Portnov Computer School - Training for Career Change

Video taping all the sessions in the School

2012-02-15T23:53:00.000-08:00

As of today we have Nikita on-board to take care of all the technical issues in the school. He joined us from Kazakhstan for 18 months as an international trainee on J1 visa. Nikita's term will end up in April of 2012 and we will bring two more trainees to join the Portnov Team.

Both will come from Ukraine. One person will take over Nikita's responsibilities. Another one specializes in Digital Media. He will take videos in our classrooms, edit them, and organize into convenient libraries.

Why do we want to create the videos? The primary interest was originally in giving our online students better connection to classes we teach on campus. It is especially important for the self-paced classes.

Besides that we want our Silicon Valley students to be able to repeat each and every session of their choice without driving to the school and sitting in the classrooms. There is really no need in that.

Test Automation with Selenium IDE

2011-12-23T00:58:00.000-08:00

We just added for your references two videos on Test Automation with Selenium IDE. Yana Mezher, our staff instructor talks about advantages of test automation, installation of Selenium and related issues, creating your first automated test case. Enjoy!!!

Is it possible to combine morning and night classes?

2011-11-08T17:35:00.000-08:00

That question comes sometimes when prospective students have scheduling issues.

Here is the best answer I am able to come with. We have multiple resources, which we can combine to cover gaps, recover for a missed session, and customize the individual schedule:
- Day-time classes (10am-3pm)
- Night time classes (7pm-11pm)
- Instructor-facilitated online classes (6pm-7pm)
- Self-paced online classes
- Webinars and video recordings of the classes
- 3-4 schedules for QA projects

We are more than willing to do all the accommodations possible to make it more convenient to students to study. There is one thing though the students should consider seriously - any deviation from the set schedule will require more commitment on their site to have things done.

Portnov Web Site redesigned

2011-10-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

We have brand new design for Portnov Computer School web site in place now. I hope it is more user friendly. One of the important features of the site is easy to understand outline of our programs and classes.

We are working on removal of the technical inconsistencies related to changing the hosting provider. Spanish and Russian versions are coming next month.

Please report any technical issues you might encounter so we can fix them ASAP.

One more time about bug reporting

2011-09-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

We are using surveys for collecting and analyzing the answers to the Software QA questions, which we want students to answer during the class. The results of the survey help instructors to decide which issues should given more attention in the class.

Here is the video taken in our online class where we discuss what the survey reveals. The subject of the survey is "Bug Reporting and Bug Tracking".

2 online QA programs are running now

2011-08-29T00:19:00.000-07:00

It just happened that way - we do not want to enroll more than 15 students in one instructor facilitated QA Training program. The one we started on August 10 was overcrowded, which resulted in another class being scheduled for August 25.

One of the lessons learned so far is that since we have online QA students from all over the world we have to offer two schedules for two major geographic areas such as Americas (mostly US) and Europe. Because of the US-centered schedule we have right now our students in Ukraine, Finland, and Israel have to go to the virtual classroom at 3-4 am local time. Honestly, we did not expect our course to be that much popular outside of the US.

Our focus in online course development is given right now to developing quizzes and making online sessions more interactive. The home work is now given before the session, not after. We ask online students to watch videos and webinars, to read the textbook before the class. Then, when we meet, we discuss what we learned rather then simply listening to the instruction.

I hope that after finishing the August 25 batch the course development will become mostly finalized with minor modifications to be made from time to time.

Software QA Online program becomes popular

2011-08-12T01:25:00.001-07:00

We started new online program on August 10, 2011. But the demand was really more than we expected. So far we have set the limit for maximum number of students in the virtual classroom to no more than 15.

Because of that there will be another online class offered in 2 weeks and we already have 5 students enrolled.

Right now our major focus in improving the course is given to feedback, home work, and quizzes. We are working on taking the most from technology in managing the learning curve and controlling the progress.

The web site for the online classes is practically completed but we are working on complete redesign of the www.portnov.com now

At some point we would probably need to synchronize both web sites eliminating ambiguities and contradictions which are likely to be present.

Online QA Testing Training Course gets new web site

2011-07-28T21:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, www.portnov.net web site is Up and Running with all the web pages in place. Small corrections will be done as we find problems down the road.

All the suggestions and bugs reported will be given serious consideration.

The next project is redesign of our major web site - www.portnov.com

Next online program starts on August 10, 2011

2011-07-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

We just finished the first run of the online career change program. One student out of that class obtained employment in Software QA 2 weeks before graduation. There were 10 students in that group: 2 from LA, another 2 from Chicago, Sacramento, upstate New York, one from Israel, one from Russia, and 2 from Ukraine.

Out of 6 US-based students one is working, 2 joined the job market last week, one just gotten his resume done yesterday. And one decided to come to our campus and continue his study here with an internship provided by the school. He wants his family to relocate to the Silicon Valley, which is booming now.

I will keep you posted on the developments.

The next online class will start on August 10, 2011. Here is the web site for our online operations. It is being populated with the content as we speak. I hope it will be more or less completed within a week or two.

The School is now approved by the State of California

2011-07-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

We have been in operation since August of 1994. All that time we were in compliance with existing regulations, which change some times.

Because of such a change we had to go through the whole cycle of getting approved under new rules and it took us just about one year of developing rules and procedures, creating new Catalog and new Enrollment Agreement.

The new Catalog will be posted on the School web site soon.

And, by the way - we are back from the vacation. Two new groups will be starting this month.

Clear way to recover missed sessions

2011-06-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

We were asked a few times by students who cannot attend a session or two if there is a way for them to recover missed sessions. Before we suggested to join other groups - we have 2-3-4 at a time at different stages of the program.

With introduction of online program we started to video tape life sessions and yes, they are available not for simply recovering the missed sessions, but also for repeating the things learned from the convenience of student's home or office. The videos are placed on Youtube. They are not available to the general public, but we are providing students with an access.

Some issues covered in the online class are delivered in a much more concise format than it happens in the physical classroom where the session takes 4 hours. The recordings taken in the online program are very helpful if our on-campus students want to refresh certain subjects fast.

WIA approved school - what does that mean to you?

2011-06-12T01:41:00.001-07:00

WIA abbreviation stands for Workforce Investment Act (US Federal Law passed in 1998). You can get all the legal data on the Act at US Department of labor web site

The essence of the Act is explained in a simple language on Wikipedia - I like the way it talks about different aspects of the Act.

What it means to those interested in taking our classes is very simple - there are government funds to pay for your training. The funds are being distributed locally, at the county level. Most of our WIA students are coming through NOVA - Santa Clara County organization, which is distributing funds in that county. PeninsulaWorks is taking care of that program within San Mateo County. We are getting sometimes students from San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties as well.

The eligibility rules exist. And they are not very easy to understand for the general public. If you are out of work then there is a chance you might be eligible. In that case I would suggest that you contact the School and we will suggest you which steps to take to find out if that program might benefit you.

We at the School are not able to determine your eligibility, but we will explain the steps needed to find out what your options are.

Portnov Computer School on Youtube

2011-06-06T19:20:00.000-07:00

We have several channels on youtube including Spanish and Russian language channels. Originally the purpose for having the youtube presence was to give prospective students an idea of what our trainings are about. We video taped sessions in Portnov School classrooms - real teachers, real students, real study environment.

It saved us a lot of time talking to the wrong prospects who might like the idea of learning Software QA, but who would not feel comfortable with the school itself.

Over time the vision changed. We are creating a library of videos, which might benefit current and former students as an educational tool, learning materials to review again and again any time they might be needed. I think the most important once are the videos related to the job search activities.

Down below is the link to first (out of 7) part of the class on Test Documentation delivered by Iana Mourza

Bug Reporting and Bug Tracking - Software testing Tutorial

2011-05-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

I delivered an online class session on Bug Tracking and Bug Reporting in Software testing business. We video tape the sessions and some of the videos I am making public on Youtube. Both issues were covered in one session, but with the time saving in mind I created 2 separate videos. Enjoy:

Software Testing Interview Questions

2011-05-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

Software Testing Interview Questions, by Shivprasad Koirala is a book I purchased on Amazon.

Here is the review I wrote for Amazon on that piece of an exemplary crap:

1. I was first amazed by that book from the very "About the author" section, where the author is characterized as having literally:
- good experience in software industry
- in a big multinational company

No company name, no country - nothing. I've seen that kind of fact hiding in resumes where folks are playing games trying to get a phone call or an interview, which they would not supposedly get without hiding the material facts.

2. From the very first page you suddenly realize, that the author has no idea what he is talking about. He starts with a company structure, which I have never experienced myself working as QA person in Silicon Valley since 1992. And that would be fine, obviously, but he claims: that is how most of the companies work.

3. Than it comes to the resume structure discussion, which is below any criticism. It is a shame to send out a resume like that.

4. The text is not written in conventional Technical English reader can expect from a book purchased on Amazon. Not to mention things like writing "Microsoft word" with lower case "word". Or "covering letter" as another example.

So, after some time spent (wasted) I came to the conclusion that the author never worked in US and it is not an accident he avoids disclosing where he worked. Well, I looked at the LinkedIn and no wonder - the gentleman lives in India and he never worked in QA role for a small nor big, local nor international company.

I personally consider that kind of "publishing" a fraud.

Graphic User Interface (GUI) Testing

2011-05-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

I never did a thorough research on what other folks are saying on the matter if anything. But we have been teaching the subject from the day one of Portnov Computer School.

Here is the online training class video captured life and edited by me to eliminate things, which are not of much interest to the people outside of that specific class.

Online Software QA Testing Training & Placement

2011-05-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

We started the pilot program on May 9, 2011. The goal is to bring all the participants to the employment in Software QA/Testing field no matter where they live. That is why the course includes:
- 20 instructor facilitated session on Software Testing
- 10 instructor facilitated real-life application testing sessions
- 10 self-paced online classes such as JavaScript, SQL, Selenium, XML, UNIX, Shell, Perl, Mobile Applications Testing
- resume preparation
- job search and interviewing techniques
- individualized job market coaching

We will record the sessions and make some of them available to the public. Here is the very first one, introductory session:

Lets talk about the school on Yahoo Answers

2011-05-04T22:51:00.000-07:00

Here is the question asked Is Portnov Computer School for real? I think it is. I also think it is difficult to believe anything like that could be real. To good to be true?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have proposal for you. Actually, two proposals:
- follow the link and share what you think about the school
- lets do many more things, which look too good to be true to the outsiders. Let me make that statement even stronger: lets ONLY do THE THINGS, which are too good to be true, which people should be seeing to be believing.

Portnov Computer School Guarantee

2011-05-04T18:51:00.000-07:00

Many prospective students ask us if the Portnov Computer School would guarantee job placement or multiple internships. I decided to write down what we really want and are able to guarantee to our students and graduates.

So, here it comes, the

PORTNOV COMPUTER SCHOOL 12-Points GUARANTEE

1. WE GUARANTEE our commitment to YOUR PERSONAL career change/employment in the field of study
• We measure our success in career change of our students. Your success is our success. Your failure is our failure.
• The only way to fail is to quit. We never give up on anybody.

2. WE GUARANTEE honest and fair dealing with you
• There is no hidden agenda
• No preferential treatment given to any student or group of students
• All the discounts available will be offered to you without asking
• We do our best to accommodate your needs, implement the suggestions, listen to concerns

3. WE GUARANTEE each student in good standing (academically and financially) gets an internship (paid or unpaid) in the occupation of training with a local SF Bay Area company.
• The internship is a crucial element in building your future marketability. For many students an internship company becomes a long-term employer.
• Guarantying a job after completion of the training is illegal, so we cannot promise that

4. WE GUARANTEE Students are allowed to audit/repeat classes taken before at no charge on availability basis
• If you paid for the class once you may audit that same class unlimited number of times
• If the class you took in the past has been discontinued we will replace that with another one

5. WE GUARANTEE School develops and updates professional resumes at no extra charge – lifetime
• We believe that at some point in your career you will be able to make a strong professional resume. Until then we will update your resume at no charge as long as you need help.

6. WE GUARANTEE real life projects are included into the curriculum
• As a part of our curriculum students participate in testing applications given to us by companies interested in extending their QA team
• Experience gained doing the projects will increase marketability of a graduate

7. WE GUARANTEE that our instructors are industry professionals with high level of expertise
• We chose instructors carefully making sure they deliver high quality training
• All the instructors have many years of industry experience
• All the instructors are providing individualized approach to teaching

8. WE GUARANTEE access to all the training materials, resources, software, lab time
• The school provides each and every student with books, downloads, training materials
• Lab time is available to those interested in practicing on the campus

9. WE GUARANTEE that the School will continue to operate under the guidelines established and enforced by the State of California Bureau for Postsecondary and Vocational Education
• The school is approved by California’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education under license number (coming soon, the application is pending)
• The rules of operation for an approved school assure high standard of education and business conduct

10. WE GUARANTEE Flexibility in recovering for missed classes, switching day-night classes
• We will accommodate your individual schedule to your personal needs including gaps, drop outs, breaks caused by whatever reason

11. WE GUARANTEE easy communication with the school counselors, teachers, and administration
• Our staff and teachers are available 40 hours a week to discuss all the needs and requests you might have
• They are available also electronically via email, Skype, School Forum, other media

12. WE GUARANTEE we provide the best of Interview and Job Search preparation
• Mock Interviews are developing the interviewing techniques
• We share with you insider knowledge of how Job Search sites operate so you achieve the highest resume positioning

Software QA Internships at Portnov Computer School

2011-04-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

April 2011 is just about to end. Today we looked at the statistics of Internship Placement. The numbers are pretty good: in the year 2011 (first four months) we placed 86 graduates as interns. Considering that the school has around 250 students a year the number is just right.

One comment I should make based on what we are experiencing some times: if it takes an approval of your spouse to accept an internship, please, get that approval before you go to an interview, not after.

Many managers would consider that situation (not excited, not immediately accepting) as having lack of interest and they will turn to people who express their enthusiasm about the offer.

What it takes to get the first job in Software QA

2011-04-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

Mr. Roman Savinkov who works as QA Architect for PayPal in his book (published in 2008) says literally the following:

Here is my position: for your first job in testing you must:
- Know how to use email and a Web browser
- Be familiar with black box testing techniques (Boundary Values, etc.)
- Be familiar with the main concepts of test cases, SDLC, and bug tracking

I was told many times that requirements are growing and to start your career in Software QA you have to know much more than what we teach in Portnov Computer School. Well, obviously there is more than one opinion on the matter.

Lots of news in April

2011-04-14T23:49:00.000-07:00

Since April 1 Sofia has placed 14 graduates as QA interns, which is very good. We have now more requests for interns than we have resumes available. The process is a bit slower now compare to a month ago because we implemented mandatory mock interviews and internship clearance interview to make sure the prospective interns are able to talk about the study projects they did in the school, what they tested and how exactly they tested the software.

In April we are launching first two groups with new course and fee structure. More value comes at a higher cost, but so far the enrollment is at the same level as before.

We are processing the the Student Feedback forms, which we collected 2 weeks ago. Lots of changes are coming as a response to your requests.
- the campus is now tobacco free zone with smoking prohibited within the training session time frame
- we are adding more focus and more hours to Technology curriculum in SQA Express class
- students will know in advance the issues covered in all the sessions
- we created Downloads page with all the tools used in the school, so you cab install them on your laptops BEFORE the class, not during the class
- we are working on writing down all the essential procedures so students have better idea of how the program works, what are the internship requirements and prerequisites, expectations, quizzes and so on.

How to become QA tester?

2011-03-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

That question was asked by someone at Yahoo!Answers and I realized that my participation is really needed. So, down below is my answer:

I have been in Software QA profession since 1992. And I have been in the QA career change business since 1994. From my experience there are many venues to explore and which venue will really work for you (if any) depends on you education, professional background, user experience, and commitment to the change.

1. Read the book on Software QA ("Testing Computer Software" is my favorite), get beta-testing experience, put it to your resume and go to the job market (how to look for a job is another discussion). It costs you nothing, but not many people can implement that approach.

2. Hire a Mentor who will meet you 1-2 times a week for couple of hours and who will do a nice project with you. Again, put in your resume and go to the job market. It is cheap, customized, and might work just fine if you are OK doing most of the study on your own under Mentor's guidance.

3. Go for a QA Program offered by either City Colleges or private schools (search Google for "software QA Training" to find them). In the ideal world the program includes QA internship with a software development company, which might actually become you first employment in the field.

We are getting the feedback

2011-03-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

Last week we asked over 60 students to answer 4 questions about how they came to the school and what they would change to make it better. We are still processing the responses but the list of things to be done on our side is growing and the School Administration is very grateful for the level of consideration given to our questions by the Portnov Computer School students.

The most common complain is about slow Internet connection. It will be resolved within 4-6 weeks time frame according to the promise given to us by Comcast representative. So far we are using 4 AT&T lines, but they are still not fast enough to satisfy our needs. SQA Express students suggest they would like to have more time dedicated to HTML, JavaScript and SQL. We are redesigning the curriculum to do that. Several more sessions will be added to the program without increase of tuition.

We are considering complete prohibition of smoking at breaks since we cannot control the smell brought to the classroom by smokers. I will share in that blog other common suggestions and how we are planning to implement them.

Job Search Videos from Portnov Computer School

2011-03-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

We have a few job search related videos posted at Youtube and more videos are coming soon. There is a need of making that information easily available. That is why I am creating that post with all the relevant links in one place.

We have a dedicated Youtube channel on Job Interview Tips. As of today it contains three videos with answers to the common interview questions such as:

Why should we hire you?

Tell me about yourself?

What are your weaknesses?

Watch all three videos at once before each and very interview. It sets your mind properly, so, you look like an ideal candidate.

There are also videos you might use on the Portnov Computer School channel:

50 Job Interview Mistakes (Part 1)

50 Job Interview Mistakes (Part 2)

Job Interview Principles

Job Interview - Rules of Sale

Components of success - Job Interview

Enjoy!!!

Online classes at Portnov Computer School - update

2011-03-19T23:13:00.000-07:00

We now have the following online classes:

- HTML

- SQL

- Mobile Applications Testing

- UNIX commands

- UNIX Shell Scripting

- Perl

So far, all the classes are available to the current and past students at no charge. Please, contact the school via email to get the enrollment key.

The pilot online QA Program is scheduled for May 9, 2011. The investment (tuition) is $500. The program will include QA Training & QA Project facilitated by our instructors, resume preparation, job placement assistance, self-paced technical classes mentioned above and a few more to come soon.

One more update - we have protected the DATA folder on the Portnov Computer School web site with a password. Again, please send us an email to get access.

Strong demand for QA

2011-03-08T18:14:00.000-08:00

Here is an email forwarded to my attention by one of the graduates working in Sacramento area. It is coming from a recruiter sending a bulk mail to the people he worked with before. Just one more evidence of the QA job market doing really well:

Hello out there in BA/QA Land!

If you are receiving this (ideally not more than once), it is because you and I have corresponded in the past regarding Agile software environments in the Sacramento area. Although I am normally loathe to do anything in a mass email format, the market locally has just absolutely exploded with openings and time is a factor in filling them. So I am reaching out to my contacts on mass in the hopes that someone either is available for a position in an Agile environment, or that (more likely) some of you know others that have experience in Agile environments who are either Under-Paid, Under-Appreciated, and/or Under-Employed who may want to hear more about what is immediately open locally as well as coming available soon.

As of right now we have 2 Quality Assurance positions available also with Agile environments. Generally speaking, they are hoping for individuals with QTP Automated experience, but they are also willing to look at candidates with just strong overall Quality Assurance background in manual and automated testing overall, ideally for Agile organizations. Again, if you know anyone who might benefit from hearing about an open position like this locally, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Several more QA and BA positions are in the pipes and should be arriving the next several months, so if you /someone you know is not ready to make a move just yet, this looks like it is going to be an extraordinarily strong year for hiring locally in Sacramento, so please feel free to touch base with me in advance, I will maintain an understanding that you are not looking for work presently if that is the case, so no pressure.

Other than that, I genuinely appreciate your time and I sincerely hope I am not troubling anyone with this email format, as it is not generally how I do things.

Portnov Computer School Testimonials

2011-03-06T22:40:00.000-08:00

We have over 100 testimonials posted by the graduates of Portnov Computer School on the School's forum. There are many others scattered all over the Internet. And I keep lots of those in my mail box.

So, I decided to bring all the Portnov Computer School testimonials and reviews in one place. here is the link - http://qa-career-change.blogspot.com/ The title of that new blog is "Moving to Software QA - Portnov Computer School Testimonials and Reviews". The testimonials in that new resource will be in English only. I will create one more blog for testimonials and reviews in Russian since we have solid enrollment of newcomers from the countries of former Soviet Union.

If you have your own testimonials you want to share with others, please, make your choice. The forum is a good place - http://portnov.com/forum/ and the new blog is also the very right one.

Portnov Computer School Press Releases

2011-02-26T15:04:00.000-08:00

At Portnov Computer School we never did press releases before. We have just started 2-3 weeks ago with Cara joining our team from South Africa. She creates the wording of press releases and I develop the conceptual model for each.

There are many paid and free web sites where we can post press releases for sitting there and for being distributed to other web resources.

The reason I wanted to have press releases is very simple. When search Google for "Portnov Computer School" most of the search results are coming from garbage web sites, which use public information about businesses for creating their "records". Because of that out of first 20 search results 15 belong to nonsense web sites providing no value to users.

Published press releases have relatively high search results positioning. So far we have three:
- about Portnov Computer School moving to Los Altos
- availability of online "Testing Mobile Applications" class
- Portnov Computer School going online

If you search for the same "Portnov Computer School" string now the search results are going to be very different. Try it now.

Teacher evaluation form

2011-02-10T22:56:00.000-08:00

We normally talk to students a lot about all the issues they face at all stages of the Career Change process. At the same time I feel the need for a private anonymous communication channel where students would express their concerns more openly.

So, we have an online form now for evaluation of teachers and classes. I think it could be used as well for all other issues.

The link to the form is located on the Data Page at the very bottom of it. Welcome!!!

Enforcing the housekeeping rules

2011-02-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

At the previous location the only real challenge to us was dealing with lack of parking. We never ever had any problem with restrooms, for example.

Now we are situated in much nicer building with professional management company taking care of the things and neighbors expecting much higher level of building maintenance to be maintained.

Neighbors are complaining some times that restrooms are not as clean now as they were before we moved in. We are doing our best for being good neighbors. So, ladies and gentlemen, please make sure the restroom looks as nice when you leave as it was when you entered.

Besides that we are enforcing the NO FOOD, NO DRINKS policy outside the kitchen. The new campus will stay nice and professional for as long we maintain it that way. We do not want any food nor drinks on computers, carpets, linoleum, etc.

We are going online, and more news

2011-01-30T22:12:00.000-08:00

I hope that at the end of year 2011 we will offer about 20 online classes. As of today our web site gets over 30,000 unique visitors a month. Most of them are out of the local area and we offer them literally nothing. That will change and is is actually changing as we speak.

We recently made available the "Testing Mobile Applications" class online. Current and previous students can enroll at no charge - call the school and ask how if you are interested.

3 separate online classes will cover the the UNIX portion of our curriculum:

- UNIX commands

- Perl for Software Testing

- Shell Scripting for software testing

Firs two of the three are available and the third one will come next week.

Another news - Cara Kagan joined our team from Capetown, South Africa as a Marketing Intern. Cara will stay with Portnov Computer School team for a year. She just published her first Press Release on the School moving to our new campus in Los Altos.

Effective March 1, 2011 we will remove the deep discount currently attached to the QA Express program. It will cost $3,000 not $2,000. So, If you are interested in that specific program, please, make sure you enroll into the February schedule - we are planning to have 2 available.

And the last announcement for today - our day-time classes are now limited to no more than 15 students at a time including full-timers. As a result we expect better quality of the training and more schedules being offered such as Weekend-Only program and 3pm-7pm schedule. Evening classes will be limited to no more than 20 students.

Macarena Nunez - our new team member

2010-12-17T17:16:00.000-08:00

Macarena joined our team for the next 3 months as a Work&Travel program participant. She is from Chile where Macarena (Maca) studies journalism.

Maca will work on development of the School's web presence in the Spanish speaking part of the Globe. Her very first project is translation of the www.portnov.com web site. After that she will write subtitles for our numerous Youtube videos.

So guys, when you came to the office say Ola!!! to Macarena.

Two weeks after the move

2010-11-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

For the last 2 weeks (right after we moved into the new custom built campus) I was primarily dealing with issues such as mail address change, assembling and installing new furniture, tuning up the air conditioner, resetting the building door to automatically lock at 7 pm, not at 6 pm as it was before.

Today we are having the Scandinavian Design people working in our office. They are assembling our office furniture, which we just received. A few pieces are still missing. But it will be much nicer environment now since I can finally get my stuff from boxes and place it where it belongs.

There will be new evening QA class starting next week on Monday, November 29. And the next day-time program, we call it QA Express, start one week after. For the last ten years we did not have day-time classes - the school was operating from 7 pm till 11 pm, which we continue to do. But recently day classes became very popular and we are happy to offer those.

Another concern we have and we communicate that to the students is maintaining the nice business environment in the building and the school premises. We are much more straightforward now on prohibiting drinks and food in the classrooms and anywhere outside the kitchen. The kitchen, BTW, is big enough and very much enjoyable.

Few more weeks and we will be done with the remaining things such as framing and hanging art on the walls, placing the nice School logo in the reception area, and such.

Another big project after that will be replacing computers with the brand new ones. But we have to wait until the Comcast high speed Internet comes to our building, which might take some time.

We opened the doors at our new location

2010-11-14T13:04:00.000-08:00

Yes, we finally moved to our new campus, which offers more parking, more square footage, first floor vs. second floor before, 9' versus 8' ceilings. It is custom planned, it is professionally designed, it comes with new furniture and ceiling mounted projectors.

We have a kitchen now and a very nice conference room.

Internet connection is not what we need though. Comcast is coming soon to the Plaza to fix the problem. Meanwhile we will find the ways of adjusting to the existing capacity of what AT&T is able to offer.

We are 100% committed to the NO FOOD - NO DRINKS policy outside of the kitchen. We really do not want any food or drinks on neither linoleum nor carpet.

Please, park your cars in the far left corner of the parking lot - not on the parking adjacent to the building itself.

Professional quality video on the Portnov Computer School

2010-10-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

Here is what we ordered for the Portnov Computer School web site.

I really enjoyed the video - it is done professionally in technical as well as in artistic sense. I hope you will like it too.

Portnov Computer School on iEXPO

2010-10-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

It was lots of fun. We met lots of people from all over the world - Brazil, Colombia, France, Japan, Greece to name a few. Slowly but surely we are starting to get requests for interns from the companies we meet at Plug & Play Center.

We have just received a high quality video file from Chinese TV station where I was doing an interview. So, I am replacing the video link with a new one.

We will move to the new location on November 4, 2010. Here is the new address:

4970 El Camino Real, #110, Los Altos, CA

Portnov Computer School review - socks off

2010-10-10T13:45:00.001-07:00

Here is what I found on telonu.com web site, which allows visitors to talk about businesses, people, events, etc. The web site itself is not positioned in Google very high overall. But, if you search for Portnov Computer School it comes right after the school web site. As a result tens of visitors read the reviews about our school posted there.

I was told many times by sophisticated Internet Marketers, that I intentionally post idiotic negative comments on the school using that technique as a hidden advertisement. I swear - I never did that in my life. But, from outside it looks like a real advertisement when inadequate folks complain about their life blaming on everybody but themselves.

Here is the exact copy of the complain. Enjoy:

i hv lost my job bcz of portnov school. this guy michael portnov promotes cheap labor & sends un-paid internship students to my company, because of that i hv lost my job, from the un-paid internship students i learned that this school asks for $2000 to $3000 from each student and send them for un-paid jobs within bay area for many companies, because of that many paid employees are losing their job. bur this guy michael become a millionaire from students fees.

Mikhail Portnov live on Chinese TV

2010-10-10T01:13:00.001-07:00

Here is the video (part one out of 3), which is a live TV show done by one of the local Chinese TV channels. So far the copy I have is not of a real high quality. I am trying to get better copy, so I ll be able to make better video.

Going live on TV was new to me. Honestly, with many years of experience in public speaking I was still a bit nervous. Another effect I noticed - the time runs real fast in front of the cameras. Subjectively, the actual 30 minutes there was just about 5-6 minutes to me.

I am not sure either there will be any immediate commercial (enrollment) effect, but I think as a long term the videos will be viewed by thousands of individuals over the years.

Plug & Play Center EXPO

2010-10-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

The School participated in one of the major events organized by Plug & Play Center last week. First day 40 startups pitched (2 minutes only) in front of the audience - venture capital firms, other startups, and visitors.

We met people from many countries attending the event and pitching as well - Germany, France, Malaysia, Russia, Japan, Singapore.

Second day was allocated to universities - the list of startups was shorter but geography remained very diverse.

Our major focus was on companies, which might be interested in looking at our graduates as Software QA Interns. There was a pretty good response. We have now many contacts to develop.

We do need to start another QA Express class

2010-09-27T23:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-23T23:18:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Getting in touch with Bay Area startups

2010-08-31T19:48:00.000-07:00

Today Julia (our Marketing Director) and myself had an appointment with one of the managers of the Plug & Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale. That organization is an amazing incubator for Bay Area start ups, where new ideas and aspirations meet with venture capital, strategic partners, and like minded people. The Center has beeing in business for 4 years now and almost all that time some of their start ups utilized our graduates either as employees or as interns.

The reason for out visit today was to strengthen the ties with the innovative, 300 companies big community. We want to be active participants of the Center's numerous events. Why? Because we want to offer more career choices to our graduates. I also hope to bring some expertise from the Center to our classroom in the form of offering more classes and by inviting Silicon Valley's best as guest speakers.

We are considering joining the Resourse Partners program offered by Plug & Play Tech Center. It will allow us to develop strong relationships with the participating start ups and VCs. Our students would get many different opportunities to participate in the events as a part of the School team.

I am really excited about all the coming opportunities. Lets look at my schedule closely!!!

Visiting a career fair in San Jose today

2010-08-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

There was a relatively small career fair today in the Double Tree Hotel, which is very close to the San Jose airport. I found there a big room with about 20 exhibitors. The picture on the left was taken with a cell phone, but it gives you an idea of the event.

Three exhibitors are training institutions teaching online marketing, biotechnology, and culinary. 5-6 desks represented network marketing companies, which is not exactly the traditional type of employment, but rather self-employment. I asked all of them if they represent MLM industry and neither one answered positively. The folks are ashamed to be in Network Marketing, but they are not ashamed recruiting others into that line of business.

The ugliest in that group was the company called Primerica (Eve Meyer team) . When asked they do not disclose which positions they have. No wander - they have no single position in the traditional sense. Instead they ask you for your resume stating that based on resume the appropriate manager, one out of six present, will talk to you. It was a lie.

The next person, who was not able to answer any single question and used written presentation to talk about the business opportunity he recruits people for. I have never seen anything that miserable, that much discrediting the Network Marketing industry. Stay away from the crooks.

Besides MLM companies there were 3 or 4 investment/life insurance companies recruiting sales agents. These people at least looked and talked in a very professional manner. There was nothing sleazy about them.

Regular format of full-time employment was represented by literally 3 companies:

- one in medical technology field

- another happened to be Lexus dealership

- and one more company was a manufacturer of some metal parts

We will move to the new campus on October 1, 2010

2010-08-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are moving to the new location. Today I signed the lease agreement. With heat we have today I feel like a blessing coming to us from the heaven.

Look at the picture on the left - that is the new place. The Los Altos Office Plaza has 4 buildings, which share very large parking lot - no more parking troubles, ladies and gentlemen.

The new office will have its own dedicated air conditioning unit and much higher ceilings. Also, we are going to be on the first floor now, not second, which, I hope, will add to the nicer temperature regime.

I'll be going to the construction place (the entire space will be remodeled/reconstructed for our needs), taking pictures, and sharing them with you. I actually started to envision new office and classroom furniture, computers, nice 100 sq.ft. kitchen, professional grade vinyl floors in the classrooms. It looks so nice.

By the way, in the new office we will move to the 100% wireless Internet connections, including the student computers. My next concern if we are going to have any downturn time to move and put together all the necessary communications. Lets start working on that.

The Epoch Times published an article on Portnov Computer School

2010-08-17T23:18:00.002-07:00

Today we were answering lots of calls generated by an article published in "The Epoch Times" (Chinese newspaper). I am not even able to tell you what it says since I cannot read Chinese. The reporter promised to send me the translation in English but I do not have one yet.

I think the article is kind of appealing to readers - we've got tens of calls today. 3-4 people even stopped by to talk.

Before the collapse of the Internet bubble, in 1999-2000 the school had about one third Chinese students, one more third - Indians, and the remaining third - Russians. Somehow the end of the Internet boom impacted dramatically the focus of the Chinese community in what is a good enough choice for a career change minded person. Definitely it was nos IT field, which is being outsourced overseas. So far outsourcing does not influence our job market much - the demand is pretty good.

I really hope we can bring back Chinese students, show them the perspective, the attractiveness of the Software Testing career.

Software QA class on Wednesday August 18

2010-08-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

We will be starting the new class in two days. Summer is normally slower in enrollment compare to the rest of the year - many families are going on vacation. Enrollment starts picking up in the second half of August.

In 2010 overall enrollment is going to be 50% up compare to 2009 and 2008 - I can see that already. The job market keeps growing and lots of career minded individuals are ready for the move. We are also coming with lots of improvements, new classes, more spacious classrooms, projects and classes offered on weekends, online courses, redesigned Portnov Computer School (http://www.portnov.com/) web site.

Today our premises were inspected by the organization (visa sponsor), which specializes in Trainee and Intern programs for graduates of overseas colleges and universities. They can come to upgrade their skills for as long as 12 or 18 months (depends on the program). They can even earn money within that period of time. That is another dimension in which we are planning to expend our services.

2010-08-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

In that 9 minutes video Zig Ziglar, one of my favorite motivational speakers, talks about people with negative thinking. He calls that type of thinking "Stinking Thinking".

Running the Portnov Computer School, instructing graduates on how to get a job, I a am dealing with Stinking Thinking alot. It really kills every effort from inside, it drains people's energy out, it pushes other individuals away from that Stinking Thinking person.

Another important thing Ziz is talking about in that video - gratitude as a solution to the Stinking Thinking problem. Enjoy the video as we did today in the Job Search class.

Software QA Job Market in SF Bay Area

2010-08-13T00:16:00.000-07:00

I was teaching our regular 4-hours Job Search session at night. As a part of the class I show students the demand and supply situation on the local job market. Exact same search done on Craigslist (for resumes - supply) and on Dice (positions - demand).

Since October of 2009 the demand grew up 240%. At the same time number of resume declined 35%. So, overall demand/suply ratio more than trippled (about 370%) in 10 month.

Despite that many people we talk to, mostly prospective students, are thinking tha the job market is still bad. They apply high overall unemployment rate of about 10% to all the industries. Indeed, different segments of the job market are experiencing different, sometimes opposite, trends.

Lets network for jobs and careers

2010-08-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

Internet technologies brought human networking to the dramatically higher level just in front of our eyes. In our Job Search class we have the dedicated 4-hours session on how to network for job safety and career advancement.

For the purpose of the School blog I have to mention that the school itself is an amazing professional networking resource. Start with creating your LinkedIn account.

Then invite fellow Portnov School classmates. Join the Portnov Computer School group on LinkedIn with hundreds of former graduates willing to support you. Get connected to myself and Sofia, which gives you access to tens of thousands Software testing professionals in Bay Area, in US, and Worldwide.

It came to me at midnight

2010-08-10T09:50:00.001-07:00

The experimental job search class, where we talk a lot about motivation, surprised me with how responsive our students are to the motivational speakers. At the same time most of them never heard about Earl Nightingale or John Maxwell.

In todays world practically all the great speakers are represented on Youtube. So, we will start our classes with 6-10 minutes of a great motivational video. I have to make a collection, and that task really excites me.

Commiting to the blog

2010-08-09T17:56:00.000-07:00

I did not place a post for a week. Not because there is nothing to share, but because I have too many things circulating in my mind, one pushing another away in their competition for being posted.

I see 4 subscribers for that blog now and it is very touching - there are ladies and gentlemen out there expecting some useful and exciting things coming to their life from that blog. Here is my commitment to you guys - at least one post a day will be written. Sun or snow, spring or fall - I will be with you. I will be thinking of you, I will be writing for you, recording videos sometimes (I like making videos).

Please, share your thoughts, ask your questions, leave your comments - the better I understand what ignites you, what makes your day - the more you will get from that blog. And also, I would really appreciate spreading the word about very existance of the blog.

Overcoming the fear of entering the job market

2010-08-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how many reasons people find to do not look for a job. They paid tuition. They completed internship with a local company. We have the resume in place and each and every step is outlined. We even insist that first week of the job search the person was doing that from our office, so we can setup the process and fix all the problems right away.

And then I hear the reasons:

Job market is not good
To get hired one would need 5 years of experience
I do not feel confidentI need someone to place me
And many-many more of same kind

No matter how hot the market is – there will be folks like that. Recession or boom – they are withdrawing from any action to be taken.

A month ago former graduate visited our office. 4 years ago we placed her as an intern with a good company. Internship naturally converted into permanent position. But now the company moves out of state and she needs another job. The girl was crying in our office. She says “unless you place me again I never going to get a job”.

If people with 4 years of experience feel that much unsecure what can we expect from fresh graduates?

Law of Attraction in the Job Search

2010-07-30T23:54:00.000-07:00

Today I did the first session of the new Job Search course. We talked about very fundamentals:

attitude
getting something for nothing
paying the price
being the CEO of your own corporation
dreaming vs living in the fantasy world
80/20 and 90/10 rules
getting out of the comfort zone
having a mentor

We watched the "Law of Attraction" movie. I think lots of the folks might have some attitude adjustment on the way.

Now I am going through the video taken in the class making new PowerPoint slides for the next run of that same session. I wish we have more time to discuss the movie.

Job Search Marathon begins Friday, July 30, 2010

2010-07-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

Normally I teach 4 hours how to get a job. We go pretty much over all the critical issues. The reality though is not as bright as I want it to be - most of the folks are ignoring the basic rules when it comes to looking for a job.

Obviously knowledge how to look for a job by itself is not enough. The appropriate action should be taken. It is really amazing how many people who really need a job would not do anything appropriate even if they are given the detailed outline, step-by-step instruction.

I decided to do something of a larger scale to help our graduates in getting the right mindset and more intimate knowledge of the job market internals. Friday this week I will start the first draft of the 40 hours (10 sessions, 4 hours each, one session a week) Job Search class. We have day-time class going on and the new project would be done in day-time (10am-2pm). The second run, which will incorporate lots of improvements, starts in a month (night time 7pm-11pm).

I am hoping to bring lots of cool things to share with those, who read the blog.

Lets start the blog!!!

2010-07-28T01:19:00.000-07:00

I started the Portnov Computer School in August of 1994, practically 16 years ago. About 3000 students went through out career training program in Software Testing. About 3000 individual live stories are populating my mind. I feel that I have to write my own testament and share the lessons I have learned over time. No real names will be used, just real stories, real emotions, real feelings. Real things sometimes are much more difficult to believe to - I learned that the hard way. It is for you to judge.

I will mix today's excitements and sadnesses with those, which happened in the past. In my memory I cannot sometime easily place the correct time stamp. In the middle of night I created that blog and placed that very post.

Mazeltov !!!