Recipe for Instant Network of 200+ People

It doesn't matter if you lived in a cave all your life or have been out of touch with the only 2 people in your contact database. Here's a recipe to instantly expand your sphere of influence with 200+ people willing to help you.

Ingredients
1/2 ounce of taking 3 minutes to register for FREE ETP Network conference call
1 cup of 15 minutes to register on LinkedIn.com and complete your LinkedIn profile
1/8 of an inch thinking that each connection is a gateway to at least 2 other people
2 Tablespoons of willingness to connect other people, without any thought of benefiting
2 cups of positive mental attitude that there are 3 job offers with your name on it
1/4 ounce of dialing in early to the weekly 9:00PM ETP Network conference call to do virtual networking
1/2 ounce of planning to introduce yourself on conference call
1 pound of introducing yourself on the call and provide your full name / email
1.5 pounds of writing down other names / email addresses during conference call virtual networking segment
1 teaspoon of sending an invite to 1 ETP Network member a day to join your LinkedIn network
1 pinch of upgrading to CEO of ME, Inc. ETP Network membership
30 seconds of updating your "CEO" profile with the LinkedIn web link to your profile
1 minute of daily access to the ETP "CEO" member directory to connect to all ETP Network member LinkedIn profiles

Mixing Directions
Preheat the stove of "networking for life" to 360 degrees of continuously expanding your sphere of influence, even after you land. Interchange the mixing of all ingredients as a daily goal to expand your network. Serves up a minimum of 600+ people who are willing to be part of your network (you connect to 1 person who knows at least 2 people (3) X 200 people).

Outsourcing is a Dead End Street

We have reached a stage where people don't want to join IT as a discipline in universities in the west. If I walk around saying 'IT is not important', why should a kid join Imperial College to do a computer sciences degree?
- JP Rangaswami, CIO, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein

DrKW CIO JP Rangaswami on the 'new outsource' by ZDNet's Dan Farber -- Silicion.com's interview with JP Rangaswami, CIO at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), provides a glimpse into one of the smartest people in IT. He is one of the few CIOs unafraid to try out a broad array of new technologies and open source projects. Here's a sample of the interview conducted by Andy McCue.

Read more . . .

A Little Good News

As usual, the media continuously keeps people on the edge of their seats with the worst of events. Here's some good news from Computer World news analyst Thomas Hoffman.

Despite the notion that hordes of U.S. IT jobs are being sent offshore, in reality, less than 5% of the 10 million people who make up the U.S. IT job market had been displaced by foreign workers through 2004, says Scot Melland, president and CEO of Dice Inc., a New York-based online jobs service. The numbers of jobs posted on Dice.com from January through September for developers, project managers and help desk technicians rose 40%, 47% and 45%, respectively, compared with the same period in 2004, says Melland.

Read more . . .

Complacency Soufflé

"You can call me Earl, but just don't call me complacent" -C. E. Reid

Adjective: complacent kum'pleysunt
Contented to a fault with oneself or one's actions

1. "he had become complacent after years of success"
   - self-satisfied, self-complacent

See also: complacently, content, contented

Even those of us that don't cook understand the delicate balance required between mixing the ingredients and environment to prevent a souffle from caving in. The same balance is required in managing our careers. There is a big difference between walking a tight rope and walking on a 4" balance beam. Which one we walk on, is totally in our power to control.

Last week, I was at networking event hosted by ETP Network. During the course of mingling with people, I spoke with 3 people who had different backgrounds, but presented a common theme.

Since being laid off due to outsourcing, the 1st person has been looking for a job for 3 years. After leaving a company that went belly up in the dot com shake up, the 2nd person is happy to have a steady paycheck from his current employer. He says everyone is walking around afraid of losing their job. The 3rd person previously lost his job, but now works for a company where he recognizes it might not last.

The common denominator for these and similiar career stories is complacency. Allowing situations to control our career, instead of staying in control of situations, is the result of being complacent.

Recipe for Complacency Soufflé

Ingredients

1/2 lb. of don't rock the boat
201 lbs of accepting the business enviroment "as is"
(your weight can be substituted)
4 tablespoons softened attitude
2 tablespoons finely grated accomplishments
3 tablespoons status quo
1 cup hot tempers about unimportant issues
1/4 teaspoon constant anxiety about job security
Pinch of meeting sidebars during a meeting
1/2 teaspoon of being afraid to suggest new ideas
1/8 teaspoon of manager who doesn't challenge staff
2 or more people who always agree on everything
5 days a week
1 cup of telling the boss what you thing s/he wants to hear, which stymies his/her ability to make informed business decisions which impact the team and organization.

Mixing Directions
Take 5 days a week and mix all ingredients together for a whole year. Makes enough to serve a whole organization. Serve chilled, hot or frozen, depending on the season of the year when stockholders meet with senior management.

What happens next is up to you. A complacency soufflé is not fattening, but could be detrimental to a person's fiscal health.

2006 Revenge of the Outsourced

Don't get angry. Get even. Do your homework. Reflect on past mistakes. Adjust your skill gears.

Take a look at how the wind will blow in 2006. Use this time to regain some lost ground.

• Outsourcing will lose its luster, specialization will become a handicap for IT professionals
• 
  
• Gartner Predicts Key Tech Trends for 2006
• 
  
• Reading the IT Leaves for 2006 by Timothy Prickett Morgan
• 
  
• Alex Barnett Blog "Several Predictions for 2006
• 
  
• Predictions for VOIP in 2006
  

"Problems are only opportunities in work clothes." -Henry Kaiser

New Recipe for Creativity

Get Creative!
How to build innovative companies is a powerful business week article for neutralizing outsourcing

Business week has a new web site for triggering ideas based on innovative products already developed - http://www.businessweek.com/innovate

Recipe for Creme de Solvency

On August 15, 2000 I started a very lucrative information technology (IT) consulting assignment. Life was grand for almost a year. Every Monday the client flew me from New York to Charleston, SC and back home on Friday. They paid for the hotel plus all meals and entertainment. There were 6 other IT consultants, on this assignment, getting the same treatment. We had a grand time. The monthly billing was extraordinary. The consulting company I worked for was fat and happy. I was totally on top of the world. My wife and I took quite a few vacations during this time. Weekend getaways out the ying yang. One time I surprised my wife by taking her to Disney World for her birthday and stayed at one of the Disney hotels. It cost a small king's ransom, but I knew I could make it up with 2.5 days of billing on this consulting assignment. We went to the Dominican Republic for a awesome time. We saw where the Vietnam war river scenes were filmed, in the Domincan Republic, for an old classic movie called "Apocalypse Now". Could life be any better?

On July 6, 2001 I crashed and burned . . . . NOT, but the consulting assignment did come to an abrupt halt. I could have whined about it and blamed everyone under the sun. Life did change dramtically, but I wasn't down and out.

The bottom fell out of the IT industry during this time. Don't even dream about blaming it on 9/11. Salaries and consulting fees for the IT industry were going south anyway. 9/11 just sped up the process. It was going to happen anyway. Hello!!

Here's the recipe I used to cook up some solvency.

Ingredients

1 pity party
201 lbs of pma (your weight can be substituted)
1 oz of Love from each family member
1 Mirror
1 Well developed network
1 Newsletter written by Rod Colon
1 Career backup plan (business back up plan can be substituted)
12 oz of concentrated kick ass "never say die" attitude
1 hug
1/2 Dash of giving thanks to the almighty for all current blessings


Mixing Directions
Take a week and have a pity party feeling sorry for yourself. After that, look in the mirror everyday with 201lbs [substitute your weight] of positive mental attitude (PMA). Give the person you see a big fat sloppy wet kiss and say "I love You. You're a good person with unique skills that can be utilized by other organizations. There is no one in this world like you." Call people in your network to see if they know someone who can utilize your skills. If you only know 3 people and they all live under a rock and don't speak any language human beings can understand, then meet some new people.

Read Rod Colon's weekly newsletter. During 2001 - beginning of 2003 Rod's newsletter held thousands of IT professionals mentally solvent, so they wouldn't jump out the window. It was a rough time for everyone. It worked for me. Fall back on the career/business backup plan, which dictates having alternate streams of income. From childhood, I have always developed different ways of having income. Since I had developed other profit centers, I was able to pay bills and stay solvent, when I got dropped from the consulting assignment. I also reached out to people in my network to explore other opportunities. Mix in the 12oz of concentrated kick ass "never say die" attitude by having faith in yourself that you can get past any obstacle. Every adversity has an ounce of opportunity in it. Hug your children and your significant other for 5 minutes everyday. Reach out to your family and make damn sure you attend family functions.

While all of the above marinates for everyday of your life, say thanks every day to the almighty being (for me it's GOD) for what you have right now - your health, family, children or life in general. You're 6 feet above ground still, or you wouldn't be reading this. That’s' worth giving thanks.

Cheers!!
CEReid (pronounced SirReid)