To my readers: I was invited by one of my former professors to speak to his class this semester. I understand that he has an outstanding group of upcoming graduates who might benefit from the perspective of someone who’s been in the working world for a little while. I was all set to visit them today until I got pulled onto a project in the northeast at the last minute (on Friday!). This post is for them.
Hey guys!
Thanks so much for checking out my site and connecting with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. I really regret not being able to meet you all today, but I will make every effort to visit you this semester. I mean it.
I’ve been giving some thought to what I could to for you, and I think what you all would benefit from the most is answering the questions you have about the industry and making myself available if you’d like me to demolish review your resumes. I will answer each and every question you have, and I’d be happy to share some insights from the industry. Let’s get started, shall we?
A little about me
I graduated from the College of Information in 2007 with a degree in Information Technology. During my time at FSU, I was fortunate enough to connect with what I believe to be a handful of the most knowledgeable students and caring professors that FSU has to offer. I started the FSU chapter of the Association of IT Professionals and chaired the organization for two years. After graduating, I took a position with Accenture in Atlanta as a Consulting Analyst, and I’ve been there ever since. I travel for work (it only looks good on paper, I promise), and I’m currently in Boston doing some UNIX/Storage work for a fantastic company.
The job market was hot when I graduated and as Ken will tell, you I was doing little more than flying and interviewing my senior year. I worked hard, positioned myself as a leader and excellent communicator during my Junior year, and reaped the benefits a few months later. By the time graduation rolled around, the market for IT graduates was such that I was able to choose which offer was best for me.
You guys are graduating into a completely different world.
A lot about you
Anyway, enough about me! What are you guys into? What organizations are you involved with? What kind of career do you envision for yourself? What are you doing to make yourselves standouts in an awful economy? Do you think IT is for you? Would you rather make less money and be happier as, for example, an elementary school teacher? Do you know what employers are looking for? Have you tailored your approach to these expectations? Is your resume up-to-date?
I’ll take your questions and write a detailed post on the thing you’d like to know. I’ll also share my contact information with any of you in case you’d like to schedule some time to chat one-on-one about anything.
Please introduce yourself in the comments, answer any (or all) of the questions that I’ve proposed, and let me know what I can do for you personally. I’ll follow up with you all individually when my schedule settles down (probably in a week and a half) and also do a post addressing the common concerns. Thanks guys.
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Hey, thanks for the post. I’ll try to get you my resumé soon.
My pleasure, Mike. I look forward to your questions.
Hey Willie! How’s it going?
I have a couple questions for you. First off, what are your takes on drupal, joomla and wordpress? I think you use wordpress for your website. Which of these do you prefer and for what? Also, do you like designing your own banners and logos
and such? What programs do you use?
Feel free to check out my website if you have a minute. Made it for kens class and it’s my first multiple page website using more than HTML. Thanks!
Louie Garofalo
Hey Louie-
I’ve only dealt with Drupal and Joomla on a very limited basis; I prefer WordPress, hands-down. To be fair, I haven’t taken the time to get to acquaint myself with other CMSes. I like WordPress because it’s easy to get started with, is infinitely customizable, has an active and supportive development community around it, and lots of other things. These things are likely true for other platforms as well, of course.
I used to do a lot more graphic design when I was in school. A lot. I do graphic work for some of my projects now; just in a lesser capacity. Photoshop CS3 is my weapon of choice.
The link to your site returns a 404 error as of this writing — you might be working on it. Once it’s back up, please feel free to shoot the link back over.
That link should work!
Sorry!
No worries, man. I think the site is a good showcase of things you’ve done to complete an assignment, but you might consider going above and beyond what was expected of you.
Build something people talk about. Something people will bookmark. Take yourself out of the student seat and put yourself in the mindset of someone looking to hire a technologist. Someone looking for talent, drive, and creativity. Stretch yourself!