Tracking contribution to Project forums and newsgroups.

O

Office Question

For the regular posters/followers of MS Project forums and newsgroups,

Is it of value to you to track your contribution to the newsgroup (in
terms of the number of successful questions answered, questions asked,
etc.) for reference in business settings?

For example: In a job interview, would you ever point to your
contribution on a newsgroup or website as a demonstration of your
knowledge and expertise in MS Office applications - letting your
reputation within the newsgroup community speak to your credibility as
a knowledgeable resource?

Would you consider a reputation system, like the one at http://officequestions.com
to be an asset on a resume?

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
J

Jim Aksel

Frankly, this "tracking mechanism" is how I became an MVP, sort of.
Although it is not the number of posts and answers that are the real
benifit, it is the quality of the reponses that got me the nod. Most
posters do not rate questions. So you could have 10,000 posts and only show
210 answered.

I don't put things like that on a resume. If it came up in an interview, I
would refer them to this community website and have them search on my name.
It is the quality of the answer that demonstrates the expertise... I think
it would be more benefiicial to say to your interviewer: "I'll e-mail you a
website link of a newsgroup community where I post answers to people's
questions on this subject. Please take a look around there and read some of
my responses to people's questions; that should help show my depth of
expertise." The alternative would be to suggest "Let's visit that website
right now..."

In addition, this gives you an excuse to (1) Contact the interviewer after
the interview to provide the link and (2) Fish for some really good answers
to questions that came up in the interview and send them the links to where
you posted answers that address the problem.

Just a thought.

As an asside, somehow my stats show up when you click on my name. I have no
idea how or why, but it does. It makes me shrug.
 
J

JulieS

While it is likely that I was awarded MVP status because of my
contributions to the newsgroups, any "reputation" system such as the
one at the site posted is of little value to me personally. I
understand that others find them valuable but as I post to the
groups through a newsreader, I do not see the marks in the current
web newsgroups.

There *may* be some small benefit to the people who post questions.
If they receive multiple responses that contradict one another the
fact that one of the posters has received more "right" responses may
help them more quickly discover the best answer, but truthfully even
the most knowledgeable person will make mistakes. Just because I
have answered more questions than another doesn't automatically make
my response to a specific question the best one. I appreciate it
when another person points out a better answer or corrects an error
I have made.

I post to the newsgroups and forums in an effort to help people use
Microsoft Project. As an added benefit, I increase my knowledge by
reading posts made by others. I posted before I became an MVP, and
I will continue to post when I stop being an MVP.

If I my goal is to build a "reputation" or demonstrate knowledge for
business purposes, passing an exam or other objective measure I
think would carry more weight.

My $0.02

Julie
Project MVP

"Office Question" wrote in message
news:7c9f92bd-d744-4ba4-a4f8-3777fee05c67@l13g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
 
R

Rod Gill

What you reward and/or measure is what you get! If number of correct answers
suddenly became important, people would only answer easy questions. If
number of answers was important, people would make a suggestion and say
"Post back after trying this" so they would have an opportunity for another
post!

I tend not to answer easy questions just to encourage people new to the
groups to answer them and so grow the community. If the person recruiting a
scheduler doesn't understand how to schedule, then a piece of paper may
carry some weight. I can evaluate a scheduler from looking at one of their
schedules and asking one or two questions.

So is there a problem with people being able to prove their knowledge and
skill or a problem with interviewers not knowing how to interview for a
particular post or both? :)

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com




Office Question said:
For the regular posters/followers of MS Project forums and newsgroups,

Is it of value to you to track your contribution to the newsgroup (in
terms of the number of successful questions answered, questions asked,
etc.) for reference in business settings?

For example: In a job interview, would you ever point to your
contribution on a newsgroup or website as a demonstration of your
knowledge and expertise in MS Office applications - letting your
reputation within the newsgroup community speak to your credibility as
a knowledgeable resource?

Would you consider a reputation system, like the one at
http://officequestions.com
to be an asset on a resume?

Thanks for your thoughts.

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus
signature database 4518 (20091017) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com
Click to expand...

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4520 (20091018) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com
 
J

Jim Aksel [MVP]

Rod raises a good point. When we interview schedulers, we ask questions
about "How would you handle this?"
I would place more credibility on a person who has passed one of the
Microsoft exams (like 70-639, 70-633, 70-634, 70-632, etc) than on a
statistic in the news group. I would rather see someome with a Project
Management Professional (PMP) designation, or even the Project Management
Institure Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP) (www.pmi.org)
 
M

Mike Glen

Hi,

I don't know what you get out of advertising your site, but advertising is
generally unacceptable in these newsgroups. What concerns me is that you
could be diverting people with genuine problems from posting in these highly
specialist sites, who would then be denied exposure to the experts who
respond only in these newsgroups.

Please refrain.

Mike Glen
Project MVP
 
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