ITM ServShop

So it seems that I’ve got a problem. I’ve got two weeks, more or less, to figure out just how I going to keep my 19 year old butt out of Viet Nam. My reporting date was 10 January 1967. I need to figure out just how to dodge the bullet. I was in great physical shape. I wasn’t homosexual. I was married for God’s sake! Even if I wanted to try that scheme I knew I couldn’t pull it off. There had to be other alternatives.

I have to admit that, upon looking back at the situation, I did at least one smart thing. I may at times be ignorant but you could never say that I was ever really stupid. I knew that in my senior year of High School I had taken a battery of tests that the Air Force had given. I also knew that I had scored pretty well on all of them. Since I hadn’t heard of any Airmen getting blown away overseas I figured that maybe, just maybe, I could get into the Air Force. My electronics aptitude was really high on the tests. Maybe I could get a tech job way in the rear.

So I went to visit my Air Force Recruiter. He was a really nice guy and he gave me some good advice that took me aback, at first. He told me that he wouldn’t have a slot available to enlist me for another six months. He also told me that he would love to be able to sign me up, but, I would get drafted way before he could get me into the program. This is the advice that didn’t seem quite so good at the time. He told me to ENLIST in Uncle Sam’s Army. Enlist? Hell I was doing my best, I told him, to avoid the Army as much as possible. Did I look like I wanted to go to Viet Nam?

Well, he said, if I enlist I would have a better chance of getting a job that wasn’t cannon fodder. If I got drafted my chances for going Infantry were pretty good. Infantry grunts had a short life expectancy somewhat similar to chopper pilots. If I enlisted I could get a slot in an Army band or some other non-combat role. Okay, I thought, maybe he’s got something here. So after a little more conversation with the Air Force sergeant, I trundled myself down to the Army Recruiter.

The Army guy told me the same thing that the Air Force guy did. I had a better shot at not getting shot if I enlisted. Still feeling like someone was blowing smoke up my butt I pumped him for the details.

I could go into the Army as an RA Unassigned recruit. This means that I would be a Regular Army recruit with no job (MOS) assignment. He didn’t have the time to do the testing on me and the Air Force tests didn’t count with the Army. So I rolled the dice and took my chances. Anything was worth a shot if it didn’t include getting me shot. I’m not a coward, mind you, just a pragmatic son of a bitch.

The only downside was that I had to be sworn in before my draft date. He made the arrangements and I left the Recruiters office to get my life in order. Needless to say that the wife wasn’t too happy. It took a while to explain how joining the Army for three years was better than getting drafted for two. She wasn’t always very swift. She took it on faith, I think, and I got myself together for the journey. I didn’t know at the time that I would find a home in the Army. But that story comes later. Now, I’m going to get mustered in at the AFEES in Montgomery.

It seems like these events didn’t really happen to me. I know they did. Time has a way of fogging the lense of remembrance. Most folks today can’t relate to getting that letter from the President. “Greetings from the President of the United States” was the lead line of the letter. It might have just as well have said, “Bubba, your ass is ours”. And it was…… You got your instructions to report for induction and generally you had about 2 weeks to put your life in order.

Remember that this is 1966. I got this letter from the Honorable Lyndon B. Johnson just about a week before Christmas. I had to report on the 10th of January 1967. I had already made the trip to the AFEES (Armed Forces Entrance and Examination Station) about a month prior. So, this notice wasn’t a complete surprise. At least not as much a surprise as the first notification. It came from the Draft Board instead of the President.

I had gotten married just a few months before I had to go to the AFEES the first time. I had skipped a semester at college to try to make a little money. I was a professional musician at the time and our band was busy on the road all summer. So as soon as they realized I hadn’t enrolled for the Fall Semester the Draft Board snatched me up. Married or not. From 2S to 1A almost overnight. 2S was the classification for a student. Just like 4F was the classification for someone who couldn’t make the induction physical or was otherwise handicapped. So now I was 1A which related to dead meat at far as I was concerned.

It was the buildup period for Viet Nam. So, anyone who got drafted was almost certain to get a free trip to Southeast Asia. The only problem was that the trip was a one way fare for a goodly number of draftees. So I had a small problem. I had to figure out how to keep my butt from being blown off by some Commie in Asia. I’ll let you know how I managed to solve the problem the next time we get together.

Looking forward, we know that the Baby Boomers will be leaving the workforce (some have already left). We know that most of the IT experience is in the heads of those Boomers. So what is the outlook for companies which depend on their experienced workforce to prosper. Well, I think that they are going to be scrambling madly for IT practitioners to fill the void left by the exiting Boomers.

What should this mean for job seekers in the IT industry? It means that you will have more leverage in your job search. It will be a seller’s market. Some of our bretheren are already jumping ship to take more lucrative positions in companies that are feeling the early loss of their aging knowledge base.

So, now is the time to dust of your books, make sure that your certifications are up to date (yes, I’m talking to all you MCSA/E’s specifically - God forbid you NT 4.0 folks haven’t gotten with the program), and that your resume is buffed up to land those positions that will be going vacant within the next 4 years. If your Cisco® certs are coming up for renewal, make sure to take the tests and keep fresh. With the changes in and additions to the CCNA, CCNP, CCSP, and CCVP you need to keep up. Don’t forget the wireless certs. They will be hot.

There are many modes available to keep yourselves up to date. Most everyone thinks of self study as their learning mode of choice. This may be a good way to go. There is a lot of study material available. CBT’s (Computer Based Training) is a good method to use, if you can’t work instructor led training into your schedule.

Instructor led training is most often the most effective means of keeping yourself fresh. This means you’ll have to go to school nights and weekends if you don’t have your days free. But, overall, you get so much more with an instructor. I find that pass rates on certification exams are higher with student who have had instructor led learning with labs.

Anyway, I thought that I would share a few observations with the IT folks. Being a Baby Boomer myself, I’m here to tell you that in a year or two, I’ll be out of the IT market. Someone’s going to have to replace me.

There has been a new development regarding the new PMI PMP exam. We have learned that PMI lowered the passing score for the new PMP exam. We also know that this new score will be retroactively applied to all examinations taken since September 30th of 2005.
We have no indication at this time that the lower passing score is temporary condition or a permanent change. But whatever the reason, we encourage those of you who failed the new exam to watch your mailboxes over the next few days to see if your exam grade is indeed modified.
Your best strategy is to sit for the exam when you believe you are ready to do so. Don’t let this lowered passing score push you into taking the exam until you’re fully prepared. Regardless of what the passing score might be, this is a very difficult exam!