I was driving in this morning and thinking about a question that was asked during some recent interviews where I work, and basically it boiled down to… “How do you stay relevant in IT?”

I don’t know why, but it just struck me as an odd thought and left me thinking for a good 20 minutes on it. (I have a long drive.) But really, how do you. Yeah, I read the occasional blogs of people I know, and even some that I don’t. I follow the slashdot.com, digg.com, arstechnica.com news sites, but google summarizes them nicely so I try to stick to things that interest me. I think there’s a flood of information out there about what is cool, but how do I know what is relevant. Everything? Ugh, that’s a lot. So I did what any 29 year old techno geek did… I googled the problem.

Nothing.

Well, not nothing, but very little. I used “How to stay relevant in IT” and when the search ran, only the first result even mentioned technology and the rest only sounds vaguely related. But the first link was from a guy I guess in the San Francisco area. Really good article that summarized the frustrations of even normal techies with rapid technology growth, and the masses of people who have no idea what they are doing. Well, I had to quote him because it was really worth repeating…

…I give to those who ask me about how the hell they’re supposed to keep up with the onslaught of tech whizbangery coming at them, where to begin and why they should care and just what to make of it all. “You just gotta be flexible”…
Source: Mark Morford – How to Stay Relevant with Technology

Nice Mark. I like that. It was better than a piece of software or fancy new sponsored product that will revolutionize the world and disappear faster than it appeared. “Flexible” is definitely the requirement to a successful career in IT. Flexible with new gadgets, new applications, new websites. I usually try out most the websites I hear about. I have probably hundreds of accounts on various sites just from trying stuff. I signed up for Twitter when I first heard about, but at the time, I had no use for it so it sat idle. I still don’t really use it, but I keep an eye on it. But I moved on to other stuff. Eventually I found it best to keep the finger on the pulse, but not let it overwhelm me. I get made fun of for being on a computer 16 hours a day, but come on. There’s still a lot out there.

I find good/funny/interesting things on Slashdot, and one of my more favorite features of the site is where a user can post a question, and then the trolls/users of the site will post their best attempt at funny/witty comments and banter. Generally, these are just junk, but I liked this one question and it was something I already had on my mind…

“I work for a small software company (around 60 people) as the sole IT guy. It’s my first time in a position like this and after about 1.5 years I’m starting to get a bit burned out. I try to be friendly, helpful, and responsive and I get no respect whatsoever. Users tend to be flat-out rude when they have a problem, violate our pretty liberal policies constantly, and expect complex projects to be finished immediately upon requesting them. My knee-jerk reaction is to be a bastard, although I’ve avoided it up to this point. It’s getting harder. For those of you who have been doing this a lot longer, how do you get a reasonable level of respect from your users while not being a jerk?”
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/06/09/2028202

I don’t like posting on that site since I’m sure my realistic opinion will probably be ignored or become flamebait, so with that, I’ll post my response here on my site instead.

Having worked in IT for 9+ years now, going from first level tech to sys admin to engineer, the one thing every good IT guy/department must have is a solid ticketing system. I know it seems stupid, but one application can help you organize projects/requests/problems, show status to management and users, track complaints, track previous troubleshooting, be used for knowledgebase functions. One web based application can provide the backbone to a good IT group’s ability to deliver services that users can find helpful and useful.

To accomplish these tasks though, I believe a good ticketing system should be backed up by solid policies and procedures that ensure all problems and changes go through it, as well as competent managers who can make the most of the system and people using it. The worst helpdesk is the one that no one uses properly. They stop you in the halls, you fix things as you walk back to your desk with your lunch. You need to encourage people to stick to the system. Yes, I know it’s easier for you to bug me about your petty problem and I can probably fix it real quick, but really, there’s a long list of problems (usually) and yours will get the assitance it needs based on the priority of the other problems and what I’ve been told to fix first.

I also get questioned by a few of my peers regarding my ability to whip through tickets quickly. They want to know what the secret is. There is no secret. But I do have a few guidelines I’ve learned over the years that I follow that I think keep things on the path.

1. Everything gets a ticket.

2. Managers set priorities for a reason, and only upper managers can override them.

3. Every ticket will get assigned to someone ASAP, no more than 24 hours.

4. Every ticket will get a response ASP, no more than 24 hours, even if it’s to say “we are loooking into it”.

5. Looking at the list, any issue that requires less than 15 minutes will be fixed immediately.

6. Using the “this is critical to the customer” doesn’t work on me. Everyone uses that line.

7. Don’t call me with your problems, use the ticket system. I’ll call you.

8. When filling out a ticket, please include every piece of information you think might be relavent to fixing the problem. Including stuff like server name, ip address, and/or include things like error messages, screenshots, steps to reproduce the problem.

That should be all for now. Hope that helps clarify how to have an IT department people don’t despise!

There was a contest to have an advertisement for Linux similar to Apple’s “I’m a Mac” ads, and Microsoft’s Laptop Hunter ads and the call went out. What follows below is the winning ad. It’s actually really up there in terms of competing with the other guys, but watch for yourself.

More Information – http://www.itwire.com/content/view/22730/1154/

I know I jumped on the twitter bandwagon, but I’m not completely sold. And if I found a way to use my facebook status here, then I’d probably bail on twitter all together. I can see the allure of twitter, but from a realistic approach, I can see a lot of short comings with it. I’d rather like to update my status in one place, and have that propagate to my other social sites like facebook, myspace, whatever. I’ve stopped using myspace because it’s dangerous (viruses, garbage galore) and I’ve sort of enjoyed using facebook. It’s cleaner, only people I approve can see my pics and whatnots, and I enjoy the whole status system at facebook. If facebook had an easy api where I could just grab and post my status, I’d have no use for twitter.

So, for now… I’ve added my twitter status at the top of the page. Kinda cool I guess. It’ll give me yet another site I have to keep an eye on, but at least by linking to it from this site, it’s easier to see what my status is/was.

Following a fairly poor experience with yet another recruiter, I feel the need to post this so that any other recruiter coming to my site(s) can be easily and quickly informed. I have a bunch of rules I follow when it comes to recruiters and the reason I do this is because recruiters follow NO rules what-so-ever.

So, if it makes life easier, here are my rules.

Don’t call me at work. – Even if I am interested in hearing about a good opportunity, calling me at work is the last place I feel like discussing job opportunities. I post my cell phone number and email address and prefer to be contacted via these methods. I screen my calls so make sure you leave a voicemail otherwise your just another phone number in my missed call log. Calling multiple times makes you look desperate, and I don’t do desperate.

Even if you have a “great opportunity”, I have to compare it to my current position, salary, commute, and other criteria. What you consider great, I consider stupid. Unless your sharing a job opportunity that is close to home, and/or making a lot more money than I’m making now, then I don’t care. Regardless of how great you think it is, I love my current job and it would take a miracle to dislodge me from where I’m at.

There is a lot of information posted online about me. Location, email, contact information, etc. If you ignore these when contacting me, I’ll ignore you. Read first, then contact. That’s required.

If your not sure, then don’t bother. I’m only considering GOOD opportunities that further my career, put more money in my pocket, or gets me closer to home. Without these things, your opportunity means nothing to me.

I try to keep my resume up to date at all times, it’s publically shared for the benefit of others to see where and what I’ve done, and I don’t mind sharing it. There is nothing private about the internet. But just because I post it does not mean I want to “network” with YOU. I enjoy sharing my knowledge, skills, and resources with people genueinely interested in learning, and trust me, I can smell a faker a mile away.

That should do for now. If I think you didn’t read this before contacting me, I’ll email the permalink to you. Don’t be offended, I’m just not interested. Networking is one thing, annoying me is something else. Don’t annoy me.

I posted a rough draft of my list of projects. I know it’s bad mojo to do in progress stuff, but most things are literally at some stage of completeness. As I pull it out, if I’m not digging it, I’ll bury it again and take down the link. For now, it’s there. Click here to see my list of project sites!

I’m opening this site as my “professional” blog where I can share and display some of my favorite topics and projects. I know it’s cliche to have a web site URL with your name in it, but I spend most of my time online and it only makes sense to have the unified site. I work on a number of my own personal website projects. In the past, I’ve had my stuff scattered across a number of sites and lately, I’ve felt that my career is about to turn a corner. What that corner is and how I’m going to get there are still sort of a mystery for me, but like all great opportunities, sometimes you just need to hold on for dear life. Most things work out great, some things fail miserably. But if you don’t try, you can’t succeed. So, with that being said, I present Brad 2.0 (aka BradDerstine.com).

I’ll update this when I have more! Stay tuned!!