First, you complete an internship or make contact with IBM at the collegiate recruiting level. In this way most actual IBM employees are hired. Second, you are located by a contractor recruiter and work as a subcontractor for IBM until your manager can sufficiently justify bringing you on as a temporary or long term supplemental employee. The status is not as secure as one might hope, as a supplemental employee has all of the drawbacks in terms of job vulnerability without the perks of overtime or a strong benefits package. Finally, with several years of work and a supportive manager, you can be brought inside as a "blue" full-time employee of IBM, at which time benefits such as training, the full health/dental/401k package, and team events/bonuses become availible. It is true that IBM HR does maintain an active recruiting practice but in terms of the ratio of employees hired this way as opposed to either of the other two staffing methods, the chances of this are fairly slim in my experience. Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:07:07 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/57737?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/57735?answer_class=AnswerBase The daily commute for me was about 45 minutes to the Boulder, Colorado IBM Global Services facility. The campus is located between several major towns so it required crossing several major arteries each day to arrive at the facility. If you live in the boulder area or longmont, your commute will be fairly quickly. If you live anywhere else in the metro denver or greeley areas, you are guaranteed to be making a daily commute of 35-45 or even more minutes. When I started the job, I was living in Greeley, CO which resulted in a commute of roughly an hour each way. While this is not really a huge number in terms of the expectations of metropolitan areas like Washington DC, Seattle, or Dalls, an hour commute is huge in the state of Colorado. Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:02:59 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/57735?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/50872?answer_class=AnswerBase The amount of coffee consumed depends on the amount of coffee availible. IBM is a highly corporate environment where you are, for the most part, high utlization. Under those circumstances, you find something that will keep you moving forward. For some people, thats the snack machine by the elevators. For some, thats having 50 people on sametime and chatting with at least one of them at any given time. For me, that was caffeine. Invariably, I had some manner of purchased beverage at or around my desk, at one point bringing in 12 packs of soda to reduce the percieved cost. I suppose that were I to quantify it in equivalent cups of coffee I would certainly have to indicate 4-7 depending on the day and what was going on at the time. Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:01:16 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/50872?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/50870?answer_class=AnswerBase Avanade is primarily a consulting organization. That being the case, your commute really depends on whether or not you are customer facing (which most of us are). If you are customer facing, your commute varies depending on the day and the client site. For example, the start and end of week travelling is usually several hours each way. Within the week, however, the commute is only as long as it takes to get from the hotel to the client site and back. When you are staffed on a local project, the commute is usually as per normal for the area you live in. In denver, it is about 30-45 minutes to anywhere in the DTC or downtown. If I am staffed on a remote project out of the house, my commute can be the 11 steps it takes me from my bedside to my office chair. These sorts of varied experiences and the constant change is what draws me to consulting in the first place. If you are someone who enjoys and expects a routine involving a specified commute time range that you will follow day in and day out, I would submit that Avanade may not be the best organization for you. Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:51:43 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/50870?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/50868?answer_class=AnswerBase Actually its not as bad as many technical organization. Because the primary job function for me is as a consultant my access to caffenated beverages varies depending on where I happen to be located and what I happen to be working on atht eh given time. During travel engagements, I find that I tend to drink much more caffeine via coffee, diet soda, and the like. When I am at home, however, I tend to drink almost none, preferring to drink water. Wed, 01 Nov 2006 17:48:25 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/50868?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/457618?answer_class=AnswerBase Highly virtualized leading edge Microsoft environment. Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:39:26 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/457618?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/160440?answer_class=AnswerBase For fun, I like to read. I am quite the fiend for reading new books but unfortunately devote very little budget to it. It is true that I spend much of my time re-reading popular fiction authors like Clancy and Grishom, Dan Brown, et al, however I enjoy a good romp through WEB Griffin, Charles Dickens, Tolkien, and others as well. Additionally, online I like to develop security related blog postings, create new website material, and play computer games. Lately I have become engaged in several professional forum and networking communities. Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:05:43 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/160440?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/154218?answer_class=AnswerBase Probably my best or favorite interview was the 4th stage interview with a Director at Avanade, Inc. He came to the lobby and retrieved me and like an oaf, I proceeded to drop a paper from my development portfolio on the floor. We went through the odd and awkward dance of trying to both pick it up at once. With this potentially awkward and devastating event, he chose to laugh it off and open a line of discussion about the pressure of interviewing. It was a real ice-breaker for me. In the ensuing interview in his office, we discussed my background, my interests, my experience, the standard fare. and then we started a general discussion of technology. My thoughts on various bits of virtualization, competitive positions of Microsoft products against offerings in Linux and the roadmap for each side going forward. It felt more like an open and candid technology discussion between two technologists than it did an actual interview. He was up-front with me and told me outright that his job during this interview was to make the final determination of whether or not Avanade should hire me, and if so, what level I should be brought in at. The personable, approachable, technology oriented approach to this senior interview was well appreciated and enabled me to sustain a higher level of confidence and animation than I think would otherwise have been the case. Wed, 22 Nov 2006 16:34:23 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/154218?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/154217?answer_class=AnswerBase Once ,while interviewing for an IT position at a medium sized family-owned publishing company in Wheat Ridge, CO, I was given a full tour of the publishing and editing facilities. At the end of the tour and discussion with various members of the team that I would prospectively work with on a daily basis, I am led into the publisher / owner's office and am asked to sit down for an interview. While we begin discussing the position, the potential responsibilities, and begin getting in to my history, she actually takes off her shoes and puts her foot on the edge of the desk! To make matters worse, she proceeds to begin clipping her toenails in the middle of a position interview! Needless to say, I indicated respectfully that I do not believe that I was a good fit for thier position after my experience that day. The absolute disrespect of doing a personal grooming task in the middle of an interview certainly indicated this is a potential boss that I could see there being some professionalism issues with. I would not willingly want to put myself in that sort of environment. To all future interviewers (of me or anyone else): Please do not start personal grooming in front of an interviewee. If you are bored or uninterested, thats fine, an interviewee cannot expect to connect with every single interviewer but stare at a freckle on my forehead, or make a show of going through my paperwork, or hide the comics behind my resume. Wed, 22 Nov 2006 16:28:01 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/154217?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/154215?answer_class=AnswerBase I would love the opportunity to work as an investment advisor. I follow the stock markets and the news assiduously as part of my daily routine. I enjoy taking the time to research a stock or a mutual fund, and managing my own portfolio. I think taking those skills and experiences, supplementing them with training, study, and professional licensure, and then leveraging that into a professional opportunity helping others work on thier investing is appealing. Wed, 22 Nov 2006 16:20:10 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/154215?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/146387?answer_class=AnswerBase I am most passionate about the interrelation of technology integrations. Any time you have a complex migration or the development of a multi-tiered infrastructure, the possibility exists for multiple teams to work together on an overall complex system goal. There are opportunities for networking, network administration, training, support, security, and its an opportunity to learn a little bit more about some of the other segments that are going into the project that you are not directly responsible for but which knowledge might prove useful down the line. It is these opportunities to broaden your perspective that serve well when one is able to move into a management opportunity. Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:28:14 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/146387?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/146384?answer_class=AnswerBase My dream job would probably be a remote access telecommuting systems engineering consultant. Unfortunately to my knowledge such a position does not really exist so I would have to say that in the alternative, sitting around and managing my own multi million dollar portfolio would be nice. The realistic expectations of that outcome do not seem to be that forthcoming either, however. Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:27:42 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/146384?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/146386?answer_class=AnswerBase My career path has been rather varied. I had my first part time job in the IT field as an intern at 13, unpaid. Hired paid part-time at 15, hired full time out of high school by a nasdaq listed company at 17. Since then, I attempted college while working full time but when I realized that I was more current in much of the IT subject matter and programming than the instructors were, it was difficult to motivate myself to continue what I viewed, at the time, as a waste of my time. My career has essentially been a conglomeration of varied IT experience. While this has presented some difficulties from time to time, it has served me very well indeed as I do consulting now. This varied background of computer experience accross diverse companies allows me to take a step back and at times understand more of the business drivers and individual pieces of a project that my direct responsibilities impact and inter-relate to. The cost of which is that I have not yet fulfilled my expectations of a degree. This is still a milestone that I have posted on my personal development goals in the 5-to-15 year plan but does not appear immediately attainable in the short term. Thu, 05 Oct 2006 19:12:15 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/146386?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/146385?answer_class=AnswerBase The primary driver for your work in the information technology field is experience. A proven trackrecord of applicable experience in the practical use of the field is a boon greather than any other method of entry in the IT consulting field. The education is nice and absolutely pursue it but at the same time, make sure that you are doing something througout college related to the field. So often potential college entry level candidates come out with essentially a clean resume because they are mere weeks away from recieving thier degree but have established no experience related to the field. Even internships that dont pay well will serve you better than the immediate cash that you are pursuing at that job at pizza hut. Thu, 05 Oct 2006 19:01:58 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/146385?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/147193?answer_class=AnswerBase About 5 days before graduating high school, I was hired as a 'technician' to act as a junior system administrator for Mangustics Group, Inc, at the time a nasdaq listed company specializing in supply chain management software. Tue, 03 Oct 2006 19:52:44 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/147193?answer_class=AnswerBase