IT Insights Blog — Employment

Last week I played pool with a colleague and learned a valuable lesson about seeking employment. We played on a table that neither of us had ever played on. It didn’t take us long to realize this table was very unique. The cushion on the rails of the table had become separated from the wood in various places around the table. This created dead spots which caused any connecting ball to rebound in an unexpected manner.

Many of you reading this already have an IT certification or two (or three, or four). If you have at least one current certification, or know someone who does, then consider today's post a call to arms. We need you. We need your IT certified friend. We need everyone who has an IT certification. More precisely we need information. Not anyone's vital statistics, or their Social Security number, or the password to their bank account. And actually, it's not we or us in the sense of TestOut Continuing Education who are doing the asking. This is the classic case of asking for a friend.

On Sept. 2, the largest general strike in history happened in India when 185 million workers walked off the job. They were demanding an improvement in the rights of workers, primarily a monthly minimum wage of 18,000 rupees ($268 U.S.) and guaranteed pensions of 3,000 rupees ($45 U.S.).

Fans of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks had become accustomed, until the start of this season, to the success of their rushing attack. That’s largely thanks to one of the most dominant running backs of the decade — Marshawn Lynch. This year will be a little different for invested Seahawks fans, however, because “Beast Mode” surprised us all after the end of last season by announcing his retirement from football.

Despite all of the college freshmen and sophomores everywhere who, at this very back-to-school moment, can't decide what to declare as a major, almost everyone moves into adulthood having at least daydreamed about various professionals ambitions. "What are you going to be when you grow up" is one of the fundamental questions of adolescence. Whether they envisioned becoming a circus clown, a lawyer, an astronaut, or whatever, most people at some point in their youth pictured themselves settling in as something unique and/or special down the road a few years. Even for those who followed a clear path from the start, however, what you begin doing as your career doesn't always last for as long as you might expect it to.