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Affordable Computing

SECOND DRAFT

Using a computer in your jobsearch is pretty much a requirement these days, the newspaper and a typewriter would be severely limiting.

Last week we discussed this at the Maple Hts Library Job Club, here are some notes in case you missed it.

Basic Needs

You need a Computer, an Internet Connection, Office Software, a Printer, and a Flash Drive.  If you are new to computers, check out the courses at the library.

Computer

Computers are run by Operating Systems (OS), Windows being the most common.  Other OSes are Mac OS, iOS (iPad), Android (tablets).  If you are well versed in an non-Windows system it can serve your needs, if you don't have a computer, you'll find the Windows platform most common and easiest to get help on.  Tablets (iPad and Android) while popular are more limited than their full service alternatives (Windows & Mac OS).

Anything before Windows XP is very old, Win XP SP3 is a reasonable alternative, Vista had problems and performance issues, Win 7 is current, the upcoming Win 8 is likely to suffer from the same issues as Vista did.

A refurbished desktop is likely the cheapest, but has the disadvantage of not being portable and leaving you tethered to your home.  Building your own desktop is only financially viable in today's market if you are building a high performance computer.  Low cost computers operate on very thin profit margins and are cheaper than the sum of their parts.  The one possible exception is upgrading an existing computer.  If you are short on memory or storage, these upgrades easy and cheap.  Upgrading a processor is more expensive and complex.

A refurbished laptop will be a bit more expensive, but has the major advantage of being portable.  Performance issues are a higher risk on refurbished laptops and you should carefully review that vs a low end new device.  Using an AMD chip will reduce cost. A Netbook, if you can find it, is a cheaper alternative than a laptop.  It doesn't perform as well, has a smaller keyboard and no optical drive, but it has longer battery life,

MicroCenter at SOM & Mayfield Rds is the most reliable source of refurbished equipment locally.  Microsoft marketing rules will often force dealers to use a new OS (Win 7) which could present a challenge to older hardware.

Internet Connection

These days broadband is a must, dialup may work in a pinch, but its performance will cause frustration. ATT DSL may be your cheapest option with its "basic" (slowest) DSL service (which is still 10 times faster than dialup).  The ATT DSL can be obtained with a "2Wire" router that provides basic wireless service (but it uses the less secure WEP standard).  Cable providers are faster and more expensive and typically do not provide wireless, causing you to buy a router and configure it.

When setting up a home wireless network be sure to enable security, at least WEP and hopefully WPA2.

Dialup requires a modem and many newer laptops don't have it.  Wireless is built into any newer laptop but could be added with a USB to an older computer.

Public Internet is abundant at restaurants, coffee shops and the library.  In a pinch you could work offline at home and go to a public spot to go online.

Office Software

Microsoft Office is the most widely used software and you should know how to use it as a basic requirement for most jobs today.  That may be reason enough to obtain it.  If you don't have a license  it will cost $100 for one computer or $150 for three computers.  Maybe a friend or relative has an unused license.  If this is beyond your budget you can use the free OpenOffice and it will be do what you need but will operate slightly differently.  You can use MS Office at the library for learning its specifics.

Google Docs is also an option, but I've found that its formatting can be more problematic than OpenOffice.  Google Docs also requires you to be online, while Open Office can be used offline.

MicroSoft also has a lightweight online version of it's Office Suite (I haven't evaluated this yet).  MicroSoft is also offering a lightweight version of Office on new PCs.

Printer

The dream of paperless remains a dream, so you will have to print at some point.  Limited printing can be done at the library or Employment Connections, but if your needs are consistently greater than 10 pages / day, then you may need your own printer.

Printers are cheap, but their SUPPLIES ARE NOT!  Your biggest challenge is to figure out the cost of ownership of the printer, not just its cost.  Basic inkjets will be cheapest.  All in ones that include scanning and possibly fax will cost more to buy and and will be about the same cost as an inkjet to operate.  Laser printers cost more than inkjets, the cartridges are expensive but typically last much longer than inkjet cartridges.

Other Software

Consider Open Source Software or freeware, it's free, and very competitive with commercial software.  Some examples are OpenOffice described above, GIMP is a full featured photo editor like Photoshop, Dia is a full featured diagramming tool like Viso, Paint.Net (PDN) a full featured paint program with layers, similar to photoshop but with emphasis on paint vs photo.  Pririform offers very useful Windows utilities.

Cloud Solutions can be useful for easy access from anywhere.  Look at Evernote, Dropbox, and Xmarks as useful tools for your job search.  Also watch for a post on this topic.

Storage

You should have some form of portable storage to transfer files when using another computer at the Library or Employment Connections.

Flash drives are cheap and easy for having portable storage so you can always have your resume and jobsearch documents handy.  You should backup your flash drive to your computer regularly in the event you would lose it.  You can also put a file in the root directory in case someone finds it, you can start the file with an exclamation point "!" so it sorts to the top and call it something like "!ReadMe1st.txt" or "!Owner.txt" or something similar.

Tablets

The Apple iPad with its iOS reinvented computing and showed MicroSoft what that a tablet computer wasn't just a laptop with a touch screen and some writing recognition software.  It has spurned a new industry, entered first by Google with its Android OS and likely to entered by MicorSoft with Win 8 Metro soon.

You can browse and even get a keyboard for a tablet, but it is a different platform than a PC with its own pros and cons.  These thin devices are using a mobile processor that can handle browsing and basic office functions but larger challenges of full featured PC software are not likely to do well.  Tablets are the ultimate in portable and can be used easily in the class room or during meetings.  Their app interface model allows quick and convenient checking of weather, social media status etc that requires a browser on a PC.  A netbook, which also uses another mobile (Atom) processor is also very portable and uses a keyboard rather than touch screen.  To get a portable full strength processor you'd need an ultrabook (another Apple innovation, the Macbook Air) but these are on the high end of the cost spectrum.

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Job Search Links

I'm collecting helpful jobsearch links and sharing them as a "stack" using the delicious social bookmarking facility.

You can find it here:  http://bit.ly/neojobsearchlinks

I haven't found a way to suppress some of the distracting web site snapshots, so you may want to select the list view as shown below.  If you have a Delicious account, you can "follow" the stack to be notified of updates, or you can just check back with the above link.

Send any suggestions to me here.

I'm back

My jobsearch is getting back into high gear and I'll be updating this blog with new content.  Some of my older posts may have dated content, I've reviewed each of them, and many are still very relevant today too.  One's that need major updates are labeled "Dated", ones that need minor updates but are still accurate are labeled "ToBeUpdated".

I'm very flexible to a wide range of opportunities in IT (from enterprise data centers to consumer PCs), training, tech writing and many other possibilities. I'm also open to part time, full time, or contract.

So my initial observations on the job search front are:

• CVJS is an excellent resource, join and get access active email list and to their web archive of great materials.
• CCPL has great classes, computers for use, several job clubs, and the Maple Hts branch has a special collection of career material.
• Employment Connection was a wonderful resource a few years ago, but they have cut back tremendously since then.

More Job Fairs

The Career Place library site has added a list of jobfairs to their website. It is on their right sidebar about halfway down under the heading "CAREER FAIRS".

CVJS recently announced an open house at Comsys. This was kind of a jobfair with just one (big and quality) employer. It was very well run, not a mad house like employment guide's was.

The employment guide hosted two very crowded job fairs in the last two months. I'm not sure that their exhibitors were much to get excited about. Their jobfairs web site is here. They give some advice on jobfairs here. More advice on jobfairs and job searching can be found at the career center links in my previous post.

Job Fairs

So anybody at the Employment Guide mad house today... Jeez.

I've been to that location before and when I saw the cars circling, and the hundreds of people outside waiting to get in I knew it would be a mad house. But I figured I was there so I'll check it out.

Don't be discouraged, this was not what I'd call a tier 1 event. I usually advise people to go to the tier 2 or 3 events as a way to practice your pitch, but this was so crowded that wasn't easy to do unless you wanted to spend the full 4 hours. Lucky the fire marshal didn't show up, he would have closed them down.

I didn't see all the companies listed on their advance brochure. Usually this would be a blue collar event, but I was surprised to see the number of suits, made even worse by a long wait outside.

The CSU event in a month is more of a tier one event. It may be crowded, but its in a bigger venue, the likelihood of no-shows is less, and there is a higher caliber of employer there too. Although with unemployment so high, who knows, you may want to get there early.

The LinkedIn CCPL group has a discussion on the schedule for upcoming jobfairs. I'll repeat them here for those who aren't part of the CCPL Job Club with thanks to Bonnie.

1. Lakeland Community College.

http://www2.lakelandcc.edu/nora/events/announcements.asp?ID=15#1710

Mini-Job Fair
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
careerservices@lakelandcc.edu
Time: 10 am to 1 pm
Location: A-Bulding (between Bookstore & Counseling)

Their career center is here: http://careers.lakelandcc.edu/

2. University of Akron

http://www.uakron.edu/ccm/students/expoinfo.php

Thursday, February 12, 2009
10:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Student Union Ballrooms

3. Cleveland State University

http://www.csucareerfair.com/home.php

Career Services Center 30th Annual Spring Career Fair
Friday, February 27, 2009
9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
216-687-4858

Their career center is here: http://www.csuohio.edu/offices/career/

4. Cuyahoga Community College

http://www.tri-c.edu/community/keycareerplace/pages/careerexpos.aspx

Western Campus on Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Metro Campus on Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Eastern Campus on Thursday, April 30, 2009
Times are 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Their career center is here:
http://www.tri-c.edu/career/workforce/keycareer/Pages/Home.aspx

5. Idealist Nonprofit Career Fair

http://www.idealist.org/careerfairs

Wednesday, April 8, 2009
11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Case Western Reserve University Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations
Thwing Student Center

Status: Second Draft - CCC added 03/03/09

Dangerous Internet Presence

There are so many interesting things on the Internet, blogs, social networking. And outside work you may find an interesting home for your pet peeve, political view, or hobby. But the Internet is not really partitionable between personal and work.

My advice, if its personal, no matter how harmless it may seem, keep it anonymous, written under a pseudonym. Why? Because you can make only one first impression, and what impression something may make to your employer or a potential employer may do irreparable harm. Sure you should have freedom of speech and expression, technically, but practically, employers look, and may be offended. Its not right, but it happens. So better safe than sorry and publish under an assumed name.

Your real name is your brand, protect it. Use it only in the most professional way possible, in a way that will promote you as a desirable professional. No politics, no viewpoints, no controversy. Sound boring? It is, but its safe.

A salesman (and that's every job seeker who needs to sell themselves) can sometimes take risks if he knows his audience. He can tell an off color joke or talk about party excess, if he really knows his audience well enough to know they won't take offense. But on the Internet, you don't know your audience, so you need to exercise caution.

LinkedIn is a professional Internet presence. But I've seen people put some questionable personal dialog in their public profile. I'd say that is ill advised. Facebook is becoming a business networking tool. I haven't looked at Facebook close enough yet, but I know that Myspace is just not a good vehicle. Myspace is too social, too informal, not suitable for business unless you are in the entertainment industry. Do you have interests in that area, does it appeal to you? Fine, register under an assumed name, not your real name, not your professional brand.

So sell yourself on the Internet, but express yourself anonymously.