As part of my Capstone course this semester, I joined the Project Management Institute - South Carolina Midlands Chapter. As a member, I have the opportunity to attend local meetings and ceremonies with fellow project management students and professionals. Last week, I attended a PMI lunch at IT-oLogy and was able to work as a volunteer doing registration. I got to meet the president of the local chapter and sit in on the keynote presentation. After I finish my capstone course, I will have the opportunity to take the CAPM (certified associate in project management) test. It is one of the best certifications for a professional in the IT field right now. I think it's great that I can get this kind of exposure as a student. Everybody knows that professional networking is crucial to a successful career and I am getting more networking opportunities as a student in this degree than most people get in a lifetime. I am looking forward to future networking opportunities as I finish my last semester at USC. I'm excited to start a career after I graduate and I'm sure that the contacts I have made thus far will assist me in my future endeavors.

Carolina Tech Conference 2012

I was able to volunteer at the 2012 Carolina Technology Conference and Expo last week. As a volunteer, I assisted with the registration process of attendees, but I also got a chance to view some of the presentations at the Expo. One of the sessions I attended was speech about identity theft and social engineering by Jim Stickley. I have always been interested in security and I learned a lot from this presentation. Overall, I enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of one of the biggest technology conferences the South East. I leave you with this video clipping of an interview with one of the hosts of the conference, John Davis. 

IBM Information Session

I apologize for my absence on this blog. I have been very busy over the past week and I haven't had time to post. With that being said, its time to catch up......

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend an information session hosted by IBM. I got to meet and talk with  two managers, as well as a few new employees that were recent graduates from the iIT program at USC. This was a great way to learn more about the company and hear first hand how our degree is preparing us for the workforce. The new employees were all very thrilled and excited about working for IBM, and all said that the iIT program prepared them well. I got to interview with one of the managers the next day, and I must say, it was probably one of the best interviews I have ever had. The interview went well over the 45 minute time frame because we had so much to talk about. It was a very relaxed, informal interview so I was comfortable and was able to ask a lot of questions. After going on an interview and doing some research on IBM, I'm confident that I would be a great fit in this organization. I would get to travel half the time to big cities across the United States and get trained as an expert on various technologies. All I can do now is sit back and wait on a response.....

Project Management Coach

One of the projects or activities that I will be participating in this semester is coaching students in the ITEC 560 - Project Management class. This class teaches students all of the processes, knowledge areas, and process groups that are covered in the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge). When I was in that class last semester, I had the opportunity to compete in the Inter-Collegiate Project Management Triathlon in Pittsburgh. This was a very exciting and engaging competition and I enjoyed my visit to Pittsburgh. The purpose of me coaching the students is to not only help them learn the material, but to also encourage them and excite them about competing in the Triathlon next semester. As a coach, I will be mentoring the students during four quiz bowls this semester, which replicate the competition in the Triathlon. I'm excited about this opportunity and I hope the students are encouraged to participate. 

Science and Engineering Career Fair

Last week, I attended the science and engineering career fair at USC. This event was very important to me because as a December graduate, I am on the hunt for a job. This event gave me the opportunity to talk with recruiters and potential employers, specifically looking for students in my field. Not only was I able to speak with representatives from major companies, but I got to give them my resume and exchange contact information. Some of the companies that I spoke with include Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC, Spawar, CGI, Duke Energy, and Safe Systems. All of these are great companies that I wouldn't mind working for in the future. I am very happy to have had this opportunity and I have already followed up with some of the recruiters. There will be other career fairs hosted this semester, and I encourage any students who are interested in finding a job, or who just want to gain experience and network opportunities to attend. Below is a video from a career fair that was hosted last semester, Spring 2012. As you can see from the positive feedback, students are very excited about the opportunity to meet and talk with employers. 

ITPSC

Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend the Information Technology Professionals of South Carolina  monthly meeting as a guest. They served lunch, and had guest speakers that talked about current trends in the field. The guest speaker at the meeting was from Sims Recycling Solutions. Their business focuses on the recovery and recycling of hardware, including old computers, printers, servers, blades, etc.. I enjoyed the presentation and had the opportunity to meet some new contacts, several of which were interested in me for future employment. The event managers also gave away a laptop via a random drawing of the current attendees. Unfortunately, I did not win, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and my time at the event.

Linux System Administration

This past Thursday, I attended a workshop that was hosted by IT-oLogy that focused on teaching the basics of system administration in a Linux environment. Now, I'm not too savvy with Linux due to lack of experience using the OS, but I have had experience with system administration on a MAC and on Windows. Some of the topics covered during this workshop were familiar to me, but others were completely unique to Linux. For example, I learned that on Linux, everything is stored under one file directory, or "root". This means all files, hardware and software can be accessed from this one directory. This is very different from other operating systems like Windows, which uses multiple drives and directories to store data. This method used by Linux is much easier to navigate and locate files and the system allows for built in RAID capabilities. After attending this workshop I feel like I would be comfortable in using the command line in Linux to perform operations and I plan to play around with this new found knowledge on my Ubuntu system at home. For any of you that are interested in learning more about this workshop, I will provide the link to the presentation. Also, feel free to attend any future workshops hosted by IT-oLogy, they are all free and offer excellent information for beginners and experts. I know that I plan to attend many more over the next couple of months. See you there!

Presentation: https://ch1prd0202.outlook.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=ncgdWu9jqEukwSC3-trQR56y3oa9Z88IOcDblk9VzBWCClgUKVLfJ9l0U6tUqKh_MlU1C-iF-qY.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fjrs-s.net%2flinux_sysadmin_101%2flinux_sysadmin_101.odp