We do need to start another QA Express class

Today we faced about 60 visitors to the first session of the QA Express class. Most of them were really surprised the class is full. Some folks got really upset. It took some time to figure out what we can do to satisfy the demand.

The solution came in the form of another batch to begin on October 13. We really need some time to place graduates for internships. That is the major reason why we cannot run two classes in parallel. Our placement capacity as of today is limited to 30-35 people a month. We are actually working on getting more internships.

At the end of the week we are planning to spend two days at the Expo organized by Plug & Play Center.

Monday next week

Monday September 27 we will start new SQA Express class. It will be conducted on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays for the next 8 weeks. Sessions are scheduled from 10 am till 3 pm.

That schedule becomes very popular. In reality the enrollment has been completed this week - all 18 students of the class are already known. Monday we will see lots of visitors looking at how we teach the class, but nobody can join it. It reminds me older days of 1990-2000 when we had 3-4 months waiting list with new classes starting each week.

There will be two alternatives available though. Evening class start on October 6 (that is for sure) and another SQA Express we can launch 2 weeks later on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. At least 2 weeks gap between SQA Expresses is needed to avoid a real pick when it comes to placement/ We would normally need 2-3 weeks to place a graduating class of 15-18 students.

College Fair - we learned a bit

Saturday last week I represented the Portnov School at the College Fair in Milpitas, CA. It was organized by several Asian communities - Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese. However, it is not strictly Asian. There are visitors of all the ethnic backgrounds there. I met one of my former graduates. She is from India. Her spouse works for Oracle and he responded to an insider mailing with an invitation to the event.

The Fair is well organized. High school kids come with their parents to listen to multiple speakers on various aspects of college education. SAT preparation and college financing were probably the hottest issues discussed.

We had a very nice booth with vertical retractable banner (you can see it in Sofia's office) and table cloth with the school logo. I cannot say we got lots of attention. The reason is very simple though - most of the visitors focused exclusively on freebies given away by some exhibitors - mugs, pens, brochures, catalogs.

The most valuable lesson I have learned there: it is not the place where we can meet our target audience.

QA Interview Tips and Techniques

Tomorrow I will teach a session on job interviewing techniques. Today I was planning for the session, which should take 4 hours. Step by step putting the materials together I realized suddenly that 4 hours is literally nothing for a subject like that. The entire 40 hours course could be easily built around the subject.

Tomorrow we will primarily focus on the following:

• Interview killers (I have a list of 50+ of those)
• How to answer Key Interview Questions
• Asking interview questions
• How to prepare for the interview

That session will be the last one in the course unless we change the schedule - I cannot do that on Fridays any more.

By the way - construction just began at our future location in Los Altos. We are now working on color schema for the office, furniture, projectors, and other nice things. All the computers will have wireless connection to the Internet - no more cables in the office!!!

Networking as a Job Search strategy

Friday I was teaching another session of our Job Search curriculum. It was devoted 100% to professional networking. First time in my life I was talking about that subject for that long. So I was not sure if we have enough material to discuss. But in reality, I think, we can easily double the time.

We spent most of the time working with LinkedIn, which is without any doubt the most powerful professional networking tool of todays world. How much time would we need if we look closely at how to use Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, and maybe few more resources.

When it comes to looking for a job I would normally prefer to work on how to use LinkedIn individually, on case-by-case basis:

- how to identify contacts

- how to approach them

- what to ask for

All of that is very much the subject of a customized approach.