I was having a conversation with a co-worker yesterday, and he brought up some very good points, especially with the CompTia track of certifications.  No matter at what level of IT you work, troubleshooting an issue to resolution will always be present.

 A little back story into this topic…  The conversation I was having yesterday emphasized that I take certain aspects of this job for granted.  Those of us working in this shop have been networkers for around 15 to 20 years, and we had to learn the cutting edge technologies that are now legacy systems.  We learned the rules as the rules were being written, such as cable lengths and attenuation factors, bends in cable and fiber, switching from single mode to multi mode, so forth.  This knowledge I take for granted, and mainly because the people I have worked with over the years grew up with IT the same way I did, as it was first coming out.  Remember when the 10b NIC came out and cost $300, and that was cheap?  The whole gist of this is that we learned fundamentals because at the time, that was all that existed.  There were no real white papers on best practices out there, not at that level anyways.

 Today, fundamentals are a lost art with the new kids on the block.  They are trained to troubleshoot at a high level, but if they are pressed with an issue that is caused by attenuation, they do not even know what that is.

 The CompTia track of certifications is the fundamentals.  I preach about getting education, certifications to prove education and baseline skills to employers, but it does not have to be all high level stuff.  Those 'low level' skills such as knowing connectors and troubleshooting wires, this is no less important in troubleshooting than knowing how to troubleshoot recursion errors in an internal DNS server.  If the equipment cannot talk effectively, it cannot do the job.  Simple stuff, we all know that in the most basic terms.  I do look at CompTia as entry level certifications, but until that conversation I had with a co-worker, I had not thought about the importance of verifying the knowledge of the base systems, such as cabling.

 I am not downplaying getting any certification by any means.  I myself do not place a great deal of emphasis on them other than to see how much effort an individual has put into their own career, but I do not use them to measure knowledge or skills in a particular area very much.  Through having the conversation about the CompTia track of certifications however, I do feel that those tests are more in line with troubleshooting skills that will actually be seen in the real world, as opposed to the MCSE questions that are not real world for the most part.

 The end state is, some folks hold certifications with more weight than others, but regardless of that, it does show that a person has taken the time to further themselves professionally.  That alone speaks more about a person’s character, at least on paper, than most other items on a resume.

[Originally posted on AKO Blogs 17Dec09. ]

This is something the VA does not advertise very well, just most money for college and education offerings through various other organizations.  VA has a list of certifications that they will reimburse you for, making this virtually a low-to-no cost exercise for you.

Here is the gist of it.  You pass the certification that is on the VA's approved list, send in your receipt from paying for the test and the passing qualification record, and they cut you a check, or if you are already in the VA system for GI Bill, direct deposit the amount into your account.

What is covered?  The cost of the test only.  You are still responsible for the study material and for learning it enough to pass the test.  They do not reimburse a failed test, in case someone is asking that.

Check out the Pamphlet for more information, located here. https://www.gibill.va.gov/pamphlets/LC_brochure.pdf

[Originally posted 16Dec09 on the AKO blogs]

This seems to be a reoccurring topic in my posts, and there is a reason why.  Yeah, you guessed it, I must think it is important.  But who am I to have this opinion.  Nobody important is the answer, just a person who has had to fight for every inch earned in the civilian workforce battlefield of life.

You're saying, Mark, I don't see what I will learn going to college. I've been working in this field for x number of years, and I have a firm grasp on it.  To this I reply, you are right, you probably will not learn anything significant, but nowadays it is just a requirement to be successful...you go to college.

For the kids right out of high school, and no measurable real world experience, going for a Bachelors degree is going to be a real learning experience.  There will be topics brought up that they may have never even heard about, and now have to do foot-deep research on the topic and spit out a 10-15 page paper explaining what they found.  For those of us that are adult learners, have experience in the real world, have been around the block, a lot of these papers feel like you are working more like an inch deep in knowledge and are relatively easy.  Either way...

In the professional world, it really is getting to the point that you, the employee, are expected to have a Masters degree if you want to do anything outside the technical arena.  For now, you are thinking, why would I ever want to get out of being technical.  Well, some of you may never want to, and if that is where you are happy, go for it.  You will still need a degree and certs however to be successful in that role.  For those, like myself, who have done technical work for 12 years and are just sick of it, you have to move up into managing systems and processes.  You may just want to make more money than being a technician makes, you may want to expand your horizons...regardless of the reasoning, having an education beyond a certain level is not only essential nowadays, it is just a requirement.

What does an education get you?  Ulcers, a lost social life, gray hair, and a lot of expensive books that you cannot give away after the class.  It also is a great tool to seriously learn time management and minor project management.  If you an adult learner, working full time, maybe have a family at the same time, and working on a full 12 hours or more of classes per semester, you learn time these two management techniques very well.  One aspect on the minor project management is that you also learn to not be such a perfectionist, and know what is considered 'good enough'.  Sure, you think, there is no such thing as good enough and one should always strive to be perfect....well, welcome to the real world. Perfection is nothing more than not making the same mistake twice in my opinion, and if you do, there had better be a scientific process supporting it.  I digress.  Perfection is also for someone who has time to be that way, but in business, things change so often and so fast that there just isn't time for it.  You get a process working as good as you can, mitigate what threats and risks that you can, and work on something else.  Sure, you will learn a few things getting your degree, depending on your skill and experience level, but do not be disappointed when you end up with one expensive piece of paper and not feeling like you gained much in knowledge.

Certifications.  This topic has only been going around for at least 10 years, what are they worth.  In one camp, they show that you meet a certain skill level, and in the other camp, they are just ways generate revenue for those who develop and support the certs.  I believe in both to a degree.  I can say I have an MCSE (NT40 and Server2003) but does it say anything other than I spent just shy of 2 grand for those?  Well, it does show an employer that first, I spent time building myself with knowledge, and shows that same employer that I should have the basic skills to do what is required.  The same qualifications apply with any certification.  In a lot of ways, certs are just ways to show that one has expanded on their education, which will always be a positive.  Living the life of the Status Quo guy does not get you far in the real world...in the Army, if you sit around long enough you will be promoted.  In the rest of the world, you sit around long enough you will be the 35 year old guy complaining that his boss is 27 and he should have gotten that job...Prove to your employers that you take the pride in yourself to better yourself, hence you can do the same for the organization.

Just remember, in the Army, if the Army needs you to know something, they will send you to training and put you to work.  In the rest of the world, you get hired for a job, you'd better know it or have a real strong sense of what it is about, or you will be replaced.  No hard feelings, you are just affecting the bottom line, and are proving to be a bad investment.

End state -  get a education.  It does suck, sucks time away from your free-time schedule, your friend-time schedule, and every other schedule, but regardless if you stay in for your initial enlistment, or stay in for 30 years, you will need it once you get out in the real world and you want to succeed.

[Originally posted on AKO Blog 15Dec09]
[Been working hard and getting prepped for CISSP test, so apologize for not posting...if anybody reads this that is]

I was sitting down blessing the house, and I was thinking, 'what is the major difference between Army IT folks and Civilian IT folks?'.  Well, this small question got real big after 30 seconds of thinking.  It can be boiled down to one thing however, and that is education.

It seems to work a little backwards in the Army than it does in the regular world, specifically with the IT management.  It is the CPT's and MAJ's that are sent to school for MCSE and CCNA, when it should be the NCO's and Warrants that need to be working on these skills.  Being Middle Management, these mid-grade officers should be looking further out than immediate concerns, learning advanced topics such as the ITIL and progressive MS degrees.

I say this because the basic IT support job in the civilian world pretty much requires having some of these certifications like the MCSE, CCNA, that are more or less mid-level certifications.  They prove that a person has at least passed a few tests and can be relatively vetted to not completely hose a system when they get in and reprogram it in whatever fashion.  Officers, in my opinion, should not have to worry about the nuts and bolts of configuring a system, and if they are, then I think they are a bit overpaid for their jobs.  They should know what to look at and be able to provide guidance, but to be the primary person that manages a piece of software, a fully qualified NCO or even lower enlisted can do that job just as easily and competently.

This is a frustration I have had with the Army's signal corps for a while I guess.  I have worked with Air Force, Navy and Marine IT folks and they do seem to be more on par with the civilian levels, with NCO's running the day-to-day operations of the network and the officers concerning themselves with plans and budgets.

This is where the Army IT and signal community could possibly look at revamping the processes of training.  I can see where it would be considerably harder to worry about long term planning when your mid-level management is concerning themselves with the actual nuts and bolts of operations.  This would also benefit the NCO corps by empowering them to do more training, get technical, be a proactive force within the unit so that the NCO is not waiting on a MAJ or CPT to fix a problem that is presenting now.  It would also create a smarter workforce in the long run, one that would be on par with the private sector.

I mentioned this in the first part, planning on getting out.  This applies to anybody in the military and not just the IT folks, but I will narrow it down.  The Army has a program, ACAP, that helps with the transition, and it is a little bit of help.  The issue is, most people will not realize how much that ACAP did not go over, or that you should have spent more time going more in depth, until you are out looking for a job.

Planning to get out and be successful in the private sector takes a lot of planning, and if your planning consists of waiting until you are scheduling ACAP classes, this is what we call being WAY behind the power curve.  The reasoning is, from start to finish it will take between 6 months to a year to get your documentation and presentation artifacts up to a level ready to give to an employer.  It also takes a bit of work to breed the Army out of you, such as how you talk.  Let me expound on that topic for just a second.

How you talk, how you present yourself, is of utmost importance.  You may dress the part, your shoes are shined (remember this, it's just as important in the private sector) but instead of segwaying your statements with an Uh, Um, or something of that nature, you default to the fuck, fuckin, fuckin fuckin thing.  It is something of a military thing, not just Army, however, when you are interviewing and asked a question, it does not go over so well when you slip up and use fuckin as a descriptor.  Not a big thing, but I noticed that it took me about 3 months to breed that out of my vocabulary, and it is a continual process.  It is okay to look professional, and you may have the skills, but just like having a date that smokes on the first date, that could be a deal breaker.  This is especially important because your first interviews may be over the phone, and the only impression the hiring or program manager has of you is how you talk, how comfortable you are answering questions, and how confident you sound.  Practice talking in 'real world' and seriously work at reducing the gruntanese in your vocabulary.

The Resume...the piece of paper that explains your life in one fell swoop.  If you have never done a resume, this is a challenge.  The basic answer that this resume should provide is that you need to hire me for the position you are applying for.  There are many formats for a resume, so I will not address this here.  The gist of it is to first, make it look professional.  This is by logically placing your items, not reinventing the wheel, spell-checking the thing, and to make the most pertinent information pop out so that it can be read within the first 5-10 seconds of it being in someone's hand.  Realizing also that there is no cookie cutter resume, be prepared to have a half dozen versions of your resume in various formats and for different positions.

Different positions?  Why would I do that, I am going right into Network Engineering, and that is the only job I will take....You say this, but once you start going hungry because you are not making any money, you may rethink this.  Coming out of the Army, you are qualified to manage people and assets, and may even be successful at it (From a personal note, I have noticed that there are very few NCO's in the 25B ranks that have actual managing experience, because it just is not needed.  This is a shame, but there are ways to be proactive in your career to fill this hole.) You are experienced at learning on the fly and accomplishing tasks unmanaged...things to think about.  Create the resumes for what you are willing to do to get off the dole and into the workforce, and use that as a resource for networking and finding the job you are really looking for.  The most important aspect beyond spell checking and proof-reading (very important to not look like a dumbass in the first 5-10 seconds of your life) is to tell exactly and succinctly why you are the one for that job.  This takes time, and could be done while at ACAP, but probably not.  This is where you network with the civilian contractors you work with, talk with them, have them look over your resume...have everyone look at your resume and critique it.  The more the merrier...but choose people who are used to putting in resumes and not your counterparts who have no realistic idea of what to look for.  And spell-check it.  (noticing the theme?)

Now that we have covered how to start talking like a human American and a glossing over of the resume (notice that I didn't tell you how to do it, just what to do, it is after all a reflection of who you are), let me touch on why it is important to start the process of transition a year out instead of two weeks out.

Money.  Getting paid.  You may be just a buck E5, and don't make a dime in your opinion, but after you factor in housing, food, medical, COLA, et cetera, you are looking at a job that pays $25/hr.  The helpdesk job you may land your first time out will make half as much.  If you have certifications and some education, you may be able to get a better job, but without some formal and standardized training under your belt that is nationally/internationally vetted, do not expect to land that network engineer position just because you know how to do it.  Giving yourself that year to get out will give you the time to get some Certs, get some schooling...use a college that will vet a great deal of your Army schools into real classes and save yourself 30 credits (half way to an Associates).  Plan on how you realistically plan on making at least the same amount of money as you did while in the Army so that you can provide for yourself and your family, if you have one.  Having a job is nothing more than one person paying you for you to invest time for them in helping them meet an objective.  They will not hire you and vet you to be a worthwhile investment if you cannot prove to them with an initial piece of paper that you are worth their time to consider.  Make it a priority to be that person they want to invest in.

The second part of this is training.  As mentioned in a prior post, you may be the standard bearer for the job you do, and this makes you feel good, but you may not know enough.  On the Army side, you may be responsible for maintaining the Cisco infrastructure, or you may be the Active Directory guru, or or or....but in the civilian world, it is expected that if you put Network Engineer on your resume, you can handle every piece of hardware and software that the organization has, and effectively.  The Army in this regard may have done a disservice to your future by stringent job separation, not allowing you to get a full grasp on how everything works together.  This is where you have to be proactive and learn learn learn.  Sure, larger organizations will have jobs separated by specificities, such as being the Cisco guru or AD guru, but most mid-sized businesses and below have the one or couple guys and gals that can do it all, from webdev to infrastructure to desk side support to network security.  The reasoning behind that is varied and beyond the scope of this post, but it is important to realize that you may be great at what you do, but are you great at what everyone in your shop does? Or can at least do their jobs well enough to not cause downtime? If so, do not rest on your laurels, and keep improving yourself.  If not, get to work.

[Published 14Dec09, AKO Blogs]

So, you have done your 6 year initial enlistment in the Army as an IT guy.  You started out working for the G6 helpdesk, maybe spent some time working in a BN S6.  You have helped format computers, install components, maybe some password resets in AD.  You know that you have spent the past 6 years working in IT, and you are told that this is a great field to be in once you are out of the Army.  You read the stories about how someone started their business in the garage and sold that business a couple years later for billions of dollars.  This will be you.

And it can be, if you have an in-depth understanding and experience in a core sub-system of IT, such as development.

For the vast majority however, having experience as just a 25B will not get you too far in the civilian world.  Even working at senior levels, the core requirements of the job will most likely get you an entry level position somewhere, and you get to start out again.  Please do not take this as a negative, because it could be necessary in some regards; but if you truly feel that you should be able to get out and make high 5 figures or more automatically because you were in the Army, this is your reality check.

Here is what you can do to mitigate that and to really put yourself into a better category and higher on the pile of resumes.

 1.  Have a plan.  If you are planning on getting out in the next 1-2 years, this is for you.  If you are planning on getting out in the next 6 months, read this but seriously consider extending until you can meet some/most/all of these basic requirements.

The plan should consist of; what type of job you are going into.  IT, like being a doctor, is multifaceted, and has dozens of specialties.  Are you planning on going into helpdesk, architecture and design, C&A, networking (routers, switches), networking (servers), boundry protection, forensics, development (and which language), Database, frontend, web dev, yada yada yada.  If you do not plan on this step, and know where you want to first leap off the diving board into the shark infested worlds of the private sector, you will just be flailing in the water and get eaten alive.  If you know where you are going to start, what specifically you want to do, this is a good starting point.

Next in the plan, what does your resume say about you?  Nowadays, most jobs posted get anywhere from 500-5000 resumes for that job.  Yours will have to stand out.  Do you meet the educational requirements, the certification levels, the experience?  Does your resume say that you do exactly what you are told, or does it say that you know how to successfully interface with the client and resolve problems.  Does it say that you are reactive or proactive?.  I have hired for jobs before, and I guarantee that if the resume shows a lackluster amount of effort, I will assume that this speaks of your nature, and I will not call you.

Education.  Get it.  Anything. Show that you are proactive in your own career and strive, yearn, to learn as much about your specialty as you can, and you are not just a box checker in meeting minimum requirements.  Get your certifications, the MS certs, the Cisco certs, ICS2 and GIAC certs.  If these are too advanced, start with the CompTia curriculum.

Give up the beer, partying, gaming, et cetera, except for one day a week.  Get online and get your degree.  Nowadays these online degrees are the perfect thing for the working professional; however, do not let the 'online' portion full you.  These courses are typically much shorter (6-10 weeks) than the brick and mortar classes (15 weeks) and expect the same results.  You will be one busy MF'r, and get ulcers, but the payoff is well rewarded.  Just know this; it is getting to the point that in order to be qualified to wipe your own ass without permission in the professional market nowadays, you need to damn near have a Masters degree.  Do not let that stop you though, having an Associates and having a cert and work experience in the Army will put you in the top third of that pile.  Getting a degree online, though stressful as hell, can be done more quickly than going through traditional courses.  I completed my BS in just over 3 years online.  I got gray hair, a really bitchy wife and some ulcers from it, along with working a full time job and being a section sergeant in the Guard, but it is over.

On the plan, know where you are moving to.  Some areas of the world just are not technology hotbeds, may be overrun with universities with IT departments, and every job announcement will have literally thousands of applicants, because there is just an over abundance of IT folks in that area.  Be flexible on where you go, you can always move back home after you are more experienced in the field and land that job.  It just may take time.

Be realistic about the job you want to apply for.  Sure, you can apply for a job that you know deep down that you are not qualified for, but you are driven by the dollars and bene's.  However, the downside to this is that your employer will see this within the first month, and you will just get fired.  No retraining, no reassigning to another section, just an appointment with the welfare office to sign up for the dole check.  More than likely, however, is that your resume will tell whether or not you are qualified, and if that does not, then your first interview will.  Go for jobs you know you are qualified for, and plan on moving up from there.

Now, if this is something you think you can do, and are willing to give up the free time to lead to the bigger payoff in the future, start right now.  However, if you are 6 months from ETS and have not done any of this, and still expect to make it big in the IT sector, sit down and rethink your strategy.  If you really, really want to be successful, think about doing a 1-2 year extension on your contract.  Start talking to your supervisor and commander about being sent to additional training to get certifications; start looking at college real seriously.  Until you do that, not a single employer is going to look at you seriously.

     I write to a blog on AKO, though looking at the general content, I do not think it is a platform that is well accepted by the community as a whole. Not a great deal of content there. I will copy my posts from that blog to this until they are all here, and start fresh here after those are copied. The blog on AKO is called "25 Branch to Civilian IT, A How To".


    For starters, about me. I spent just shy of 10 years active duty as a 13F, forward observer. In this role I did my typical sneeky-peeky job, worked as a COLT for years, some time with a mech infantry and armor company (1/5 and 2/12), and as a light FO with the Rakkassans (the best infantry organization in the world). One thing that seperated me from others is that first, I came into the Army in 1993 with a lot of computer experience, which was not something seen at that time. I ended up being one of the BN smart guys, helping with creating DB's for the CO and BN. Later, I was slotted as the S2 analyst, which first was way out of my career field but helped me a great deal in the future. One of the 40 tasks I had to do as the IA was to do significant work on a brand new process called DITSCAP. This really was the point where I got a serious interest in computers, since before that it was just a hobby. My last duty station was in Germany, doing exactly what I never wanted to do, work at Division. However, this experience solidified my decision to move into the IA/IT/IS field. I worked with a lot of contractors, was given the opportunity to take many classes on networking, and got the chance to work as a liason with various pieces of software when the Army was going through fielding hell with the decision-making tools.

     Jump to now. One reason I got out was just being burnt out. I spent a lot of time doing my primary job, and just as much time doing my extra duties that dealt with programs, software and networking. I was one of the few people that got sober in Germany, since I just didn't have the time to get out of the office or the field. I decided to get out, persue a degree and a career in the IT field circa 2002. I joined the Nasty Girls, reclassed to 25B, and went from there.

     Now, I have a bachelors of science in Information Security, working on a masters in Information Assurance, have a couple certs and working on more.  I spent a year and a half working help desk and got promoted well above my peers in that regard, but it was a job I just did not enjoy at all. I got picked up to work with the Dept of Homeland Security as an IT Specialist for the Transportation Security Administration, a thankless job that had an important mission, and one that I enjoyed. I just completed six years with DHS and now I am working as an Information Security Analyst for the Air National Guard Bureau, doing Certification and Accredidation(C&A) for the ANGB Enterprise systems.

      This is a little about me. Hopefully I will keep this type of stuff out of future posts, unless it adds to the story, so I can concentrate on fulfilling the mission statement of this blog.
     The Mission Statement - To add to the community of IT/IA/IS workforce members serving in the Army (component not regarded) to help one understand the importance of continually seeking improvement in their knowledge, understanding and skills to support the community.

     Now, a background as to why I feel this is important. Being in the civilian sector, it is definitely not one's history of employment that gets that job landed.

     One cannot expect to be successful when applying for a job saying, well, I worked for 10 years in IT in the Army. The employer will say, that's great, now can you show me what certifications or other education you have earned whilst doing that? A great many folks will say, Uh, no, because I just did my job and learned what I had to learn. In the civilian sector, rank is of little importance. The employer wants, needs to see that you have the basic skills required, and using certifications and education helps set that baseline standard.
    
     Second, and probably more important in my opinion, is that in the Army, roles are so centralized and reliant on other roles that a person may be awesome in what they do, but do not comprehend what the other roles are. This is called seperation of duties, but it has a negative impact on the IT workforce within the Army. I'll explain this in a story. On the civilian side, I was responsible for everything IT. This dealt with helpdesk operations, cellular services, computer baselines, server maintenance, setting up networks, writing statements of work, sitewalks with contractors, managing the contractors, supervising projects, troubleshooting network errors in a mixed environment, meeting security requirements set by the FISMA through FIPS and through specific guidance from NSA and DHS, setting up and conducting user awareness classes, and keeping abreast of current technologies and methods. This is the typical role one can expect to fill on the civilian side.
     In the Army, every one of those roles is broken down to one person a piece. This is why an S/G/J6 has 10-25 people, when it really could be managed very well by the Right 3-6 people in that office. I spent approx 4 months out of 2007 and about 5 months in 2008 working with the Guard, setting up joint warfighting exercises with various Active Duty units. When doing the initial setup of the network, I needed specific tie-ins with other units, such as how the callmanager for the VOIP was set up. I needed to address addressing, and needed a scope. I had to set up the servers we were using such as MOSS so they talked to the adjacent units. Then there were the basic tasks such as setting up the physical network and pc's, and building the OU and objects in Active Directory. In the real world, this should be managed by two people, one coming into the network and the one established, to form the trust and get the specifics. What I noticed was that I had my portion to complete, but I had to talk to 15 other people to get the other parts. One major for the call manager, one major for the Active Directory, a captain the scope, another half dozen people for other issues, that logically should have been handled by one person. The end result was that it took over a week to do a day and a half of work, because not a single person knew any information outside of their little peice of the pie. This, in the civilian world (and should be in the Army) is completely unacceptable. This in no way helps the mission. It's done because of selfishness, job security, and just the thought that it takes a Major to administer the Active Directory since it's so hard to understand.  -  This, in the civilian side, is a basic job, not an advanced one. It certainly did not help that I am wearing an NCO's rank, which automatically was discounted by most of the officers as 'someone who doesn't know anything'. This is the reason I had to carry a token officer in my pocket to talk to these other folks just do to my job. Anyways, I digress.

     The point I'm trying to get to, and do see that it's a bit convoluted, is that in the Army, you can be great at what you do with your little slice of the pie, but to be successful you really need to have a concise understanding of how these peices tie into each other, and should know exactly how adjacent activities tie into your responsibilities. There is absolutely no good way to troubleshoot an issue on a network if all you know is how your switch is set up...you have to know what is at the boundry as well, and what challenges that will present. I want to present the reasons why it is important to keep yourself educated, and seeking experience continually, if you want to be successful in the civilian job market after your time in the Army comes to a close.