Blogging to Blog

I am sorry to all my devoted fans (apparently I have at least 1 individual that will read occassional updates)....I haven't blogged in quite a long time. It has been a busy past two weeks. I had an interview at the 52nd best company in 2009 according to Fortune , Booz Allen Hamilton. The interview went well. I do feel as though I didn't represent my Technical Architecting ability as well as I would have liked. I made no mention to the understanding of Client/Server and N-Tier architecting strategies. Eh, whatever. It's all there anyway. So, I can use it if required. It was hard to try and architect a legacy system that I've been trying to forget for the last 2 years while simultaneously learning multiple new bodies of knowledge during my MS education. :)

But, I did receive an offer from Booz Allen and I accepted! Beyond the company being internationally known in the consulting industry...which is great...I am looking forward to just learning a ton from my future peers. Additionally, projects that create opportunities for travel is exciting and something that I really wanted in my last job. There are a number of other little factors that made me interested in Booz Allen. But, honestly...I think however long I work at Booz Allen--5 years, 10 years, 20 years-- I will grow personally and professionally while I work at making other companies more productive, efficient, and successful while simultaneously wearing the Booz Allen ID badge.

In the next 24-48 hours I will make an effort to write up both January's and February's Harvard Business Case studies. But I just wanted to make this post to identify why I've been slacking in my blogging responsibilities.

A reader also made a comment about tracking down the answers to some PMP questions. I will post these also...I have been boxing up my items and preparing to move down to the greater St. Louis area. So I apologize for not posting those sooner.

Active Directory

Well, I've put a hold on cataloging all of my MBA and MS knowledge into podcasts....only for a very short while. I do want to re-learn and fill the knowledge gaps a little. So, I will be doing those posts soon.

I think I gave a brief overview of Macolm Gladwell's book, Outliers in my last posting. I definitely recommend that you read it if you like seeing all of the connections between a singular thought. I'd say he's one step away from being a James Burke Connections type of guy...but he doesn't go backwards and follow the Outlier concept or Blink concept through history. Not really sure how one could do that....but I see a little bit of parallelism there.

Anyway, I've been learning more about Active Directory the past few days. So, with a definitive YES, I can answer the lifelong question:

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?

Answer: Yes, an alert will be sent via remote administration to acknowledge the tree fell and some action is required to get it operational again. ;)

Yea, I know....cheesy. But, any techie chuckled just a bit.

Things are starting to progress a little with one of my most desireable companies, Booz Allen Hamilton. Everyone reading this podcast, please collectively think positive thoughts about me acquiring this job. It would be an amazing learning opportunity and professional opportunity to travel the country while helping Booz's customer make a more seamless working environment.

2009 already??

Happy new year to those out there that read my blog. I have been suffering from a little bit of blogitis. Meaning I haven't been blogging as frequently as in the past. For this, I feel a little bad. Some friends that live around the world only really get updates from my blog about the "businessy" stuff. I try to leave the more social aspects of my life off the blog when possible.

But, I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's new book, Outliers. I know. Me and everyone else that wears a suit to work. But, really, it was quite impressive and inspiring. For starters it was interesting reading about the population gaps and how timing is apparently more important than one might think. As someone that is truly in a generational gap between X and Y this is interesting. I get classified in both segments depending on who I'm speaking with. The IQ sections were especially interesting...being someone that recently qualified into Mensa it appears that IQ is no prediction of being an outlier according to Gladwell. I definitely agree. The real predictor is a combination of family, opportunity, and willingness to achieve success. Right now I've had 2 out of 3. This is where I think that 2009 will be a great year....Opportunity is bound to knock at some point this year.

So, as a glancing overview of Outliers he talks about hockey players (AGAIN). Next he goes over how some of the other folks were "lucky" by putting in 10,000 hours of work before truly gaining expertise. Bill Gates was a workaholic that lived right next to University of Washington and was on a teletype computer at 4am. Bill Joy lucked out living next to a super computer at University of Michigan. The Beatles played up to 12 hours a day in Amsterdam. Even folks that are naturally gifted in something don't really gain an expert level until hitting 10,000 hours of work. So, we all need to push a bit harder. After this section Gladwell tackles the IQ debate...and demonstrates how family nurturing and support is a more important variable to success than being smart. Interesting. There are a few other sections, but fairly near and dear to me is the the last section talking about Educational reform.

My personal take on Education is that the public school system is in dire need of reform. My dad talks about how the model needs to change because "we're no longer farmers and shouldn't have a school year based on farming timelines." My take is a little different. It follows what Malcolm said, there was a lot of research saying that kids need to rest their brains. My personal take on this is that is a bunch of malarky. Kids only go to school 180-200 days a year in the US. Imagine how smart the kids would be (regardless of class size) if they were in school for 240 days a year. If your kids had more time to learn the same material--it'd probably be retained for much longer. Not only that, less time off wouldn't allow for as much to be forgotten. This concept is a little controversial for a few different groups. Teachers being at the forefront....I know I'll be irritating a lot of primary school teachers that read this (which I have quite a few friends that teach) but they really should teach closer to 10 or 11 months a year. It just doesn't make sense to take so long off on the summer. Less summer vacation means less time to go to all the seminars that they need (but business people have to go to seminars also...during their work year) and they can't go sailing around the globe or travel the US by RV. But seriously, teachers get good pay and even better benefits. Heck, some teachers my age made more than I did as a Senior Software Engineer for a Government Contracting firm. I worked year round, had an MBA, and received 8-10% raises BI-ANNUALLY. I know teaching can be difficult. It can be stressful. But, the rewards of seeing every single one of your pupils go off and change the world should be enough of an incentive to teach more days out of the year. The real impact would be to the vacation and travel industry.

Anyway, hopefully some of you agree with my ranting (which did go on a bit too long...sorry). If you agree or disagree, please comment. I'm interested in your opinions.

Also, have a great 2009! I know that things were tough in 2008. Trust me, my plan of living off my equities while finishing school didn't go as well. But, I do have a great feeling that 2009 will be a year filled with good things. This is coming from a Republican that voted for Obama that undertands that finances may be tight for us all....