So Monday night was pretty awesome.
You know…if we do say so ourselves.
In case you missed the memo (and shame on you if you did), our “IT in The D” live internet radio show went live at 9pm on Monday night.
We had some great in-studio guests, a couple phone calls, and just a great time was had by all.
The best part? This coming Monday’s shaping up to be even better…
The evening began with some pre meeting Pabst Blue Ribbons, food, and wrestling talk strategic planning over at Third Street Saloon. If you haven’t been to Third Street Saloon yet, you absolutely should. AWESOME little place, and it’s an extremely safe bet that you will find us there every Monday night before we go on the air. If you DO go, get the “SMOG” meat pie. Trust me.
The three of us met up, along with Russ Dotson (a recruiter from Brightwing who attends our events, and was one of our in-studio guests that night) , to just basically make sure our brains were all in synch.
Which, of course, had nothing to do with the conversation that actually took place.
From wrestling to Tazmanian Devil impressions (don’t ask – long story), we chatted about anything and everything but the show that night. In fact, we were a little worried that we were riffing and cracking each other up so much that we should have just been recording that conversation and playing it back on the air because we’d be out of material…
…but that was hardly a realistic concern. You know us. We can talk for hours and Hours and HOURS and still not even be close to “empty”.
And so, meat pies consumed and PBRs downed, it was time to make our way over to the studio, just a few minutes up the road. After, of course, a quick stop across the street from the bar we were at to grab some snacks for while we were in studio.
And beer. Don’t think for two seconds we didn’t grab more beer. What spinach is to Popeye, beer is to us.
We arrived a little on the early side, and then proceded to climb Mt Everest walk up the four flights of stairs to where the studio is. Got ourselves situated, shook off some last minute jitters, and then made our way into the studio and took our spots. Which looked pretty much like you’d expect it would…
At 9:00pm on the dot (I know, I know…us starting something “precisely” on time is a bit shocking…good thing we’re not the ones running things here), we began.
The sounds of “The Eighties” by The Killing Joke hit the airwaves…and we were rolling.
The Imperial March kicked in…and we adjusted our mics, and we were off and live and ohmygod this is crazy…
But we did it.
And from the feedback we’ve gotten, both during the show (yes, “thank you” to all of the people who sent us tweets, text messages, and all sorts of other distractions during the show…jerks…lol… ) as well as afterwards, it seems like it came across as well as we hoped it would.
At 9:30, we took a break and brought J Wolfgang Goerlich in studio with us to talk about his upcoming Security BSides conference that’s taking place this weekend. While tickets are all sold out (so it was a bit of a tease, sorry), they are live streaming all of the speaker sessions and talks.
If you’re in or around the security field, or just have an interest in it, you really do want to pay attention to these guys.
They’ll have everything from a lockpick village setup to hands on hacking demonstrations and even a scavenger hunt to test your skills against 500 or so of your peers in the industry. Physical security and cyber security. Password cracking. Even stuff designed specifically for kids to help them be more aware and protected in today’s digital world.
We chatted about some security basics, what led him to decide to take on organizing and running a conference, how easy it is to mine data out of even a locked-down Facebook profile, and a whole host of other topics that definitely made it worth a listen.
(sidenote on that front: we’re working on getting the archived podcast versions done…this is our first time, be patient and gentle with us)
If you’re interested in finding out more, you should check out the MISec page at http://michsec.org/, and the B-Sides Detroit page at http://www.securitybsides.com/w/page/61144863/BSidesDetroit13
That conversation took us right up to our 10:00 break. Definitely time well spent.
Diving back in, we brought Russ into the game and started talking about jobs that Brightwing is actively hunting and recruiting for, as well as the benefits he sees as a recruiter in coming to our events, what job seekers should and should not expect and tolerate during their search, how to approach a job search…
The last hour flowed really well. We even took a few calls, including from a job seeker looking for a gig who wanted to ask Russ a few questions.
Over the course of that final hour, in between movie quotes, jokes, ripping on each other and having a great time with Karen, who in addition to having her own show that was on right before ours, ran the board for us (and oh my god, she did a phenomenal job not just running the board, but also diving in with us in chats, keeping us on track and on time, she was just simply great) we managed to get some various viewpoints and discussion in on:
- Being a first-timer at a networking event
- Yes, recruiters stalk you on Facebook
- Why coming to an event will do way more for your job search than anything else
- A few of the 10 Commandments of Networking
- Jobs that Brightwing is recruiting for actively at the moment
- The challenges of being new to IT
- Career transition
- Ditching lame recruiters who aren’t really trying to help you
…and a whole bunch more. It was a very solid chain of conversations, and we all had a blast.
To the point where we barely even remembered to talk about our events, what we have on the horizon, etc. Which, duh, was one of the things we really wanted to do.
On the jobs front, Brightwing has a ton of openings right now all over the state:
- Entry level to senior .NET developers needed from Detroit to Grand Blanc and points in between
- Some pretty cool stuff with high-end, wired vending machines that need installers with some basic networking certifications that don’t mind flying around the country 75% of the time.
- Security architects
- Java architects
- Senior QA developers and analysts
- A whole bunch of anything and everything, from entry level to extremely senior level
Moral of the story?
Their jobs site is at http://jobs.gobrightwing.com/
You go there.
You filter it down based on the area you’re looking in around the state.
Then you drop Russ a note – russ AT gobrightwing.com. You do what we keep telling you to do – you make the personal connection, you get someone actively engaged with you instead of filling out a vanilla resume form or firing nonsense off into the ether ninety times a day.
And you let Russ help you out.
It’s that simple. In fact, several people have already done that since our broadcast on Monday night.
See? You really do want to listen live. Never know what you’re going to miss out on.
We wrapped up at 11:00, having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for two solid hours of conversations, getting the word out about cool stuff, kicking The Hipster Queen of Brooklyn off of our phone lines, and maybe even helping a few people find new jobs.
And laughing. And movie quotes. And the usual politically incorrect shenanigans you would expect from us.
Next week’s going to be even more interesting, we think.
Erika Carlson and Michelle (please god let me spell this right) Srbinovich are coming in to talk about their Girl Develop It enterprise that’s doing some extemely cool stuff with getting more women interested, involved, and into the IT industry and community here in the metro Detroit area. They organize classes around the area to help improve coding knowledge, best practices, getting exposure into the area and industry and that’s just a pretty damned cool thing. You can read a bit about them here: http://www.girldevelopit.com/chapters/detroit ahead of time…or don’t, you’ll hear all about it on Monday night.
They’re also outright hilarious, which is why we’re sure they’ll be great on the air with us. Really looking forward to it.
We’ll also have a recruiter in-studio with us again all night, and the phone lines will be open the whole time. Some of the feedback we’ve gotten let us know that you wanted some more Q&A opportunities, so now that we’ve got one under our belt and successfully run, we’ll go ahead and loosen things up a bit.
And we think we’re going to try and do this whole “have a recruiter in-studio with us all night” thing each and every week. So if you’d like to come join us, here’s the deal:
- You have to be willing and able to hang out the whole time.
- It’s 9pm to 11pm.
- It’s downtown Detroit. Like “really downtown”, like “not in necessarily the world’s greatest looking part of downtown”. But it’s safe, and you’ll be fine, but I don’t want anyone saying we didn’t at least put that out there.
- We’re gonna be taking phone calls. And yep, that means whacky mayhem might ensue. But you’ve got us with you and on your side.
So, interested? Drop us a note: ITintheD AT gmail DOT com, or here using our Contact Us form – https://itinthed.com/contact-us/ – and let us know. We’ll take them as they come in, and schedule accordingly.
So, all things being equal…a good first night, and a good first step.
Oh, and if you’re worried about us getting ahead of ourselves…don’t. We’re already keeping the best advice we can in mind…
See you tomorrow with our normal email blast, and don’t forget to hit http://www.ITinTheD.com on Monday night at 9pm to tune in and listen to us live!