SharePoint: What’s in it for me?
From Mark Miller: A few times a week I receive emails requesting help on choosing a direction or finding work in SharePoint. This one came in this morning and I like the story that it was built around. If you had to help this person, what recommendations would you make based up the person’s background? Any and all suggestions welcomed.
I really love your website – this has been the heart of my hunger to improve my sharepoint skills, and having attended a few of your webinars as well, I’ve really found a niche in pursuing a career in sharepoint. It is just very satisfying tool to use!
I am what many would class an advanced power user (primarily in WSS 3.0 and using Sharepoint Designer, and not technically a sharepoint developer, nor full-blown administrator (with MS certification etc).
My current employer (although large) does not seem interested in investing in sharepoint implementations and improvements – much of this has simply been dished out of the box and left users to fend for themselves.
I have therefore also as result of non-investment internally, been moved off sharepoint projects and this has been really hard to swallow (given that I have enjoyed it so much). I’ve already been working in and around project mgt and project office roles for some 16 years (so not getting any younger!)
I am not from VB .net nor C# however not afraid to re-use code – and am quite familiar with html/javascript and using jquery. I would also be quite keen on using AJAX as well as I think it’s looking quite ‘hot’ to bring more intranet/internet sites ‘alive’.
My main skill is basically exploiting an application to the full with minimal coding customisations! At the route of all my work, I also like to illustrate best practice – deliver the best implementation. I’d also really like to get familiar with sharepoint 2010 as well as many job adverts are starting to refer to this.
I’m also considering creating my own website to illustrate the portfolio of work that I’ve achieved to date, but need advise on whether it’s best paying for 3rd party to host the sharepoint environment (I don’t know how much this might be?) or whether it’s best to set up my own personal virtual server environment on my own pc.
My question to you is – if I really want a sharepoint career, then what would you advise as ideal training certifications to ensure I’m more marketable to get sharepoint related jobs in the future?
So what do you say, SharePoint Community? Is there enough information here for you to help point this person in the right direction?
I am in the same boat with this person. I got TONs of enterprise document content and output solutions experiences and am looking for a way to get my foot inside the door and begin to do sharepoint work. If I could just get my resume in front of the right hiring manager who can see what I’ve done and know it applies to workflow. Then they may consider me for a role in their ECM environments. I just feel it and have been told so by other sharepoint independent consultants. North Texas unemployed and desparate seeking Susan or another ECM open minded individual willing to take a chance on a guy with 20 years in the business. HELP!
Jim,
I’m not the hiring manager, but if Austin is an option for you, apply here: Webmaster/Sharepoint Developer for Austin Radiological Association.
Blessings,
Jim Bob
The first thing he should do is MS Certification for MOSS.
Seeing as you have development tendancies, maybe you should do the SharePoint Application Development exams. These are the available 2010 exams, do a search for the details on the Microsoft eLearning site :
70-667: TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Configuring
70-668: PRO: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Administrator
70-573: TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development
70-576: PRO: Designing and Developing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Applications
While it is a good idea to do 2010, also remember that many big enterprise clients are still on 2007 and are traditionally not bleeding edge technology users, so will be on 2007 for a couple years still at least. There is plenty of business out there either way.
I was looking for a developer recently, and I must be honest, the ones who had a website with work I could see straight away where the only ones I even considered. Having a website is crucial for any business. The quicker you can showcase your skills to the world, the easier it will be to get hired. If you can’t put the actual applications online, then just put screen dumps up with good explanations, that’s also fine. Having your work on your virtual PC is very important so you can demo to people on demand and on very short notice. Make sure you do a back-up of all your work! Even though you’re working for a company, there is no reason you can’t have your own website. Keep it clean, simple and easy to use and you’ll have a winner.
Paying for SharePoint yourself is not cheap. As a one man business you definitely want to look at a hosted environment. There are plenty of companies offering this, as well as Microsoft themselves, Microsoft Online.
As for being moved off the SharePoint project – there are many ways to skin this cat. You’re in the Project Management space, “you can’t possibly run your project without your own team site” so ask for one and ask to be a Site Owner. Then you can carry on with SharePoint to your heart’s content. It’s very very important to understand the front-end inside out. Seeing as users have been left to fend for themselves, you will most likely get the same treatment. This is actually an unbelievable opportunity for you. You are in the best place to get exactly what you need – lots of real world experience. No exam in the world is going to help you in the SharePoint space without real world experience.
Yes you want to do the cool development stuff, but until you get that opportunity, take the time to learn the front-end and end user challenges inside out. THIS is the edge that is going to make all the difference in the long term, that will make you stand out from other developers. You were an end user, you were blocked by business, you understand the problems in the trenches where people have to use SharePoint. You’re in such a great place if you just look at it differently and harness that opportunity.
You mentioned you exploiting the package with minimal customisation – brilliant! Many companies don’t allow development or 3rd party tools on their platforms – you can offer great out of box solutions as well, on top of your dev skills. That also makes you more marketable than most developers. Take the reigns – go to all these users that have been left to fend for themselves and teach them the basics. They will throw questions at you that will teach you about the challenges end users have, so when you become a full blown developer, you can build with these challenges in mind and have great solutions. And even though you aren’t on officially on the SharePoint project, business users will see you as the company expert and come to you anyway. Take the initiative. Do it in your spare time if you have to.
Definitely start writing a blog. And join SharePoint Experts on LinkedIn and start replying to posts. You want internet presence so when potential hirers Google you in future, they will have something to read.
Networking is invaluable. Traditional recruitment is nowhere near as effective as networking. Attend every user group, event and conference you can, talk to people and more importantly, stay in touch. I will stake my life on it this is where you will get your next job.
Don’t give up, do the slog work, there’s lots of it and most people give up because of it. Gain that real world experience. Do the research. Learn in your own time. Get certified. The opportunity at other companies will come knocking soon enough and when it does, you’ll be ready. I speak from experience!
Good luck – you lucky fish! ;-)
(Jim, hope this helps you too).
Very sound advice. Without nitpicking through it the main themes here are good.
Great advice!
Here is a bit of a challenge: post your real-world solutions right here on EUSP. You can’t hope for more exposure, plus you help the rest of us with great ideas. Any potential employer worth their Sharepoint license would recognize the contributions, and the rest of us would learn to recognize you. It might even make your current employer acknowledge your talents and start to utilize you in better ways.
I agree with Veronique, just because you are taken off Sharepoint projects, doesn’t mean you can’t still use Sharepoint. In fact, it can be just the catalyst you were looking for in exposure across departments. Find that one person out there who can see what a value Sharepoint adds to your organization. Someone eventually will get it – but you just might be a famous EUSP contributor before that happens!
I’m probably going to alienate/annoy some with the following statement but it’s something I firmly believe.
Until you have at least a couple of years of experience forget the certification tests. At this point passing one just means that you can study and pass a test. As a former IT Manager I am of the opinion that certifications without the experience to back them up are useless.
I’ll use myself as an example. I have no SharePoint certifications (I do have my MCSE – Security, Security +, Net +, A+, CTT+ though). However, even without those certifications I find that very few weeks go by where I don’t get a phone call or email asking if I am looking for a new position. Part of that is the job market here (not many good SharePoint Architects/Administrators) and I think the other part is my reputation in the community where I reside.
Now on to what I think you should do.
1. As Veronique said get an account on LinkedIn and join the SharePoint groups. There are several, some better than others and all are filled with knowledgeable people as well as people that will do their best to sell you something (probably the one thing about LinkedIn I really don’t like). I can tell you from experience that it is a resource that can generate job leads for you, that’s how I landed my current position.
If you’d like join and send me a network invitation and I’ll be happy to add you to my network. I think you should be able to see the groups I am a member of then,
2. Find a local SharePoint Users group and start attending meetings. This will give you some connections in your local community and the opportunity to build a network of fellow SharePoint people that you can leverage for advice, knowledge and maybe even jobs.
3. SharePoint Saturdays – if there is one within driving distance attend it. Again this is a great opportunity to not only learn but make connections that can be useful down the road. Not to mention the fact that it is “training” so any costs associated with attending could be written off as tax deductible.
4. If you have the personal resources to do so get yourself a laptop and a Technet Plus subscription. If you don’t have a laptop and have to buy one make sure that it will support up to 8GB or memory (you don’t need that much to start but do get at least 4GB) and a processor that supports virtualization technology so you can run a 64 bit guest OS in VMWare, VirtualBox or Hyper-V. The Technet Plus subscription will give you access to all the software you need to build your own SharePoint environment for the low, low price of around $250.
If you do have a laptop and it does not have at least 4GB of memory see if you can upgrade it. (4GB is the minimum to run MOSS, to run SP2010 you’ll need at least 8GB of memory).
5. In your “spare” time use VirtualPC, VMWare or VirtualBox to build yourself your own SharePoint environment. Start with MOSS 2007 and go from there. Learn every bit of the Central Administration UI inside and out, learn what the different components of the application are, what they do and how they function. Play with it. Architect a SharePoint farm for a fictional company and build out the sites and learn how they interact. Skin the site using CSS, show what you have learned as part of making SharePoint work for you with no 3rd party tools or applications and how you can “bend SharePoint to your will”. Play with back up and restoring your farm etc… Doing this will do 2 things; first you’ll learn everything you need to know to pass the certifications tests when you get to that point, second you’ll have an example of what you can do to take into an interview and show a prospective employer.
The biggest compliment I’ve gotten in 7 years of working with SharePoint came last spring from Ben Curry. The company I worked for at the time brought Ben in to do what Mindsharp calls a “Teaching Session”. Basically 3 days for me to pick Bens brain about the architecture I was building. At one point he made a comment about how well I knew my way around the Central Admin UI and that it was a lot better than a lot of people he had seen. It doesn’t sound like much but it meant a great deal to me.
6. Blog ……….Veronique makes a good point on this one as well. Start documenting what you have done and how you accomplished it. Don’t get wrapped up in whether or not anyone else reads what you’re writing. It’s a resource for you and also shows a prospective employer that you’re serious about what you’re doing and are willing to put as much effort into the job as necessary.
There are a lot of free ones out there or you could always buy your own domain and have someone host it for you. I started with a free one and eventually decided that if I bought my own domain I would post more, hence the beginning of SharePointMechanic.com.
I would also suggest getting an application like FeedDemon or similar and start following some of the SharePoint blogs out there that relate to what you’re doing.
I hope this all helps you (or anyone else that reads it) some. I know it’s a lot to digest but if you take small bites eventually you’ll have digested the entire thing and can start to make your plan. One last thing I’ll mention and I think you have this already so it’s more for anyone else that reads this and finds themselves in the same situation as yourself…………..don’t ever be afraid to ask a question. I taught the hardware part of the CompTia A+ class for 5 years at a local college and I used to tell my students the first day that the only stupid question is the one that goes unasked.
Best of luck,
- Jay
Thanks to everyone Appreciate all the insider tips and tricks. Jay what is your Linkedin user id so I can connect to your Network.
Jim,
If you do a search for Jay Simcox you should be able to find me.
- Jay
I think this was a great post and appreciate the time the author to took made well thought out suggestions.
I forgot, skip the laptop. I think Jay’s suggested has merit for when you are ready to do demos, but until then your money is well spent elswhere. In fact, I just built myself a quad core rocketship which I can leave at home and put out on the web with my domain name. The Technet suggestions is spot on.
Thanks for the great and well-thought-out advice and insights!
Regarding setting up and paying for your own SharePoint site (and Jay’s #4 point):
A TechNet subscription (isn’t it $350?) is really the ticket. You get non-expiring evaluation/test licences to everything you need to setup a complete farm. Too often your employers will hold back some access rights from you, and you really learn a lot more from setting it up and operating it yourself. Nothing like a few event log errors keeping you awake at 2am :)
Also, just on a minor technical tangent: people keep saying you need 8Gb to run SPS2010, but that’s for a corporate farm, the same way all MS’ topology estimates are done. I think the topology articles for MOSS planning start at 500 users. I run ESXi + 4VMs (DC, SQL2008 R2, MOSS2007, SPS2010) all on a quad-core desktop with 8Gb. The SPS2010 VM has 2 cores and 2Gb allotted, and it runs perfectly fine (of course I’m a 1 user farm, not counting test accounts for the 2 cats).
So for the price of a good desktop + a technet subscription you can dive head first into SharePoint. If you’re lucky and still have your old university email you can even get a full license of Visual Studio 2010 pro + Expression Studio 3 from the Webspark site :)
Looking at the website it does say $349 but I believe that’s if you get the DVD’s. I bought TechNet Plus Direct (Online) and actually paid $251. Not sure but they may have raised the price since I purchased my subscription (although that was only a couple of months ago).
4 GB is more than enough for a sandbox system. I use that amount for VMs I build daily for practice work here at Microsoft. I work in the Micriosoft SharePoint Dogfood team.
I just took a quick peak over at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx. The standard non-dvd subscription is $350. If you google TechNet coupons, you can find some codes that will bring it down to $260, making it much more affordable.
Hi all,
Thanks for all the fantastic advise! I have also worked in the document management world for the last 15 years, and am looking at getting fully immersed in the SharePoint world. All the advise I have read here has been really great.
I’ve been quite involved with a SharePoint (2007) implemetation that allows our users to work with regulated documents (stored in Documentum docbases) through a SharePoint Portal, as well as perform enterprise searches of both SharePoint repositories, and Documentum repositories.
I started from scratch, and have learnt things through experience, and reading. After about two years I sat, and passed, the MS exams for SharePoint, but wanted to take it to another level.
I’ve been following several blogs and connecting to SharePoint related groups on LinkedIn, but haven’t got any further than that.
Really appreciate all the great advise.
Thanks
Mark J Owen
Great question and great topic. I’m so glad it was posted.
Veronique, Xene, Jay, Louis – Thanks for taking the time to provide these well-considered responses. Your posts are more than advice – they are personal testimonies of how you found success in the sharepoint community and that is invaluable. I hope that the posts keep coming. I’m drinking it all in and I bet this topic is getting a lot of reads.
As a SharePoint guy (since it was a beta product) in the New England area, i get asked the same question posted by both new people and recruiters that hunt in LinkedIn.com.
Along with everyone’s great advice above, especially about connecting through LinkedIn and going to EndUserSharePoint.com, is to learn the product by tinkering with a free VM (Microsoft has trial images available). That is how most everyone learns is by breaking/fixing instances or just tweaking to understand why it does certain things and how to bypass them for ehancements.
Another great resource is SharePointOverflow.com for asking and answering questions on SharePoint. Definitely stick with it as we need more resources out there and just keep learning as that opportunity will come up for you to apply for.
Project Management + Out-of-the-box / SharePoint Designer solution expertise? You sound like you’d make a great business analyst / functional person! Simply put, a functional person is someone who can talk to a business user, gather success criteria and business requirements, and then build a SharePoint solution that solves a business problem. It requires both business expertise and SharePoint technical knowledge, which is a difficult combination to find.
The issue is, in my (and others people’s) humble opinions this is an underrepresented area in the SharePoint role puzzle. This is my area of focus and for a long time I struggled with describing my expertise to potential employers since I do not fit nicely into a IT Pro / Developer box. I actually ended up starting my own SharePoint consulting firm because it was easier than modifying an existing structure and have had no trouble finding work.
Will your employer allow you to take consulting projects on the side for non-competing businesses (i.e. “moonlight”)? If so, you might consider starting a freelancing business to see if SharePoint consulting might be your thing. Bonus: you can expense that TechNet subscription. Freelancing is not for everyone of course, but trying a project or two could be a good way to dip your toes in the water. Of course, all of the prior suggestions on this thread will be necessary for getting your name out there and providing examples for your work.
Good luck!