Interesting perspective - characteristics of a great (IT) sales engineer

Found this interesting compilation here:

A great Sales Engineer (SE) has three characteristics
First, a “whatever it takes” attitude! This may sound like a platitude, but it's the biggest single indicator of an individual’s success in the role. As long as it is legal, honest, moral, and customer-focused, our SEs should be willing to do it!

Second, the technical chops to absorb new concepts quickly. With such a large platform, our SEs are constantly learning and exploring new technologies. In a successful SE, the deep down, heart-of-hearts response to this kind of thing is always, “Cool, I GET to do this!”

Finally, a core specialty that can then be used as a frame of reference going forward in the role. There are many potential backgrounds that are relevant to our work. We have successful SEs from all corners of the tech world, including (but not limited to) devops, storage, networking, app dev, big data, and machine learning.

The article then states a line that is close to my personal belief:

The biggest priority is helping clients find the best solution possible—even if that sometimes means losing business in the short-term

If you genuinely help your customers by proposing options that are in their best interest, they will start trusting you and will see you as a partner who keeps their best interest as a top priority.  In the long term such relationships are most rewarding.

Unable to give Linkedin Recommendation due to website error "Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later"?

The feature of giving recommendation on linkedin used to work for me earlier, and I'm not sure when it stopped working, but it wasn't working for me for months now! Finally I found a useful tip:

try giving the recommendation from linkedin mobile app 

Guess what... I was successfully able to send recommendation from mobile app! If you are getting the same error, try this tip.

In this day and age if linkedin can have such an issue open for so long, they have some serious issue in incorporating customer feedback!

Today's Webinar - Breaking Botnets and Wrestling Ransomware 2018 Trends and Insights from Microsoft Security

This week I attended a webinar - "Breaking Botnets and Wrestling Ransomware 2018 Trends and Insights from Microsoft Security". I got some interesting insights:

• Phishing is the new "low hanging fruit" vs. macro-based malware threat
• Phishing mails have been impersonating popular brands such as Microsoft associated brands, DocuSign, Dropbox, Apple, Amazon, FedEx, DHL, UPS, banks and government services
• 50% of SaaS storage apps and 40% of SaaS collaboration apps do not support HTTP headers session protection
• Only 4% of SaaS storage apps and 3% of SaaS collaboration apps support all HTTP headers session protection methods
• 28% of SaaS storage apps and 19% of SaaS collaboration apps do not support any type of data encryption method
• 79% of SaaS storage apps and 86% of SaaS collaboration apps do not encrypt data both at rest and in transit
• Greatest number of ransomware encounters were in Asia
• About 67% of incoming attacks on Azure services in 2H17 came from IP addresses in China (31.7%), USA (18%), and Russia (15.9%); with France trailing (6.7%) at forth spot
• 54% of malicious IP contacted by compromised Azure VMs in 2H17 were located in China, followed by 22% in USA

Microsoft's Security Intelligence Report (SIR) has more details, and some good recommendations for enterprises to secure their data, network and users.

Interesting article on sleep

I was reading this interesting article. After all, who wouldn't want to maximize sleep :-)

The Silver Lining

---Originally posted a few years ago---

There are days when things go the way I want them to
And there are days when nothing seems right

There are times when I feel like I'm the one steering my life
And there are times when I'm the one being dragged

But Happy or Sad... You're always around
Where ever I am, What I've always cherished and will continue to...
Is the solace that I get in your presence
And the oneness that I feel in your company!

Your vastness reminds me of my smallness
Your serenity reminds me of my agitation
Your eternity reminds me of my short life
And Your forgiveness inspires me to be a better me!

ななころびやおき - Fall Down Seven Times Get up Eight

---Originally posted a few years ago---

ななころびやおき - Fall Down Seven Times, Get up Eight

This proverb has always been your way of living. The world has witnessed you rising from the ashes time and again like a phoenix and each time you do better than before!

My deepest condolences with the people of Japan who have lost their loved ones in this massive earthquake and tsunamis.

Ethics - Bringing Theory into Practice

---Originally posted a few years ago---

Today I picked up the chapter on "Professional responsibility" from the book Head First PMP. Just before the exam questions for this chapter, there was a note:

Now, go read the PMP Code of Professional Conduct before you take these exam questions.

Puhleease... do you know what time it is? So ignoring the advise, I went straight to the questions... and bingo! Nailed them all... just like the angel says...



It's interesting that all the answers to questions on ethics and professional responsibility are actually pretty easy to answer. The option that looks most ideal (and among the least popular with the masses :-p) is always the right choice.

I believe these questions would be easy to answer for pretty much everyone. But we still see cases of unethical behaviour all the time in all industries. The understanding of correct responses to ethical questions that arise in life already prevails among the masses, but when people actually face such situations they are often unable to act ethically. The idea of acting ethically is sometimes not built in our subconscious as strongly as our responses to fire or other dangers. In spite of the fact that acting unethically may lead us to an equally or more dangerous situation.

Thank you GOD

---Originally posted a few years ago---

This is a lovely Saturday morning. I was just about to have my breakfast and it started raining heavily. I like watching rain. It gives me a feeling that it cleans everything. The trees are cleaner, the leaves are greener, vehicles and buildings are washed off the pollution. But most of all it is wonderful seeing drops after drops of rain falling on green leaves and getting splattered. Focusing on that is like meditating!



Refreshing pics from my balcony:











It had been a long time since I had enjoyed watching rain with a peaceful mind. So I took my chair in my balcony and relished my breakfast watching rain. Suddenly it started raining so heavily that I was thankful that I was under a solid roof, that I can enjoy the rain without getting drenched, that I can afford myself a home, that I have a job to support me and my family, that I am blessed with parents who left no stone unturned when it came to my well being and education, and that I'm blessed with a sane mind to think about this and to thank you GOD!

Forgiveness

---Originally posted a few years ago---

The concept of forgiveness - "act of forgiving; disposition or willingness to forgive" has always intrigued me. Since childhood, there were instances when it came naturally to me, and in some instances it wasn't always the first response or reaction. But the good thing about forgiving is that at the end of it, one always feels peaceful. To forgive somebody is totally within our sphere of influence. What isn't - is to be forgiven. When I came across the following status message on a social networking site, I was touched.

I ask forgiveness from my heart for any harm I may have caused you, by thought, word, or action, knowingly or unknowingly -"Micchamee Dukkadam"

I read more about it on the internet. As a matter of fact, many religions support this concept. A Wikipedia page on Forgiveness lists many religious theories on this subject. I will quote one of them here.

The concept of performing atonement from one's wrongdoing (Prayaschittha — Sanskrit: Penance), and asking for forgiveness is very much a part of the practice of Hinduism. Prayaschittha is related to the law of Karma. Karma is a sum of all that an individual has done, is currently doing and will do. The effects of those deeds and these deeds actively create present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain in others.

Addressing Dhritarashtra, Vidura said: "There is one only defect in forgiving persons, and not another; that defect is that people take a forgiving person to be weak. That defect, however, should not be taken into consideration, for forgiveness is a great power. Forgiveness is a virtue of the weak, and an ornament of the strong. Forgiveness subdues (all) in this world; what is there that forgiveness cannot achieve? What can a wicked person do unto him who carries the sabre of forgiveness in his hand? Fire falling on the grassless ground is extinguished of itself. And unforgiving individual defiles himself with many enormities. Righteousness is the one highest good; and forgiveness is the one supreme peace; knowledge is one supreme contentment; and benevolence, one sole happiness."

(From the Mahabharata, Udyoga Parva Section XXXIII, Translated by Sri Kisari Mohan Ganguli).

Very insightful, very reassuring.

I ask forgiveness from my heart for any harm I may have caused to anyone, by thought, word, or action, knowingly or unknowingly

A trip to Purandar and Vajragad

---Originally Posted a few years ago---

"Adventurizants" is one of the best things I've found in Cognizant. It is a group of trekking enthusiasts and nature lovers. Though it has been here since a long time planning and executing many adventurous trips, this was my first time with this group. And it was an amazing experience! The scenic beauty of the place was amazing and the weather was perfect!
Sharing a few snaps from the trip album: -

Rest in Peace Steve Jobs! Your life will always be an inspiration!

---Originally posted a few years ago---

It was a shock to hear that Steve Jobs passed away. His life has always been an inspiration. A self-believer, an innovator, a visionary and yet a spiritual person like him will be missed!

The inspiring Commencement address by Steve Jobs delivered on June 12, 2005 at Stanford:

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Source: - http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
You tube Link: - www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA
Audio Link: - http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clips/speeches/stevejobsstanfordcommencement438436833.mp3