I'm not sure I follow the logic here....
Agreed. Symantec for instance has a ton of competitors. They lobbied heavily for resellers to enter an MSP agreement where we own the licenses and then rent them out to our clients as part of a service agreement, then turned around and punished us for doing so by de-allocating us from Silver to Registered partner because we weren't turning around adequate "new sales". Guess what Symantec: ESET, MacAfee and others are all sitting there waiting to eat your lunch. They will take my tens of thousands a year in recurring revenue happily.
That is not within our current mission, Joel. There are plenty of people out there that support and promote Open Source, and in fact we support DotNetNuke - an open source product that runs on Microsoft platforms. As a small company we could choose to be mediocre at many things, or excellent at a specific set of things. We chose the latter. I partner with any number of organizations that support LAMP stack and frequently refer business to them (and vice versa). There's plenty of room in the world for both the corporate, Microsoft based lineup and the Linux based one. I'd encourage you to look at Microsoft's products in the same way you encourage me to look at the open source ones - you may find that from a "return on investment" point of view those products are actually a pretty darn good deal.
And don't even get me started on how the security certificate on their email server has expired.... :(
My recommendation would be to stick with Gmail (and turn on 2 factor authentication) but to access your junk mail folder and settings you would login to the WEB interface for mail and set them there. Turn off junk mail filtering at the web end, and check your junk mail folder for legit mail that you can move to the inbox. To get to your online web folder go to http://mail.rochester.rr.com and login with your email address and email password.
We work on open source software as well - in the Microsoft world. DotNetNuke is actually open source. It's actually good that you're NOT working in the Microsoft world - if you have a client or know someone who IS working in that world and needs some integration help, please feel free to refer them to us.
I'd recommend contacting Anne Marie at Rochester Works for more info about possible follow-on events. This event was held in Oct 2009.
2nd work on your first 90 seconds for the interview. A firm (not crushing handshake), eye contact, learn the recruiters name and repeat your own, and a nice - not too cutesy - introduction of yourself makes a great first impression. Read Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People (http://astore.amazon.com/leedrakesbusi-20/detail/0671027034 ). This is more true of career fairs than of interviews. Remember - you're seeing me once - I see over 100 people in the space of a couple hours. If you stand out I'll remember you (for good or bad) during that first 2 minutes. Practice it with a friend or colleague over and over until it's smooth and confident.
John - My answer would be - know the company you are approaching. Take the time to visit their website, examine their culture and their requirements, and - taking a real objective look at yourself - be sure you are a good fit for that. If you are - say so, and be able to explain why. Just because a job isn't posted doesn't mean there isn't a spot for you. If you are a salesperson who examines my product line, figures out a good fit for yourself, and can SHOW ME how you can improve my bottom line - I'll probably at least give you an interview.
Thats awesome. Can you tell us more about your projects or are they all in the "Top secret" category for now?
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