telebone_man

I genuinely thought this was going to end with a /s... Really?

I shut down my Windows 10 Laptop before leaving work yesterday. I forgot to sign into the newly setup wifi. So I connected my Windows 10 phone to it.

My Windows 10 phone has my Windows Live account on it. As does my Windows 10 Laptop.

Today, I logged into my Windows 10 laptop using my Windows Live username and password, and yesterdays WiFi settings (that I setup on my phone) instantly sync'd with my Windows 10 laptop.

At the same time, my Onedrive account sync'd all the files I'd been working on last night, on my Windows 10 desktop.

You can get the same 'least amount of work' experience if you fully invest in the Microsoft ecosystem (onedrive.. live.. etc..).

Can you clarify why you're pursuing them?

I find the certificates you should go for depends on whether you're looking to a) just learn or b) impress recruiters. Some certificates are mutually exclusive in that regard.

It may also be good to understand what industry you're currently in.

Pretty standard in the world of VoIP these days, really, but at the time I was new to the technology and the feeling I got when 6 different call centers with a combined 120 agents called me within 5 minutes to complain will always make my stomache turn...

In short, about 10 years ago, I hosted slightly cumstomised instances of something called ViciDial. It's call center software. I neglected to implement DOS protection. And a botnet started trying to brute force REGISTERs to the SIP service. It completely clogged up the measly 100Mb pipe I was renting out of the data center.

I had no KVM. No remote reboot. No external firewall. Stupid, stupid - stupid!

I just sat there for 2 hours until they finally finished.

..ugh

I would say you need to incorporate a mix of honesty and ingenuity into your response to these situations.

If you're asked to 'code a solution to this problem on the whiteboard', the honest answer would probably be that you normally use google for reference, old code etc. and the ingenuity would be for you to write some psuedo-code on the board, anyway.

I think this applies to lots of questions.. "Can you tell me how you would sort this data set?". "(honesty) I don't know how, off the top of my head but (ingenuity) I know I could utilise an algorithm and I would probably google/research which would be most appropriate".

I'll finish with an anecdote.. in my first IT interview (server builder) I was asked to tell the interviewer what RAID stood for, and which type I would use to ensure my data was safe if one drive blew up. In my inexperienced state of mind, I murmured and was clearly distressed. The interview interrupted and said "If you don't know the answer.. just tell me you don't know, and that you'll find out and tell me later".

The lesson there is, sometimes there isn't one clear answer to an interviewers question.

Good luck :)

I talk about this all the time with my fiancé, who is head of IT for a foundation school in the UK (think, 4 to 6 year olds).

An interesting thing is your 2nd narrative (e.g. kids aren't computer literate because interfaces are so simple) has actually had a knock on effect to non computer skills.

For example, they noticed 5 years ago that childrens ability to pick up writing skills (fine motor skills with a pencil) was diminishing. At the same time, the school had purchased a bunch of tablet computers. They noticed kids could easily point a finger. And have since done a survey each year with parents to assess how many kids have tablets at home.

Year in year, the ability for children to learn to use a pencil has diminished, and the number of kids with tablets at home has increased.

In summary, simplified computer interfaces have made kids/parents lazy in developing fine motor skills and it's affected their ability to learn to write.

Selective highlighting! This strategy teaches you to highlight ONLY the key words, phrases, vocabulary, and ideas that are central to understanding the reading.

The amount you apologised at the end of your post gave me some indication about where your head is at now.

You may be stuck in to rigid a routine to be able to see it (everyday you go for a long walk and drink). Maybe change things up a bit. Break away from the cycle you're in.

Do you have any other hobbies? Creative ones? Spend an afternoon learning to draw a face. Or try and cook something complex you've never tried before.

If I feel sleepy in the early/mid afternoon I'll head to the bathroom and have a slow quick wash of the face and neck with a damp cold flannel.

Gets rid of the daily grime etc. and leaves you feeling refreshed.

Followed by a coffee and I've regained my pip.

If you're not a good a fit then, you're not a good fit!

I will say, in my experience, a companies interpretation of what a Product Manager sometimes varies like British weather.. It can feel like a Product Manager is something new, but they've existed in their traditional capacity for AT LEAST 25 years (using a friend of mine as an example).

But recently I've seen a trend for Product Manager job descriptions to vary more.. Sometimes being so vague as to describe some sort of wistful 'jack-of-all-trades turd-polisher'.

Perhaps it's as simple as that. You're applying as an experienced Product Manager to businesses that don't understand the role as a veteran like you does.

You also describe yourself as a Product Manager 'leader'. So you manage other Product Managers? I would think that 'smaller companies' have very few or even one Product Manager, and maybe you're seen as overqualified for this?

Good luck.

If question is "Can this person do the job and am I willing willing to give to, share an office with, commute with, and work on a critical project critical to their advancement with this individual based on their similar interests" then asking about hobbies is surely a good thing?

Perhaps you could consider, as another poster suggested, that you're talking to two different audiences. One is technical.. a 'terminal expert'. And one probably isn't.

Have you ever had a simple ping command running on your terminal and had someone exclaim "Wow! That looks technical!" with a hint of fear in their voice?

Perhaps you should offer the user a chance to explore this terminal interface of their own accord? "Click here to see my technical portfolio" - which then takes the user to a page of different apps, this one included. And otherwise default to a less technically demanding interface to start with.

You may get lucky, and the recruiter may be totally technical. But even if they are technical, and your page isn't immediately a terminal, allowing them an opportunity to easily get to it may be a good compromise.

Hope that helps!

I ctrl+f for stuff from Nottingham every month, as I live there and I'm curious. It's nice to see you pop up almost every month. :)

However, I dont think you ever include a website. And that's naturally my next port of call to find out more.

After doing some google-fu to get rid of solidworks results, I've struggled to find you online..

Not saying you need a full social media presence - but a lack of any online presence at all may be discrediting you? It also means I can't answer basic questions like, "where are your offices?" and "who are the directors?" (without going to the length of companies house etc. etc.)

Food for thought! :)

I've been in the VoIP industry for over a decade now, and in almost all cases of 'bad VoIP' I can trace the blame to a bad implementation of it. Let me give you an extreme examples...

- It's fairly common practice in countries with poorly enforced telco law for people to resell access to the PSTN. They will connect to the PSTN (either via a GSM gateway or a server with an E1 card) and resell that access to a 'wholesale VoIP business'. - That 'wholesale VoIP business' will have an infrastructure, cobbled together with open source technologies with no ability to scale, in the operational or technical sense. - The same 'wholesale VoIP business' will undercut the cost to access the countries PSTN (compared to accessing it directly via a tier 1 carrier) and sell the access to other tier 1 carriers. - The other tier 1 carriers lap up this cheap access, an embrace it because international calls fulfil a small portion of their multi-million revenues. - Therefore, when someone in another country tries to call that country with poorly enforced telco law, it will route via the resold route until it's shut down by the law or it breaks because it's poor infrastructure. - This is currently happening on a big scale in lots of African countries, some central american countries and in the middle east.

I'll leave the context of 'office to office' comms to the other answers as it's been covered in detail elsewhere. But I will say VoIP, all it's forms, is an old technologies, and problems relating to poor bandwidth.. voice quality.. backwards compatibility have been solved for many years.

I remember reading about how politicians deliver information and learned a lot about both effective 'explaining', story telling and just good conversation structure.

Also, don't over think it!

You haven't mentioned this as an option - but food for thought. Have you considered some kind of partnership? Your competitor may have plans for Europe, in the future, and buying you out may save them hassle later on.

Furthermore, if you have something they don't have in terms of feature set or can demonstrate an ability to innovate they could make a job for you. Perhaps, 'Head of EU xxx'.

If it's an engineer, it's normally touted as a kind of progressive gloat.. Such as "We get free water AND it's organic!", "Our desk chairs are made from recycled plastic bottles!" and "Our company doesn't really have a hierarchy or chain of command, I sit near the CTO!"

Joking aside. It's tough to draw a conclusion from that single statement. I've 'sat in the in the office of the CTO' as a 1st line engineer, and he spent 90% of his mingling with other engineers performing engineer duties (such as technical support or hands on switch installs) and 'sat in the office of the CTO' as a Product Manager where I conducted more 'organisational' duties alongside him.

FWIW, you can take parties to a sort of court (I use that word lightly) that can assist you in obtaining a domain taken by a squatter.

It's been a few years, but google ICANN and I'm sure you'll find something.

If I remember correctly, you submit a petition suggesting things like.. you either have a trademark or that you're a recognised business and then a committee make a decision based on that.

"I just want a business/client to take advantage of my enthusiasm" has worked well for me!

How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie

I've always thought the title is a bit off putting, and to some the points are common sense.

But I find myself referring back to it for advice on how to handle a particular situation with a friend, colleague or client.

That's why I nicknamed it 'The Good Book'. :)

If you agree that the overarching reason for a Product Managers existence is to 'Facilitate the growth of the business via influence and interaction with the various departments', then I'd say the skills required exist in a sort of circle..

People skills >> Business skills >> Technical skills >> People skills >> Business skills.. and so on.

...indeed!! :(

They've probably dialed a cheap route (UK landline) to be non-obtrusive. Whilst the others are more expensive.

I suspect this fraudster would 'resell' the route to a wholesaler.

I wonder if the author had considered more closely replicating a 'real call'? Most of the fraudsters use automated dialers that anticipate the 200OK as a successful call ... etc.

I did something like that, and was surprised to learn both the lack of media, and predictable media (white noise, or a particular pre-recording) were themselves indicative of 'artificial traffic' (and therefore, likely fraud).

Depends who the business is! You can find out about some from googling.

Sometimes you just have to take a chance. For example, if you're working as a project manager then their will probably be a 'Director of x' then a 'head of x' > 'team leader of x' > member of team and so on. I say, why not send an e-mail to them all?

Some will discard the e-mail. But one may pass it on. If you have the resources, hand deliver this stuff to someone 'senior enough'. A director may ignore it, but a 'head of' or 'team leader' may take it more seriously.

I'm not talking about harassing people frequently. Just playing a numbers game.

In terms of what their e-mails are.. it, again, is a guessing game. However, most businesses use the same format. So start by looking for one individuals e-mail. For example, if you can find john.smith@company.com you can guess that joe.bloggs@company.com will also work.

Just remember that the team you will be working in, probably has people who hate being there. Managers of these people would kill to have someone as enthusiastic as you may be.

Good luck!

My past 4 jobs begun like this. I managed to get the jobs in the end.

In all cases, I applied as you have done. But received no response, and continued to see adverts. So I did the following..

1. I was honest with myself and considered whether or not this was a role I could really do. If I had any doubt, it may be showing in my application.

2. I researched their recruitment process and highlighted every individual that may be involved in the recruitment process. I compiled a list of their e-mails, addresses and phone numbers.

3. I compiled an application pack that consisted of the following. And when writing this, I would look back over ads.. company statements.. etc.. and use the same sorts of keywords to back up my points.

a) An introduction letter that told them I was interested and why (think about evocative words like 'passion', 'ambition' and 'commitment').

b) A CV (ask 10 people about what to do here and you'll get 10 opinions..)

c) A 'requirement fulfillment' document in which you go through every requirement in the job ad, and provide a short paragraph about why you can fulfill it.

d) Include examples of whatever the job is, from real life previous role experience. Project Management? Show a real life RAID. Coder? Show some code. Product Manager? Show them a launch plan

e) Include an example of something that relates to the role, that you did in your own personal time.

4. I would send a copy CCd and addressed to all the parties via e-mail.

5. I would hand deliver a paper copy to parties I thought were particularly important (team leaders/managers etc.) and if I couldn't see them, I would insist the reception let them know I had hand delivered it in an attempt to demonstrate how keen I was.

6. I would follow up with a phone call to the first party in the application stage (recruitment manager.. hr.. etc.) to see what they thought?

..Every time I've done this, I've been offered an interview. As long as I've been honest with myself that I can do the job, I'm always offered the role.

Good luck! :)

They want to meet with you because of what you said in your e-mail. So bring evidence to substantiate what you wrote.

I'm not sure what you meant by "While their offering is an enterprise product, I liked the product and cold-emailed him seeking the position".

Maybe I'm reading to much into it. But you sound despondent about the prospect about working with an enterprise product.

If that is the case, remember, a job works both ways. It's not fair on yourself or the employer to work for something you're not truly enthusiastic about.

Good luck!

Yes. I'm actually going through this at the minute. There's very few companies that work in both subjects that I'm passionate about. Zero in the country I live in.

And one of them recently started recruiting in my area.

Naturally I'm likely one of many applicants, so they will have their pick of the litter. I'm considering ways of standing out from the crowd. Tough stuff.

Such is life!

Teacher?