The IT XP

Leadership is about making decisions, big and small, yet somehow people forget what it means to be an effective leader. We had a major incident recently that prevented me from recording new episodes and this was my first recording since I came back from vacation. I give a glimpse into what happened and my thoughts around the things that I observed and my two cents. I'm not playing arm-chair CIO he...

The Apple Event of September! New products are announced and I go through some of my thoughts on what has been released. Check out the event on apple.com to see what's new. Stay tuned for the end where I jump back in to discuss my thoughts on the new iPhone 11 PRO!

I pulled this one up from last season because I'm dealing with a huge outage that many won't see in their lifetime; well hopefully not. High severity incidents, those where multiple systems are unavailable, will make or break you and your career. It's how you act during these incidents where you can either shine or sink deeper into the void. I provide you some insights into a recent high severity...

I pulled this one up from the archives because I think mentoring still plays an important role as you develop your career. You may hear folks say that you also need sponsors to help you progress, while this is true, you also need someone that is going to be your mentor, either directly or indirectly, to help you navigate this game we all play. Right now I'm sitting on a beach in the Caribbean, dis...

I went back into the archives and pulled out this gem. It's the summer season and I'm out galavanting around the Caribbean right about now. I wanted to post some of my older shows so that you can hear what I sounded like back then and also reinforce some of the ideas that I constantly hear about education. There are many forms of education one can take to continue growing in their career. I go thr...

You're are most likely going to be thrust into a role as a project tech lead. I'm giving you some tips and tricks that lay down the foundation of what a great tech lead can do. If you want to move ahead in your career, take a listen.

Another round of mass shootings in America occurred over the weekend. I talk about how hatred is running rampant and just express my thoughts around this. This is a topic that should continue to be discussed. 

CBD oil for pets, what's been your experience? I talk about the anxiety my dog goes through during loud events, i.e. thunderstorms. Will CBD oil prove to be as effective as it was with me?

This episode is a personal one in where I discuss mental health in the IT industry. I talk about what I've been going through and how I handle it. It is a topic that isn't discussed often, but needs to. We all deal with things differently and we need outlets to decompress. For those that need to talk to someone right away, please call The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. For...

I had the opportunity to go to AWS Summit NYC 2019. I briefly talk about the little protest outside of the Javits Center that morning on July 11th. Then I go into the summit briefly. Hopefully this will motivate some of you to get moving on your goals for this year.

Congrats to the USWNT in winning the Women's World Cup! The men couldn't pull out a victory against Mexico in the Gold Cup, but hey, we can't have everything.

Episode begins with me ranting on the direction this show was taking and then finishes up with Day 2 of the Rev2 Data Science conference I attended back in May.

I discuss the Girls On The Run event I attended yeterday. This goes into the girl/woman empowerment movement and my experiences as a Latinx male.

I had the opportunity to attend the Rev2 Data Science conference held by Domino Data Lab. While not an IT conference, I attended so I can gain a better understanding on what businesses are doing with data.

Do you have the right tools for the job?

Mom's are awesome!

Just some ramblings while I reflect a bit on the IANS security forum in NYC.

Content is hard to come by, especially when content providers are making it harder and harder for folks to consume it easily. I jump back on my soapbox on these platforms that are charging money for content. There are too many out there and this is why folks still choose peer to peer sharing.

Database admins and engineers are paving the way for organizations to do more with the data they have. This has spawned a new role call data scientists/analyst/etc.., but it all starts here with the database admin/engineer.

Certification season is upon us! I start this season with the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals exam. I discuss why I'm going back to basics and where I plan on taking my journey this season. Happy Easter and Passover to all who celebrate. If you don't celebrate, then Happy Spring!

Focusing on the cloud ops and engineering roles in this episode. I didn't want to take away anything from the sysadmin role. This is why I added cloud ops in this episode. This is still a very niche role and I give my thoughts on the future state of this role.

It's tax day in the United States! Get out there and pay those taxes. What's the saying, there are only two certainties in life: Death and Taxes!

Getting back into Nascar has me wondering about brand loyalty. This came after wondering why there were so many empty seats at Bristol Motor Speedway this past Sunday. Are you doing what you need to be doing to keeping your fans/customers loyal? I know I have a lot more work to do!

1. Recap of last week's topic: SysAdmin 2. What the Network Engineering role entails 3. Day to Day job functions that typically are performed by this role 4. What certifications you should look at getting 5. Next steps after working in this role for 1-3 years 6. Then covering some job postings in trying to help everyone interpret job details. 

20 years ago The Matrix was released. It got me thinking about the evolution of the digital world and the common theme amongst many of the futuristic movies, we need to unplug.