How to present your Working package

Dear guys,
As I wrote in my former post, I attended two European meetings last weeks.
One of them gave me a preliminary idea on how to present your working package. Firstly, a kick off meeting is hold, mainly, because the partners need to present their working packages and duties. For the ones not aware of the structure of an European project, they are split into working package (WP).
Each WP represents a "work unit" that encompasses some tasks. The WP is presented by its leader. I prepared the slides for the working package in which was involved my university (but I didn't present it). After the meeting realized that I was neglect on some points. What I learnt and I wish to share with you is:

• Kick off meeting is not only a presentation of your institution and the working package you're charged of.
• Avoid presenting your working packages as a standalone piece, it has interactions with other WPs, find and highlight them.
• Show the potential weak and toughest points, your partners and you might agree on a common strategy to sort them out.
• Propose and discuss solutions, if you already have any in your mind.

I hope this helps, let me know if you have other suggestions.

European meetings

Dear guys,

Last weeks I attended two weeks.The first meeting was two weeks ago in my city. The audience was heterogeneous, exponents coming from both academic and industrial world. The meeting lasted the entire days and several panelists had their talk, some of them were well known professors. This meeting was interesting because I gained a deeper insight about some scientific topics that I ignored or barely knew,

The second meeting held in Rome last Friday was more exciting and with a different focus. It was a kick off meeting that involved all the partners of a consortium.

This fruitful and amenable meeting helped me to understand how different European groups join and work. Indeed the participants were German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, CECIc and... Hungarian :) and they have expertise on different subjects. To tell the true, a kick off meeting is not easy to chair. You have to keep things moving correctly since it's the first meeting you have to establish the roles of the partners. Moreover, these meetings are a viable opportunity to make new partnership,

exchange contacts and ideas. I personally managed to get in touch with two people who might cooperate in the future for some research activities :)

But the best part of any meeting is ... the lunch and coffee break!

You can't miss them.

The copy and paste people

I was sitting on my barber's armchair, we were making small talks, interleaving them with a serious reflection, then a laugh and again this cycle.

All of sudden, he asked me, you have been working at university for some weeks, is it a good job?

I rolled my eyes around, thought for a while trying to answer in the best way avoiding bothering him with unpleasant grievances.

Finally, I manged to summed up what I had in my mind and I said to him:

"Currently I'm a PhD student, it means that the university is offering me the last educational stack.

Indeed I attend other courses like an ordinary student does, additionally I'm learning how to do, lead and present researches. After three years (that is the complete course) I'll be granted a PhD title and I'm prepared to work as a researcher.

Then the barber added: you'll be a sort of scientist...

Regrettably, in Italy the State does by no mean support the research!

In the past, every two-three years, Government called researchers for a national competition, the winners could get a full time position as researchers. Recently, some laws have been changed and it's not possible to hire a researcher for a permanent position, but only for three years. After these three years your contract might be renewed for other three years and then you are finished."

My hairdresser: it doesn't sound really good for your future. You are destined to a precarious condition.

Then I replied: it's not me, but the research is destined to an uncertain future and in long haul to disappear!

In the future other students will not be pushed to keep on studying, it's not worth doing or payoff (if you are not really animated by a strong passion and you were born with a tea spoon in your mouth).

My hairdresser: "What will it happen to Italy?"

me: maybe Italy is going to become an executive arm, just an arm without a brain to master it. Presumably, we will become the "copy and paste people" ... you know. when you do some researches and just copy someone's results/ideas and sell as yours...

My first PhD school

A new life, a new School...
When you are a PhD student you should (or better it is warmly advised ) to attend some PhD Schools. A PhD school is a school (of course!) that lasts, generally, one week and the students are all graduated.
During the week, several professors have a talk, seminar. For instance, in the morning you can attend a course and in the afternoon another one. A university hosts these series of events, but there are also professors and students coming from other universities, in this sense it seems a sound occasion to meet other researchers, explorer new ideas, discuss a topic of common interest and learn a lot.
I adore this jubilant spirit, I met people who are really concerned about what they do... great!
In these moments I feel satisfied and I'm enthusiast for the decision that I made.
Stay tuned :)
PS in July and in Sept I should attend other school, I'm looking forward to being there :)

First week after leaving Rome

This is my first week in Naples since I definitely left Rome.

I still do not know exactly what I'm supposed to do during my PhD, I'm going to meet m y advisor tomorrow and then I'll be able to tell you more.

I want to speak about some things that came into my mind during this week.

1) My friend M. I met her for the first time in Rome, we stroke up our friendship on that semi-virtual world called Facebook. She was one of the most kind people with whom I spent my time in Rome. Together we went visiting museums, doing shopping and so on. She literally introduced me to the "glamor of Rome". Like me she is exploring new options for her future, I wish her all the best.

2)Sinelli girls. These three girls (among them there is M.) were very kind and nice to me.

With them I got used to spending our English Sunday afternoon. We generally met at Pompi (the best pastry store in Rome, renowned for their yummy tiramisù) on Sunday at 6 pm.

It was just an excuse to get together and talk about how was our last week and plan something for the next one. I hope to meet all them soon. I'm going to miss you :(

3)My previous work. I've been on good terms with my boss. He was more than a chief.

He was always available to give you a sound and heartfelt advice, you could ask him suggestions about everything from "how to behave with clients" to "where to find a car battery seller". Someone you can trust.. really hard to find in this lousy world especially in the job market.

3)My colleagues: S., L., R. They were good guys with whom I shared the pains of our job, the crazy laugh (when we were under pressure) and some nights.

L. is an extraordinary girls, she adds a bit of joy and freshness that are necessary in a typical male office.

S. a good colleague. I reengineered with him entire piece of codes, compared solutions and had good dinners. He is a really good cook. It might be a viable solution to become a cook if you need a new job :)

R. I dedicated an entire post to you... there is no other word to say :)

4)Rome. It's a buzzing, lively city that can offer you a lot of things to do and see.

It's an international city that gradually is getting multinational. Some examples, when I took the subway I could hear people talking in English (American mostly), French, German and so on.... in Naples I can't have all that :(

Moreover I missed the snow! if you don't know yet, two days ago it was snowing in Rome, you must see the wonderful pictures of a white Rome. Awesome!

5)The other guys. Again thanks to M. I came across with many people, some Italians with whom I had nice night-party and have been in fashion places.

Some foreigners coming from France, Ireland, Turkey... fantastic I had a great time with all of them by talking about our countries, traditions.. who knows if I ever meet them again.

Stop listing. There is no time to regret.. the show must go on

Back with news

Hi readers and lurkers

How are you ? I haven' t posted a blog for a long time...
Well, maybe you were wondering what happened to me. In January I made an important decision, I wanted to go back to university and keep on studying, definitely.

Maybe you remember that after my studies, my mentor asked to me if I wanted to study at university as a PhD student. At that time I turned down his offer.
In this year, many things have changed in my life: new friends, new habits, the first salary

and so on. But I didn't feel satisfied with that way of life, I started to miss the university, the time dedicated to study books (and not manuals!), to cooperate and challenge myself in an international environment..

Then, I dedicated the entire Christmas holiday to study and prepare myself for the PhD competition in my native city (yes, now I'm back in Naples).
On Jan 18th I sat the first exam, one day after, the second exam.
The final result was that.... I have passed the exams and the university will support my studies
for three years with a student grant! (not so much, actually, but better than nothing!)
I will be living in Naples by next week. There are other news linked to this new challenge,

I'll tell you later

The pleasure of clearity

I've been sending my resume abroad, to be more specific to Swedish companies. I run into some job offers that, in my mind, seemed to match my current qualifications. Unfortunately, they, politely sent me back an email saying my qualifications do not meet our needs/profile. What a bummer!! . Anyway, aside from these dismal responses :( what I want to empathize here it's their efficiency. Even if they are not interested in my application they reply to my job submission. In this way you don't fuel faint hopes, make pipe dreams and I think it's the correct and serious behaviour that a company should have. In Italy, generally, the human resource managers contact you only if they want to interview you...

Stop writring guide, it's time for Video Guide !

In my role as IT consultant, one of my tasks is to write user guides for our products. It' s really boring, useless and it sucks definitely! at least when my chief says to me: please write the guide, I brace myself !

Why is it boring ?
Because you have to spell out every step that you take in order to make things run. You can't omit anything, to write it as comprehensible as it is possible is an asset , otherwise the end-user can't make it out!
You have to care about the details, take several snapshots hopefully none of your colleagues change the front-end in the meantime.
Why is it useless?
In my brief experience, I've run into several users that simply ignore the guide or skim through it. The final result is that they will contact you in anyway is possible and ask you for an explanation. Please do not ask them have you read the guide ? the obvious answer is no or they stammer to say something " I didn't find it".
Why does it suck?
if the reader has never written any guide, please try it just once and I'm pretty sure you'll agree with me.
Then what can we do ? I realized that we might pin down on video-guide. People have changed the way they interact with media over last years, generally there is no time to read a paragraph, sometimes the instructions are not clear, misleading and not up to date.
Why not use video-guides? End users, nowadays, are familiar with Youtube, they are accustomed to see short movies and probably they can get the information in much easier, more quickly and funnier way !!
With a video-guide it's very hard that they do not understand, images and voices can drive them to explore all the features of your products.
To produce a video-guide is simpler than writing one, I suppose it saves time (therefore it implies your company saves $$$). Some problems arise, of course. You shall guarantee that the user has installed on his computer a video-player, but it's not a big problem because you can provide it with your user guides. Maybe the toughest thing is to keep your video-guide up to date. Sometimes we need to update only a few lines or change some screenshot, how can we do it with a video ? I do not think it's easy to replace a frame with a new one.
Now I want to read your comments.
As user guide do you find a video-guide more handy than a written one?
As technical writer would you replace the traditional user-guide with a video guide ?

How to dress for your job interview

Today's topic is focused, again, on a typical job issue. My intention is to lead you in our labour market, to unfold some typical issues and, indirectly, answer common questions about job in Italy.

Shifting today's topic, what to dress depends mostly on two factors:

• the position you've applied for
  
• the company

In my brief experience as an engineer I've always suited up before having a job interview. Honestly, I don't know if there is a real dress code I suppose there is a hidden consensus about a tie and a jacket for your job interview even though nobody has told you to put them on. Probably because I've always applied for consultant positions which requires a customer face role. In Italy a consultant is often thought as someone who suits up, is elegant. We care about our physical aspect too much. However you are not forced to dress a suit always. For instance, in my current company I'm free to dress as I wish when I work in our offices, but when I meet my clients I had to suit up.

In other circumstance I felt out of my comfort zone at my job interview because of my suit. I had a job interview with a Swedish telecommunication company that hold some offices in Italy, as well. When I was there, they immediately broke the ice and weren't formal at all. The line engineer who interviewed me dressed a simple T-shirt accompanied with blue jeans. They didn't make me feel embarrassed but you know, in some occasion you feel like a fish out of water.

Another example, during my interview for a consultancy company, aside from the fact that the manager was suited up, he clearly said to me: " we have a dress code to follow, just on Friday you do not have to respect it, Friday is called casual day."

Conclusion:
if you've applied for a consultant position you should suit up, but it's not compulsory. It's impossible to guess what best choice is, but in general it's advisable to be elegant, show that you are not scrubby, definitely!

Do your social media contact go into your cv (3)

I came across an article published on The Local, a Swedish news paper.

This article reports that an employee has been dismissed allegedly for the post published on his blog! In my first post of the series "Do your social media contacts go into your cv ?" I started to investigate whether it's worth publishing or not your social media contacts on your resume (or curriculum vitae). Even though the fired employee, in the article that I have pointed out previously, haven't posted his blog address on his cv, I think this article well-stress the conjuction between your internet corner and your work.

See you.

Do your social media contacts go into your cv ? (2)

I still can't give some answers to my previous post. I just want to add that after I have questioned myself with those answers I ran into this blog. The author is an engineer like me and he posts his personal thoughts as well as his "geek articles" on it and he also have added his blog address to his work email signature...

Programming and Going Green

I'm just wondering how I can give a sense to my work...

I'd like to work at software project (I'm mostly a software engineer) whose target is an everyone benefit. For example a project that involves "going green" aspects or aids to achieve humanitarian purposes. Any help or suggestion is appreciated.

Recession... curious signs ?

You can see recession every where, big companies are going to close their offices in some countries, laying off a lot of people... I personally notice a curios sign.
Every morning when I take the bus there is a woman who used to bring with her a handbag branded by a blue chip company... some days ago I went to know that this company was laying off its personnel and coincidence the lady has replaced her bag with another one....

It'sdramatically true

Last months

Probably, you've wondered how I spent my time recently and why I'm always out of time to write an email...
Well, unfortunately my free time is dramatically decreased due to two sucking deliveries in these last months.
In addition, it's getting hotter and hotter so I don't like to stay at home in front of my PC,
actually I sweat like a pig (we haven't got an air conditioner :( and what I do, mostly, during my weekend is to go to the sea.
I haven't been in the habit of going to the sea for years, I disliked it... now my mind has changed and I like being tanned and have a rest in the sun lounger... maybe because after an entire week spent to slog away I just need to relax...
In the past I was addicted to tanning, someone called me "lizard" because the number of days spent to go sunbathing... it's true, old habit die hard :)
But, definitely I can't say that I'm a sun worshipper :)
About my next holiday, the dice is cast finally ! just another week at work, We are going to go to Copenhagen from 10th Aug to 14th Aug then I'll be back in Italy and plan other things to do, my days off last until 23th Aug.
How have you planned your holiday ? What country or city will you visit ? What is your itinerary ?

First time..

Last Thursday I was on business trip for the first time, precisely I had to go to a meeting off-site, in Turin, where our client is located.

It was the first time that I had to deal directly with the client, in the past I had just a conference.
Moreover I was alone, I mean as technician without a senior, on my left there was only the sale manager who didn't give me a great support, actually.
Honestly, before leaving for Turin I gathered all the possible advise that I could, I spoke to seniors, managers and so on.. I was worried about this task because I didn't have any frame of reference on how to cope with customers.
I was afraid of becoming the laughing stock or shooting from the hip.

Also, it was the first time that I had to take some decisions for our current project and guide our client towards the best solution (at least I hope it was the best one...) and propose a new activity for the sake of increasing our revenue.
In some moments I acted more as a pre-sale manger than a technical adviser... but it goes with the territory in my profession.
Summing up, I think I hit the target :), I reported the outcome to my manager and I received some compliments on it, but it's not the time to rest on my laurel :)
An unhappy note... I was forced to pay all the expenses (aside from the flight tickets) in advance and I'm about to be strapped because I can't withdraw more money, I'm near to overcome my monthly limit withdrawal ... I set it too low... :(
How was your experience when you had your first meeting with the client ?

Goodbye Ricccardo

It was January, my first work experience, my first project and I met Riccardo, recently graduated like me. We didn't know each other but sooner we discovered to share the same dreams, ideas and the spirit to tackle down every challenge ! .
Someone named us "Cluster"for our extraordinary capacity to work together and accomplish every task. Someone thought that we have been friends for a long time... even thought our friendship was born only some months ago..
Riccardo, an indefatigable worker, a true and kind person, an intelligent guy.
I will never forget when we burst in a loud laugh (mixed with some sarcasm and desperation) in the late afternoon after an entire day spent to do some researches for our first project, trying to do our best.
How can I forget how you pronounced in English some words and your willingness to improve it and follow my advice.

Now, Riccardo is going to take another chance, another opportunity and I wish him all the best hopefully we'll keep in touch. Good luck Riccardo !

Speaking about your boss

I don't have any boss, at most I have a guide.... and I choose him/her
Puntino

Lesson learnt

Dear guys,
Before leaving Rome for my Easter holiday my manager delegated to me the translation of project written in Italian into English.
It's going to be really challenging and helpful to improve my business English.
In order to have a good translation, I thought of studying some project management guides in English because it's much easier to get the proper words that match the Italian ones.
I suppose that this translation methodology makes much more sense than looking up in a vocabulary and get a translation. Anyway I have to be very careful because this project will be sent to our French board direction...
While reading the guide as I mentioned above, I've noticed an interesting section called "lesson learnt".
I think it expresses the idea of a continual improvement, the willingness to learn from the previous mistakes and results. As you can imagine this section is missing in my Italian documentation... upsetting !!
This lack shows how we manage our project and more generally our methodology !

The first post after moving to Rome

Dear,
How are you
..well, a long time has gone, I' m really sorry but every day a new thing comes out !!

For instance, the day before yesterday I planned to buy a device for my PC, it meant to waste a lot of time queueing from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm then I went to home, wiped out at 9:15 pm.
Yesterday, I was really unlucky because my Internet connection at home was out of service. Anyway my work is really interesting and at the same time I feel lucky because I can say that it is heavily related to my university background, I don't have to throw away my university competencies as some friends of mine have to do. I joined a friendly team whose members are ready to help me and get my way in. Among them, there is Paolo with whom I'm pleased and
glad to speak in English.
He is Italian like me, but he has a good proficiency in English. All my colleagues are from Rome and their accent is funny and weird, I'll get used to listening to it soon.
My home is far away from my office, it takes me about 1 hour walking and by bus to get to office, I don't mind it because in the meanwhile I can schedule my things.

What about you ? any news?