Has it been 6 months, a year, or more since you worked in IT? If you answered yes, you’re not alone. Statistically speaking, the odds are that you or a friend is unemployed, underemployed, or working outside of IT. Further still, according to Foote Partners, an independent IT research and advisory firm, the IT employment outlook in 2010 is expected to be marginal at best and real changes won’t occur until 2011. There is no time to wait. Now is the time to reposition yourself for the future.

Keeping active during your job search is more complex and challenging, but infinitely more important than in years past. In the pre-recession years, IT professionals were accustomed to a job-seekers market where jobs were plentiful, employment gaps were short, and networking actually produced rapid results. Now, as employment gaps can stretch to a breaking point, enthusiasm suffers and motivation fades. But lost enthusiasm leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy of diminishing opportunity. You have to stop the spiral downward by looking up. Think about all the things you’ve done to get updated, expand skills and knowledge, and stay current in the ever-changing roles and responsibilities of Information Technology. If you’ve done a lot, remember it, show it in your resume, and show it in your attitude. If you’ve not done a lot, it is time to get started. Activity leads to enthusiasm, and enthusiasm leads to opportunity.

In this article, I’ll provide practical tips to showcase your career development accomplishments. This is more than just changing your resume; it is at the core of how you see yourself. When your job search has singularly focused on your last work assignment it puts you at a disadvantage, particularly as the days stretch into months and that last work assignment becomes a historical artifact. Documenting and highlighting your recent activities shows planning, execution, and achievement of professional goals. It makes a clear statement that you’re still in the game.

Career Development Accomplishments

Your career development section should be placed right under your experience as your most recent accomplishment. Using a format as shown in Figure One is appropriate and integrates well into both functional and chronological resume styles. Now you need to think about everything you’ve done. Make a list without regard to significance, language, or relevance. It’s important to get it all down. Once complete, the extent of what you’ve done will likely surprise you. Accomplishment Examples I’ve listed the most common career development activities and how to represent them to your best advantage. You’re working toward an IT certification, but have not completed all the requirements. You don’t need to wait until you’ve completed a training program to add it to your accomplishments. You can note your completion in different ways: the number of courses completed, a percentage of completion or the passage of a milestone.

* Certified Information Management Professional (CIMP), completed 3 courses out of 5 required through eLearningCurve

* Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist, MCTS (completed training, certification in progress)

* MCSE training, Strategy Computers, completed 6 month program (expected certification 6/2010)

You’ve planning a vertical or lateral move and have attended training or education outside of your traditional areas of expertise. You can use this to your benefit to show familiarity and knowledge in a new area. Hands-on training is particularly advantageous.

* Regional Leadership Forum, Society for Information Management (SIM), 9 month program, 2009 Participated in real-world case studies, discussing challenges faced by multiple levels of management.

* The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) conference, February 2010 Hands-on Analytics and Hands-on Data Mining Learned the features and functionality of emerging technologies using advanced analytical tools.

You’ve joined industry groups and are attending meetings, volunteering with event logistics, or speaking on an area of expertise. Creating instructional material and being an engaging and informative speaker show a depth of knowledge and expression that begins to position you as an industry expert.

* Member, Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), 2008-Present

* Board Member, Los Angeles Chapter, The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) Recruited well-known industry experts to speak at chapter meetings on subjects such as Agile Analytics in the Cloud, Emerging Spatial Data Technologies, and Operational BI.

* Member, The Data Management Association (DAMA), Los Angeles Chapter Attended regular meetings on subjects including Integrating Disparate Data, Dimensional Modeling, and Data Visualization.

* Speaker, Enterprise Data World 2009 Conference Presented best practice session on Successfully Implementing an Enterprise Information Management (EIM) program to a large audience of industry practitioners.

When you’ve attended a number of different courses, you don’t need to list everything. Consider using high-impact subject areas to illustrate your point.

* Extensive continuing education through SANS Institute, including Advanced Security Essentials, Critical Security Controls, Forensics, Systems Administration, and Intrusion Analysis.

* Extensive technical training: Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), business intelligence and data warehousing, and dimensional database development, etc.

You can use webinars, user groups, and online vendor training to stay current on tools, techniques, and methodologies. You can learn new tools or stay updated using 30 day software trials, free software, and open source software.

* SAP Course CD251: Update your ABAP Development Skills to NetWeaver 7.0

* SAP Webinar – Service Registry in SOA Middlewear

* Designed and built custom reports using MicroStrategy 9 Reporting Suite.

* Experienced at Data Integration practices using open source technology.

You’re working as a freelancer on short-term projects. Project-based, online job postings offer lots of opportunities. You’ll be competing globally so you can’t expect to receive top dollar but you will achieve your goal to get the experience you need to stay in the technical loop. Voluntary internships remain an excellent avenue for IT professionals. With budgets stretched to the breaking point and equipment quickly aging, your skills would be a welcome sight for many deserving non-profit and small profit companies.

These accomplishments are shown the same way whether or not you’re paid.

INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR, NYC, NY 2008-present

* Implemented infrastructure projects to increase revenue diversity across new branded web sites.

* Saved $40K per year in business productivity cost by implementing Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plans for mission critical services and achieved uptime of 99.92%.

* Saved $18K in annual maintenance costs by replacing proposed network design with an innovative solution that provided greater functionality, lower costs, and improved scalability.

Networking Some statistics suggest that up to 80% of jobs are found through networking. This means being well- positioned with an excellent resume, attitude, and presentation skills. Although typically not a comfortable task for IT professionals, networking is a necessity. Summary My goal in writing this article was to help you feel positive about what you’ve done. Looking for a job is rarely fun, and it can be especially demoralizing in the current economy. Don’t allow the job-seeking experience to degrade your self-perception or your personal and professional relationships. Time spent appreciating yourself is time well-spent. My best wishes for a successful job search.

With more than 10,000 hedge funds on market holding $1.5 trillion in assets, if you don’t have any money in a hedge fund you may wondering if you missing out of the big game. The Yale University endowment is 25% invested in hedge funds seeking absolute returns.

But with the emergence of exchange-traded funds or ETFs, you have at your fingertips the ability build a global ETF hedge portfolio that is the envy of your friends – and you won’t have to give away 20% of your gains to a hedge fund manager.

What is a Hedge Fund?

Before we get into how to build your ETF hedge portfolio, let’s look at the history of hedge funds and how they have evolved. Hedging means to reduce risk while speculation is seeking more return by taking on more risk. A hedge fund is a private investment partnership that invests with goal of more return than risk for each dollar invested. The first hedge fund was started by a former Fortune magazine columnist Alfred Winslow Jones in 1949 and he also set the standard for fees which continues to this day: a fee equal to 2% of assets and a performance fee of 20% of gains.
There are an infinite variety of hedge funds but they can be broken down into two categories. Non-directional funds seek absolute returns by using a long/short approach and tend to generate steady but unspectacular returns. Directional funds allocate assets using only limited hedging. Both seek alpha – return over a benchmark from the investment process, skill of the fund manager or let’s face it, just plain luck.

Mediocre Hedge Performance

How are hedge funds doing? In 2005, according to CS Tremont index, average global macro fund returned 7.6% versus 10% for MSCI EAFE index – and in 2006, 13.5% compared to 18% for the MSCI World index. According to study by Henry Kat of the London Business School, only 17.7% of hedge funds provided investors with returns they could not have generated themselves. Why?
Most attempt to exploit anomalies within markets and asset classes rather than between markets and asset classes. Many hedge funds try to do too much and look at too many markets but still lack global diversification. The result? Hedge funds have become commodities competing for opportunities in the same markets.

ETF Advantages

You can build a diversified global ETF hedge portfolio by tactically allocating ETFs with the goal of exploiting anomalies between global markets rather than in markets. The tools are certainly there with over 400 ETFs now at your fingertips from 20 different country ETFs, U.S. sectors and sub-sectors, international sectors, global sectors, commodities, precious metals, currencies, regional, inverse ETFs, different asset classes and growth/value choices.

Investors now also have a choice regarding how companies are selected and weighted in the ETF baskets. Company weighting in the ETF basket is done on the basis of market value, revenue, fundamentals, technical factors, cash dividend record are just some of the choices.

Besides the variety, there are other reasons to go with ETFs such as tax efficiency, flexibility, transparency, and the increasing availability risk management tools such as inverse ETFs, put options, stop losses and the ability to sell short.

Despite these ETF advantages, you will still need a disciplined process with clear action triggers and risk management tools to lock in gains, minimize the impact of mistakes and a comfort level with periodic high cash levels.

Cash, Liquidity and Income Come First

You also have to think through how this portfolio fits into your overall investment plan. Put in place plenty of liquidity through cash or money market funds. You also need a strong comfort level regarding income to meet your current and long-term needs. A good advisor can run a model for you so that, even in the worst case scenario, you will be safe and secure. With this security plan in place, you can then look confidently and at more creative and higher potential for growth portfolios such as a global ETF hedge portfolio.

Set Global Asset Allocations

But what should be the investment process for selecting and removing ETFs from your global hedge portfolio? Here is how Chartwell approaches it.

Before jumping ahead to select a basket of ETFs, we first use a top down approach by allocating assets among different equity markets such as the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific and emerging markets as well as some foreign currencies.

Then we set a target allocation for fixed income and inverse ETFs which move opposite of markets and serve as a hedge or portfolio buffer for down markets. Next, we address real assets by making allocations for precious metals, real estate, timber, oil and other commodities.

The Yale Model

This is close to how large endowments are managed at universities across America. For example, below is the asset allocation for Yale University which was described in a recent New York Times article. Yale’s endowment has grown at an annual compound rate of 16% from $1.3 billion in 1986 to $14 billion in 2006.

Real Assets 7.8%

Hedge Funds 23.3%

Private Equity 16.4%

Foreign Equity 14.6%

Domestic Equity 11.6%

Fixed Income 3.8%

Cash 2.5%

At this stage in the cycle and accepting that most investors will have less access to hedge funds and private equity, my preference would be to allocate more to U.S. and foreign equities and to have a larger cash position than the Yale model.

A Process to Filling Your Allocations

The next step is to fill your allocations with appropriate ETFs. Here is the selection process we use that might serve as a model.

First, you need to look at the fundamentals of the top 5-10 companies in the ETF you are considering. These include the composite price to book, p/e ratio relative to other companies and countries. We call this the ETF XRAY.

Next, consider price momentum looking at 50 and 200 day moving averages. Then consider where top global managers are putting their cash to work and where in the world net cash inflows and country and sector allocations are increasing.

You also need to look at the big picture macro economic factors such as interest rates, currency, fiscal discipline and economic growth rates. The direction and pace of these
variables is more important than where they sit right now. Political developments and events such as elections and market economic reforms are also crucial.

Finally, consider technical factors such as point & figure charting as a final check as to timing and to determine where your support levels might be.

Putting in Place a Risk Management System

To manage risk and determine when to sell a position, use a clear and disciplined process.
Have a maximum 10% position in any one ETF with a 5% cap for emerging markets.
Sell an ETF position if it falls below 200 day moving average or if it falls 8% below its trailing high. Purchase put options on ETFs when available and appropriate. Use modest levels of inverse, sector, precious metal, currency ETFs to buffer your overall portfolio. Rebalance annually to take some gains off the table.

Finally, use the discipline of limiting your portfolio to no more than twenty ETFs. Fifteen ETFs is probably a pretty good number with five 10% positions and ten 5% positions. This avoids the problem of having too many positions in your portfolio since this dilutes the contribution of your best performing ETFs. Having a limit also forces you to sell an ETF before adding an ETF.

Case Study: Brazil

How does this whole process work? Here are two examples for the Brazil (EWZ) and Sweden (EWD) ETFs during 2006.

For Brazil in early 2006 the international fund flows were positive with global equity managers moving to overweight positions and nice net cash inflows. The macro fundamentals were also positive with 3% inflation, foreign exchange reserves $100 billion, $46 billion trade surplus and interest rates high but beginning to fall. The Brazilian companies in the ETF were trading at just over 10 times earnings and the technical chart was also promising. The re-election of President Lula and continued market reforms was anticipated with a fair amount of confidence. The Brazil ETF was up 45.4% in 2006

Case Study: Sweden

In the case of Sweden, the international fund flows were positive and the macro. Fundamentals impressive: strong fiscal discipline, inflation 2%, interest rates slowly rising leading to an appreciating currency. The top ten ETF holdings led by Ericsson (21%) showed nice balance split between capital, technology and banking. The relative valuation of these holdings was only 12 times earnings.

Technical factors were positive with EWD showing solid price momentum. Politically, in the upcoming election, the center-right coalition led by Mr. Reinfeldt based on platform of tax cuts and privatization appeared to have an excellent chance at victory. The Sweden iShare was up 25% during 2006 and is still going strong.

You can see that ETFs as a core investment tool give individual investors the opportunity to build first-class global portfolios that until recently were the purview of only the largest and most sophisticated institutional investors. For example, there is a team of 100 money managers that oversea the Yale University endowment and a sizable staff that oversees the investment process.

Getting Some Help

If you think you might need some help in putting together your ETF portfolio, I encourage you to go to [http://www.ETFarchitect.com] for Chartwell portfolio consulting options. Or you may just wish to have us manage your ETF portfolio and will find at this website some preliminary information on this option as well. Please don’t hesitate to call me directly at 719-264-1503 to discuss your personal situation.

The careful technical writer always uses parallel construction in paragraphs, lists, even sentences. For sentences that is just good grammar. So what is parallel construction?

Parallel Sentences

According to my oldest text book on technical writing, a sentence is parallel if its coordinate elements are expressed in the same grammatical form. By creating and sustaining a recognizable pattern for the reader, parallelism makes the sentence easier to follow.

The Global English Style Guide calls parallel structure ‘using syntactic cues,’ which is essentially saying the same thing as the previous paragraphs. However, by saying ‘syntactic cues,’ you can really see that the way something is written becomes part of the syntax, or pattern, of the document.

Here are some examples:

Nonparallel statements

• Our present system is costing us profits and reduces our productivity. (nonparallel verbs)
• The dignitaries watched the launch, and the crew was applauded. (nonparallel voice)
• The typist should follow the printed directions; do not change the originator’s work. (nonparallel mood)

Parallel statements

• Our present system is costing us profits and reducing our productivity.
• The dignitaries watched the launch and applauded the crew.
• The typist should follow the printed directions and not change the originator’s work.

That should give you some idea about parallel sentence structures. Now let’s look at parallel lists.

Parallel Lists

Parallel structure in lists means that the list has a standard pattern throughout. The following incorrect example is pretty egregious but, you get the point.

Incorrect

Windows offers several ways to open documents:

• You can open your document from within the program you used to create it.
• Use the My Recent Documents command on the Start menu to open a document that you have used recently.
• The Search command on the Start menu locates the document, and you can then open it.
• Double-clicking a document icon in My Computer opens a document.

Correct

Windows offers several ways to open documents:

• Open your document from within the program you used to create it.
• Use the My Recent Documents command on the Start menu to open a document that you have used recently.
• Use the Search command on the Start menu to locate the document and then open it.
• Double-click a document icon in My Computer.

Notice that in each correct example, the sentences are imperative. Believe it or not, despite how you feel when it is your mother talking, readers prefer the imperative.

Parallelism in Paragraphs, Topics, and Documents

The best way to make your reader feel comfortable is to establish a pattern for all of the information. All of the paragraphs in the same section should have the same voice and mood. All of the topics should follow the same pattern. All the documents should have the same structure. This eliminates the drama from the writing but, let’s face it, when you need information now, who needs drama?

For example, if your document has a chapter that starts with a heading, a brief introductory sentence, and a list of the information that is in the chapter. All chapters should have that structure. Otherwise, it is very obvious that you have multiple authors or a totally scatterbrained person writing your document. The bonus is that, once you establish a pattern, it is easier to write as well as read.

Additionally, once you have established a pattern, readers can pay attention to the information and not even notice the writing. Isn’t that the goal of real technical writers? If it isn’t, it certainly should be.

Why would an engineering major need a class in “speech” to graduate? Sue is asking just this question as she meets with her academic advisor.

Sue isn’t happy after learning about this added requirement. “It is going to cost me time and money – something I am almost out of since you keep increasing my class requirements and my tuition keeps going up,” she complains to her academic advisor.

“Is this speech class really necessary?”

Like Sue, many students are not happy about taking a speech class, especially if they in an “unrelated” field. Besides time and money, fear can be another factor. (Who among us can say they were not scared stiff to give their first public speech?)

Yet, with increased globalization and diversity, the need to learn as much as possible about communication and cross-cultural communication before taking a first job, and throughout one’s professional career, is becoming more and more apparent.

If Sue’s academic counselor is at all communication savvy, she will point out three immediate reasons why a speech class is required for all students: first, communication is critical for functioning in society. Second, oral tradition is a keystone to the democratic process, and third, globalization and expanding information technologies making our world smaller, putting us in contact more and more with people who communicate differently than the members of the dominant U.S. culture.

As these three reasons expand due to global economic change, there becomes even more need for people to be better communicators.

Communication skills are essential in today’s globalized society, so much that most junior colleges, colleges and universities – and even organizations and businesses – offer students and employees courses in effective communication. In one manufacturing company where I worked, the company set up and supported a Toastmaster’s Club to help us become better communicators.

Schools and organizations take such steps knowing that learning about communication helps students and employees think more critically, solve problems, increase personal credibility, adapt to change, develop self-confidence and communicate interculturally.

Without communication skills we are unable to share thoughts and feelings with each other; further we are unable to share our cultures. Communication is a core part of our daily lives. Arguments can be made that every hour we are awake involves communication. When not directly communicating with others, we are engaged in a host of intrapersonal communication activities such as sending e-mail, listening to music on iPods, reading magazine ads, or even deciding whether to go to work or class.

Acts of communicating vary from anything as seemingly unimportant as saying hello to a casual acquaintance to calling 911 to report an emergency.

Because communication is a social activity, it can be changed – people can increase and improve their communication skills. The requirement to do so has grown as the U.S. moves from a manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy. Diversity in the workforce and globalization require increased competence in communication with people from a variety of cultures.

Once Sue takes the “dreaded’ speech class, she will learn that speech is only one aspect of the entire communication process. A speaker is mostly engaged in communication whenever he or she consciously or unconsciously affects the behavior of others.

Upon entering the work force as an engineer, Sue will immediately recognize that people ask and answer questions every day, participate in conversations, exchange ideas in team meetings and deliver presentations – formally and informally.

Factors such as culture, credibility, motivation, listening skills, feedback will all come into play as these and related events occur. For instance, as a person speaks in a team meeting, the other team members send messages back to the speaker with their smiles, yawns, blank gazes, squirming in their chairs, twirling their pens, sending text messages from their cell phones – all conveying their individual nonverbal reactions to the speaker.

How Sue communicates on the job will depend on her understanding of the communication process. While the definition of communication takes many forms, most introductory speech students learn it is the process of one person sending a message that creates meaning in another person. The key word “process,” implies an interaction that consists of parts or components.

Most critical is the sender, the individual or group originating the message. In public speaking, the sender is someone who wants to communicate with others. To do so, the speaker prepares and transmits a message to receivers that contains information the sender wants others to understand; this can be verbal or nonverbal.

Messages are transmitted through a channel to the receiver. The channel can be direct or “mediated” through a cell phone, webinar on the Internet, radio, or other such means such as a video camera or photograph. The receiver is the intended recipient of the message and the one who interprets the message. It is the receiver who assigns meaning, and this may or may not be what the sender wanted to communicate if the first place.

Communication is often said to be receiver based. If Sue tells an audience that the webinar starts at 5 o’clock, most employees will think she means in the late afternoon, near the end of the work day.

But an employee, especially if they were physically isolated from the others, might interpret this to be an early morning Internet meeting. Receivers, after interpreting the message and assigning meaning, put together a response, or an action they take as a result of the meaning they’ve assign to the message – such as trying to log into an early morning webinar rather than doing so in the late afternoon.

Another part of the communication process is feedback or what allows the speaker to determine if the message is effective. A nod or smile may be something different from a frown. What does a “bobbing” head mean? Or lack of eye contact? These forms of feedback vary from culture to culture, as most speech and communication students are taught.

Communication takes place in both a physical and a social environment – the actual place where the communication takes place and the social environment, which is more abstract. People change their communication styles in response to both the physical and social environments.If Sue meets with her academic advisor for a beer at the local bar, their communication style is different than what occurs when they meet in her advisor’s campus office.

The final aspect of communication involves noise or the types of distractions that occur during a communication event. Physical noise takes many forms, such as loud talk outside of a classroom or the Internet cutting out during a webinar.

Intrinsic noise can also occur. This happens, for example, when a student is thinking about something other than the topic being presented by a classmate in a speech; perhaps the receiver knows her or she is “up next” to give a speech and this worry would be considered as noise. Being sleepy or hungry during a webinar contributes to intrinsic noise, or hearing a dog bark or a baby cry while composing an important e-mail message.

Intercultural communication is affected by a type of noise that produces conflict or misunderstanding. When people use a common language, and some of the participants involved must use a non-native language to participate, noise occurs.

Few have complete fluency in a second language and as a result, it is easy for an accent or misused word to make understanding more difficult. ‘This type of noise is described as semantic noise and includes jargon, slang, and even technical or professional terms’ (West and Turner, 2004).

When taken together, these eight parts of the communication process give an overview of what enables and influence communication, whether or not it is interpersonal or public speaking.

Sue listens to her academic advisor intently as she explains why taking a speech class is so important to this young engineer’s future – the message, in fact, is coming through loud and clear.

She gets it, Sue tells her advisor, and promises to sign up for the speech communication class pronto!