Embedded Systems

I told you all that I have recently started marketing.  I have placed a few Embedded Systems engineers and I need about 40 more right away.

If you guys know of any Electrical Engineers or Electronics Engineers please refer them to me right away, I can get them a job in just 30 days.

I am getting bombarded with requests for Embedded Engineers I have never seen the demand this strong.  This bodes well for the job market in general, that means that companies are spending money on development and that is always the first cut in slow down and always the last to return.

I know the saying is:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.

I have decided to change this based on my current needs.

Give me you unemployed, your poor,
Your electrical engineers yearning to get a job.
The  wretched electronics engineers also,
Send these, the engineers, to me.

JAVA and .NET

My head of marketing resigned yesterday and I was marketing today and I have to say that it was a big eye opener.  Out of the 3000 new jobs that were  sent to me to see if I could fill the position about 40% were for JAVA openings and another 30% were for .NET openings, leaving 30% for all the other technologies.

With so much unemployment in USA, I wonder if anyone even knows that there are probably a hundred thousand open jobs in just JAVA and .NET alone in USA.

Everyone that comes to me wants to only learn functional subjects.  Nobody wants to do hard job of learning to do coding anymore.

JAVA jobs are  paying $60 per hour currently and with a few years of experience the pay scale goes up to $80 per hour.

I have said it in the past and I am going to say it again, ever single student or recent graduate needs to take JAVA and PL/SQL or .NET and PL/SQL.  If you are not working there is nobody to blame but yourself.

We train students in JAVA in 90 days and within another 30 days have them working.

We train students in .NET in 60 days and within another 45 days have them working.

We train students in PL/SQL in 14 days and you can even get jobs in PL/SQL but the bill rates are very low.

Besides just stating the facts and telling students through the blog about the demand for JAVA and .NET jobs, I am not sure how else I can spread the message.

I probably get 100 calls a month for training in BA, and maybe one call a month for training in JAVA or .NET.  The demand is so low, I have even stopped answering people emails for BA training.  There is no use in learning BA when it is so hard to get you a job.

I have a friend that owns a major online training company and he was telling me that he trains 10 batches at a time in BA.  I am sure that very few of his students get jobs after the training, but even if you tell people these statistics people will still want to take the BA training.  Everybody wants the easy job and nobody wants to do the hard work anymore even if it pays more.

Duty

I prefer a life of simplicity.  I hardly care where I live, what I drive, or what I wear.

I was thinking of how to make my life simpler and I think there is no way to do that.
 
My life is so involved in my employees and my students, there is no way I can simply leave and live a simpler life.  My dereliction of duty will affect so many other people, I could not do that.  I do not want my needs or wants to affect people negatively that rely on me.
 
So I will keep the businesses growing and keep working hard and the dream of simplicity will be just that, a dream.

I was reading an article about two friends that sold their company for hundreds of millions.  One friend retired immediately and started traveling the world.  The other friend started another company and kept working.  His friend asked him why, and he said, he felt a sense of duty to his employees that were let go when they sold the company and he started another company not to make more money, but because he knew he could help his employees make a living.

I loved that story.  It would be easy for me to sell all my interests in everything that I own and live comfortably for the rest of my life.  But I will not do that, because I do feel a great sense of duty to my employees, students and my business partners.  I know that as long as I am in charge we will be successful and that success is good for everybody involved with me.

Arrogance

I get hundreds of calls a day and about 500 emails a day and I make it a point to answer every single call and email.  I was talking to a student on the phone  and suddenly he said to me, "you are very arrogant."

I stopped and thought back to what I had said and I could see how he would feel that way.  I recently have been accepting very few students for training and placements.  I have chosen to be very picky.  All this came down, because I used to feel that I could place anybody into a job, it simply did not matter who they were.  I was wrong.

I had a student from Nepal that had very weak communication skills and on top of that he used to pause when he talked and during phone interviews everyone felt like he was looking up information before he answered, when in reality that is just how he spoke.

The problem is that once I accept you I take responsibility for you and I will do whatever it takes to get you placed.  I tried and tried and spent at a minimum of $10,000 on him, and finally when I wanted to spend even more and keep trying, my partners pulled the plug on me and said no more, and that they did not want me spending any more money on him.

So I finally gave him his 2 week notice and let him go.  It was hard for me to accept failure, but I bowed my head and said, yes I have failed.

From that moment on, I simply do not just take just anybody anymore.  Most student will call me on the phone and I have to judge them within seconds if I want to accept them or not.  I usually ask them with lots questions all at once and see how they answer under duress and if I am interested I will slow down and get to know them better, if I am not interested I will ask for a resume or some other documents and then let it go at that.  The most important skill I look for nowadays is communication.  If you pass that, then I look for more, like how well you answer my barrage of questions and in what order.

The problem is that if I accept you, it will likely cost me thousands of dollars to train you and place you, and it is very rare that I give up on anybody.  So if I have accepted you, I have pretty much committed to spend whatever it takes to place you, and I have placed almost everyone that I have accepted.  I am sure my partners in the company would wish that I spent less money, but I simply do not care about money, all I care about is the success of my students and nothing else really matters to me.

So anyway this student called me arrogant.  Once I lose interest in you, I simply do not have the time or inclination to hear their stories anymore, so I do become disinterested and possibly arrogant, because there is no way I am going to accept you.

I am sure I have rejected more students than most companies have accepted for training.

If you have great communication skills and are decently smart then I want you.

If you have self-confidence and are willing to work 12 hours a day during our training then I want you.

So I am sorry that I am arrogant, but I do not have time to coddle you, your mother is there for that.

Feedback From Corporate Training

The feedback we got from our corporate training we have been doing has been terrific.

The same students had attended SAP training at SAP and for the exact same course they have been attending our course.

OK, we did not give them some fancy book that you will never touch again, like SAP does, but what we gave them was some thing much better, we gave them actual knowledge reinforced with live SAP Programming from the very first day.

Every concept was followed by an sample program on that concept.

The positive feedback was:

Impressive
I learned so much
I loved it
You guys are the best

We also got negative feedback:

You should print out all the exercises in a book or on handouts

OK, so that was the extend of the negative feedback.  We obviously did a good job, we got extended for more training on September 10-14.

I have always said that I love feedback.  Good or Bad, I simply love feedback.  In fact some of the best feedback I got were from 5 students that had come to me from HP, and ripped me a new one when we first started VXL Training.  But that negative feedback was the impetus to improve and to reach where we are today.

There is a quote by Henry Ford that I love:

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.

I really do not know who my competitors are in MI?  I work 7 days a week not because I have to, but I simply love to become better at what I do.  I learn every single day.

I can promise you that I will make VXL Training a company you will be proud to have in the community.

I can promise you that VXL Training will continue to live up to our tag line: Training For A Better Future.

Award - Best Computer Training - Novi MI

Here is our award for Best Computer Training 2012 - Novi MI

Press Release:

I am pleased to announce that VXL Training has been selected for the 2012 Best of Novi Awards in the Computer Training category.

Congratulations on joining such an elite group of small businesses.

New Guest House

We bought another condo to use as a guest house.  The last one we bought was very good and the kids have enjoyed the condo, so I went out and bought another one.

Here are a few pictures after we got it fixed it up:

This is the one parking spot that is covered.  There are lost of uncovered spots also.

Front Door  - You can sort of see me taking this picture through the glass.  Sunil is standing next to me.

This is the Living Room.  It is much bigger than it looks.  I was standing to the side, I would not show up in the glass that is in the living room.

Dining Room

 Kitchen

 Backyard Porch - It is kind of small.

 Stairs to the Basement

Room in Basement

1/2 of the basement.  This side is for storage.  There is more storage to the right side of the basement also.

This is the other side of the basement.  This side has the new washer and dryer and AC and water heater.  I want add another full bath here, and I will have to do it in 2013.

 1/2 Bathroom on the main level

 Time to go Upstairs

 1 of 2 Bathroom upstairs

 One Bedroom with a walk0in closet.  Room is much bigger than it look.  The way I took the picture makes it look small.

 2 of 2 Bedrooms. This the master I guess since it has an attached bathroom.  This bedroom also has a walk-in.

 This is the other bathroom upstairs.  This one is attached to the bedroom.

I Like to Work With The Best - But Sometimes..

I like to work with the very best teachers in almost any subject that I teach.  Typically we are so much better than our competition that my consultants are some of very best in the market.  My consultants are sought after for their skills sets, soft and hard.

When you come for training with us, you almost invariably end up getting trained in multiple modules with us so that your overall skill sets are tremendous.  I encourage my consultants to constantly keep learning, and I make my classes available for free for all my consultants.

There is a teacher I had in the past that is tremendous, and he is in all likelihood the very best in his field.

I asked for him to start teaching for us again and here was the reply that I got from him:

For either BA/Architect Level courses,

1) An initial amount of 5000$ per person will be charged and this needs to paid out on the very first day the student joins the class. (This includes training fee and other infrastructure cost for the setup I have to do in India)

2) After the candidate is placed,another 5000$ will be charged as soon as the PO is received. (In case if the candidate looses the job, I will work with the student until another placement, free of cost).
3) In case of any paid candidates, total fee to be shared in the ratio of 60-40% (??-Vijay). 

Besides the weird $ after the number the answer was pretty clear, he wants to be paid $10,000 per student before you generate 1 dollar of revenue.  Even if could guarantee a 50% placement rate, there is not a single company that would take this deal.

Let us assume that 10 students join, which would mean you pay an immediate $50,000 and no matter how hard you vet the group you will likely lose 2 candidates before completion.  So we are down to 8.  Assuming a placement rate of 90% you would place 7 students.  Which would mean that you would pay another $35,000 when you get the PO.

For the new consultants you have to cover 3 months of payroll before you generate a penny in cash flow.  Each consultant will cost $20,000 just to cover 3 months of payroll.

So by month 4, I would have paid out $225,000 ($85,000 plus $140,000) just to train and place 7 consultants and this is before I have gotten 1 dollar in revenue. 

Like I said, I like to work with only the very best, but sometimes even I have to pass.

You know what the funny part is to this whole thing.  This same teacher when he taught his first class for me, we paid him $2500.  Next class we paid him $3500, since he was so good.  Then we became partners and he was paid $40,000 for one year of work, and then $180,000 for another 1.5 years of work.  I taught him the value of his work

He is also teaching others in India, and he told me that he charges Rs. 20,000 (About $400), to teach others.

He asked me if this would work for me as far as his rates.  I looked at his email and after being in shock at the rates, I replied within 10 seconds, that this proposal does not work for me and here we are.

Sometimes people only see what we make on an individual basis and do not see the total costs involved in running a company.  Our small little company has a running cost of $500,000 per year.  To do everything as perfect as possible, I spend about 50% of our revenue on just running the company.  I do not mind the high costs, since I believe it is necessary.

I maybe generous, but I am not stupid.

So, yes I do like to work with the best, but sometimes that is simply not possible.

Team Concept and Twilight Zone

I was talking to an employee of mine that we recently hired from India.  We hired him for $70,000 and I told him if his project bill rate was good we would give him $80,000.  I explained all the risks there were to bring him to USA and how much risk and effort was involved.  But we filed for his H1B and it was approved and he went for stamping and that was given also and he is now in USA.

This employee of mine is spectacular, he has 9 years of real time experience in SAP BI and to have someone like that on my payroll is a dream.  When you are bidding on projects, someone like him is essential to show pas part of your team.

He was telling me that some of the client he was talking to were offering him $110,000 to $130,000 to join them full time.  He told me that he would never leave us and that he just wanted to tell me so that I was aware.

100% of my employees could likely make more money with someone else, but they choose to stay with me, because of loyalty and I would like to believe they have a clear understanding of the greater good concept and will stay with us.

There was a show called Twilight Zone in the 80's and in that there was one episode that I thought of, when I was talking to my employee, here is the story:

Arthur and Norma Lewis are slowly descending into abject poverty. One day, they receive a mysterious locked box with a button on it and a note that says a Mr. Steward will come visit. Then, just as the note says, a smartly dressed stranger who introduces himself as Steward comes to their door when Arthur is out. He gives Norma the key to the box and explains that, if they press the button, two things will happen: they will receive $200,000, and someone "whom you don't know" will die.
After the stranger leaves, the Lewises wonder whether Steward's proposal is genuine, and they agonize over whether to press the button. Norma rationalizes that they could make good use of the money and that the one who dies might be some Chinese peasant or cancer sufferer who is living a miserable life. Arthur takes the side that, since they do not know who will die, pressing the button may cause the death of an innocent baby. They open the box and discover no mechanism inside it—it is simply an empty box with a button on it. Arthur angrily throws the box in the trash. However, in the middle of the night while Arthur is asleep, Norma goes to the apartment building's dumpster and retrieves the device. The next day, Arthur leaves for work and sees Norma sitting at the kitchen table, her gaze transfixed on the button. At the end of the day, he returns from work and it appears that nothing has changed; Norma is still sitting and concentrating only on the button. The days go by. Norma and Arthur keep talking about the box, when suddenly Norma decides that she will push the button.
However, the next day Mr. Steward returns, takes back the box, and gives them a briefcase with the $200,000. The Lewises are in shock and ask what will happen next. Steward ominously replies that the button will be "reprogrammed" and offered to someone else with the same terms and conditions, adding as he focuses on Norma: "I can assure you it will be offered to someone whom you don't know." A horrified, knowing expression crosses Norma's face.

This I think illustrates the concept of the greater good.  Sure my employee could leave and make more money, but this decision will affect others that he does not even know.  If he was to leave, I would simply stop bringing people over from India, since the cost and risk is prohibitive.  Since we were going to be bringing over 5 more people in 2013, his actions would simply force me to rethink and likely not bring them over.

So you can see that your personal decision for profit would affect 5 other people in a negative way, so would you do it?

It is easy to look upon life as a game in which you keep making moves to profit and you simply do not care about others, but as has been proven by my own employees, I have lost only 3 employees over the last one year, who have left to make more money with others.  My employees have a clear understanding of what I try to do, and they know that I am not simply about money.  I am here to support them, I am here to get them the best of everything so that they can keep growing (growth in lots of different ways), and I am here to keep the company growing so that we can all benefit in the process.

What have I done recently towards those goals:

I have gotten us a major new client, they generate multibillion dollars, in which we are already provide services and we hope to keep expanding what we provide to them.  I believe that this will develop into a major new relationship.

I have gotten a major new contract to provide contract services to Fortune 50 Bank

I have started a healthcare division for our training and placement division

I have gotten us a new guest house.  This place is amazing and I will post pictures soon.

I have plans to start a new employee fund in which we give loans to employees that have been with us for one year.  I hear about your problems and I want to help and I am trying to come up with plans for this.

Unavailable

I will be unavailable from July 23-27 and July 31-Aug 2.

We got a major training opportunity at a Mutlibillion dollar company and I am in Jackson MI overseeing the training.  The training room that the client has provided us is in the basement and my phone does not work when I am in the training room.

I am very proud of the value we were able to deliver this client.

We provided live training at their facility at 80% of the cost and they did not have to spend anything on travel, accommodations or food for their students.

We are recording this class for them and the students can watch this class over and over.  The funny thing is that this same group of students had been to SAP for training for the exact same class, but they forgot everything since it was long back. 

My guess is that with all the travel expenses and full cost of the class, they would have spent 200% of the cost that I quoted.  They will never have to pay for this class again for this same group, since this class is recorded and the students can review this class multiple times, until they are proficient in this technology.

About the biggest worry for the company is the quality of the training.  I will do an evaluation for the course from these students and post them online for everyone to see.

Training for Corporations

I love the training part of our business and you all know how passionate I am about delivering quality in any training course I run.

We have been getting more and more popular as far as corporate training.  I do not advertise and I do not have a sales team, marketing our services.  I have been able to get customers simply based on word of mouth and I could hope that when they meet me, my passion for training comes across to them.

What are the benefits for corporations to give us their training business?:

1) We can provide training at 80% of the cost of other corporate training companies.

2) We have been training for a long time and we simply have the best teachers.  Most of my teachers have been training on the same subject for me for over 5 years.

3) We can come to your location for training - Saving you a bundle on travel expenses.

4) We record all our classes - Your employees can watch these videos over and over so that they can practice at home and when the teacher is not there.  It is also a handy reference to review topics.

5) We give lots of practical work and homework so that the students can learn practically.  Every theory topics is reemphasized with work on the system for reinforcement.

With all the benefits that I provide, the most important benefits we provide are our teachers.  We truly believe that we have the very best teachers on any topic that we teach.

The second most important benefit is our LMS (Learning Management System) in which we load all our classes so that the students can watch these classes over and over.  In most software topics for advanced topics it is very important to watch the classes multiple times to really learn the concept well.

I know that I can save our MI companies lots of money while delivering higher quality training then what they currently receive, and I think I need to get a sales force to spread the word.

Mentor

Placements have been terrific for us recently but everywhere I go people are always talking about youth unemployment or underemployment.

I can tell you exactly what the issue is.

Colleges are great at preparing you for a career that requires licensing like nursing, physician or pharmacist.  But as soon as the topic is general, like Business Administration, then they suck at preparing you for working at a Fortune 500 company. 

My guess is that everyone's ideal is to work at a Fortune 500 company, and I can tell you the easiest way to achieve that goal is by working in Information Technology (IT).

One of the most important things you can do in life is to get a mentor.  Someone that is successful and then follow his advice or in his footsteps. 

OK, here I am entering mentoring mode, and here is some advice for all you young people to become successful.

1) Learn JAVA - This is such a base skill to have and it will help you to get to other higher paying verticals in IT.  This is my most important advice.

2) Save $100,000 - While you are young learn to live like you were still in college.  Save every penny you have until you have $100,000 saved in the bank.  This will give you lots of flexibility to grab opportunities when they come.

3) Join a consulting company - Join a consulting company that specializes in training and then placing you.  The reason you join is that they really know which technologies are doing well and are required in the market.  They can guide you on what to learn.

4) Work like an Indian - I have said this before.  But if you project requires you to work 60 works and bill for 40, you do that.  Until you become an expert in your technology, this is what you have to do.  I have told this to my American employees and they still do not listen.   Let me give you an example.  I have a consultant that is older and has been desperate for a good job and we trained and placed her in a good company.  The client told my consultants to bill for overtime hours, and the Indian consultants billed for 5-6 hours and my American consultant  billed for 38 extra hours.  It has only been 2 months since she has joined her dream job and she is really still in the learning phase, there is no way you bill a client for 38 extra hours even if you worked it.  In consulting that is simply not done.  So let me reiterate here: WORK LIKE AN INDIAN, this is very important.

5) Become successful young, marry young, have kids when you are young.  Nothing will be more important in your future and your happiness than your family and their happiness.  It is so important to not delay success, because a delay here, causes a delay in the rest of life's important events.

If you are young (22-35) and are unemployed or are underemployed, then call me and I can advice on what to do.  I like to help young people and if you do not have a mentor, I can help to mentor you.

Vijay Madala - 248-797-4990

Food In The Fridge

I have mentioned that I used to stock my fridge in the office with food and drinks for my students, but what happened was that the kitchen was right next to my office and I was eating a snack bar hear and there and I was putting on a lot of weight.  So as a consequence I have stopped buying food for the office.

I know that my lack of will power is making everybody else suffer, but I am sorry.  I am trying to lose weight and this was one the things that I had to do so that I could lose weight.

Money for Training

I have students that pay me for training and it always amazes me that they want 100% guarantee that they will get a job for their $1000 to $2500 payment.  I wish they would ask the same question when they join college and are about to pay $100,000.

I get lots of people that ask me that question, and in fact I was asked that question yesterday and I always give the same answer:

Ques: "Can you guarantee me that I will get a job if I come to this training and pay the money?"

Answer: "NO! There is no way anybody can answer yes to that question.   There are so many factors that go into getting a job and knowledge is just one function of that equation."

The ones that ask that question, after I tell them NO, they usually go away and that makes me very happy.  I am sure that some training companies will give the YES answer, but I cannot see how you can truthfully give that answer.  I consider myself one of the best in some of the technologies that we teach, and even I only have a 70% placement rate and I consider that extremely good.

If there is some company that has a 100% placement rate and can answer YES, then my hats off to you.  You guys are must be something amazing and I would love to learn more from you.

I work my butt off to get to that 70% placement rate and I am happy with that rate.

Highest Paid Employee

Do you know who the highest paid employee is our company?

It is not me, who does all the recruitment and training.
It is not our main marketing who does 30-40 placements a year

It is the head of legal division that handles all the paperwork for the students so that they can maintain their status to work in USA.  This is such a crucial job and so important to be a detail orientated person.  It is a person's life that is in the balance when you do that job, and a small failure can cause such tremendous consequences, that you have to have the best person you can find in this role.

I am not saying that my employee that is in this role does not have his eccentricities, but he is simply the very best at his job as far as being perfect with paperwork and getting approvals.  In fact we have 100% approval rate.

But I was just thinking that I should be the highest paid in my own company, but upon reflection it is correct that the head of our legal division is the highest paid employee.  One mistake and poof a life changes and that is a tremendous responsibility to have to live with every day.

Desperate

We have had tremendous amounts of placements recently and I always find it interesting that the students that seem to be always talking about getting placed fast are always the last ones to get placed.

They talk about how someone got placed in 2 weeks or without even an interview and I know this is the student that is going to cause me the most amount of trouble.

There are reasons why a student that only cares about placement and not about knowledge will always take time to get placed.

Here is the reason why?

First Reason:

I have a student that is desperate to get placed and I will have a few placements in one technology and suddenly he wants to jump into that training.  I will have a few placements in another technology and he will want to jump into that training also.  The old saying is very true that: Jack of All Trades Master of None.

You have to stick to one technology and live and die in that technology.  It may take some time for placement, but when you know one technology very well, you will be sure to get placed.  In technology it is nice to know the basic of a few other technologies, but really you have to be the absolute master of one technology.
 
Second Reason:

Instead of simply studying and learning they are constantly worried about getting placed.  This causes crazy pressure which will cause you to take short cuts in the learning process.

There is no short cut in learning.

The equation is simple: time x effort = knowledge = job

Recruitment Event

I had gone to Oakland University to recruit recent graduates for our Training and Placement program.  It is amazing to me how naive most students are.  They had those Q & A sessions and they had the head of DTE Human Resources and the CEO's of 2 other recruitment companies. 

There was those usual questions from students:

How can I get my resume to stand out?

What extracurricular activities can I do to get a job?

On and on, kind of boring, because most of the answers do not reflect the marketplace, but reflect the ideal. 

Do any of you students ask yourselves, how do Indian Students excel in IT and get IT jobs that pay so well right out of college?

I will tell you why.  They know the reality of the marketplace.  I get kids that have terrible writing skills and terrible communication skills, but still I am able to train and place them into Fortune 500 companies.  Sometimes I feel like taking these kids I meet at college (Non-Indian) by the collar and yelling: WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?  HOW DUMB CAN YOU BE? If you see all these Indian kids doing so well, don't you wonder how they are doing it?

Each and every one of you average kids needs to come to a consulting company like mine that can train  you and place you into good jobs.  There are still millions of unfilled jobs at Fortune 500 companies.  The simple reason is that there are not enough qualified job seekers with the required skill sets to fill those jobs. 

In the old days a company would hire a recent college graduate and then train them to fill that job.  But let me give you a financial example of why companies do not do that any more.  Let us say you are BCBS and you are looking for a NASCO developer, you hire a recent college graduate, send them to NASCO for training or train in-house, and usually a recently trained student will usually take 2-3 months in addition to the training time before they truly become effective on the job.  This entire process will take 6 months at a cost of about about $30,000 on average.  A company could spend all this money and get a great employee, but in the end most of them will leave, because the marketplace will dictate a higher salary.  I have seen this happen at BCBS over and over and companies will realize this and then start advertising for experienced NASCO developers only.  They will let someone else take the trouble to train them and then hire them after they get some experience.

That is the current market place.  I can guarantee you that there are no jobs out there for generalized skill sets, every company wants someone with a technology focus and can demonstrate exceptional skills in that technology. 

So the choice is clear, stay unemployed or underemployed or come to a consulting company like mine and learn real skills and be working in 90 days.

I Will Die of Heartache

Heartache, what does it mean?  What does it feel like?

Heartache to me is simply the knowledge of something that hurts you in your core and this causes unpleasant sensations and sleepless nights.

When a student joins a college and spends tens of thousands of dollars, there is an expectation that they will gain knowledge and that this knowledge will lead to a job.

When a student joins our training center and spends anywhere from $0 up to $2500 for a class, there is an expectation that I will get them a job.

I am sure that the college trusties and presidents do not have sleepless nights, because very few of them know their students and their dreams and expectations of what their life should be.  I know my student, each and every one them.  I know the ones that are in financial trouble and are desperate, I know the ones that are spending their parents money for training and do not take the training we offer seriously, I know the houswifes that have good intentions but do not have the time to study, yes I know my students.

When I succeed with a student and am able to get one of my students a job, it is great feeling.  But the problem with that is that I also have the students that I know will not succeed with us, and I feel their pain, I feel sadness, I feel inside what they feel, and this is what causes me heartache.

I am sure that I will never get to a point of 100% success with what I do, and this heartache will always be with me.  I am actually very distant emotionally and you will never find me too happy or too sad in real life, but inside I have tremendous emotions that I am able to control (Klingon like almost).

I have chosen what I do and I am great at what do, much better than my competition, but I am sure I will continue to have heartache, that will never disappear.  I am sure that I will continue to wake up at 4am, because I worry for each and every student that comes to me.  My wife always asks me what is wrong when I suddenly wake up at 4am, well I have heartache.

Core Philosophical Change

I have always been about the success of my students in the long term, and I always did everything with the thought process of their long term success.

But I have come across a huge conundrum, and here it is:

I currently have found a few fantastic teachers in:

SQL Server
.NET
Healthcare Software
SAP FICO
SAP SD

Any student that takes a class with one of these teachers will surely be successful, but everything is a matter of time frame.

1 Week - Healthcare Software

We teach a healthcare software that takes only 1 week to learn and we can place you in a job with 2 weeks.  Pay will be $50,000 a year with very little chance for pay increases over the first 2 years.

4 weeks - SQL Server

We teach Data Warehousing, SQL Server, T-SQL, SSIS, SSRS, SSAS, TFS in this class and our teacher has placed 50-60 students in this technology over the last 2 years.  Pay rate starting will be $56,000 with pay increases up to $70,000 in second year and up to $80,000 in your third year.

5 Months - Other Niche Technologies
 
We teach other technologies that takes 3 months to learn well and now to get job will require an additional 2 months of live project training to really learn enough for you to get the job and survive on the job.  Pay rate will be $56,000 first year, $100,000 second year and $120,000 third year.

As you can see, the longer the training, the higher income in the long run.   But I get mostly recent graduates and everybody wants a job right away, and even if I explain to people that in the long run it is in their best interest to learn the tougher technologies because of the high bill rates, most students will choose to get a job as quick as possible.


I have a few bullet points here:


Niche Technologies Companies are always looking for other giant technology companies to partner with.  So they will partner with someone like Infosys or Wipro, before they give small companies in USA a path to partnership.


Companies like IBM and Microsoft both have a defined path to partnership with levels that are clearly defined and encourage small companies like ours to grow together.


I am obsessed with quality in almost everything I do and will spend any amount of money and time to become the very best in the field that I choose to dominate.


One of my teachers pointed out yesterday, why Microsoft SQL Server will dominate the market place, he said when a customer buys SQL Server, you get SSIS, SSRS, SSAS etc.. and other things from Microsoft for free.  Enterprise customers will save huge money when they buy SQL Server and that is why Microsoft will go on to dominate the market place.


So with all this in mind, from Monday April 16, 2012 our entire company focus will change to concentrate on:


1) Microsoft Technologies  - Because of the availability of partnership and time to market of students that come for training.


2) IBM Technologies - Because of the availability of partnership and time to market of students that come for training.


3) SAP - Various Modules - Because I have an SAP license and we can train our own consultants, and we have some of the best teachers in the entire USA for this technology.


That is all that we will teach going forward.  I will not teach any other technology except for the core focus that our company will concentrate on.


I would much rather emulate a company like Miracle Soft then a company like CCSI.  They are both successful, but I want a company that will last the test of time and have a core focus with established partnerships.  It is one thing to make money and another to build a great company, and I choose to build a great company.

I have targets for each year that are defined on January 1st so each employee understands what our goals are for that year.   Our new goals for 2012 are:


1) 10 Certified employees in SQL Server
2) 5 Certified employees in WebSphere
3) 5 Certified Employees in Lombardi Teamworks
4) Level 1 Partnership with Microsoft
5) Lever 1 Partnership with IBM

I know we lost 4.5 month of this year to achieve our goals and this makes it much harder to achieve our goals.  But sometimes an epiphany causes dramatic shifts and this is one of those times.  If I was to die within a few years, I want to know that I have used my time towards building a great company and not simply making money.  Money has never been important to me, but I believe that this shift in focus will cause us to make more money in the long run but sacrifice profits in the short run.

New Subject - 1 Week Training

Here was the pitch.  Give me 1 week with your students and we will train them in an IT subject and by the second week we will place you in a job paying you $50,000/yr for the first year. 

The job will be in downtown Detroit.

That was the pitch that was posed to me.  I am highly skeptical of anything that sounds too good to be true but I tired out these new teachers, figuring that 1 week of my students times was worth it, if this really worked.

What Happened:

I gave them 2 students and they were able to place both students in the job and 1 has lasted for 2 months now and the 2nd one was fired after 3 weeks.  Not bad for 1 week of training.

With this background I have assigned a new batch of students to these 2 teachers and we are in the process of training a group of 6 students.  The week of  April 16-21 we will start placing these students.  If this second test group works out also, I will be recruiting heavily for this training.  So when you call me, ask about our 1 week training program.

3 New Teachers at VXL

It is rare that I get excited, but over the last 2 months I have found 3 fabulous teachers. 

My SAP SD teacher, Sekhar,  has been teaching for me for 3 batches now and almost universally everyone agrees that he is the simply one of the best teachers VXL has ever had.  He is very knowledgeable and patient.  You can ask almost any question about SAP SD and he will have an answer for you.  Our SAP SD class is a minimum of 2 months long and covers almost the entire breadth of SAP SD.  It is hard to describe in words what a great teacher we have for this class.

I have not taught SAP BI since Kiran left to start his own company, only because no one has even come close to comparing to Kiran as far as knowledge or commitment.  I am happy to announce that we will be starting SAP BI again.  Our teacher Vinod is at least as good as Kiran if not better.  So I am happy to announce that VXL is teaching SAP BI again and our first class will be starting on May 12th.  Welcome to our team Vinod.

We have a great new .NET teacher, Soumya.  She is only 4 years out of her college with her masters degree, but she is so passionate about .NET and is willing to train new students from the very basics up to the most advanced components in .NET.  She just loves .NET and it shows when she talks so passionately about her subject.  If you have been thinking about .NET I cannot imagine that there is a better teacher you will find then Soumya.

Welcome all three of my new teachers to VXL.