Certification - June 2006 - (Page 4)
CM0606.qxd 5/5/06 5:06 PM Page 4 EDITOR'S LETTER Workflow or Work Slow?
Tools and Techniques for the IT Professional TIM SOSBE VOLUME 8 ISSUE 6
JUNE 2006 G R O U P PUBLISHER John R. Taggart jrtag@certmag.com There's a
phrase you don't hear as much in business as you used to, or at least so
it seems. The question is EDITOR IN CHIEF Norman B. Kamikow
nkam@certmag.com fairly simple, but the answer is increasingly complex:
VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS Are you executive material? Gwen Connelly
gwen@certmag.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER & ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Once upon a
time that was a common way of ranking James R. Yeakel jyeakel@certmag.com
the rank-and-file in large organizations. The workforce EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Tim Sosbe tsosbe@certmag.com in those supposedly simpler days was divided
into MANAGING EDITOR Emily Hollis ehollis@certmag.com three general
categories workers, managers and executives. Workers could be management
material, and managers could be TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Ed Tittel
etittel@certmag.com executive material, but the advancement track often
was unstructured and WEB EDITOR Brian Summerfield bsummerfield@certmag.com
dependent on someone somewhere noticing a person's abilities. COPY EDITOR
Sarah Stone sstone@certmag.com Surely there are corporate cultures out
there where this haphazard approach ASSOCIATE EDITORS Kellye Whitney
kwhitney@certmag.com still works, but most companies of size are going to
more formalized methods Cari McLean cmclean@certmag.com of workforce
assessment and advancement. In the IT industry, certification is,
EDITORIAL INTERN Carley Polifka cpolifka@certmag.com of course, a linchpin
in that system. Employers frequently use certifications as WEBMASTER Sean
Sands ssands@certmag.com a pre-hiring indicator of abilities and as a
post-hiring tool for promotion. E-MEDIA COORDINATOR Galen Ly
gly@certmag.com So, are you executive material? WEB COORDINATOR Rebecca
Henderson rhenderson@certmag.com It's still not an easy question, so let's
break it down a bit. First, let's take the NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR skills
question off the table and assume you have the requisite technical and
Andrew Henderson ahenderson@certmag.com management knowledge. Second,
executive careers often are influenced by CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Patrick von
Schlag Katherine Steve Birch having a wide network of contacts. For this
exercise, we'll assume you're Spencer Lee James Stanger Brad Causey
well-known and beloved and ready to join the party. Third, there's
everything Chris Lehr Sarah Stone David Garrett else: Are you honest you
must work here at least two years before getting Peter Manijak Brian
Summerfield Chris Jacobs indicted , ethical and unflappable? The questions
get more complex. Cari McLean Kellye Whitney I've identified one more
executive challenge: work habits. Executives are DIRECTOR, CREATIVE &
PRODUCTION SERVICES nose-to-the-grindstone type of people, right? You
know, the dull-boy Jacks Kendra Chaplin kendra@certmag.com who like all
work and no play. They're focused, motivated and driven. PRODUCTION
MANAGER Linda Dziwak linda@certmag.com Well, not always. Turns out
executives are prone to the same bad habits as PHOTOGRAPHER & DESIGNER
everyone else. According to a recent study from NFI Research, 64 percent
of Matthew Taplinger mtaplinger@certmag.com senior executives and managers
save the hardest work for last, tackling first EVENTS COORDINATOR Trey
Smith tsmith@certmag.com the low-effort, faster-to-complete projects and
moving on to the time-con- COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR suming elements. Diane
Landsman dlandsman@certmag.com Procrastination can be the great equalizer,
apparently. Of course, in the IT BUSINESS MANAGER Vince Czarnowski
vince@certmag.com world, procrastination or even such comfortable
scheduling isn't always pos- CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Cindy Cardinal
ccardinal@certmag.com sible. Like mathematics, so much of IT is
process-oriented and can only be PUBLISHER'S ASSISTANT Sarah Ryan
sryan@certmag.com done in certain logical orders. Other workers and
executives alike might have LIST MANAGER Jay Schwedelson
jschwedelson@worldata.com the luxury of determining workflow, but not
always the IT pro. REPRINTS reprints@parsintl.com OR call 212 221-9595 I'm
being facetious with this column, of course. The reality is workers at all
levels have certain similarities and certain differences, and with the
proper training any person can do any other person's job in at least a
certain respect. But in a business marketplace that often places high
importance on such tit- Norman B. Kamikow John R. Taggart PRESIDENT
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT ular distinctions, it's interesting to see how
alike we really all are. Philip S. Wolin Patricia Pierce GENERAL COUNSEL
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Are you executive material? A better question: Are
they IT material? Certification Magazine ISSN 1529-6903 is published
monthly by MediaTec Publishing Inc., 318 Harrison Street, Suite 301,
Oakland, CA 94607. Periodicals Class Postage Paid at Oakland, CA and at
additional mailing offices. POST- MASTER: Please send address changes to:
Certification Magazine, P.O. Box 2083, Skokie, IL 60076-7983.
Subscriptions are free to qualified IT profession- als. Non-qualified paid
subscriptions are available at the subscription price of $39.97 for 12
issues. Canada/Mexico orders must be prepaid in U.S. funds with an
additional $15 postage charge. All other countries outside the U.S. Tim
Sosbe must be prepaid in U.S. funds with an additional $40 postage
surcharge. Editorial Director Certification Magazine, CertMag and
CertMag.com are the trademarks of MediaTec Publishing Inc. Copyright
http://CertMag.com
http://CertMag.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Certification - June 2006
Editors Letter
Table of Contents
Data Stream
Consultants Corner
Tech Careers
Virtual Village
Certification Evolution: Job-Role Certifications for Your Future
Inside Certification
Must-Have Non-Technical Skills for IT Pros
IP Telephony Engineers
Specialty Certification
Interface
Ad Index
Endtag
Certification - June 2006
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com