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

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