Questions

1. You don't seem to stay long, why?
2. What have you been doing since FM&D
3. Why did you leave FM&D?
4. What did you between FM&D and Millennium?
5. Why did you leave Millennium?
6. What did you between ERG and Millennium
7. Why did you leave ERG?
8. What did you between Whalen and ERG
9. Why did you leave Whalen?
10. What do you want in a job?
11. Why should we hire you?

Answers

1. Simple, some bad luck and a few bad decisions. Although moving around does have its upside, it has exposed me to several different types of working environments and computer/network systems.
2. Since leaving FM&D I've been taking a full load at Northeastern University's Internet Technologies certificate program, the Webmaster track. I'm also attending a Microsoft Windows 2000 training course soon. As I'm finding with all the previous education I've gotten, I wish I known then what I'm learning now.
3. I left FM&D for three reasons, the company wasn't doing very well, I wasn't challenged in the job (I had done an incredible amount of upgrade to their network infrastructure), and the working conditions were terrible.
4. During this time, I went to New Horizons to get my MCSE, after getting that I spent a frustrating 8 months looking for work. If suffering is good for the soul, my soul was quite improved during this time. I did a little consulting on the side, and put a home Windows NT network in. I learned the hard way how to restore a NT server.
5. This is the best story yet. I interviewed with Millennium in November 96, the position they had I wasn't interested in, and I wasn't what they needed. In January I took a position with Chemgenics, ten day after I started Millennium buys them! So, I helped with the transition and was eventually moved into the department I had interviewed with in November. They tried to make me feel welcome and were more than willing to give me a chance, but I still wasn't interested in the position (it was about 90% desktop support), so I felt leaving and going back to school was the right thing to do.
6. Took some time off then went job hunting.
7. This is one of the dumbest things I ever did. In earlier 1996 ERG was buying a part of Radian Engineering, they were also moving the Arlington, VA office. I was working very long hours most of the year (I also rebuilt the network infrastructure by combining the two workgroup servers into one enterprise server during this time). All those hours caught up with me. I helped with the transition to a new systems administrator then left. I learned the lesson that you sometimes can't do everything yourself. I should have known that I needed help and gotten it.
8. Went to Harvard and was looking for another job.
9. Whalen was a consulting company that didn't like computers (you can't bill for computer time), and they wanted me to travel for long periods of time.
10. I'm looking for enough challenge and opportunity, a company to grow with, management that wants to improve their business using technology.
11. In a word, experience. I'm not new to this business, I've been in technical training and jobs since the late 80's. I have a good sense on how to fix problems, and I'm dogged about it. I'm enough of a pain in the butt to push for improvements, which means more uptime for your business. I enjoy dealing with the end-users and am easy to get along with. I haven't been at a company yet were they weren't glad I was their. I'm also a fast learner and curious. As you can see, I move around a lot, but that also means I'm not satisfied with the status quo. If you want someone to care your computer systems, solve your problems, and help in the discovery of new and better ways of doing things, I'm your man.