Since the Christmas season has officially begun I decided to bring some Christmas spirit to the office. A small candlestick (larger electrical versions are traditionally placed in windows here in Sweden) and two of Santas little helpers decorate my desk at work. Several people noticed my initiative and I hope others will follow.
It is quite nice to look at the light when it gets dark outside as early as 3 pm.
The last few weeks have been very work and career oriented. Conference in USA, business trips to Gothenburg, meetings etc. Very inspiring and rewarding! It is alright to work hard if you are having fun, but not all the time! Since balance in live is of outmost importance for your health, I will dedicate this weekend entirely to my friends and family.
Among other things I have a playdate with my niece M, 4 years old. She is looking forward to her auntie Kimmy coming over to play, she told me on Skype! But I can’t help to wonder if it is me she misses or my iphone. When I come to visit she loves playing “Angly Birds” sitting in my lap. She has gotten really good at it!
So now I hope that all you hardworking TechGirls and TechBoys out there do the same thing. Enjoy the weekend. Take long walks in the nice autumn weather (well, that depends on where you live). Light some candles, snuggle under a cozy blanket with a nice cup of warm coffee or tea.
I will see you back on monday when I will tell you all about my adventures in the US and here at home.
I am all packed for my trip across the pond. Tomorrow I am boarding a flight which will take me to Los Angeles via Zurich. The reason for my visit to the States is a large Social Media Conference called “BlogWorld Expo“. I will tell you all about it in the upcoming days. Right now I have to get some sleep as I have to rise bright and early at 5.30 am and go to the airport. See you on the other side!
When I arrived at the hotel in London late last night, my first priority was to get the Internet up and running. Not because I am an online-addict (ok, maybe a little) but primarily because I needed to check my mail and do some work. My new, sleek and slim, Samsung laptop is on its maiden voyage on this trip and one feature hadn’t occurred to me until now….
It has no full-sized network outlet!
So even though the hotel offered complementary free cabled Internet I had to go down to the reception and buy a 24 hour Wifi surfing card for £10. Lesson learned!
Yesterday I attended a course by the name of ”Orientation in Development for Facebook”. Since Facebook constitutes a large part of my working hours every day I am always eager to learn more about the technical aspects of the platform. This especially since Facebook has a tendency to be very light on their feet when it comes to implementing changes, but perhaps not too focused on clearly communicating their plans for doing so out to the public.
This course is the first one I have come across which takes on the developing perspective (instead of the more marketing oriented type courses) which I found to be very interesting. The teacher guided the class through the day in a very clear manner and went through everything from Social Plugins to the Open Graph and Oauth 2.0. Much of the material was already known to me, but to see all the pieces of the puzzle in a larger context was very educational. Besides the more theoretical parts of the course we also got to see some practical examples of how one easily can add Like Buttons of Comment Boxes on your webpage.
I was probably the only participant with a solid technical background and my questions during the course were of course focused on my needs and level of expertise. The course does however aim its curriculum towards anyone who comes in contact with Facebook projects in some way, whether it be as a project manager, customer or in a management position. I think this is a very good approach since businesses should not simply rely on agencies coming up with fancy concepts for a campaign/project without having a foundational understanding themselves on how the platform works and what can and can’t be done.
The coming weeks will involve a lot of travelling on my part. On Saturday I will board a plane for Los Angeles and a week of conferencing and networking with well-known profiles in the Social Media community.
But before I take out my sun-glasses I have a few adventures both here at home in Stockholm and abroad. Today I am attending a very interesting course in developing apps for Facebook. No sooner will it end before I have to rush off to the airport on my way to London for a couple of days.
The camera is loaded, the laptop is packed. So take a deep breath, lean back and enjoy the ride. Because here we go!
To work as a consultant with a customer requires a high level of competence and social skills. A consultant does not only represent her/him-self in their professional role but also the company which she/he works for.
A couple of years ago, before my first consultant assignment I made a list of how I define a good consultant. When I was done, I realized that the list did not have any reference to the technical competence. I simply took this for granted. Instead, it focused on behaviours and actions which contribute to enhance the customer relation and the completion of the assignment.
I take this list out now and again to browse throught it. I do this so I can evaluate my own performance and continue striving towards becoming a better consultant.
What do you think? What constitutes a good consultant?
The IT-business is fast paced and vibrant. In this category you can read about differenct aspects of working in IT, from women in IT and consulting to project management and making a career.
Airport reading
Conference wishlist
“Webbdagarna” conference, here I come!
Royal birth on Facebook
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TechGirl is a Technology and Career-blog written by Kimmy Nordqvist, a Tech Project Manager from Sweden. Read more about TechGirl or |
