As a Oracle professional you should care your image

Just my two cents,
I had decided to share this long email, becuase an interchange of emails showed me, some of you really could benefit for this comment. Sorry if you don't like this, This is nothing personal, only an advice and a personal as a business administrator. I like people who likes to share honest an positive opinions, I like to give advices when I found them useful, and I appreciate people who does the opposite, even when is not nice some one point to your mistakes. If you don't maybe is a good time to block my email. I write for those who see in me as a honest person and as a friend or at least some one friendly. And this is finally my opinion, as a business administration, but only opinion. Is important you understand by yourself when you are in the oppostive position, as a customer instead of a service provider.
Maybe will be interesting to ask your cutomers, who really will be honest, how they perceive you.

In all this time I had found several good dbas, specially independent dbas, don't understand why is really important to project a serious and formal image. And how much the opposite prejudice themselves.

Before arguing why you don't think is important to shave and appear in photos with a tie and a serious and discrete image. I want you think why when you go to burguer king, you expect people who give you the service, use an uniform. there are a group or reason in this, from hygiene to identify them easily. Why the employe of the month looks nicer with an uniform than using casual dress.
And this is only for a hamburger, now think about this when you have to bet even the future of your business, hiring a dba to touch something vital for your business.
Think in Tom Kyte he uses a nice tie in his book expert one on one and the recently photo he has in otn has a discret black, even when he don't have a tie.

If you analyze this, you will see how some comment for example about beers could be very harmful, I don't matter what you do in your life, but to be honest I had got the impression some of you drink beer meanwhile working. You should care even casual comments, becuase casual comments usually are the ones that are take more seriously.

You can say you have enough job, but think in how job you don't have, and how much more you could bill only for taking care of your image, and how the satisfaction of the customer could be improved only taking attention to some details.

The other point is to take time and money to hire a good designer to design site which gives a good image. Don't think in pay all the design all your all your site, but at least the color combinations and the logo.
You should clear position your self, your service.

I like my family and the pork, rabbits, chicken I had , but I didn't put this in my site.
Customers are not interested in what interest to you, they are insterested in themselves, when you go to a doctor, you expect he ask you about your personal life and problems, not about what he likes or dislikes.
Is true some times to include something personal can be beneficial, but this is only when you includes personal photos trying to stablish an image from you, not thinking in only put photos you like.

Even all the critics Don Burleson, but about this he does correctly, he gives a formal and serious image, and to get a job this can be critical, knowledge is not everything. And when you are not sure who to hire, one chooses the chances which seems more strong and less risky.

Long long htmls and unorganized pages for your curriculums and where you position yourselves are not a good idea. If you want to give an image of some one updated, check your logo and your site projects that image.

After that small talk, and because I start to feel enough confident to dicate some courses, I had seen I had to follow my own advices and did some improvements in my site.
I want you pay attention to my site (if you get enough band width to check it)

I didn't ended my site, only this page.
http://www.geocities.com/juancarlosreyesp/

1. I'm positioning as a dba, and I have only a few paragraphs, the comment about radio shack I do, is because saying I starting to program from my 12 years, shows I have a lot of experience. I'm not including any comment about my studies on business administration or accounting because I'm not position like that. saying you can do everything from gardening to medicine, confuses customer, who thinks you do about everything but you don't do anything good. I'm being honest in my page I'm not trying to showme as something I'm not, but I'm either giving a list about all the things I ignore, for example I never installed a RAC on an Unix system, or fill with unnecesary details, because this is the candy to continue reading. Be brief, an unorganized list of things, only confuses people who goes to your site, they usually don't read it, and if they have to, they got you are some messy. You can do a very brief curriculum, and includ a pdf with all your experience for example. The problem some people has only one site for his personal matters and for this professional matters.
2. Strategy, the phrase "pay only after your goals had been achived" is the whole strategy I got after invetsigating and understand one of the reason to NOT hire is becuase you are not sure if that dba is going to solve your problems. And a list of other reasons. You must be clear on the strategy and the service you give, positioning it clearly. I don't know how useful it will be, but at least I'm not putting something only because sounds good.

Even when I don't like to be shaved all the time, I did it for the photo and I showed my serious side. I'm not as much serious, but for the photo I try to give a formal image, because I'm so when I work. If I would be famous and well recognized in the marked, I wil still be giving that image, because when things goes wrong, even when this is clear for you, people who don't understand about computing take their own conclusion based on the impression they go from you, including punctuality, etc.

Don't play word games, now I had read how good professionals are behind the "Oak TAble", because I read their book (which demonstrates a good book is on of the best ways to project a professional image), but It tookme years to understand that, the meaning of oak table. Instead the Oak Table Group, a name which really gives justice to what they really are like "Oracle Expert Professional Foundators and visionaries", or "Recognized Oracle Expert Groups" or "Group for innovators Oracle Experts", even when none of that names sounds for me really good, will give a better idea of what they really are, and can cause, the fact of belong to that group be a business benefit instead of a simple group identifier.
Don't think in your friends when you use a name, think first in people who will like to hire you.

In the same way the name of your business and your services should be clear. People don't like to lose time guessing, and word games becomes understandable and confusing.

You must try to take advantange on small things and be carefull with the details, think why you choose for example burger king instead of mc Donald.

Hope be useful.

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