Challenges: Too hard vs embrace

Obstacles: Doubt/fear vs open/optimistic

Effort: Minimum/silver platter vs proactive/whatever it takes

Criticism: Too good/know it all vs constructive/want to improve

Success of others: fear vs inspired

Identify your own strengths and weaknesses

Work on your weaknesses so that you can work to overcome them

Always focus on strengths and that will get you results faster

Ask yourself the things you like about yourself to find strengths

Then ask yourself what are your weaknesses

Go from fixed to growth mindset and identify your strengths and weaknesses and think about your thoughts, beliefs, motivations and emotions and only then can you then get self realisation and awareness

Seek clarity: without a purpose or dream, you will tack motivation

Generate energy: have the physical endurance and mental stamina, and take care of yourself. Eat and sleep well and exercise to get full mental clarity

Raise necessary: What is your motivation, and why?

Increase productivity: Sleep, eat well and prepare for the next day, own your morning and break up the day with exercise

Develop influence: Get the right support and get those people around you

Demonstrating courage: Get courage to actually have ambitious goals, and believe in yourself. Tap into new potential and don’t be afraid of new challenges or to take massive action

Basics and fundamentals are essential to learn at the start

You need a rock solid foundation to move up in your career

Once you have that foundation, all you need is one certification to get that interview for an entry level IT job

This stage lasts 1-2 years, and learn as much as you can

Get promoted to network admin/engineer

Work on your first projects

Learn from TAC and Partner SE’s, and learn as much as you can from these

Get as many projects under your belt as possible

Go after a mid level certification and this is very important to getting to a projects senior level

You should also be able to lead projects yourself 

Learn as much as you can during this stage

You can generalize across the stack and create and design solutions, or you can specialise in one area

Look for the Fortune 100 companies and become a Project Champion

You will also get bonuses and commission

You can also work for a value added reseller

If there is a hot topic, you can jump on that and be the first one in your organisation and become a subject matter expert. Start learning that topic as soon as it becomes a trend and you will have job security

These are companies like Nike, Chevron, Coca Cola, Uber, Tesla etc that sell products directly to customers

These are companies like Cisco, Amazon, Palo Alto that manufacture the goods that are then often sold by Value Added Resellers

These are companies that sell on manufacturers goods, such as CDW, Dimension Data, IBM etc, and these are ranked by tier, with top tier resellers selling the largest companies goods

There is the technical track and the management track, and all of these jobs will reside in the IT Ecosystem

In the technical track, these are jobs such as Network and Systems Engineer

In the management track, these are jobs such as Network Manager and IT Director

To build a future, you have to start with a dream

Dream, believe, create, execute, focus

Focus - Follow On Course Until Successful

Research and study employers is very crucial in the preparation phase, and you can use two key websites for this:

The first one is glassdoor.com, and you can see jobs and reviews of any company that you are interested in working for to help work out if they have the right culture. You can also look at the job information, salary and if they offer bonuses, commission and stock options, as well as interview details and even interview questions. All this information can help when deciding if you want to work for that company

The next website is LinkedIn, and you can use this to see and apply for jobs on here. You can also see who your co-workers are, hiring managers and recruitment team too

Glassdoor is your recon work, and LinkedIn is for networking and applying to jobs

Consists of resume, cover letter and presentations

Start off resume with education, then certifications, and then a strong executive summary, experiences and projects, and keep it all short and relevant

In a cover letter, write about a project that relates to the company you are applying for

In a presentation, you can include ‘7 reasons why you should hire me’ to grab attention and stand out

It should go through your strengths and demonstrate how they align with the company values

Use a strong statement, and then finish off with ‘I am your best candidate’ and list the top 5 reasons, and this will get you noticed and will help get you to the top of the list

Very untapped opportunities

Recruiters get paid a lot to push you into job roles

Build a relationship with at least 3-4 IT recruiters and keep that door open

Cisco Live is great for social networking, and make the most of this

Meetup is great. Go to meetups and grow your connections

IT technical training - go to Global Knowledge or Corporate IT training

Number 1 way to work on your personal branding is to work on your LinkedIn profile. 

Upload a great picture

Have a strong summary statement

Get great recommendations

Get skills endorsement and align those with your goals

Include certifications

Include projects

Build a platform and blog about a specific topic

Leverage your strengths and build up your personal branding

Become an expert in a specific area and jump on a trend

Give back to the community and open doors for yourself

Start a meetup or group and become a thought leader

Tell me about yourself - Perfect your elevator pitch

What are your career goals? - Asks your intentions, and don’t go off course

What do you know about our company? - Be prepared and learn this

Why do you want to work here? - Have an answer that ties with their values

What questions do you have for me? Ask intelligent questions

What salary are you seeking? Be reasonable

What are your strengths and weaknesses? - Look good and don’t sabotage yourself

Tell me something impressive you’ve done at work - Highlight reel

Explain to me a time when - Be prepared and reply with a suitable answer

You could get into a technical interview, so learn terminology and master

Use a whiteboard to demonstrate a specific question in an interview

Use flashcards to learn content and prepare

Practice mock interviews with friends and family

Practice interviews with companies you aren’t really interested in

Wear business/casual and don’t over do it

Be hygienic, brush teeth, shower and look smart

Be prepared and follow up

Bring the passion

Your the best person for the job

You highlighted a project or strength

You get the offer verbally and then by paperwork, and it’s never finalized until you get that paperwork

You will get a salary offer and this is negotiable, because when you get the job offer, you have leverage

There is a time limit on the offer, so take some time to think it over, but get back to them soon

You will also get incentives, and this will be OTE (On Target Earnings)

You will also receive a sign on bonus

Once you get the job offer, you have leverage to negotiate

Ask for all your demands at once, and wait for their response. Just remember that you can’t lose the job offer for asking for extra. 

You can ask for a salary or hourly rate increase, a sign on bonus, relocation assistance, bring your own computer allowance and car allowance. 

Be sure to get the offer letter in writing

Only accept if it meets all of your needs that are mutually agreed on, and you have agreed on the terms

If everything is good, then accept verbally and on paper

Ask them if there is anything else you need to do.

You can also let them know verbally if you don’t want the job

Once you get the job offer, you can use it as leverage to get them to offer more

Send a thank you and follow ups to your contact if they have helped you get that opportunity. 

Understand what makes your manager successful, and have that one to one conversation and understand what his priorities are, and what are the things he needs to accomplish and align with that

This will help in promotions and new positions

Network with your peers, and have lunch or coffee with them

Learn the culture and adapt

Learn companies history and become an asset to the team

Ask one of your peers to mentor you, but find an A player for this

Set up regular one to one meetings with your manager so that you can deliver above and beyond

Seek to impress your manager

Document, optimize and crush it. 

Go to conferences to network and expand that network, and LinkedIn will help with this

There are cutting edge technologies at these conferences and they will announce what they are working on in the future, allowing you to pick up on new trends that could make you valuable and stand out

Join as many user groups online and forums

Tech Field Days

Meetups

Go to Cisco local events

Find something that you can get really passionate about that’s niche, new and something that will be a huge trend

Learn and master it early on, as there will be no competition and you will become very sought after