Career Path: Computer or Technical Support Specialist

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need for Computer Support Specialists will increase steadily until at least 2020. Computer support specialists troubleshoot and resolve various computer and software issues. They may work in a help-desk environment or provide technical support in an organization's IT department. They may work in a large company and be one of several specialists or they might work in a small company or school and be the only IT person, handling all the technical problems. These specialists generally have a background in computer hardware and software, programming and network technologies. Many employers require computer support specialists to hold a bachelor's degree, though a certificate or associate's degree is sometimes sufficient.

Here are a few videos to give you an idea of what's involved in being a computer support specialist.







Not the best video production; I find the scrolling dialogue annoying and the editing is not seamless but this guy gives a fairly good overview of what his typical day is like.

This woman's desk is way too clean and tidy for a computer support specialist!

My favorite! Why? Because he starts out by telling you that if you work in IT you have to have a pretty messy work area. YES!!! I have never met an IT person who didn't have a buttload of cables, flash drives, software, and hardware laying around their office. They love their gadgets






 Qualities for a Successful Tech Support Specialist

• Respect for all users -- even when it's not reciprocated. Specialists mostly get called when things go wrong. Sometimes the problem is trivial but the user thinks it's the end of the world! Good people skills go a long way in making the user feel like their problem is important and that they're not stupid for freaking out -- even though you may be thinking that in your head . Tech Support Specialists get yelled at and freaked out on A LOT. There will be times when you save someone's data and they won't even thank you. Yeah, people can be rude. But you'll have plenty more users who will treat you like the rockstar that you actually are and appreciate your technical expertise. Treat all of them with respect. It will pay off in the long run.

ROCK IT!!!!

• Know your knowledge limitations. Realize that you don't know everything. The best techs know how to find the answer, whether it's Googling something, calling upon another, more senior tech, or jumping on a discussion forum to get your question answered. If you enjoy constantly learning new things, then this is a great career for you.

• Be a problem solver and creative thinker. Sometimes you have to be MacGyver  -- solving complex problems with the tools at hand. Sometimes just being able to isolate the problem is the hardest part of fixing it.
  

• Keep learning and applying your knowledge. Rapid change is fundamental to the IT world. Hardware, software and methodology become outdated very quickly. If you want to stay employed, you need to keep up with all the changes. Adapt your knowledge base to new situations. What worked on one problem might not be the perfect solution to another problem. Most things don't go by the book.

• Have an intrinsic interest in technology. Users need to feel that you are the technical guru so it's important for you to be excited about new technologies. And you want to be a key player when the company is making decisions about purchasing technology.

To find out more about what's needed in a career in Computer and Information Technology, go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics page.

Get Connected to Professionals!!

LinkedIn has just announced a new product aimed at high school students. It's called University Pages. It goes live September 12th. Mark your calendar!!

LinkedIn is one of the tools I use on a regular basis for recruiting. Whereas Facebook is used for social networking (friends and family), this is professional networking, connecting you with professionals. It has over 200 million professionals registered. Professionals? What, exactly does that mean? It means these are people who are in the business world.......Teachers, Engineers, Sales Consultants, Product Marketing Managers, Administrative Assistants, Buyers, Technicians, Game Designers, Forensic Specialists, Interaction Designers, Political Speech Writers..........there are so many!!

If you already have an idea about what kind of career you'd like to pursue, then University Pages can help you determine what college might be best for that particular career path. It also lets you connect with alumni from the colleges you're interested in.  You'll be able to find someone from a particular college that either majored in what you want to major in or is working in the field that you're interested in for a career. When you find these people you can send them an InMail (LinkedIn's internal messaging system) and start a conversation with them.

You can ask them things like what college life was like. Or you might want to know more about their current job and whether their college major prepared them fully for it. Maybe they have some advice on classes to take. In one of my past posts, I wrote about a young woman I found while looking on LinkedIn. Her college path and subsequent career were more like this

than this










And she would be happy to talk to you about her school-to-work path as well as share her thoughts  about college, networking with professionals and her present day career.

YOU CAN START MAKING CONNECTIONS WITH PROFESSIONALS BEFORE YOU EVEN GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL!!!!!

I was looking for a video demo of how to use University Pages but could only find one that was geared towards college administrators and not you, the high school student. I'm sure that once the product goes live on September 12th, they will have a demo on the site for you to check out. But here's the LinkedIn product introduction blog post which you might find helpful.

Good luck!

Following an Unknown Path

I was looking around LinkedIn which is a tool I use in my recruiting work. I find people very interesting so, naturally, if I find someone interesting, I read about them. Sometimes that can be a total timesink......but I still do it ;-)  Nicole Griffin has traveled an unusual road from high school to her current career.

Why do I find her so interesting?  Because she has truly embraced following an unknown career path and made some unique choices along the way. I found Nicole so interesting that I contacted her and asked if she could spare some time chatting with me about those choices and how she got where she is now. She graciously agreed!

Nicole attended a private high school in Northern California. She got good grades. Took AP classes. Had a 3.85 GPA when she graduated. 

I wanted to know if there was a teacher or counselor who had a huge influence on her. Yes, she had some really good teachers but her opinion of her school counselor surprised me and, yet, it didn't. It surprised me because private schools are actually willing to pay for counselors who work with students to help them get into college. Every school wants to show that a high percentage of their students go on to college, especially private high schools. What didn't surprise me was that Nicole felt her counselor was ineffective. Her word. Not mine. 

She felt that no one gave her the opportunity to choose whether or not to go to college. The counselor was there to focus/guide her on the path to college. Looking back on it, Nicole thinks that there are a lot of teens who aren't mature enough right out of high school, to go to college right away. She likes the idea of taking a year off to travel or work; to get your bearings and take a breather from 12 years of school.

She started out attending UC Irvine but decided it wasn't the right fit. This led her to take a semester at a community college to figure out what she wanted to do. She eventually ended up going to UCLA where she took an Art History class which lead her to an Islamic Art History class which then lead her to study abroad in Turkey for a year. She studied Arabic in Morocco, Jordan, and Lebanon and is currently taking Turkish classes at night after work.

Nicole has done several internships, drawing upon her knowledge of the art world and now applying it to business. She is in an MBA program and is working as a paid intern at 2 companies. While she's doing her internships, she is networking. Every person she comes into contact with is a potential referral, champion or mentor for her next step in the business world.

I will venture a guess that when Nicole started her college career in Art History, she wasn't planning on getting into international business. But she followed her interests, which lead her to where she is today. There are many things that impress me about this young woman but what impresses me most is that she is open to investigating new pathways and seeing where they will lead. Fearless!!

Coder Girl

Computer Science tends to be male centric. I wish there were more women programmers. Maybe this might inspire some young women to look into Computer Science as a college major.

Get Ahead and Learn on Your Own

When I started to write this post about online learning, my thinking was that college isn't for everyone. And it's not. But as a recruiter in Silicon Valley, I can tell you that in order to get a job in high tech or to get ahead in a business career, you will, indeed, need a college education. The more prestigious the college, the more likely you are to snare the right job. But again, college, especially the brick and mortar kind, aren't for everyone.

So where does online education come into play? Well, first of all it can give you a boost up in your current job. Secondly it can provide you with extra knowledge about an area of interest. And lastly, it can supplement your past education. Don't rule it out.

Online education is going nowhere but UP! Even Bill Gates is a strong proponent of online learning. The Khan Academy  is a not-for-profit educational organization whose mission is to"provide a high quality education to anyone, anywhere". They supply a free online collection of over 2,000 videos on mathematics, history, finance, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and economics. I think this site is great for high school students.

But there are other online courses you can take as well. The University of Washington has online classes for Arts, Biotechnology, Health & Medicine, Law and a host of other majors. Or check out Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative and take a Statistics or Biology class.

Penn State University offers a free Swedish class or a Hungarian Language course.

The University of Washington School of Medicine offers free CPR classes online, complete with video and instructional guides.

If you want to learn about dentistry, medicine, nutrition, and more, check out Tufts University.

There are a lot of syllabi from college classes that can be found on the web. Just do a Google search using this formula:  site:.edu math course syllabus. Replace math with whatever subject area you're interested in. For instance, if you want to find a syllabus for an art history class, just Google this: site:.edu "art history" course syllabus. Or you can find lectures, tutorials, notes, and even online books.

You can use these online resources to enhance your existing education or maybe just to satisfy your curiosity in a particular subject. Never stop learning. Ever.

CSI Here I Come!

My daughter hired a nanny for the grandkids this past summer. She comes home from college for the summer. During the school year the nanny is a student at the University of New Haven .

I started quizzing her about her major and what kind of career she was interested in. She said she was a die hard fan of the show CSI . For as long as she can remember, she has wanted to be a forensic scientist. This pdf www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/1999/Fall/art01.pdf , put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistic, gives you a good idea of what is involved in forensic lab work. Pretty interesting stuff!

Since I had no background in forensic science, I thought it wise to check out the class descriptions from the University of New Haven's Forensic program . Here are a couple of classes (just to give you an idea):

• Forensic Microscopy
• Fingerprints
• Forensic Pathology
• Criminalistics
• Capillary Electophoresis

The last one I think is like a DNA sequencing method.....but don't quote me on that.

I am in no way a science geek but I like solving mysteries. And it sounds to me like that's exactly what forensic scientists do. So if you enjoy solving mysteries and think you might actually enjoy Biology, then by all means, check out related jobs -- just do a Google search on forensic science and you'll have more reading than you ever thought possible. And also check out the University of New Haven's Forensic program . Those high school Biology classes might start looking pretty interesting ;-)

Real Life Game Designer

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of interviewing a guy who designs video games. How cool is that?!!

We ended up talking about how he got into game design and what advice he had for high school students as they were figuring out what they wanted to do in their life.

Simon  went to an alternative high school, so he had many opportunities to explore his passions. And for some people, this might not work. Some people need more structure. In this less structured environment, Simon took a lot of different classes that interested him. Just because. He had (and still has) the mindset that you never know where something will lead you. I call that fearless.

Simon went off to college. He majored in Physics and Philosophy. Go figure! While in college, he went to a career fair. There he met a guy who designed games.He thought it was pretty cool and decided he wanted to design games! So off he went. And learned how to design games.

As a recruiter I do a lot of research on potential candidates. Researching Simon, I went to his blog and read about a game that he had recently discovered. He liked the aesthetics of the game. It's called Ponycorns . It only takes a few minutes to play and, though I don't play video games, I had a blast playing it!

So what sage advice does Simon give high school students? One word.WRITE. Write a lot!

Simon is now working on a new game. He's building a business around this game. Check out his blog  and see how it's doing!

Oh, and if game design interests you, check out USC School of Cinematics Arts  or University of California Santa Cruz . GamePro  also did an article back in 2010 about the 8 highest ranked colleges for game design. I suggest you also read the comments because there's a lot of good info in there as well.

Education - The Great Cross Trainer

Every once in awhile I come across quotes that say exactly what I'm thinking. I came across one today.

We should think of education as a kind of intellectual cross-training that leads to many more things than at any one moment you could possibly know would be useful. The most powerful education generates further curiosity, new needs, experiences to meet those needs, more curiosity and so on.

Education isn’t just an object that you use to get started in a career; education is a catalytic resource that continues to energize and shape your life. Education enhances your ability to develop new skills and capacities for connectivity that allow you to solve problems and seize opportunities.

Who Do U Want To Be?

I came across this interesting website today while checking out the webpage of a media teacher at a local high school. Who Do You Want To Be? . It's much more entertaining than the other assessment sites I've found and it actually came up with areas of career interest for me that made sense! Though it is definitely not as indepth as the other sites, it's worth a few minutes of your time.

Stanford School of Medicine Residential Program

It's that time of year again!

The Stanford Medical Youth Science Program has a Summer Residential Program (SRP ) that is an annual science- and medicine-based enrichment program open to low-income and ethnically disadvantaged high school sophomores and juniors who live in northern and central California.

They only receive applications from the following California counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Madera, Marin, Mendocino, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Sacramento, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, and Yolo.

Information about the program is sent to all high schools in these 21 counties. Check with your school counselor or school Career Center for an application.

This is an AWESOME opportunity for any sophomore or junior who is interested in a possible career in medicine to get up close and personal in a real-world medical setting.

You must submit your application  no later than February 15th........so there's no time to lose!

One of the cool things about their website is their Health Careers Profile  page. Click on any of the profiles and you're taken to a page which has information about what the job entails, what a typical workday is, and also some related links and other information you might find interesting. It took me well over an hour to go through all the profiles.

Do you know what a Biophotographer  is?

Learn something new everyday!!

Inspirational Speaking?

Today I received this video from a friend who, last week, tried to make a point about what characteristics make someone an inspirational speaker.

I can't say that this makes his argument but it definitely had me ROTFL.

Live in the moment but........

When I was younger. Much younger. In high school. I wanted not to be in high school. I couldn't wait to graduate and be done with high school.

I missed out on enjoying my later high school years. For many different reasons. I was never present for those last 2 years. I was just biding my time, waiting to get out and start my life as an adult. And not only was I not living in the moment during that time, but I also wasn't planning for my future. Double whammy.

The Station  is one of my favorite poems. I have a copy of it hanging up in my kitchen so I can see it everyday. It talks about living the journey of life; being present in the moment.

Yes, you should live in the moment while you're in high school. Embrace all that it has to offer. Value your friendships. Utilize all the resources available to you. Participate in extracurricular activities.

But also live for the future.

Enjoy high school but also think and act towards your future. Even if you are lucky enough to have parents who provide you with direction. Even if you have awesome guidance counselors who provide you with resources, it is still your call. It is your journey.

Live it. Own it.

Seriously?

I just received this brochure from AAA. I'm surprised (though I shouldn't be) that their marketing people allowed this to go out the door. Was there not a second pair of eyes on this?

I went back to one of my older blog posts  to see if I had added your and you're to my list of grammatical transgressions and I found that I hadn't. Shame on me, since I see this mistake made all the time.

Sheesh!

Yosemite Institute Field Research

Two week backpacking adventure in the wilderness of Yosemite. Earn college credit by completing an ecological research project to answer your own questions about the natural world.

Writing an Effective Resume

As a recruiter, I'm always amazed (though I shouldn't be anymore), at how poor some people write and how little thought they put into their resumes. A resume is your marketing tool -- to market yourself to a potential employer. It's not your life story.

As a young adult, with little experience, it may seem like an impossible task to put together a resume that has more than your name and address. It's not.

As a teenager or young adult, you probably have very little experience; both life experience and work experience. So what can you put on a resume?

1. Your Contact Info should be kept simple.

• Name


• Address


• Phone number (including cell phone if you have one)


• Email address - get a Yahoo or Gmail address.

2. The Objective Statement is optional. Most people state in their Objective Statement what they want, like To obtain an entry level position in a fast growing company. DON'T tell them what you want. Tell them what you can offer. But keep it simple. How about Ambitious, highly intelligent, go-getter who is ready to take on any challenge thrown her way.

3. Education is where you detail your educational history. Being in high school will make this fairly easy. Just list the name of your school, its city, your dates of enrollment, expected graduation date and GPA (if you know it). If you're in college, list similar information including your major and areas of concentration.

4. Your Work Experience comes next. Include your job title, the company, its location, and your dates of employment. This even includes the paper route you had when you were 10. I would suggest you also list any volunteer work you've done. Recruiters like people who volunteer!

For each job, list a couple of bullet points that explain your work and what you did.Did you take on extra responsibility? Did you help plan the team holiday party? Did you design a database with contact info for your boss?

5. You can also include Special Projects that you may have worked on. Include what your role was in the project.

6. Miscellaneous is that catch-all portion of the resume where you can include clubs and organizations you belong to, any special awards you've received and also any special skills you have, i.e. Level 5 Knot Maker or Eagle Scout or Ruby on Rails programmer.

7. There are a couple of ways you can go with the References portion of your resume. It is perfectly acceptable to just say "References Available Upon Request", but if you need to fill up space then you can actually list your references. It's recommended to have 3 references. At least one should be a teacher or manager from one of your jobs. BE SURE TO ASK THEIR PERMISSION TO USE THEM AS A REFERENCE before listing them!

If you list your references, include their name, title, company/affiliation name, email and/or phone number.

Now you have all the components for your resume. IT SHOULD NOT BE MORE THAN ONE PAGE!! For most of you, you'll be lucky if you have a full page worth of information. Play around with the font; size and type. Make the margins bigger so that your page looks fuller.

Lastly, have someone (or several people) proofread your resume. Most high schools and colleges have Career Placement Centers and people there whose job it is to help you with your resume. Have your English teacher proofread it. The more eyes on it and the more feedback you have, the better. Or just send it to me Beth Fox and I'll be happy to proofread it and offer suggestions.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

• Use spellcheck


• Use bullets


• Use Action Verbs  
  
  
• Don't be cutsie

Here are some sites that may help you with putting together your resume.
Job Search  
CollegeGrad.com  
Yahoo  

Grammatical Transgressions

I get a lot of emails from many different types of people. Teachers, engineers, CEOs, Marketing VPs. You name it, I get it. The writing ranges anywhere from Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? to Ernest Hemingway. For God's sake, every email application and every word processor has a spell check. Use it! And most also have a grammar check. Use that too!!

I find that many people have a tendency to spell by ear. That is, they listen to whether it "sounds" right. So the word may sound right but it has a meaning other than the one intended. Below are what I think are the most commonly misspelled words. They are not necessarily in order except for the first one, which happens to be my biggest pet peeve.

• there, their and they're
  there = at that place (as in "over there"); their = possessive of they (as in "in their best interests); they're = contraction of they are (as in they're going to the store)




• affect and effect
  affect = to influence (as in "lack of sleep affected his test scores"); effect = to bring to pass (as in "her speech had a huge effect on the outcome of the vote")



• weather and whether
  weather = the state of the atmosphere; whether = if



• stationary and stationery
  stationary = not moving; stationery = paper and envelopes



• capital and capitol
  capital = a financial resource (as in "she had enough capital to open her own business"); capitol = a building in which a state legislative body meets



• principal and principle
  principal = chief or primary; principle = a fundamental truth or governing law of conduct



• council and counsel
  council = a legislative body; counsel = advice
  
• it's and its
  it's = contraction of it is(as in "it's a nice day"); its = possessive form of it (as in "the horse has its saddle on")
  
• to and too
  to = motion or direction; too = also. If you can put also in to replace the word, then it should be too
  
• lead and led
  The past tense of the verb lead drops the a (as in "I will lead the horse to water today, but yesterday I led the horses to water")
  
• who's and whose
  who's = contraction for who is (as in "Who's knocking at the door?"); whose = possessive form of who (as in "Whose shoe is this?")

Putting That Civics Class to Good Use

With the Congressman Mark Foley scandal   still in the recesses of our not-so-distant memories, I am going to go out on a limb in suggesting an internship as a Congressional or Senate Page. Thinking about this in your Freshman year in high school is none too soon. Your grades need to be good and it would be a good idea to be doing some volunteer work in some sort of political arena. You may not have a burning desire to go into politics at this time but the summer or school year you spend as a page will give you great insight into how the government operates and will give you some great contacts for later use in your career....whatever that may be.

For more than 100 years, messengers known as Pages have served the United States Congress. Pages are appointed and sponsored by a member of Congress and must be high school juniors and at least sixteen years old. Pages serve principally as messengers. They carry documents between the House and Senate, Members’ offices, committees, and the Library of Congress. They also prepare the House and Senate chambers for each day’s business by distributing the Congressional Record and other documents related to the day’s agenda, assist in the cloakrooms and chambers, and when Congress is in session, sit near the dais where they may be summoned by Members for assistance. In the House, pages also raise and lower the flag on the roof of the Capitol.

For more information on the duties, salaries and requirements to be a page go to the US Senate Reference page .


Contact your Senator’s office   for more information on becoming a Senate Page.

And if you really want the inside scoop on what it's like to be a Congressional Page, the Congressional Page Association   website has some basic information on what it's like to be a Page. I most enjoyed reading the Page Memories   portion of the site. It made me wish I had known about this when I was in high school. I most definitely would have applied for it.

Pet Peeves

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Careers in Science

I did a presentation to a group of high school girls a few weeks back, who are focusing on "non-traditional" subjects such as science and math. I find it sad that these two areas are considered "non traditional" for girls.

But let's not dwell on that. Though my presentation to the girls was about general skills needed in the work environment, I took some time to research what kinds of careers there are for science and math majors. Needless to say, there are way too many to list here. But here are some that caught my eye.

Chemistry Careers: Beyond Bunsen Burners   is a Job Web site that gives some great advice on what kinds of jobs are available for chemistry majors. I like their advice on getting a comprehensive education in order to make the most of their chemistry major. The career potential is huge!

Computational Physics Grads Make Games Work   is another Job Web site. Interesting spin on combining sciences and making video games.

There are only 13 Graduate Athletic Training Programs   in the U.S. There are many undergraduate athletic training programs but you can also major in sports medicine, kinesiology and other like subjects and still be accepted into the graduate program. Athletic trainers work with college and professional sports teams as well as with private medical programs.

The American Institute of Biological Sciences   has a great website on what careers are available to Biology majors. Things like Research, Environmental Studies, and Healthcare, are just a few of the areas you can pursue. This website also gives you ideas on combining areas of study in order to pursue some very unique and interesting careers.

Computer Forensics   is a quickly growing field of study. There are a lot of crimes being committed that have computers involved. Providing the government or civil authorities with technological evidence is extremely important. This is certainly a high growth career field.

Audiologists   will find plenty of work helping aging boomers retain their hearing. Not only can you work in a clinic but once you have established yourself in the field, there are companies that will want to hire you to help them build better hearing devices.

To find out more about some of the best careers in 2007 go to U.S. News & World Report  : and see what the future holds! And then try doing some searchs, using key words such as "chemistry careers" or "biology careers" or "math careers". You get the idea.

10 Things Employers Want You To Learn In College

I came across a great book that talks about SKILLS that you should have by the time you enter the workforce. I'm not talking about academic information like knowing all the state capitals or Algebraic equations. I'm talking about things like good communication skills, influencing people, being able to use Excel and more.

As a recruiter who works in the Bay Area near San Francisco  California, I interview people for jobs all the time. I've also been a manager at some very prestigious companies such as, Apple, WebTV, and Microsoft. I have seen firsthand how ill prepared young people are who come into the workplace. PhD's from Berkeley, MIT and Stanford and MBAs from Harvard are some of the smartest people around, yet some of them can't communicate their ideas or know how to manage their time!

10 Things Employers Want You To Learn In College  is a wonderful book with a list of skills  that you need to be successful in your career.

I'm realistic. I doubt if you will actually buy this book or take the time to check it out at the library. So I'm going to give it to you in bits and pieces and hope you think about these things as you're working on your career plan. But I do hope you get this book and use it as a guide and reference. If you do learn these skills, you will have a much better chance of getting the jobs you want and moving more quickly on your career path than someone who has the same academic background as you. In fact, I'll put myself out on a limb here by saying that , if you embrace and utilize these skills, you will probably impress your co-workers and bosses enough that you may surpass your colleagues who match your academic achievements. Think about it!

Here are the 10 Skills Groups:

Establishing a Work Ethic
Developing Physical Skills
Communicating Verbally
Communicating in Writing
Working Directly with People
Influencing People
Gathering Information
Using Quantitative Tools
Asking and Answering the Right Questions
Solving Problems

More to follow on each of these groups.