ET Phone Home!

Do you have a system that you access remotely, but doesn’t have a static IP address?   Or maybe you need to remotely access a family member’s computer to help them troubleshoot a problem.  How can you make sure you have the current IP address? 

Here is a bit of C# code that can help. You can add the executable to your Startup or set a scheduled execution with Task Scheduler, or you could name the app “Get Help” and your family member can click it to get you the information without you having to walk them through the process of figuring out their IP address.

The code creates a console app that allows you to have your system discover the IP address that the world sees by calling to whatismyip.com and then uses Gmail to send an e-mail containing the address to your selected recipient address.

 

Drinking from the firehose, several states away…

#SPC09 is finally here, and with it, all of the details about SharePoint 2010.

The SharePoint Conference, held this week in Las Vegas, is the focus of the world’s attention (if you set the value of  “the world” equal to the subset ”everyone interested in SharePoint”).  Until today, the details of much of the new version of SharePoint were subject to Non-Disclosure Agreements, so the people with access to the early versions of the program, the details of the development, and feature lists were prohibited from speaking about what they knew.

“Physician, heal thyself”

At the Agile Austin meeting this week, some folks from Borland spoke about the company’s move to Agile methodologies. 

One of the things they talked about was the desire of the marketing side of the company to be able to “declare Agile victory”, stemming from an attitude that “being Agile” was a milestone to accomplish, that once they had done steps 1, 2, 3… etc., the company had achieved “Agile”, as if it were a merit badge, or having completed a grade level at school, or growing to a certain age or height. 

Success! (Lessons Learned Building a Career, Part One of Infinity)

It finally happened. 

 Beelzebub has taken up figure-skating.  And, after many months, my ongoing job search has reached its conclusion!   Yay!!!!!

 

What a long (long, long) strange trip it’s been.  In the spring of 2008 I was laid off from my last permanent job.  I got a contract-to-perm last summer working at a mortgage company (let me say that again… “mortgage company” and “last summer”, in the same sentence – so you can guess how that turned out).  After that, I got a consulting job that lasted about three months before I got laid off again.  That was November of last year.  A lot has happened since then, a lot of changes, and a lot of people to thank for their help.

Consulting skills

At the A-SPIN meeting in August, the discussion came around to skillsets of the various roles around product management – SMEs, Business Analyst, Product Visionary, Product Architect, Product Manger, and other roles in that space (there is a writeup of the meeting for the A-SPIN website). While there is a lot of dependence on the “hard skills” like domain knowledge (accounting skills for an accounting program, or industry knowledge for an industry-specific program), as well as the programming and software architecture skills, a lot of the talk was centered around the “soft skills” – communication, patience, listening skills, negotiation skills, and the ability to set one’s own ego aside in order to make the best decisions for the project/product.

I’m Not Kathy Lansford, But I Play Her On The Stage

On Friday I’ll be stepping in for Kathy Lansford as her understudy.

Since LaunchPad Job Club was formed, all the way back in 2001, Kathy has only taken breaks in the dead week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.  She’s due for a vacation, and I’m stepping in to to take her place for a week so she can take that well-deserved break.

Now, I know that even if I don a wig, low heels, and prop a pair of glasses on my head, I won’t be able to replace her, even for one week, so I won’t even try.  But I will try to abide by the guiding principles she’s developed over the years for LPJC meetings:

SharePoint Saturday San Antonio is going to be AMAZING!

I just got back from the planning committee meeting for SharePoint Saturday in San Antonio (coming November 14th, mark your calendars!).  Wow, is this going to be a great event!

This will be the first major SharePoint event after the the big unveiling of SharePoint 2010 at the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas October 19-22, so it will be no-holds-barred on SharePoint 2010, as the NDA wraps will be off and the speakers will be able to speak freely.  One major difference between the SharePoint Conference and SharePoint Saturday San Antonio is you won’t have to shell out $1,200 to attend SharePoint Saturday San Antonio – its FREE!

Ohhhhh! So that’s what you mean!

Just a quick post today. 

One of the important things for a job seeker skill holder to remember about their elevator pitch when writing it is to avoid jargon.  If you aren’t aware, you should have a 15-30 second statement about who you are and what you do, hopefully with something memorable, a hook, to interest your listener or make you memorable.  In my case, I want people I meet in networking situations to think of me whenever the subject of “SharePoint” is brought up. 

But SharePoint is such a big application with so many different uses and functions that it can be difficult to describe in that short time, especially if the listener is unfamiliar with SharePoint.

Well, Microsoft and CommonCraft have created a short video that explains what SharePoint is and some of the things it can do for those who don’t know.  It’s quick, informative, and even a bit entertaining.

It is similar to another CommonCraft video, explaining Twitter.  Great job guys!

New: Video posted in the comments below!

What are you doing? Let them know on LinkedIn!

Last week, Terri Bishop passed along a tip from Hire Austin about how to attach your resume to your LinkedIn profile, and the week before a tip about making sure your LinkedIn contact settings are correct.  (Thanks Terri!)

Here’s another LinkedIn tip for you.

Networking Skills

Ok, just so everyone is on the same page here – networking is important imperative.  I’ve heard numbers stating only some minuscule percent (ranging from 20% all the way down to 5%) of jobs are gotten by applying for them, the rest are all given to people who know people.  Even if these numbers are bogus and its only half of the jobs out there are gotten by knowing someone in your target company, who wants to cut their chances of landing a job in half?

And especially in these frugal times, companies cannot afford to use sources like Monster et al, even when they have a job to fill.  They are turning to people who they know, or people who those people know.

So networking is a skill you need to develop.  There are a lot of resources for learning how to do it if you don’t already have it in your personal toolbox.  For instance, last Friday, guest speaker Tim Wright gave a great presentation at LaunchPad Job Club about what he called “Renegade Networking”.