Internship Immediately

In two weeks, you will be in your internship showcasing the skills and talents you have developed while at Year Up. Create and publish a 200 - 250 word blog post on some or all of the following points:

• Which of these skills do you anticipate you’ll get to display first?
• What is one question you have at the front of your mind as you approach internship? (Except for where you will be interning)
• What kind of office environment do you hope to work in?
• What kind of manager do you think you will work well under?
• What hard and/or soft skills do you hope to develop while at your internship?
• What anxieties (if any) do you have about your internship?
• How do you plan to stand out while at your internship?
• Do you have a tentative plan for what you’ll do after your internship? If yes, what is it?

I’m not going to lie; I’m nervous about internship. A lot rides on my success here, not just a job or money but my independence. That is what lives at the front of my mind. When will I finally get to be me? In my Business Communications class we read an article about how work is slowly becoming humanities defining factor. For me it’s not what my job is but what my job allows.

I don’t dwell too much on things like what my office environment will be like or what kind of manager I will have. To me, at least tentatively, it doesn’t matter. What I want to do after my internship is hopefully be working but if not I want to become A+ certified. After my certifications, it’s anyone’s guess what is ahead of me.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself; I want to be in my internship. I want my honesty, dedicated work, positive attitude, and imitative to speak for me. Actions speak louder than words so I’m going to have to “act out” for my internship. The only thing left to be done is dive in head first and do my best. I stand confident in my skills but not arrogant to be all knowing. I’ll take everything Year Up has given me and everything I am and truly do my very best.

Interview with Elke

So last Friday was one of our last and quite frankly very interesting guest speakers, Senior Technical Analyst for the Information Services Division of the Judicial Council of California, Elke Vogt! So without further ado lets read on for some further reading on the upgraded court telecommunications, the ups and downs, and what to keep your eye on in yourself during internship!

1.What are some of the VOIPs that are being used by the court systems? Are they public (i.e. skype or gtalk) or private?

Elke:It would have been more accurate for me to say in my presentation on Friday that the courts are starting to embrace IP Telephony.  The drivers for moving to IP Telephony are to converge their voice, data, and mobile networks and save money.  The natural progression for many of our courts is to further evolve to unified communication services so they can use a variety of devices across their extended networks.  A few of our courts are throwing wireless handheld VOIP devices in the mix.

Our courts typically used Cisco solutions, although a few have gone to Shoretel.  The typical design includes VOIP dedicated phones, routers, switches and point to point fiber connections (OptEman) and internet connectivity.

2.       What are some of the day to day things you see your interns working on?

E:As I mentioned during the presentation, the AOC had interns for the first time just this last summer.  Sadly my management chose not to take on an IS intern but I saw interns in other departments.  I can't comment on what they did day to day because I did not observe their work directly.

3.       What are a few things you simply love about your job and maybe a few you could do without?

E:What I love about my job is that I have had many opportunities to learn new things all the time and I get to solve problems on a regular basis.  I can't stand repetition or being bored.  I enjoy the fact that I am usually allowed to make decisions about my work and how I manage the moving parts (code: I am not micromanaged).   I  also like it that I am someone people come to for advice or help.  What I do not like is how long it takes sometimes for decisions to be made by our "leadership" or the lack of communication from said Leadership.  I also could live without the lack of teamwork or resistance to communicate between departments.  I think it results in a waste of resources, money, and time, and it ultimately affects everyone.

4.       What are some habits or traits, coming from the prospective of a project manager, that you would look for in your interns to want to keep them around?

E:What I appreciate is someone who cares about their work and puts the time into understanding who their internal and external customers are.  I like to see someone put the effort into figuring things out.  What I mean by that is; when you start a new job or project, you make the effort read existing documents, reach out to peers to learn what you can.  Then, put together questions and schedule time with me to discuss and get direction.  I guess in a nutshell I am talking about initiative.

I do not like it when I spend time training someone and they don't take notes (or have some other system of recording pertinent points-photographic memory, etc.) so they ask me the same questions over and over or don't use the recourses I pointed out during training. 

I look for someone who doesn't sit behind their desktop and hide.  Its important to go talk to people face to face or at least pick up the phone from time to time for a live conversation.

I appreciate it when someone admits that they made a mistake.  All of us screws up sometimes.  I have found that you get a lot of respect if you accept responsibility and offer to fix things or at least make an effort to see you don't keep repeating the same mistake.

Thank you very much for your insight and time Elke! I hope we can see you again at Guest Speaker Friday!

Being Resolved

Making new years resolutions has never worked for me, but I am resolved to complete these tasks.

1. I want to move out of my current place. I don't think it needs to be said that by the end of the year I want a place of my own. Not per-se because of the coming of age factor or to be all social, but facts are facts. I joined year up to get on my feet. Now it's rubber to the road time.

2.I want to loose weight. Not the traditional "X amount of weight by X time". I want to change my life style to promote health and loose weight just by my day to day actions, not some stupid fad or to impress the ladies. My life is the only one I get, I want to make the best of it.

3. The hardest saved for last: I want to live on the bleeding edge of technology. Not per-se owning every single piece of tech out there, but I want all of my tech to be ready to boldly go where we are going technologically speaking.

This is what I resolve to do with 2012 because this will be my year. I am, of course, speaking of the year of the dragon.

New Years Tradition

Some people stay up to midnight on New Years to count in the new year in what is the closest experience to honestly feeling time pass. I stopped staying up when I was about 18, save maybe a special event. This year was different because I had a Christmas present that I wanted to ring in the new year with: Elder Scrolls V Skyrim!

The fifth and latest edition to a very old and famous line of RPGs, Skyrim was the only way to ring in the new year. It was raved as one of the best games of all time due to three things: the obvious graphical improvements that come over time, the enveloping game play, and over all story telling.

The last time a game of this caliber hit my doorstep was too long ago. I've played Kingdom Hearts, 2 many final fantasies to count, and a plethora of RPGs that don't even touch on what Skyrim brings to the table. Kingdom Hearts breathed such a breath of fresh air into console gaming with its insanely innovative fusion of Disney and Final fantasy characters in a brand new universe that it was heralded as the greatest game of all time. Skyrim EARNED its title as the only 10/10 game by bringing to life just one country in the middle of a civil war having you play as the "dovahkin" otherwise known as Dragonborn. This hero of legend has been foretold as a man born with the soul of a dragon that when speaking a "thume" or shout can bring to life the power of the dragon language.

Long has the title of most enveloping game play gone to a series that many have said will not ever truly make a finale. While final fantasy may have man different heroes, when becoming the dragon born there are so many options to choose that you truly can make yourself the hero of legend. Alternatively you could create who you want to be or act out in a way you never thought possible. The country of Skyrim offers more choices then all the worlds of the final fantasies combined.

The story of the Dovahkin, your story, is so special in that you tell it however you feel. You can make multiple characters and tell so many stories it would fill up a library the size of Skyrim herself! I think that's why I like playing it so much and why I played it into the new year. 2012 is going to be my year to tell my story to a brand new world, and fill up a library atleast a petabyte big! I played Skyrim all night long because I was excited for the new adventure I have awaiting me this year.

HOMEWORK

It seems pretty linear a definition, but I'm going to break it down for you as to why my heart just jumps at the word. 
Home 
Just about everyone should know what this means. Its the place where your heart is, but more than that it truly is where you can be yourself and do whatever it is your heart desires. For me I live in Alameda, but I consider my home to be my room. Over the winter break I have done a lot of cleaning up and organizing of my room. It now has a really nice night stand and my bed is covered with a futon. This allows me to work on my bed with great ease.
Work
The definition of this word should be a stranger to no one. Yet while I worked on my home I also took great joy working on my Classwork. I took off an extra day and a half so I had a lot to work on. With it not even halfway into the break I feel like I’ve already almost finished all my work. Work may not make a lot of people happy but no one can deny that getting your work done early leaves you very happy and relaxed.
I still have a lot to do with more blog posts to come but for now I just enjoy this and smile.

From Start to Finish

Some of the qualities of a person ready for internship are:Confidence, Professionalism, and attitude. I have confidence in my tech skills and communication capabilities. One example is how I prepare to be in class on time and I give my everything to focus and excel at my assignments. To practice professionalism one must dress to impress. Keep your cool and always have a positive attitude are my heart and greatest strength. In the future I will do what ever I can to stay ahead of the game completing home work before its due  maintaining a routine of going above and beyond the call of duty and move forward in learning languages for humans and computers.

Employment Environment

1. What is the best and the worst job (paid or volunteer) that you have ever had?

• What were some of your primary responsibilities?
• What made the job enjoyable or not?
• What skills did you develop that will serve you well in internship?
• What lessons did you learn about the workplace and yourself?

I’ve had a lot of jobs I’ve liked. My top two jobs would be Cost Plus World Market and Raley’s Supermarket. At Cost Plus I was a sales associate responsible for just about everything from running the cash register to aggregating the inventory. What made this job the most enjoyable job I’ve ever had is how well the team worked. The people in authority were genuine and taught me a lot about the world of retail and work. I learned that one mistake isn’t the end of my job, but I must move forward and grow from that mistake to be better.

While Raley’s was a nice job there were a few hiccups that kind of crawled under my skin. Again I worked as a sales associate, but in a super market the culture was different then a specialty market. I mean for starters there was a uniform at raleys while Cost Plus was very loose with their dress code. Raleys also had a more authoritative line of command whereas Cost Plus had a open and friendly line of command. Raleys was still a wonderful place to work. Everyone there was very friendly and when I left to pursue more education they all wished me the best of luck.

Raleys taught me that education is of the utmost importance, and everyone on a good team will always have your back. Cost Plus taught me that surviving black Friday with your team basically makes you family. If anything, these two jobs have taught me that a job isn’t just you it’s a team of people working together to make that job into a community.