I'm a server and infrastructure guy with a penchant for the big picture and a lifelong love of technology.

I'm not looking for new opportunities at this time.

Ask me about my homelab, and ignore the huge backlog of projects. I've redone my home networks for the end of my Meraki licenses, then switched back. I've worked in networking and storage although it's been a little while. I have never been a developer. I've never waited tables (even database tables) but respect those who do. I admit what I don't know and learn quickly. 

Today I'm an engineering product manager for UCS networking in the compute business at Cisco. 

From 2022-2023 I was product line manager for software management products at Supermicro. 

From 2018-2020 I focused on channel partner enablement, partner sales engineering, solutions engineering at Cisco. 

From 2014-2018 I played storyteller/matchmaker between big data ISVs, Cisco channel partners and internal sales teams, and occasionally a customer or 100. I've been doing big data since late 2003/early 2004 (really) and Hadoop since probably 2008 (CDH1). I presented at partner events and public conferences including Strata+Hadoop World (2x) and Cisco Live (4x, Distinguished Speaker). 

On the first day at Cisco (right after lunch), I pushed a half million dollar deal over the edge with my personal experience outweighing a competitor's positioning. From then on, I brought context and proportion to challenging situations, helping our customers succeed and our sales teams make money. I believe those two should not be mutually exclusive, and I consider it my mission to bring them together wherever I work. 

Before Cisco, I was a senior level Silicon Valley systems operations professional with nearly 20 years (different years, even) of production UNIX system administration in multiple varieties of UNIX (Solaris, Linux, BSD) as well as experience in other desktop and server platforms. I built a proven history of delivering enterprise class scalable server, network, and DR/BC environments within stringent budget and time restraints.

I blog at rsts11.com and rsts11travel.com. 

Specialties: Big data platforms, hardware, and education; system administration, hardware planning and management (even clouds need hardware), Hadoop, written English (documentation is our friend), UNIX-based email systems, coffee preparation & procurement, operations team building and sustaining. 

I'm not a developer or coder although I can read or tweak some code. I don't have an MBA or a PhD. 

I'm not looking for new opportunities at this time.

Robert Novak

🚝Robert Novak

If you are using AI to write/edit for you, you are destroying your authenticity as a person, damaging your credibility and ensuring that your relationships stay transactional. Maybe you are in an industry  where the speed of the transaction is all that matters.

They also tend to be the lowest margin businesses. Just understand what drives your growth and revenue.

Here is what AI did to this post. Maybe someone would read this and think it's better but it's not me. I wouldn't use prioritize, articulate, or self-expression. I want to be more direct.

If you aren't capable of expressing yourself well, take a writing course. Who cares if there is the occassional typo or incorrect grammar. It's real.

I can't trust anyone who isn't capable of putting a sentence together without being coached by AI. (Ignoring language and ther barriers.)

There. I said it.

In case you were wondering, you can make an AI service generate a typo. So just as em dashes don't prove AI involvement, typos (or as Dan Quayle might say, typoes) don't disprove it. 

#themoreyouknow

And for what it's worth, every one of the 919,648 words I've written on my fiction projects since January 1, 2024, were written (or dictated) organically. 

And in case you want to contribute to my caffeine fund, there's a referral link for Four Sigmatic in the comments. I get $10, you get 20% off. If you don't, that's fine. I still go through several pounds of it a month whether it's subsidized by friendly readers or not.

Who wouldn't want to go through a new account process for every application in the same platform, manually entering your resume after uploading it, realizing no human will ever look at more than 5 words of it? 

Been there, done that.

Paddy Jobsman | Join 42K+ readers receiving my weekly newsletter on changing careers and finding purpose: paddyjobsman.com

>saw the perfect job to apply for
>workday application

Josh has a good point here, although it’s not new.

I'm enjoying this new genre of LinkedIn post.

Someone reshares another post and adds a profound layer of analysis like:

"Alice is spot on here."
"Bob is mostly right."

That's it. That's the whole contribution.

Just a quick ruling from the LinkedIn commentary booth before moving on to the next take.

What a time to be alive.

Two years ago I launched Jack of Too Many Trades and got a few spotlight reviews out before leaving it in the background. 

It's coming back to life later this month, with some new outlets and the same primary focus - interesting things I've acquired and enjoyed that might slip beneath your radar. 

Please follow the blog (and/or its X account in the comments below). 

https://jotmt.com/

Hobby Shop

Dedicated to embedded system development.

Retiree at large

Theatro

I'll be building automated regression testing for their devices. More later...

Senior Automation Manager

Dell EMC

We're now Dell-EMC. Currently I'm working on Symphony, our new Vcesystems management application.

Principal QA Engineer

MART Pro-Service Solutions

We provide QA/test services to companies wanting to outsource or augment their resources. I develop software, test solutions and provide project management for our clients. Co-developed a log capture tool for use in distributed environments.

VP of Engineering

Cisco Systems

Designed, implemented, and maintained software tools used by a large system test group. This included tools to manage test documentation, test data, test environments, and automate troubleshooting for test engineers. Mentored summer interns and helped them develop Flex on Rails internal web application.

Senior QA/Test Automation Engineer

UltimateMatch

Contract QA/test work for online dating service. Designed and executed system tests for web application.

QA/Test Engineer

Yonaguska Services

Managed crew that provided cleaning services to businesses around the Texas hill country.

Owner

Solomio

Developed tests and test automation for SMS application.

Senior QA/Test Engineer

Agilent Technologies

Contract engineer in QA/test organization. Designed and executed system tests.

Sun Microsystems

Managed QA for the Sun.com portal. Developed test documentation and processes and integrated them with development processes. Managed Sun's test tool contract. Mentored interns.

Software QA/Test Manager

Developed Sun's computer telephony integration (CTI) architecture for its call centers and implemented deployment lab.

Performance and behavioral research for consolidated serve project. Implemented lab and managed senior system administrators. Developed test strategies and managed execution of the studies.

Deployment of Javastation network computer. Implemented deployment architecture and managed lab and senior system administrators. Mentored summer interns.

Senior Software Engineer

I am an seasoned engineer with a breadth of experience developing automated systems, tools, infrastructure monitors and process automation. I am an experienced manager, researcher, engineer and technician and always up for a challenge.

Specialties: System engineering, development, automation, telecom, data communications

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Robert Novak

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