Well, here we are…the year 2012.
The year the world’s supposed to end…yet again…this time on December 21st. It took me a while to get Bob to understand that no, the Mayans had nothing to do with the invention of mayonnaise, but now that we’re all on the same page, we’re fairly confident that we’re going to be okay.
So with that in mind, we’ve taken it easy long enough.
Let’s kick off 2012 right. Some good old fashioned ITintheD.com Don’t Be That Guy fun and excitement. An event in two weeks in the back room of the BlackFinn.
But first, a few quick items need to be recapped…
Our final event of last year was our Support The Troops event at Dragonmead Brewery, and it’s still a bit overwhelming to us all how successful it really was. You can read a recap out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2850/recap-dragonmead-december15/ and check out a few photos at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2864/a-few-photos-from-thursday-night/ if you’re interested.
Because it was so successful, and because we’ve been asked a number of times in the past two weeks about it…yes, you can still make a donation if you’d like at our upcoming January 19th event at the BlackFinn in Royal Oak. As with all of our events, the details are available out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/meet/, and if you have any questions about what you should bring if you’re interested, the FAQs from the December event are still live out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2735/dec-15-faqs/. This isn’t something that we’re going to do every month, but since the requests have been there…we’ll go ahead and let it ride. It’s the right thing to do.
Speaking of the right thing to do, the right thing to do if you’re interested in starting a networking group is to start one that doesn’t suck. So towards the end of last year, we threw out a response to some of the questions that we’ve had come in with How Not To Suck At Starting A Networking Group out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2748/how-not-to-suck-at-starting-a-networking-group/. We’ve now got folks from New England and Virginia that have shown up since that got published asking for more details and our help in getting them up and running. Seems like everyone has the same vibe – there are so many networking groups out there that just suck. They’re predatory in nature. They’re painful to attend. They’re useless. They’re like a blemish on the face of networking…
…hey, they’re That Guy! In fact, they’re Don’t Be That Guy – The Pimple, which is now live out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2879/dont-be-that-guy-the-pimple/ You know how we keep saying that there are a bunch of Don’t Be That Guy entries that are floating around in draft mode in various states of completion? This is one of those. It’s been hanging around for a while…more of a cathartic purging just by writing it more than anything else…but the more spam that got forwarded our way over the holiday break, the more conversations we had with other people about networking groups that suck…well, it seemed like it was a good time to cut this puppy loose. Enjoy.
If you’re looking for something good to do with your old computers, or happen to be interested/involved with people with disabilities in and around the IT industry, you might want to check out this entry from the end of last year out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2874/a-couple-cool-things-from-thursday-night/ that covers both of those topics.
We’ve also come to the dawning realization that a lot of our older posts don’t get noticed by the people just showing up for the first time to our site, or to our LinkedIn group. So, as a result, we’re going to take a run at trying to segment them out a little bit better, and probably come up with a “best of” or “must read” section that covers some of the important topics that we’ve touched on over the last few years in particular.
We’re also going to try and directly help a few people this year. We tried the whole “spotlight” thing last year, but not enough to really figure out how we wanted to do it, or what to do with it…so let’s try an abbreviated version of it this time. Here are two people that I know are looking for gigs right now:
Courtney has been to a few of our events…in fact, she’s taken a lot of the photos that we’ve used here on the site. She’s currently looking for something in the office administrator or administrative assistant realms. You can check out her Linkedin profile here: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/courtney-wrona/24/7bb/694
Colton is actually a solid tie-in from our December event. Colton’s just getting back from active duty in Kuwait, and he’s wondering if there’s a company out there looking for a network admin, or anything relating to computer networks, that might be interested in someone with his background and experience. You can check out his LinkedIn profile here: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/colton-robertson/41/61b/199
Let’s start with those two, and see how things go. As with everything we do…we’ll pretty much figure this out along the way as well. And yep, Courtney’s not technically “IT”…but you know what? This is why we keep saying “in and around IT” and “it’s not what you know, but who you know”, folks. IT companies need office admins, too. And, fun fact – the first person hired from our first Pink Slip Party back in the day wasn’t technically “IT” either…it was Lindsey, who helped us out by running our registration table at that first event after getting laid off earlier in the month from her desk job at an IT staffing company…and Arrow Strategies scooped her up after chatting with her that afternoon/evening. And she’s still there, years later, still doing well and advancing in her career with them. So that’s why we don’t say “No, you can’t come” when it comes to folks that aren’t hardcore coders or developers…as long as you’re in or around the IT industry in some way…or could be…or want to be…then we’re good with that. Still no fruit basket salesmen. Still no insurance pitches. Still no MLM. But we’ve got writers (someone’s got to do documentation…and we all know developers don’t like to), artists (someone’s gotta make those sites and apps pretty), and all sorts of folks that don’t necessarily fit the “typical” IT mold…but they’re in the right ballpark, and they have the right mindset, and so we’ve welcomed them aboard as well.
Speaking of which, as always, consider this your reminder to hop into our LinkedIn group over at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=91763 to check out some great discussions and jobs posted.
See you in two weeks – http://www.ITinTheD.com/meet/ – in the back room of the BlackFinn in Royal Oak. You can also find the event listing on Linkedin at http://linkd.in/uK3613
Regards,
Bob, Dave and Jeff
ITintheD.com
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