frontstepdesign

Microsoft Certified Application Specialist

Today I surface from a crazy month of studying and testing.  I found out fairly late in the game that Microsoft had given thousands of vouchers for free access to their online training and certification tests for Office and IT products to various states, and that Alabama was one of them, and that I could get some through our local career center.  I then became a fixture of the responsible officer's inbox and the career center's computer lab, and this morning I passed the last of the certification exams for Excel, Access, Word and Powerpoint 2007.

I've used Office since it was a collection of tools that weren't called that, and although I have some skills, I knew improving them wouldn't be a waste of time.  Also, a standardized piece of paper that explains that I am indeed rather "familiar" with Excel, Word, Access, and Powerpoint is a nice thing to have, when one is jobhunting.

I hadn't expected to find how much I liked working with Access and Excel.  I have all sorts of ideas for home databases, now, that spit out ingredient costing sheets, or remind us to do house maintenance based on fairly complicated schedules.

(I wish MS Project had been available in the Elevate America program, but no such luck.  I'm not sure how I would have gotten to it, anyway - I've taken 27 online courses in the last month, and the other aspects of my life would like some attention now, thankyouverymuch.  Ironic, that.)

Although I am tired, it feels good to get back in the groove of studying, and I am casting about for what to work on next.  The bits of coding required by Access are SQL, which I'd like to learn better, so as to be a more effective data retriever.  (Sounds like a breed of dog.)  I'd also like to learn more about how one designs databases: general theory, sketching techniques, if that makes any sense.  How do you decide how the structure will work?  Are there a lot of false leads?  How do you recover?

"Imaginary cosmopolitanism" and "the big sort"

The first term came from this TED talk, by Ethan Zuckerman, about how most of us think that we have an idea of how the world is going...because we are online, and we consume elite media, and we're highly educated. 

When in actuality, we cruise with our flock and make very little effort to listen to other flocks.  "Imaginary cosmopolitanism" hit me hard, because I thought I was making an effort.  I've gotten to travel to other hemispheres and continents.  My family has traveled more.  I read food blogs from other countries.  I like "world music".  I've taken African dance courses, and studied hot-weather architecture.  But sitting down and thinking about it, I'm not doing as well as I'd like.

I want to participate in what Seth Godin calls "the big sort" (not this The Big Sort, though interestingly that's the same notion that Ethan Zuckerman is after).  I want to arm myself with as much knowledge as I can to do so.  I want to be as useful as possible.  I want to be in demand, so that I can in turn give back.  What do I need to do?

Ideas?  So far I can think of:

• Learn Chinese, being that that's the majority upcoming consumer language.  Or find out who is doing lots of data gathering, and learn that language.  Quibbles: In what industry?  Energy production?*  Transportation?  Do I want to be on the push end (the people who know how), or the pull end (the people who need it)?  Which is which?
• Obviously, learn the ways and means of crunching and re-presenting the data - back to Super Crunchers, Tim Ferriss, SQL, et al.

What do you think?

*I've already decided dealing with the consuming end is pushing on the end of a rope.

Four down, seven to go

So far I have taken four Microsoft Office 2007 certification courses:

• Essentials of Windows Vista
• Getting Started With Microsoft Excel 2007
• Performing Calculations with Microsoft Excel 2007
• Getting Started With Microsoft Office Word 2007

and have learned the following:

1.  Merely owning and using the software for the two years it's been out does not make one evenly knowledgeable about it.  I might have guessed about this, but now I know for sure.  Spending this time was a good idea just to make me a more productive user, let alone the objective resume lingo benefit

2.  I don't mind retooling myself for new software releases.  Not sure if this is because I have some intrinsic easily retrofittable brain (being raised through the early development of personal computers), or because I put more weight on understanding the overall organization, than the detail of exactly where to find something today.  Maybe those are the same thing.  Maybe it has to do with being a librarian's child.

3.  There are a lot of cool features that I don't use enough.  Particularly Word keyboard macros.  Cue notalgia for the old WordPerfect days of speed formatting, pre-mouse.

4.  I want to learn much more about Excel, particularly more of the "whys" of what all this stuff is good for - ought to paw through Tim Ferriss' site again.  It's also much more fun to use Excel when the range naming makes sense.

5.  Microsoft engineers are apparently fans of The Price Is Right - many of the "self-tests" at the end of each module are in a Tile Game form.  Complete with sound effects.

6.  Wasabi peas are my new favorite study food.

I have access to eleven first-tier courses in this series, which will also "get me started" and teach "essentials" of Outlook and Powerpoint, two more programs I've been using for nigh on a decade.  Humbling experience, this, but also empowering.

Working on Microsoft certification courses these days; starting with Excel 2007. Although I've used Excel and the other Office products for one task or another since 1996 (gee, were they even called Office back then?!), it's cool to take a non-specific survey class and discover *that's* how that thing is done!

Added "The Four Agreements" to Next Steps list. First heard about from a tai chi teacher embarrassingly long ago, ~2002.

New place to get tech questions answered, courtesy of Stack Exchange: http://meta.webapps.stackexchange.com/

Overqualified

I worry about being thought overqualified.  I have a master's degree, sure, in a field that promotes critical thinking...but also a field that ought to be as renowned as teaching for attracting workers who will slave for the joy of solving the problem, and accept remarkably low pay for the skills they bring to the table.

Here's some interesting advice:

“I told the hiring manager, ‘I agree. I’m more than qualified for the job, but that means I’ll be able to come in, hit the ground running, create desired results in a short time and require virtually zero management. I can operate as your wing man, and together we can really get the job done fast and well.’” Kanzler landed the job and worked for the company for several years.

Mathison agrees that sometimes it pays to get the issue on the table and ask the prospective employers if they see any pluses to your candidacy based on your higher qualifications. “Tell them that you too had concerns that the job might not be a fit but applied because factors beyond the title were important to you. Promise that if at any point you feel the job appears too low or not one where you will bring the full engagement needed to excel in the position, you will withdraw your candidacy. Your willingness to walk away tells them you are motivated if you stay in the game.”

So listen up, prospective employers of once-were-architects:

We're great systems analysts - we've been trained to look carefully at all the angles of a situation, and prepare useful and good-looking reports.  We spent every single semester in school making multiple public speaking presentations, and followed up in the workplace impressing municipal boards and church building committees.  We've crunched construction budgets and schedules, learned graphic software over a long weekend, cobbled together websites for the Parade of Homes.  We've nurtured relationships with clients, engineers, municipal inspectors, builders, sales reps, and suppliers - many of whom only seem to exist on the phone or via the inbox.  Every time we sat down with a client we sold things seen and unseen: square footage and energy efficiency, easy-maintenance floor tile and foundation drainage,  paint colors and property values.

Well, at least I did.  You really want to hire me.

IT&Society textbook from 1994 references global warming. Had I heard about it yet? Pliny Fisk lectured us in '95, did I hear it from him?

Added to book want list: The Upside of Irrationality, courtesy of Dan Pink's review.

Starting into IT&Society textbook, encountered sameold comparison of digital to print text. What about physical space to digital? So many empty storefronts, offices; these spaces won't be needed due to WWW.