Archive for the Work Category
Some people know I’m in college now, and just are thrilled for me.
I didn’t think I’d change much as a person, but here it is the end of my first semester (nearly), and I am changing. I can list all the various things that have changed, but there is one thing that I never realized meant so much even though I had such a natural knack at doing it.
Communication. Business communication. From a customer writing a letter to customer service, to a customer service agent writing a letter. I’ve learned so much, even more from using Purdue’s OWL , that I can say I see the business world from a different view now.
I’m only in college for an IT degree, but it seems from the course schedules that almost every student that gets an Associates or a Bachelor’s degree must take at least one Business Communication class. I did very well in school at English, and was good at getting my ideas across.
So imagine my surprise when I find out there is a way to write persuasive letters? Imagine my utter disbelief that there was a concrete and time taught way to write a negative letter!
I’m thinking back to all the ill fated emails I’ve sent over the years that were just plain wrong. I didn’t follow simple rules that would have made my message more effective. I never once thought about audience when I was writing, nor did I even try to build rapport with a person. I always assumed there was rapport there automatically, never remembering that rapport must be rebuilt in most cases. If I didn’t have rapport, the person isn’t going to get your message.
So today, I saw my first mistake due to my first class: I forgot to write the goal setting third part to my business letter back to a client. I was not able to speak to this client and apologize, taking complete responsibly for her feeling like she wasn’t being helped. Someone else handled it that I feel still didn’t realize the well organized (and thought out in college courses) play that was ensuing.
I also learned something else highly important: the customer had made a major mistake as well. While the client might have made more errors than me in the written communication, it was the best feeling in the world. In the past, I would have been upset at the client, possibly angered.
Why was I not angered? How could a client cancel my personal services and I beat myself up? The customer had written a slightly angry email, and from what I’ve learned, had shot them self in the foot. If she had taken the time to consider how to write an email, a business email, the entire situation could have been more easily handled.
So take heed as I’ve learned well: that paper you get is worth every cent.
It doesn’t take much past the first semester for most college students to realize why college exists. I suppose those that don’t…. they just didn’t learn or have way too much ego to realize they truly, really need help.
In the end, I know I could’ve kept the client by simply apologizing, that I hadn’t noted in my last email that if she needed anything further to contact me. No free service to the customer was available, the manager had made it clear his family needed to eat. (Have any of you first years learned that emotional persuasion is a big no no?)
No, not the kind that starts fires, I’m talking about one that looks behind the code on every site that you visit.
I’m a firebug now, I can’t help but to hit F12 now when I’m on every site. I’ve seen the source charts, but this thing blows every other webdev away.
LNP is a fairly new process that the FCC mandated must occur in order to spur competition. Competition is good among the phone companies, otherwise they become lazy fat cats that assume people just want a telephone that never changes.
There is however some myths regarding LNP, dashed in with some failures to understand that for the most part, every carrier in the United States is required to port numbers to another local carrier. These myths, or fallacies only help the carriers that refuse to port numbers and must be addressed.
In West Virginia there is a phone company called Frontier that wishes to hold their customers hostage, lest they lose that all powerful phone number they’ve had for the last 10 years. Frontier refuses to port phone numbers, violating LNP laws, irregardless of fines, revocation of licenses and very, very hard slaps on the wrists by the FCC.
Further, other local phone companies won’t attempt to port a number due to the refusal of Frontier to follow the law. It’s assumed that since a CLEC can’t get a number ported that you should just give up, go on vacation and forget about it.
I’m here to educate everyone that has the following misconceptions about transferring a number, if you are a reseller of a voip service:
1. My carrier can refuse to port my landline to another landline carrier
Near zero carriers have a waiver to say they have no requirement to. If they refuse, versus saying they don’t have to, they don’t have a waiver.
2. The carrier I’m transferring to will get in trouble for not even trying to port
Your carrier doesn’t have to attempt to port if the other carrier has been breaking the law. A complaint filed will get the ball rolling.
3. LNP isn’t a right
LNP is a right, that has been in the works since 1998, and mobile LNP came into reality into 2003/04.
4. The complaint process is a lengthy form that only lawyers can fill out
The complaint form is simple, takes less than a minute and can be filled out online.
5. If my CLEC can’t get it ported, filing a complaint will do nothing
False, the carrier MUST respond to the complaint, and in writing. Once you get the response, giving it to the new CLEC will ensure they will put through the request.
Filing a form is an important first step in making sure a rogue carrier doesn’t try to stifle competition, and that’s exactly what they are doing. There is no reason to not file a complaint, since if you don’t, the FCC will never know the state of the laws that they spent millions implementing.
In conclusion, doing nothing is just mind blowing. You are allowing the monopoly to continue, so why just sit on your hands, or kick back and do nothing? File a complaint, get the process started, and while the old phone company can charge a fee for the porting, your cost savings to the new phone company will be substantial.
I won’t even mention how grateful either your customers will be that you do so much for them.
Update:
Apparently things were misunderstood, Frontier doesn’t refuse to port. There is a problem with a particular company that they cannot win 911 approval to service that area. A customer service rep didn’t know the whole story and the person that told me this information took it at face value as gospel.
I for one welcome our new robotic overlords, with their 6mbit pipes.
Today, in the town of Mason County, Suddenlink unleashed 6mbit connections on those that were paying for 3mbit. I’m happy to inform everyone that next month, around this time, 12 megabit will be available for just $10 more.
The service is so so right now, but at times it smooths out and everything runs like a dream at 6mbit.
Something I never expected to occur did. The company I work for got a buyout ‘offer’ with no money being discussed, just so that I could work/manage with the second party involved with the computers. I’m not sure what transpired in such a short amount of time but I do know the following things.
I’m involved and I take the customer up to the hilt that they know, until they say ‘no more please’. Then, as a topping to all of it, I make sure they do understand that what I’m doing I fully understand, and I’ll take any length to explain it fully to them. I take ownership of the problem, and commit to fixing it no matter what it takes.
I’m professional, I don’t talk about religion, ethnic differences, nor politics when on site, but I sure engage on any level they are comfortable with. (I do consider myself very PC when it comes to what ‘not’ to say)
I use just every tool but snakeoil to get a job done on site, and I’m clever to a point to get the job done.
In my entire career, I only got upset and didn’t handle one customer good, when some data was lost that I figured I could save. It changed my life, and my ethics for how to inform the customer. The event was never repeated again.
In all, I learned one major important thing. Someone else was willing to throw down a lot of money just to let me keep my ethics. I appreciated that so much, they’ll never know. The other party refused and had no particular emotion either way about selling his store for enough money to live on for years. I’m sure the topic will come up again.
At the end of the day, purchase or not, I have my ethics. I didn’t cross any lines, neither did the party that offered to buy the company. I am still their #1 guy to work on the computers, I’ve shown it appears, I’m the best in this area there is. They want me to fix their problems like I did before, and they know I have the breadth, and the drive to do it.
When your motherboard fails, who is faster at replacing/repairing it? Intel? MSI? The supposed crap master Foxconn?
When I contacted Intel about a failed board, it took over 37 hours for the leader to get back to me about replacing the board. When the board was sent away, the replacement took 4 days to return.
MSI was asked to replace a board, taking a full 24 hours to generate an RMA # for return. Good so far, right?
Then, when the board was sent in, it took 15 days to get an email stating that a new board was in bound.
Now, on to the company some love, swear by, and others say is the worst board/company out there.
I emailed Foxconn to get an RMA number, and in 15 minutes I had an email requesting more information. I replied, and in 10 minutes I had an RMA form to fax in to a Bob Wang. After faxing Bob Wang (hold the laugh please), I had an RMA number within hours. I sent the Winfast board in and in 3 days, a new board with no problems reported since.
Anyone care to add some advice on why Foxconn is so fast? I’ve determined that since they OEM so many boards for companies out there, it’s streamlined. I’ve heard rumbles that Dell/HP/Compaq and others all buy Foxconn boards. I won’t deny that almost all plastic connectors on motherboards come from Foxconn, but that doesn’t mean it’s a Foxconn board. I do have the knowledge that Foxconn was a Connector company first.
I don’t want to hear anything about performance of alternative motherboard manufactors. Some may be clunky, due to old Winchip, K5 procs and the like from the early 90’s. It’s obvious from benchmarks that cheap motherboards are just that, not clunkers.
A company I work for is taking resumes, and having just put in a resume myself to see if I could get a great position at another place, the topic of number of pages came up. I did a great amount of research on this when I made my resume, and decided that while one page was fine there was no reason that I couldn’t attach 10 pages of skills that I had acquired throughout the years.
Besides asking people who go through hundreds of resumes, I highly suggest you go through this material before you take outdated advice that more than one page is taboo:
Debunking common myths
Resume Myths You must Avoid
All of this advice was verified by multiple sources, that do current hiring. One place wouldn’t even look at the one pages, since they needed skills, education and references that couldn’t fit on one page.
All you potential job seekers, take heed:
If an ad says “must hand/snail/email” do it.
I’ve asked over 30 professional resume makers, agencies, and HR departments in response to a recent event where a job seeker ignored the requirement. In only 5 hours, the verdicts are in:
Only one said they’d still take the resume, 3 said (in response to my query) that there is no plausible reason to accept one, and 5 stated that job qualifications is not a requirement, but an edict on how to submit is, so do it.
I’ve got to admit, resume and HR departments are fast when it comes to describing their work. All the people I polled not personal friends with at least 5 years hiring practice were webmasters/writers or professional resume agencies that easily come up in the first 100 results of a google search for resume services. Several were local organizations that employ over 100 people, and saw it as not being able to follow a simple rule.
All polled said that if the requirement was to snail mail them, and they hand delivered it, they’d throw them away.
Lots of people have never seen how that ‘motherboard’ in your computer is made. It doesn’t matter if you have an octa core, dual core, or just a lonely single core, they all have to be put together at some point.
It’s not so simple, but since lots of people think there is a major quality problem with all the vendors out there without hard numbers, here’s a link to how Giga-byte makes their motherboards.
I’ve learned several valuable things to remember, things that I repeat to myself, and it stops the intricate wiring that lets me think about multiple topics at the same time. I lost a good friend as a co-worker today, and it pained me greatly. I did come out better in the end, which I always do.
Something I just learned today from a good friend is simple:
“Nothing else matters but the #1 reason”
I get caught up so many times in a list of 30 things that I have analyzed throughout the day, and while for some jobs it works out very well, it doesn’t bode good when you are trying to get a point across. Against my thinking, it seems, he has won at getting his point across.
For me on the other hand, I suffered a loss, which was him getting around to the second and third reason for quitting. I digress, that his reasoning makes the most sense, and I respect that. In the end, that #2 and #3 never saw the light of day because they were of no direct correlation to the resignation of his post.
In all my selfishness, I hoped that another hand would come up and say: “I see it too, so he’s not crazy”. I can see that to push that point was not to the benefit of the person in this case, who only wanted to exit gracefully off the boat, into the sea of where we live.
I’ve heard different bits of how business owners handle a local, small town store.
I got some insight from a local couple who have been in the local hardware, and lawn machine repair for probably going on 20+ years now. This totally contrasts advice that I received from the minority, and makes some food for thought.
This couple owns a hardware store that is so ‘not corporate’ it’s crazy. They live above their store, and did so when they had a stark idea that they were the business, not always just the parts they sold.
They’ve managed to outlive the Kmart, Hecks, Ames, Walmart and Thomas Do-it center for years. I’m sure varied ideas exist about why they survived all these giants coming into their market place, but they sure know why.
There has been two trains of thought I’ve heard through the years:
1. You leave your work at work.
2. Your work is what feeds you, if it follows you home, lead it back to work.
So, this couple decided early on that it was crazy to have a home separate from the store, since, even at very early hours in the morning, customers would call them! They apparently did for a short period of time resist the idea of this ‘local big corporation’ that is off the radar after hours.
After all, they have families, dogs, cats, homes to clean and personal lives.
Now, many years later, they gladly open their doors, when so many other small stores have closed them forever because they didn’t realize business can happen at anytime, and that’s how you build loyalty.
I’ve found that most doctors in my hometown will gladly see anyone, if they are good patients, at their office during odd hours. (It’s not even a policy to do that.)
I’ve seen that even though the hours of operation of a heating and cooling company is 9-5, and they don’t mention they man the phones, it rings to their homes. I’ve asked electricians why they forward their phones as well, and service is just that… service.
Boyd Pickens, rest his soul, answered that question for me a long time ago, and that’s why, Heaven Forbid, when a customer knocked on my parent’s front door at 1pm on a Sunday and needed a lawn raked, I never complained. He taught me that if a customer comes to see you, you had better do the job, they went out of their way to find you.
I’m always soliciting for feedback, lately, my google rank has became so good that I do get it. If a Wendy’s manager says that he’d never open his doors, that’s fine. It’s a service to do food, but you can buy a loaf of bread and deli meat 24 hours a day. When your electric, computer, water, heating, cooling, or truck breaks down you can’t just buy a load of bread and beat the engine until it works: you need a professional.