Running the gauntlet of influencer clout blackmail

Be glad for the professionalism

I got involved in a thread conversation on Twitter this morning because I felt there was a seething sense of entitlement bordering on blackmail that could not be overlooked. The poster had used the services of a skin specialist whose professionalism had eradicated hyperpigmentation from his face, and one would assume out of customer satisfaction, the poster recommended other people to the skin specialist.

It transpired that the skin specialist told the poster that through his recommendation, some 500 other clients had used his professional services. The skin specialist thanked the poster for the recommendation and that should have been enough.

This is just barefaced entitlement

However, the poster did a mental calculation on the 500 clients, imagined the total income from that clientele and came to the conclusion that the skin specialist’s gratitude could have been better expressed in a probably a free year of skincare services and so by inference labelled the skin specialist an ingrate for getting all that custom and providing no tangible reward.

Now, I cannot say how large the skin specialist’s business is, but one thing is certain, if the skin specialist had not achieved the results of fixing the poster’s face, everything else that resulted in referrals, increased clientele and additional income from the clients would not have happened. What professionals do is provide a service for which they get paid and if the customer decides to recommend them, that is a bonus.

Please respect the professional

What I take issue with is people who having obtained a good professional service for which time and resources have been meticulously devoted expecting to get a free service in reward for their recommendations. It is one thing to have agreed beforehand that you will bring custom to a business for some reward, and it is another to expect a reward from having benefitted from a service. If it is exclusively your decision to recommend a business, do not return to blackmail the business owner into giving you a free service.

In fact, professionals should always be treated as professionals with skills on the market to be monetarised, please respect the professional, and pay up. For example, would anyone having had a successful surgical procedure and then recommended the surgeon to others now expect the surgeon to provide free services for subsequent surgeries as an expression of gratitude? What makes a surgeon different from a skin specialist or a computer expert except for the tendency to denigrate and contemn one in relation to the other?

Paying forward is better

I have recommended businesses and services just as I have written reviews about services that have not been to a professional standard either to get them to change or to alert other customers about issues with the business. Where my reviews have redounded to the bottom line, I do not stand at the gate seeking compensation or reward, I pay fully for the service provided respecting what they do.

My principle is to pay forward rather than seek reward, what I can afford, I pay for, if the business wants to be generous, that generosity is better directed to those in need. I would not let acquisitive greed deprive others of opportunity and access. Like if the skin specialist offered a free session, I would probably suggest it be given to someone who needs it but cannot afford it.

It is blackmail, no less

This brings me to the issue of influencers; these are people who have a large following due to activity in their situation who have consequently promoted a business or service to their followers. Whilst I cannot essentially class fame or infamy as a profession, some do use their influencer clout to then attempt to blackmail businesses, services, or professionals into providing free products and services for exposure to their following.

For some businesses, there can be a beneficial end to that, but to put upon a professional and predicate that by your influence their business has survived and without you, they will be nothing is quite an aggrandisement and close to delusions of grandeur. It is the professional’s prerogative to express gratitude as they deem fit without having to be excoriated or abused for just expressing thanks instead of doling out freebies.

Ultimately, if you can’t pay for the service, go elsewhere. If you feel entitled to a free service, find a gullible professional ready to sacrifice their professionalism for your influencer schtick. Enough of the backhanded recommendations seeking reward, if anything, it is utterly reprehensible, and I have no qualms about calling it out.

Running the gauntlet of lazy recruitment agents

Anything but able

I want to believe that my LinkedIn profile is good enough and I would be the first to say any profile can be improved upon, but there is no perfect profile, we are just trying to project our best selves.

However, I get barraged with lots of emails from recruitment and talent acquisition specialists, though I am left wondering what the specialism is, as it is becoming obvious to me that they neither read nor assess my profile before proposing totally unsuitable roles that do not fit my experience, expertise, location, or remuneration requirements.

It would seem their professional acumen is vying for a world record in some sort of whack-a-mole exercise of flooding prospects in the hope that one or a few might be hit hard enough to be responsive.

Interest me, engage me

Too many times, I am asked to forward my CV on scant job information, they, thinking I would be interested when they have neither interested nor engaged me.

If you are contacting me, I would hope you have first read my profile and the embedded CV, your specialism coming to the fore by treating me as a professional, through reviewing my experience, roles, responsibilities, and broader profile, rather than as a mercenary for hire.

Then, interest me with a useful job profile along with the associated remuneration range - cut to the chase with the view that we do not want to waste each other's time.

If I am interested, you will get a response and we can have a discussion about the role and the prospects. Recruiters need to get better, the slap-dash approach is becoming an annoyance, hence this post.

Richard Quest does not need your permission to be happy

A marriage is a marriage

I did not read of this development until I saw the Facebook posting on a “Friend’s” page that castigated and excoriated it, the comments that followed maintained the same theme. Yes, Richard Quest of CNN had tied the knot in a same-sex marriage ceremony with his long-time partner.

Apart from the Instagram message Richard posted, I do not think it made the news anywhere else except in a sensationalist stance on African newswires in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. What is surprising is how little people know about Richard Quest, not that it matters, but he is a gay man, he has spoken about his sexuality a few times, and he has made no secret of his, as it were, proclivities. [Instagram: Questinny]

That is a wrong choice of word, proclivities, but it is a sop to the ne’er-do-wells who cannot countenance the idea of difference in the lives of others. For whilst many may not understand sexualities different from heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality has always been in humanity since long before history was recordable.

It never hindered him

However, this is not the space to argue that, despite and in spite of his sexuality Richard Quest has a high global profile as a news anchor and presenter, his quirks and expression is uniquely individual, entertaining and enlightening, what is not to like about Richard Quest as a professional?

In the aid of full disclosure, I am also a gay man, I have always been a gay man, I did not change from one thing to another and never have I had any interest in the opposite sex, that is just my nature and I make no apology for it. I am engaged to be married to my partner Brian, and once the cloud of this pandemic is lifted, that will be done.

As if you matter

Back to the issue itself, Richard Quest does not need the permission of anyone to be happy, he finds his happiness and fulfilment in the companion he has chosen to spend his life with, who just happens to be male, as much as the person could have been female. It is neither here nor there.

Richard Quest has lived a rich eventful and highly achieving life that he would be proud of and many would aspire to and I celebrate him for having found the kind of exemplary balance in life as in his profession and gone ahead with living his full life.

His gain, your loss

If out of this, some now decide they will no more entertain the views of Richard Quest as he enters our homes on CNN screens globally, that would be your loss because there is no one else that does what he does in such an engaging and interesting way that has brought his global following. What we must agree to disagree on is this, his sexuality is more your problem than it is his.

I wish Richard Quest and Chris Pepesterny a very happy married life, may they grow old together and be beacons of light and hope to many who find it still too difficult to live their best lives. It reminds me of William Haines who forsook a burgeoning acting career in Hollywood in the 1920s for his gay relationship that Joan Crawford was reputed to say, they were “the happiest married couple in Hollywood.”

Now, if you cannot be happy for a happy event in another life because of your prejudices, that, my friend, is entirely your problem, your burden, your whatever it is, but definitely, it is not good.

Blog - Opinion: When William Haines decided against a sham marriage

Constantly learning to improve oneself

Experience under review

When I tell people in my professional circle that I have been working with Microsoft System Management Server (SMS) since 1996 with version 1.1, it is neither to intimidate nor to show off, but I hope it comes with a sense of authority that I have an idea of what I am talking about. This knowledge has defined the majority of my professional career.

Experience is a good thing and the SMS we knew then has gone through many name changes and version iterations, features added on, deprecated, evolving and maybe even transmogrifying into a monster of client, user, device, application, and data management proportions.

It became System Center Configuration Manager which we termed SCCM that the professionals called ConfigMgr, then last year, the name changed to Endpoint Configuration Manager, but we have the acronym MEMCM to play with. No questions to that apart from the fact that our Microsoft development and support backchannels prefer it that way and on Twitter, that is the hashtag they will respond too. [Wikipedia: Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager]

Exchanging ideas for improvement

We have a large and active community of administrators and architects who not only share ideas, solutions, and tips, we are also the best innovation resource for getting features implemented in the product, some of which I have contributed to going back over 15 years.

That I know how the product works does not mean I am the apostle of product functionality or technology, I am constantly looking for new ideas and perspectives, scenarios others have encountered that they have applied novel solutions to and shared with our community.

I have a test lab at home running on an extensive setup of virtual machines on which I try out ideas and gain conversance with the new features. Nothing works as good as having an issue at work and me logging on to my home network to check things out either to affirm or dispute issues.

Going back to the roots

Yet, more pertinently is the need for someone with my experience to find time to go back over the fundamentals, the first principles, or the essentials. It is important to never assume that the primers or introductions cannot contain new and useful information to help reinforce or finally, debunk a premise that was getting the prominence of gospel truth until the times and changes obviated that assertion.

For my weekend reading, I found a 346-page manual of how to setup MEMCM from scratch, I know a lot of it, and I and still learn much more, I am open to new knowledge that would give my expertise more heft. The job of learning never ends and like I sometimes say, that is a good thing.

Brooding conception - incubating a new blog

Writing to help

Many years ago, I took up writing but mainly to help people solve problems with Microsoft Systems Management Server and advise people on studying and preparing for the Microsoft MSCE vendor certification.

I found the experience quite interesting during the year of 1999.

Apart from that, I have been involved in some in-house technical writing, guides and processes such that I find that my thoughts and ideas are all over the place but not accessible from a repository that archives and develops those things for more general consumption.

Recently, I found that I do have a body of knowledge that is getting improved upon through my Masters programme, which involves a lot of writing too, amongst other experiences.

My approach to the discussion questions has involved technical and business perspectives such that I would not laud technical advancements that businesses and CIOs are not getting excited about.

Solutions not fancy toys

We as technical people have to recognise that businesses do not require toys but solutions that streamline business practice, improve efficiency, offer competitive advantage, cost very little and offer great benefits.

That is what my technical affirmation is all about that sometimes my technical colleagues think I have gone native when I do not ham on the feature but the politics that loosen the purse strings.

To that end, I would be launching a new blog that offers content radically different from the fare you get from here.

It would revolve mainly around my professional ideas and views, encouraging debate on support, administration, mentoring, certification and the architect’s dilemma.

Breaking it down

Borrowing from methodologies and frameworks about service, management and administration, I hope to break them down into bite-size commonsense views that would help people do better and realise how technique and process are one and the same for remaining relevant to your organisation and any career path you choose.

Incubating a new blog

Now that I have decided to start up a new blog I am caught on the horns of a dilemma about getting a good name and using a good blog provider to host my material.

Blog-City does a fantastic job, I am a premium subscriber for this blog till 2010, however, I have not convinced of the service being adequate for a more professional outing.

I suppose it is down to how I run it than how it is hosted except for ensuring that features abound and are kept up to date, more bandwidth is definitely required and more file space too.

That search would continue through another week of research.

Meanwhile …

A piece of vintage Akin found on the web begins to indicate where we might be going soon. I wrote this just under 6 years ago and it still finds true today.

However, some of the links which were alive years ago, might now be dead – Alas!

It was strange when a colleague dug up a few of my write-ups in the then Dejanews now Google Groups which some jobs-worthy security guy thought was a porn site until I gave a spirited fight to show how it is more useful for helping us solve problems than for seeking temporary relief. Sometimes!

The write up was in response to comment about self-studying for the MCSE and seeking help towards the effort.

Here goes …

It is high time people realised that career development is a personal thing, not something offered on a plate as a work of kindness.

If you are in permanent employment, you career progressions is subject to the whims and caprices of the organisations you work for, if contracting, you have to take time off from earning money either to study, attend courses or take tests.

I think it is a valid point that your organisation wants to send your staff on practical "In wild training" rather than fill them with exam theory, which has no lien with real life. They should be glad for that option.

As for getting the MCSE, they should for the want of another phrase, 'get off their arses' get the syllabuses off the Microsoft sites, surf the Net and get information from :-

www.microsoft.com/train_cert
www.cramsession.com

You do them a disservice if you are assuming they do not have the aptitude to study, read up, set aside some time to practice, and at £75 a go, pay for the tests to complete the MCSE in a reasonable 6 to 9 months. Even if it is an exam a month. They obviously cannot completely lack initiative to chart their own career progress.

This thing is no rocket science.

I did my CNE over 5 years ago, after working with the products for a while, did not have the luxury for any training or any of the resources we now have on the Net - got books worth a quarter of my monthly salary, and scrounged and scrimped to get it all done in 3 weeks. As for my MCSE, that was bliss.

Why? (Regarding my CNE)

Determination,
The need to progress
The realisation that I am not brain-dead
My employer could not eventually hold me to ransom, I paid my way.

Why? (Regarding my MCSE)

Getting bored with the mundane
Needed a challenge, which was over in 3 weeks :)
Validate my knowledge (personally), not for employment purposes - been working with NT for over 4 years

As for CBTs

Try the CBTs from CBT Systems now Smartforce, they can be customised for your requirements.

www.cbtsys.com

Regards,

Akin Akintayo CNE MCSE

The Matron has spoken

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Shut them down

Sometimes headlines in Nigerian newspapers are so sensational that they excite the kind of curiosity that kills the cat.

So when I saw the headline from a blog indicating “We will shut down IT firms, says CPN President” I knew I was in for an interesting read – clear the decks!

The CPN which is an abridged acronym for Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria was established by decree in 1993 to manage computer professionalism in Nigeria.

It lists amongst a number of Information Technology organisations of in Nigeria which include the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) – much I want to resist – the link given by Jidaw Systems Limited for information regarding that site apparently uses htpp rather than the globally accepted http protocol. I would return to this point later in my write up.

However, Jidaw is one of the first training organisations to be accredited by CPN; their homepage speaks volumes like a page out of the almost comical Web Pages That Suck which teaches good webpage design by analysing rotten webpages. Then the title of the About page goes, “In the beginning of Web Nigeria was JIdaw”. We begin to get the context of what this is all about. In the beginning I was going to easy on this topic.

I decree that …

It appears the CPN does not have a website so it would have to be contacted by snail-mail.

In general, the objectives and purpose of the decree are laudable to prevent unprofessional conduct and practices in the despatch of IT services in Nigeria.

However, on closer scrutiny one begins to wonder if this was written for the first half of the Twentieth Century.

For instance, this is the preamble introducing the purpose of the decree.

The Computer Professional (Registration Council of Nigeria) was established by a decree of the same name, promulgated as Decree No 49, 1993, with the objective to advance the knowledge of Computer Science and the use of computational machinery and techniques related thereto.

Computational machinery? Halfway down the second page of a Google search for computational machinery, I struck gold, something to do with Nuclear Shielding – everywhere else, it is Computing Machinery – but then, this all might be home-grown sufficiency for Nigerian computing – forgive my histrionics.

The council does have the remit to accredit institutions, approve courses, supervise instruction, conduct examinations, award certificates, maintain a secretariat of sorts – for the library, I would suppose – encourage research, register associates and set behavioural standards – supposed ethical, professional and responsible conduct.

A world without dabblers

The decree then makes it illegal for anyone to practice any computing trade if not a member of CPN.

To that, I could probably say we would have no Microsoft, Apple, productivity or games software because most of these were developed by people outside formal professional settings. Edsger Dijkstra whose contributions to software engineering helps define many of the ideas from which many software methodologies have evolved studied physics.

Whilst the decree might seem to encourage research, it could also in event be stifling creativity, especially, that which requires ‘thinking outside the box’.

This provides the background for the interview that was conducted with the president of CPN where an excerpt is gathered into the headline “We will shut down IT firms”.

A body of egg-spurts

So the interview commences with a question that asks about the statutory responsibilities of CPN.

Part of the answer goes thus

we are also supposed to at the same time protect the IT professionals by not bringing anybody from aboard to come and take up the IT job when we have professionals in the country who can do the same thing or even better

Exactly, create an insular body of professionals – however, the positive side to this would mean that Nigerian professionals working for global organisations would have to be shipped out to participate in design or be trained up to be in sync with global IT strategy. The “even better” part – I have not yet been convinced, but I am encouraged by many other things I have seen going on in Nigeria.

Funding – the first law of initiation

The second question builds on the first in terms of the remit of the council.

The response includes a lament about funding – I cannot believe that a professional organisation that has a register to practice code cannot price its registration regime to allow capable autonomy.

One would think just the registration fees of corporate organisations according to size, activity and clout would have cleared up that matter. It is a shame that the decree provides for the setting up of the council but fails to address the essential part of sustainable funding.

Practitioners of IT would generally be professionals, however, the analogy linking IT professionalism to that conferred on engineers or doctors misses the point. Many of these professions have been established for centuries; the crux ofSoftware Engineering leading to Computer Science and all other related fields only began life in the late 1950s.

There are arguments that contest labelling software development engineering; however, software development is adopting traditional engineering methods in terms of structure, planning, design, implementation and maintenance.

The law is an ass

It is then logical to have an organisation that registers professionals, but how do you cater for the draughtsman or nurse in the engineer or doctor analogy. Basically, where do interns, trainees and under-qualified computer literate but un-lettered stand?

We follow on to another answer

If they are going to run/offer computer services, they must register with CPN

Fair cop that is the law in Nigeria, as she saws ignorance of the law is no excuse; CPN is out to enlighten everyone of that requirement.

We want to know your level of proficiency so that you will not deceive the public because we are also here to protect the Nigeria public.

This is bordering on the naïve; this indicates implicitly that CPN registration confers the assurance of professionalism that any job undertaken by a registrant would meet CPN standards. Surely, there is a waiver somewhere.

You only have to search of software failures to list the big software projects that have cost the world and failed to deliver; implemented by the biggest names in global software. There are not guarantees or assurances that registration confers ability and credibility to deliver required solutions.

Market forces, reputation and independent comparative reviews with the framework the Internet goes a long way in helping customers choose reliable professional services. Registration might help you get noticed, but it would not necessarily create business.

Only in Nigeria

Is this CPN registration mode in line with international standards?

I will cite an example with the internet. You know the internet is owned by nobody, can go there and use it in whatever way you want but people are now beginning to come up and say there must be some form of regulation. Anything that is not regulated is not good for the society.

First of all, there are many international professional organisations catering for all sorts of fields of Information Technology, but I know of no Western country where you have to be registered with some registration QUANGO to declare yourself a computer professional. However, any professional in Switzerland has to have a first degree as a minimum.

Your services organisation might be certified by particular vendors to provide a service; they might be accredited to a particular standard in terms of methodologies used, just as individuals can both be certified and accredited, however, none are legally binding pre-requisites.

Losing our liberties carelessly

The president of the computer professionals association in the most populous Africa state believes that an unregulated Internet is not good for society.

I cannot begin to think of what she would want to regulate before it all becomes as closed up at the Internet in China.

Civil liberties encroached upon with reckless abandon as ISPs are asked to submit for audit all activity of their customers and probably their private and confidential information, enforced under the code of national security.

All my career life, in every security implementation in the light of confidentiality and protection of privacy, I have always erred on the side of civil liberties and the freedom of expression.

There is a mentality that feeds into the mindset of the elite that allows for many to succumb to a pseudo-police state and still believe their liberty is intact.

Benjamin Franklin has this to say to all concerned, “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”.

In the light of the abuses we see in government and society, this is not the time to allow those abuses to pervade access to the Internet as the seemingly last bastion of liberty, safety and freedom. Never should such advocacy be heard, even not so from a computer professional.

However, it probably is the typical headmaster/mistress complex which is demonstrated in the urge and propensity to control.

As stated in the next answer.

If as a professional you do a shoddy job for a company, the consumer has a right to come and report to us and then we will discipline the professional. So, we are there to protect the public.

Well what exactly is a shoddy job?

• A failed project in terms of cost, time, or resource overruns?
• Requirements and functional specification not aligned with deliverables?
• Scope creep?
• Customer expectations deviating from finished product after the fact?

I would like to see how objective arbitration would be brought to bear in deciding liability, fault and compensation.

When it comes to issues of professional competence be it a court marshal or some hearing to medical negligence and legal incompetence managing burden of proof with respect to apportioning blame is both a delicate and complicated activity.

I would suppose the CPN would first have an arbitration committee before it goes to a disciplinary committee.

Is that operational now?

Well, I am afraid not yet.

It is all hypothetical for now

Thankfully and gladly, it is more or less all hypothetical. For now, this only affects those who intend to contract with the government and it appears they have not brought into the requirements for the decree.

I am only halfway through the interview, there are a lot more issues to address and comment on in another instalment.

I have taken time to write on this because an organisation which essentially should promote the recognition of Nigerian IT expertise is set up like a bureaucratic non-governmental organisation with the remit to act as headmaster rather that enthusing mentor.

It is scary that the ideas of the head of the organisation are far from liberal in terms of IT development but represent a foreboding that would allow the possible abuse and misuse of power to take “progressive or dissident” organisations out of business.

Whilst there is a desire to develop home-grown talent and utilise the same in major software development in Nigeria, we cannot veer off on some exploratory self-sufficiency that would make us incompatible with other global advancements.

The most unfortunate state of affairs

I will for now leap to the last question.

Many people do not know what CPN is really about; they keep asking us. What are you doing about this?

Actually today I have made up my mind that after you leave I will answer all of the enquiries that I have too. I have the electronic copy of CTN decree and I will mail it to all of them so that they can go and read.

That must be a joke, if I ever heard one. The organisation that is to register IP professionals in Nigeria does not have a website. Besides that, the president is finally decided to handle her Inbox – she is going to be a very busy lady.