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Career conversations are exactly what they sound like—a conversation with someone about their career and their future. It is common for businesses and organizations to avoid or ignore career conversations due to a number of reasons. But career conversations are important to have with your employees since they’ll feel more secure with their job and they’ll have more certainty about their future goals.

How to prepare for a career conversation 

Here are some tips from SHRM on how leaders can prepare for a career conversation :

Prepare and anticipate the tough questions. There will always be some tough questions employees throw out. If managers don’t have immediate answers, postpone answering and suggest revisiting those issues later or try brainstorming answers with the employee. Commonly asked questions are :

• Will my job be here tomorrow or in six months?”
• What options do I have to be secure at work?”
• How can I possibly achieve my career goals in this economy?”
• What can I do to recover from mistakes I’ve made and repair my reputation?”
• How can I talk about my accomplishments without sounding arrogant?”
• How do I learn about other options in the organization without turning off my manager?”
• How do I stay current with all the changes in this business? Who do I need to know? What do I need to do?”

Managers should place themselves in the shoes of their employees and anticipate their concerns. It’s more important to anticipate the questions than have all the answers. 

Follow a process to determine objectives. Here are five critical keys to opening an effective career conversation with an employee: Appreciate, Assess, Anticipate, Align and Accelerate.

• Appreciate Uniqueness. Help employees recognize their unique talents, skills, abilities, personality traits, passion and accomplishments to make career choices that fit.

• Assess Capabilities. Help employees discover their capabilities, build reputation and assess individual and team performance in order to build strong networks in their industry, organization, profession, job and personal life.
• Anticipate. Help employees consider and anticipate trends in their industry, organization and profession, and how the trends will affect choices.
• Align Aspirations. Help ensure that individuals see how their aspirations, talent, goals and passion are in “sync” with the mission, goals and strategies of the organization.
• Accelerate Learning. Connect individuals to mentors, projects, and learning opportunities to help achieve their goals and support long-term organization strategies.

Ask Questions—Get Personal and Real. The best way to get to know an employee (and to help one understand himself or herself better) is to ask powerful questions.

Appropriate questions will prompt thinking and self-reflection. When a manager asks the right questions, employees realize that their manager is prepared. They know that their manager cares, which establishes confidence and trust.

Managers can’t give advice to employees on options if they don’t know the individual’s interests, skills, passion and aspirations. Together, they should thoroughly explore the questions “How am I unique?” and “How is the world of work changing?” Employees’ career choices must be related to the changes that can be predicted in their industry, profession and organization.

Plan How to Start a Conversation. If a conversation is started thoughtfully and with an objective in mind, managers will be amazed at the conversational journey they’ll have. Examples of starting questions:

• What are my capabilities? What are the critical skills in the employees’ job, and how would they rate themselves? Choose three people who can rate their work; what feedback would they expect from them? What are some ways to get feedback about their reputation at work?
• How can I accelerate my learning? How do they learn the best? What would they like to do to increase their skills? What is the perfect learning job? What training or learning program interests them? Who would they like as a mentor, and how can you, as their manager, help them get that support?

Tell the Truth—Engage Employees as Partners. If you don’t know the answer to a question, tell the employee the truth. Don’t pretend to know. Don’t make up stuff. Don’t make promises that can’t be kept. Turn a lack of knowledge into a joint exploration and shared experience. Talk about working together to get an answer. Have a discussion in which the two of you can figure out how best to answer difficult questions. Use these discussions to appreciate and honor your career.

Genuine and meaningful career development is made possible through career conversations. When designed correctly, career conversations should promote insight and awareness into oneself and allow the exploration of future possibilities and opportunities.

P2L’s Career Conversations course can help guide you in having a conversation with your employees. Contact P2L today.

Employee Surveys are one of the most valuable yet underutilized market research methodologies available. They provide you with quantitative information and actionable clarity about how your organization is performing at every position.

Types of Employee Surveys:

• Employee Engagement Survey: this measures how valued employees feel by your company and leadership. This is important if you want to reduce employee turnover.
• Organizational Effectiveness Survey : this helps organizations improve their long-term effectiveness by gathering feedback from employees. 
• 360 and Leadership Identification and Development : this survey provides extensive data on how well an employee is performing. 360 surveys can also help assess professionals in leadership roles. The goal of 360 leadership assessment is to provide leaders with insights into their performance, potential, and areas of improvement.
• Onboarding Survey : this survey is given to newly hired employees. The employee evaluates their overall experience with the recruiting and onboarding process
• Exit Interview Survey : this survey is used when an employee leaves your company. The results can be used to improve your company and the specific job responsibilities for the role that is being vacated.

Why conduct an Employee Survey?

• Gives employees a voice. It is an opportunity to establish two-way communication and involve employees in the development process. Being actively involved and included in the planning process makes employees feel that their opinions are valued.
• Measures employee engagement and satisfaction. Measuring employee engagement is important to understand whether your team is happy and satisfied with areas such as company culture, benefits, morale, and so on.
• Understand which areas need improvement. After gathering data about employees’ satisfaction, you can now identify which areas need more improvement in your organization. 
• Driver for change. With any market research project, it is important to use the results to establish some changes in the organization. Because the surveys are anonymous, employees can freely share their thoughts. Employee surveys are an excellent first step to change the culture in an organization.
• Results can be used for marketing and recruitment. You can use the positive feedback to promote your business especially when hiring new employees. Job seekers will be more encouraged and motivated to apply when they know what they can expect from your business.

Continually surveying employees can give you a clear picture of where your company is and where you want to be. Leaders can create a plan of action to resolve any issues, as well as continue implementing whatever strategies are working well. 

Contact P2L today and we will help you conduct an employee survey for your company.

Stress is something we’ve all experienced. Believe it or not, some stress can be good for you. Good stress or eustress motivates you and it helps you grow outside your comfort zone. An example of good stress is when you get promoted at work. It can be overwhelming and daunting at first, but you will learn a lot with your new role and develop new skills. Another example of good stress is when you’re moving to a new house. All the packing, moving, and decorating can be quite stressful, but in the end, all your hard work will be worth it. 

The other kind of stress, distress, makes you unproductive and lose motivation to do anything. If you let this kind of stress consume you, it will not only affect you mentally, but also physically and emotionally.

Here are some ways on how to better manage stress :

• Identify what’s causing your stress

Start by observing and writing down for a week the sources of your stress. Include a short detailed description of each situation. List down where you were when it happened, how it made you feel, and how you reacted to the situation. Some causes of stress can be obvious, such as uncertainty about the future or the threat of losing a job. In some cases, stress can be subtle but recurring. For people working at home, trying to find that balance to separate work from life or even a slow internet connection can cause stress. 

• Apply the 4 A’s of stress management

Avoid

Avoid unnecessary stress. Learn how to say “no.” Know your limits and set firm boundaries.. Whether in your personal or professional life, taking on more than you can handle will definitely cause you stress.

Alter

Alter the situation. Communicate clearly and let people know your expectations. Express your feelings instead of keeping quiet just to keep the peace. Remember to use “I” statements when addressing someone about how you feel. 

State your limitations in advance. For example, you can say, “I only have ten minutes to talk.”

Adapt

Changing your standards and expectations of stressful situations can help you cope with stress. Adjust your standards. Perfectionism is a major source of avoidable stress. Stop setting yourself up for failure by demanding perfection. Set reasonable standards for yourself and others. 

Look at the big picture. Ask yourself how important it will be in the long run. Will it matter in a month? A year? Is it really worth getting upset over? If the answer is no, focus your energy elsewhere.

Accept

Accept the things you can change.

Many things in life are beyond our control, particularly the behavior of other people. Instead of stressing out over them, focus on the things you can control such as the way you choose to react to problems.

Forgive yourself or others. Let go of anger and resentments. Free yourself from negative energy by forgiving and moving on.

Connect with people. Talk to a trusted friend or make an appointment with a therapist.

• Distraction

You may be thinking “why would I want to distract myself instead of solving my problems?” It’s actually not healthy to focus on your problems all the time. Give yourself a time during the day where you’ll think about solving your problems. Beyond that, allow your mind to rest and do things you love. Exercise, go for a walk, cook, bake, paint, read a book, play with your pet, or meet with your friends.

Stress is a normal reaction the body has when changes occur, resulting in physical, emotional and intellectual responses. Learn more on what you can do to manage your stress levels with our stress management course. Contact P2L today!

Big data is the massive amount of data available to organizations. Because of its volume and complexity it is not easily managed or analyzed by many business intelligence tools. Tools for big data can help with the volume of the data collected, the speed at which that data becomes available to an organization for analysis, and the complexity or varieties of that data.

Google Cloud Big Data and Machine Learning Fundamentals introduce participants to the capabilities of the Google Cloud Platform. Through a combination of presentations, demos, and hands-on labs, participants get an overview of the Google Cloud and a detailed view of the data processing and machine learning capabilities.

Target audience

• Data analysts, Data scientists, Business analysts getting started with Google Cloud
• Individuals responsible for designing pipelines and architectures for data processing, creating and maintaining machine learning and statistical models, querying datasets, visualizing query results and creating reports
• Executives and IT decision makers evaluating Google Cloud for use by data scientists

Course Objectives

• Identify the purpose and value of the key Big Data and Machine Learning products on Google Cloud
• Use Cloud SQL and Cloud Dataproc to migrate existing MySQL and Hadoop/Pig/Spark/Hive workloads to Google Cloud
• Employ BigQuery and Cloud Datalab to carry out interactive data analysis

Here are some Google Cloud Big Data Services :

Google Cloud BigQuery

BigQuery lets you store and query datasets holding massive amounts of data. The service uses a table structure, supports SQL, and integrates seamlessly with all GCP services. You can use BigQuery for both batch processing and streaming.

Google Cloud Dataflow

Dataflow offers serverless batch and stream processing. You can create your own management and analysis pipelines, and Dataflow will automatically manage your resources. The service can integrate with GCP services like BigQuery and third-party solutions like Apache Spark.

Google Cloud BigTable

Bigtable is a fully-managed NoSQL database service built to provide high performance for big data workloads. Bigtable runs on a low-latency storage stack, supports the open-source HBase API, and is available globally.

P2L offers a course on Google Cloud Big Data and Machine Learning Fundamentals. If you are interested in taking this course, please contact us here.

Over the past 20 years, the popularity of console games has skyrocketed. E-sports tournaments, streaming, and celebrity sponsored events have dominated the market; and created new lane ways for this profession to thrive. As we go into the 2020’s, a new branch of gaming is finally receiving its flowers, we present to you:

The Rise of Mobile Games. 

Early Days.

Who here remembers brickbreaker? This relaxing, arcade style game was surprisingly a big selling point for the blackberry. The allure of picking up your device, an already constant source of stimulation, and playing something mindless is undeniable. 

If this concept was walking alongside the blackberry, then it would be running with the release of the Iphone. Apples touch screen smartphone boasted an accessible layout, exclusive features, and best of all; an expansive library of mobile games. Soon games like Subway Surfers, Temple Run, and Angry Birds became household names.

These games would form a foundation that has now sprouted in directions no one saw coming. Cell phones were developed as the ultimate communication tool – mobile games as the ultimate time killer. 

Modern Mobile Games.

The rise of mobile games wasn’t done here though. As people fought hand and neck for leaderboard spots in single player games; multiplayer games would be rounding the corner. The first hyper-popular multiplayer game was undoubtedly Clash of Clans. This competitive tower defense game had players build and defend a base from other players. It was a simple concept, yet one that was both free and accessible to the general public. To this day, Clash of Clans still has 37 million active players–a testament to mobile games and their pull. 

Soon, games like Pokemon GO would take the world by storm; utilizing phone features like the camera and GPS to create an immersive experience. Games like Clash Royale now sponsor paid professional leagues and tournaments. Upcoming games like Elite Commander provide the same value a Linkedin Course would on a resume, and mobile games continually evolve past this.

In conclusion, the accessibility of mobile games creates a promising horizon for the industry, and a world of opportunity for anyone interested enough in developing them.

TechTarget defines Red Hat as a software company that combines open source Linux operating system components with related programs into a distribution package that customers can order.

The Red Hat business model is based on an open source ecosystem, where collaborative development occurs within a community of professionals focused on providing quality assurance, testing and customer support.

What is Red Hat Administration I?

Red Hat System Administration I is for IT professionals without any  Linux system administration experience. This course provides students with Linux administration competence by focusing on core administration tasks. It also provides a foundation for students who plan to become full-time Linux system administrators by introducing key command-line concepts and enterprise-level tools. 

What are the prerequisites for this course?

Basic technical skills and understanding of computer applications.

What will you learn from this course?

• Introduction to the command line
• Managing physical storage
• Learning how to install and configure software components and services
• Establishing network connections and firewall access
• Monitoring and managing processes
• Managing and securing files
• Administrating users and groups
• Accessing Linux file systems
• Installing and using virtualized systems
• Reviewing the system log files and journal

Course Outline

• Access and manage files from the command line
• Log in to a Linux system and run simple commands using the shell
• Copy, move, create, delete, and organize files from the bash shell prompt
• Get help in Red Hat Enterprise Linux Resolve problems by using online help systems and Red Hat support utilities
• Create, view, and edit text files from command output or in an editor
• Manage local Linux users and groups and administer local password policies
• Control access to files with Linux file system permissions
• Set Linux file system permissions on files and interpret the security effects of different permission settings
• Monitor and manage Linux processes Obtain information about the system, and control processes running on it
• Control services and daemons
• Control and monitor network services and system daemons using the system
• Configure and secure OpenSSH service
• Access and provide access to the command line on remote systems securely using OpenSSH
• Analyze and store logs
• Locate and accurately interpret relevant system log files for troubleshooting purposes
• Manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux networking
• Configure basic IPv4 networking on Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems
• Archive files and copy them from one system to another
• Install and update software packages Download, install, update, and manage software packages from Red Hat and yum package repositories
• Access Linux file systems Access and inspect existing file systems on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system
• Use virtualized systems Create and use Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual machines with KVM and libvirt
• Comprehensive review
• Practice and demonstrate the knowledge and skills learned in this course

Broaden your knowledge and enhance your current skill set with P2L. Contact us today for any inquiries about this course.

Kubernetes is an open source platform developed by Google. It allows users to coordinate and run containerized applications over a series of multiple devices or machines. Kubernetes’ purpose is centered on total control of the entire lifecycle of a containerized application, with methods providing improved availability and scalability.

Linux Foundation: Kubernetes for App Developers

This three-day course will teach you how to containerize, host, deploy and configure a multi-node cluster application. It also prepares you for the Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) exam. Therefore, this course serves as a valuable asset as it greatly increases the student’s chances of becoming a certified developer.

Developers and DevOps can benefit from Kubernetes. It was designed to streamline the process of deploying, managing, and scaling applications in a distributed environment. This makes it ideal for use in development and operations environments.

Why Choose Kubernetes?

• Reliable and Flexible

Kubernetes lets you quickly deploy new applications and scale your existing ones without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure. It has the ability to extend its functionality to cater to your application needs. The more complex your system becomes, the more flexible Kubernetes can be to manage it.

• Reduced operational costs

You can reduce the amount of time you spend on manual tasks such as setting up and configuring software tools by automating the deployment process.

• Scaling your application

Kubernetes helps you scale without causing operational increases and development team management. You’ll have less work on your infrastructure as you’ll only need to interact with Kubernetes.

• Multi-cloud service

Kubernetes makes it easy to run your application on a multi-cloud provider and fully supports multi-cloud container deployment.

• Security

Kubernetes has numerous features to secure your clusters such as Kubernetes Secrets API, Pod Security Policies, Network Policies, etc., to thoroughly secure sensitive information.

Kubernetes is one of the most commonly-used container management systems in the tech space. It is important for developers to know a thing or two about Kubernetes to enable them to build scalable applications and easily deploy them.

Contact P2L today to know more about Kubernetes for App Developers.

Introduction to SharePoint

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint is a robust, highly flexible, versatile, and secure web-based collaboration and document management system powered by Microsoft. SharePoint uses different applications and tools such as workflow applications, “List” databases, security features, and other web parts to allow business teams to connect and collaborate seamlessly and efficiently.

Benefits of using Microsoft SharePoint :

• Useful for collaboration

SharePoint provides a web-based space where users can upload a document to immediately be shared with other people. Users can also have their personal storage space called a OneDrive where no one can see a file they upload until they share it or allow others access to that document. Links to shared documents can also easily be sent through email, making it easy for users to quickly see what they want to see.

• Enhanced security

You can work with other team members and share documents inside and outside your organization without any worries. SharePoint has a strong data encryption and cloud backup to keep your data safe and secure. Users can set security settings to the individual file level, eliminating all security risks.

• Optimized content delivery

Users can create and submit content for approval in seconds. If you pre-schedule your content to go live on your website at a certain time, you will never have to wonder if your post has gone through the required review stages beforehand. If you’re an international company with multilingual content, Sharepoint can definitely help you.

• Increased productivity

When all your documents are on SharePoint, searching for what you need is as simple as a few clicks. You can organize each SharePoint site to include only the folders and subfolders you need. This way, you can easily find the source when you’re short on time and you have to make a quick business decision.

• Can be easily customized

SharePoint developers can build custom applications and connect them to the software with ease. This option gives your team members instant access to the tools they need to finish their tasks.

• Easy to use and understand

The software includes tools that allow you to progress without requiring a degree in computer science. Whether you need to build a website from scratch or update an existing one, you can do so with SharePoint.

Microsoft SharePoint makes corporate teamwork as productive and as efficient as possible. Contact P2L today if you are interested in learning more about Microsoft SharePoint and how it can help your business.

Learning how to manage your time well can help you become more productive and more efficient. You are more likely to meet deadlines and have time for things you want to do outside of work.

Time management skills include :

• Prioritizing : When people feel overwhelmed with tasks and they seem to want to do everything all at once, it’s usually because they’re not prioritizing their tasks well. Prioritize the most important tasks in an order that makes sense. When assigning priority, consider such factors as when each task needs to be done, how long it might take, how important it might be to others in the company, and what could happen if a task is not done.

• Scheduling : Most people have specific times of the day when they are more or less productive as a result of energy levels and demands of the day. Schedules can be a good way to avoid procrastination. Scheduling is important because some tasks have to be done at specific times. 

• To-do lists : Constantly remembering everything you have to do can be daunting and exhausting. To-do lists are a great way to avoid spending all day thinking about the tasks you have to do. Split the necessary tasks up into a list for each day, and you won’t have to worry about everything all at once.

• Workload management : Working long hours or skipping breaks can sometimes improve productivity in the short term, but your exhaustion later will ensure that your overall productivity actually drops. It is important to resist the temptation to overwork. Include necessary breaks, and a sensible end time in your schedule. Knowing and enforcing an optimum workload for yourself ensures consistency in your performance and avoids burnout.

• Delegation :Some people resist delegating, either because they want to maintain control or because they want to save money by not hiring assistants. Both approaches ultimately hurt productivity and raise costs. 

Being fully present and focused results from strong time management skills. Managing your time well also allows you to have space to be creative and proactive with your goals.

Contact P2L to learn more about this course.

What is unconscious bias?

Unconscious bias is beliefs about individuals or groups of people that we are often unaware of. When bias exists, your organization will struggle to recruit and retain diverse teams, and workplace inclusion will be hindered.

What are the different types of unconscious bias?

• Affinity bias

This is when we show a preference for people we are similar to in some way, because we find them familiar and easier to relate to. This could be because of shared characteristics such as class, ethnicity, or geography or shared interests or hobbies. 

• Beauty bias

This type of bias is when we base our opinion on someone’s looks. Even when we were taught not to ‘judge a book by its cover’, sometimes, we unconsciously favor attractive people for a job despite the fact that this has no relevance on their talent or skill to perform the role well.

• Conformity bias

This bias refers to our tendency to take other people’s suggestions heavily to arrive at a decision, rather than make our own independent judgment.  Having a diverse team means a broader range of experiences and knowledge. This helps bring awareness to social issues we aren’t aware of and get more ideas before making a decision.

• Gender bias

Gender bias starts when we write job listings. Certain terms have been found to attract applicants of one gender more than another. Gender bias also refers to a male candidate being hired for a physically demanding role, or a senior woman being asked to write minutes in a meeting.

It is important to take concrete and transparent steps like training employees to lessen unconscious bias in your company. This will have positive results in your company such as increased productivity and a healthier balance sheet. Take P2L’s Unconscious Bias course to help your company  implement tools to address bias through practice and long-term learning enablement.