So last Friday was one of our last and quite frankly very interesting guest speakers, Senior Technical Analyst for the Information Services Division of the Judicial Council of California, Elke Vogt! So without further ado lets read on for some further reading on the upgraded court telecommunications, the ups and downs, and what to keep your eye on in yourself during internship!
1.What are some of the VOIPs that are being used by the court systems? Are they public (i.e. skype or gtalk) or private?
Elke:It would have been more accurate for me to say in my presentation on Friday that the courts are starting to embrace IP Telephony. The drivers for moving to IP Telephony are to converge their voice, data, and mobile networks and save money. The natural progression for many of our courts is to further evolve to unified communication services so they can use a variety of devices across their extended networks. A few of our courts are throwing wireless handheld VOIP devices in the mix.
Our courts typically used Cisco solutions, although a few have gone to Shoretel. The typical design includes VOIP dedicated phones, routers, switches and point to point fiber connections (OptEman) and internet connectivity.
2. What are some of the day to day things you see your interns working on?
E:As I mentioned during the presentation, the AOC had interns for the first time just this last summer. Sadly my management chose not to take on an IS intern but I saw interns in other departments. I can't comment on what they did day to day because I did not observe their work directly.
3. What are a few things you simply love about your job and maybe a few you could do without?
E:What I love about my job is that I have had many opportunities to learn new things all the time and I get to solve problems on a regular basis. I can't stand repetition or being bored. I enjoy the fact that I am usually allowed to make decisions about my work and how I manage the moving parts (code: I am not micromanaged). I also like it that I am someone people come to for advice or help. What I do not like is how long it takes sometimes for decisions to be made by our "leadership" or the lack of communication from said Leadership. I also could live without the lack of teamwork or resistance to communicate between departments. I think it results in a waste of resources, money, and time, and it ultimately affects everyone.
4. What are some habits or traits, coming from the prospective of a project manager, that you would look for in your interns to want to keep them around?
E:What I appreciate is someone who cares about their work and puts the time into understanding who their internal and external customers are. I like to see someone put the effort into figuring things out. What I mean by that is; when you start a new job or project, you make the effort read existing documents, reach out to peers to learn what you can. Then, put together questions and schedule time with me to discuss and get direction. I guess in a nutshell I am talking about initiative.
I do not like it when I spend time training someone and they don't take notes (or have some other system of recording pertinent points-photographic memory, etc.) so they ask me the same questions over and over or don't use the recourses I pointed out during training.
I look for someone who doesn't sit behind their desktop and hide. Its important to go talk to people face to face or at least pick up the phone from time to time for a live conversation.
I appreciate it when someone admits that they made a mistake. All of us screws up sometimes. I have found that you get a lot of respect if you accept responsibility and offer to fix things or at least make an effort to see you don't keep repeating the same mistake.
Thank you very much for your insight and time Elke! I hope we can see you again at Guest Speaker Friday!
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