Have a Elevator Pitch ready!

I had recently switched jobs. I traded the job at a big corporation for a one at a small company. I was very well established at my old job and never felt a need to prove myself or sell myself. This all changed as one usually starts at the ground floor at any new job.

At my new job I met new people everyday. It being a small company, I would run into executives quite often. We would exchange the normal courtesies and thats it. I realized much later that I had not used the “first impression” opportunity. If I had something worthwhile to say, they might mentally file me under “guy worth my time” folder, rather than “just another guy” folder.

Once I realized that, I realized to have something similar to an elevator pitch ready at all times. Elevator pitch is typically associated with startups trying to impress potential investors as captive audience for the duration of the elevator ride. A more generic form of elevator pitch is just having something sensible to say so that there person you are interacting with thinks that you are worth his time.

The elevator pitch in its “generic form” should not be construed as a sales pitch or ad ad of yourself. It is supposed to help once cause and not hurt (sales pitch/Ads can be turnoff). For me its basically the 3rd or a 4th sentence in an conversation with someone I am trying of impress, so that the conversation can last long enough for the person to remember me among scores of other people he would meet.

I think some folks are natural charmers or inherently good conversationalist. They don’t have to prepare themselves for stuff like this. I am not blessed with this natural charm and find it challenging. Thus the need to have some “preparation” in this area.

I think one does need to have a list of relevant open ended questions or just a list of cool ideas to form the basis for conversation if an opportunity presented itself. eg. What does I say if I ran into Steve Jobs at an apple store ? ok. well that is highly unlikely to happen, but still can be very though provoking. I more realistic scenario, specially in a small to midsize company is what should I talk about If I find myself standing next to the CEO, or VP of engineering.

And if the homework is well done, I might find myself seeking them at gatherings, rather than trying to steer myself away.. just because I don’t know what to say!

also, I think having talking points might help in general social settings outside work too. specially those with some sort of social anxiety.

Job Hunting tips

I spent this spring/summer looking for a job. Some of my friends have been asking about my experience. That prompted this blog post. Here are a few things that helped me after I came back to the job market after 13 years.

• Googling myself I am sure most potential employers google the potential candidates before interviewing. Thus I wanted to make sure the google gave the image consistent with my resume. This helped:

  • Having my linked-in profile upto date.
  • Having a twitter feed which reflected the areas I am interested in. Following professionally relevant people. retweeting relevant tweets, generating new tweets
  • Having a blog with original content, blogging about professionally relevant topics. I use blogspot
  • Having a professional profileat google profiles, about.me etc which linking to all my web presence sites. This makes it easy for folks who what to learn more about me. I included this link in my resume
  • I use facebook for personal use and made my facebook profile private.
  • commenting/interacting on the relevant forums, blogs on the websites.

• Networking I also joined and regularly attended the local user group meetings (Java, Html, Startup in my case). This helps in networking and also remaining uptodate with current topics, this also helps immensely in the interviews. The local user groups is also a great place to get job leads. I found www.meetup.com a great place to learn about groups relevant to me.

• Mailing Lists Apart from usual job search sites, there are locally relevant mailing lists that helps in getting local job leads eg. In denver area Rocky Mountain Internet User group-RMIUG is great for finding tech jobs. boulder.me for start ups in boulder area.

• Research Sites like Glassdoor.com are a great resource for researching companies, salaries, job titles etc. I found that doing a quick search there for the company/job title and salary check, helps me make my applications more potent & relevant and saves me time by weeding out misfits.

• Resume tips A few things that I found useful in preparing my resume

  • Adapting the resume for the job. This doesn’t mean misrepresenting. It just means highlighting skills that are relevant. Resumes are scanned by bots, and HR probably scans a huge load of resumes every day. Crafting a resume to be relevant helps them and makes it easier to get an interview call
  • I found including an 4-5 line objective that summarizes and makes a strong case for the job helps a lot. This means its not canned, but customized for the job application
  • Talking to the recruiter before submitting the resume gives a huge edge. Quite a few companies go through recruiters, HR from most big companies are also your friends. Most of them were open to talking to me, answering my questions and helped me a lot in preparing the resume to be relevant for the job.
  • I included the link from main web presence site (about me). This site points to all the web presences (linked in, twitter, blogpost etc)
  • I took away trivial tools, outdated tools, irrelevant skills from the resume. I feel this helps in cutting down the bloat and making resume sharp
  • I Included soft skills, specially if the position demands its. Most senior level positions do
  • I made it a point include a few lines describing my specific contribution to each project on the resume. In order to keep resume short, I excluded irrelevant projects.

• Interview tips. Some things that I found useful during the interview

  • researching the company, its web site etc, before the interview
  • googing/linked in checking the folks that will be interviewing me, asking the recuriter for names etc ( most of them give me the name of the interviewers)
  • Reading puzzles books eg : http://www.amazon.com/Would-Move-Mount-Microsofts-Puzzle/dp/0316919160, puzzles for programmers, programming interviews exposed
  • I found having an list of questions to ask the interviews also helps. Having a relevant question is a great way to differentiate myself from the bunch
  • Being relaxed, using interviewers first name, using “us” vs “you” etc helps
  • Googling for interview questions usually asked at the interview by that specific company.

Hope this is helpful. what did I miss ? I am eagar to find out how you landed your job and your tips for the same !

What is cell phone hacking

Cell phone hacking has been in the news lately. I was interested in knowing what the heck were they talking about. here is what I found. It should be more accurate to call “Voicemail hacking on the cellphone”. The idea is that someone is able to get into your voicemail box and listen to your voicemail messages. It can be easy in some cases. Following are some of the common ways of doing it. None of these hacks are unquie to cell phones, they will work against landline too.

1. Most cell phone providers have a fixed default pin for voicemail system. Most users never change the default. So the hack goes like this. you place two simultaneous call to your victim. One of them will go into the voicemail. you press ‘*’ to get to the voicemailbox. Try the default passwords. if the user has not changed the default you are in.

2. Most users use easy to guess pin. 1234, 4321 etc. hack is same as “1” above.

3. Calling the voicemailbox from the associated number by default, doesnt ask for passwd. Its easy to spoof the calling number to be whatever you want. So attacker will spoof his number to be same as the victims and call his number.

4. Brute force : victims number were obtained through bribes, the voicemailbox number can similarly be obtained. 4 digit pin offers a really easy brute force crack, specially via automated diallers!

So how to protect ?

1. Make pins required
2. Do not leave voicemails around. delete them
3. Use something like google voice (there are other providers with similar service), which allows to have electronic copies of your voicemail. delete the original. Its easy to replace the default voicemail to a different provider.

Perils of SmartPhone (Automatic geotagging)

Consider following everyday scenarios:

• Dad takes a picture of a new family car via the smartphone and posts it on flicker, a few days later he posts a picture from a beach where the family is vacationing.

• Mom likes to use twitter to keep extended family upto date. she tweets mundane things like I am at work, picking kids up at school etc etc, occasionally posting pics of something funny.

• Teens are hooked on location/checkin apps, always broadcasting to friends where they are hanging out. they love checking racing to the “mayorship” of their favorite spot, collecting pins and other rewards.

They all look fairly innocuous. They are all possible by the power that smartphones pack these days. Decent camera, affordable data plans and engaging apps has made us very spontaneous. when ever we see something cool, funny, important etc, we instantly feel the urge to “tweet”, “facebook”, “flicker” it. This is extremely powerful and has the power of bringing down the established regimes. At the same time these simple acts can reveal personal information that can be extremely dangerous.

consider following.

• Petty thieves use location search to find pictures on flicker in their target area. Based on geotags and pictures they pretty much know where the potential victims live. and looking at photostreams and dates reveals if victims are currently away from home. Essentially posting a geotaged pictures to a public site is like telling everyone where you were (exact location) at a given date/time. Home pictures reveal your exact address, Vacation pictures reveals that you are out of town.

• Pedophile looking for new victims scans tweets around him, find the mom tweeting about the daily routine, follows her on twitter and based on geotags establishes the locations of her home, kids school, work place etc. Gets familiar with the routines and strikes. Twitter feed can also geotag messages and provides an easy way to search for tweets “around you”. everytime someone tweets, they are essentially telling the world exact location of where they were at the time they tweeted in addition to the tweet content itself.

• Stalkers love “check in” apps. they make stalking extremely easy, using these apps with a public profile reveals your daily routine publicly. They also maintain a history so stalkers than easily see the patterns and get familiar with the routine.

If you use a social site with a public profile, just put yourself in the shoes of the “bad” guy and see how much info you can gather about youself. Most “public profile” are also searchable by simple google search and its easy to put together a complete picture of a person if they engage on multiple sites. Google maps with streetview can give everyone view of your home based on the picture you posted, or a simple tweet!

There are couple of ways you can protect yourself:

• Make your profile “Private”. If you are a social person and like to share. Share it with people you know and you have vetted. Make your facebook, twitter, flicker private to your immediate friends.

• Turn off geotagging. I am familiar with iPhone, (Android, etc should also have a similar feature I assume). On iPhone you can decide which apps can use geotags. you dont have to turn off geo location for the whole phone. e.g. You can allow “Maps” & “Urban Spoon” & foursq/gowalla to access your location, but disable it for flicker, facebook, camera app, twitter to use it. Iphone tells you which apps are actively accessing your location and the time they did (Settings->location service). Make sure that apps that are accessing your location are not posting it to your public profile, without your knowledge. Next time an app asks for access to geo location, think twice before allowing it.

The intension is not to fear-monger. Just be “Smarter” than your “Smart Phone”. Your location is very important and every one is trying to get access to it. Protect it. Your family deserves it.

IPad security

iPad has various security features built in. I will review a few of them. They are all accessed by launching the settings app from the main iPad screen ( the icon with gears).

1. Password Lock : [ Settings-> General-> Password Lock -> Turn Password On]

 When turned on. iPad will ask for password when unlocked.  when the Password  is turned on, you can select either a "simple password" aka 4 digits, or a  non- simple password  any phrase using a full  keyboard.

2. Auto Lock : [ Settings-> General-> Auto-Lock]

Auto Lock will cause iPad to autolock after a period of unactivity. You can choose from 2min through 15 mins, or disable autolock.  You can also choose to autolock the iPad when ever you use the "Smart cover" (bought separately)

3. The  third security feature is  called Restrictions  in the settings app [Settings-> General -> Restrictions]. This is the area what allows you to setup parental controls. It lets to disable a few things to make iPad more secure for kids. You can set it up to use a different password than the Screen Lock password.

As you can see from the screen shot above, you can selectively disable a few apps. disable in app purchases  disable content based on ratings. You can also restrict the ability to install or remove a few apps.

I have turned off in app purchases, set settings to G, and disabled the capability of deleting apps for my kids iPad.

iPad is designed as a "I" device and not a "Me" device. thus, when the "restrictions" are turned on, there isnt a way to bypass them by just typing in the password.  Thus when I want to delete the App. I have to follow the following steps :

1. launch the  settings app,
2. Type in the password to access the restrictions area
3. Turn on  the app deletion
4. go back the screen
5. delete the app

6. launch the  settings app, 

7. Type in the password to access the restrictions area

8. Turn off  the app deletion

Kinda pain! but  it works.

So you got your kid a IPad2 ! now what ?

Some of you are probably familiar with my iPad2 saga. Well I have had one for a few days now, and as you can imagine, kids spend a lot more time with it then I will ever. This prompted me to look into how to make it a safer & a fun device. Here are a few things I have thought of. What do you do to make your tech gadets kid friendly ?

1. Turn on the restrictions: Settings -> general -> restriction This is the iPad equivalent of the parental controls. It allows control for things like : Allow purchases (in-App and App store), restrict certain apps, restrict content via ratings etc. I have the ratings all set to “G”, disabled all purchases, and taken away the permissions to delete apps. As iPad is a “me” device rather than a “we” device, the restrictions once set, cannot be overridden. Thus to disable a particular restriction I need to go back to settings, change the restriction and then do my thing. Also once you set the restriction pass code, remember it. if you forget it you will have to either jailbreak your ipad or factory reset it.

2. OpenDns : Kids will soon figure out that TV is much more fun on You tube. And internet in general is much more fun on iPad. Thus the normal “safe browsing” rule apply. I have found OpenDns really good for this. This will ensure that kids are safe at least when browsing from home.

3. Normal computer rules apply: Kids will become very addictive to this. Thus to reign this in, iPad time is counted against the maximum allowable screen time. And the total screen time is subject to reward/penalty system :)

4. Find your iPad: There are times when kids are “immersed” in the ipad and will choose not to listen. “Find your IPad”” is my friend in such times. It allows me to send a message to the iPad so they have to notices. This can be enable by going to iPad Settings-> Mail,contacts,calendars -> accounts -> Mobile me. then go to https://me.com/find/ for the fun.

5. Educational & Fun Games: App store has lots of free and cheap fun games. There are even games that can keep a 1yr old entertained. I have found that most of the free games are ad supported and can cause kids to either accidentally hit the ad and be launched to a website, or see age inappropriate banner. Getting a paid app ( most are 99c) is just hassle free. some of the educational games are a lot of fun! App store makes is easy to either browse via categories Top rated apps, or just search if you already have a game in mind. The app store search is really good.

   Kids will find out about new apps all the time. I am thinking of using this as part of a reward system. They earn a new app each week by doing their homework and being on a good behaviour that week.

6. Use IPad as a digital photo frame. Of course you can just run the slideshow from the photo app, but the screen will lock after a few minutes of inactivity. The right way to do it is via the “flower” icon on the lock screen. The digital frame settings are under settings-> picture frame. This kinda helps keep iPad away from kids and gives it a purpose/alternative use. Plus this gives us a chance of looking at all the cool photos we have taken over the years :)

I would really like to hear about how you are using your ipad and what you like/dont like. I plan to do a blogpost about apps soon!

Find my iPhone

Find me on Iphone is an amazing service. Although it is primarily developed for tracking down your lost iPhone, it can be used in other interesting ways. The official descriptipn of the service is here.

The features that I find most useful are :

• Locating the iPhone Apple locates the iphone on the website, The display is “hot” meaning the pushpin moves in realtime as the iphone is moving, so you can actually see direction & guess the speed of the iphone. This is very useful in tracking where the person is or if they are on the “move”. So rather than calling your partner repeatedly to find out far he/she is, One can simply “findmyiphone” him/her. This is safer than distracting/irritating them with repeated calsl. Looking at how fast the dot the moving we can also figure out if the traffic is slow etc. Of course there are privacy concerns, but I think this should be a good way to keep track of family members. I think parents would definitely find this useful to locate the teenagers.

• Display a Message I basically see this a way to SMS the iPhone user for “free”. With iPhone data plans not including any free sms’s, this becomes a very good option ( findmyIPhone is free). It is a good, easy way to send a quick message one way FYI message to the Iphone.

• Play a tone This is probabely the only “conventional” use of findmyiphone. I have used this a couple of times, to locate my misplaced iphone at home. Its really handy if the iphone is in the garage with the car, or hidden under the sofa cushions!

There are quite a few times when I could locate the iphone and based on the location decide, weather to call or just send a message. If the phone is stationary and at a location, I would usually call. if the phone is moving, I tend to just leave a message.

Of Course findmyiphone is risky, it can options like to “remote wipe” & “play a tone at full volume ” at the fingertips. It can be extremely devasating or annoying to do either. so this has to be used with care.