Refocusing Fortify Your Data

Its crazy to think fortifyyourdata.com is almost 3 years old now. The project went from being a book/speaking engagement outlet for conferences, to a podcast & blog, and back to a way for people to ask me to jump on virtual conferences. There is a lot more to come.

As this has been one of many side projects I have had, I’ll admit I haven’t put as much time into FYD as I did when it started, and I recognize the blog/article section as well as the podcast itself has seen large jumps of inactivity. To some extent, I like that – if I have nothing of real value to add, why regurgitate something someone on darkreading.com has done a better job articulating in the first place? However, with that having been said, I think I have found things to talk about and share through the FYD site.

I am interested in trying to help people find jobs in IT. Specifically, sales roles. Having jumped from technical roles to sales roles in my professional career, I think that I have a unique level of visibility to both sides of the coin and can help people on one side move to the other. Furthermore, I am interested in helping recent high school graduates that might not have the resources for a ‘coding bootcamp’ sort of deal but want to learn a skill that can lead to a career.

I’ll include a little blurb about what I am planning on moving forward with down below:

What is this project?

The idea is to create an easy to teach, repeatable approach to teaching the necessary fundamentals to start an IT sales career that is provided for no monetary cost to people that would struggle to pay for a traditional vocational bootcamp. Many entry level sales jobs do no offer traditional sales training, and either assume there is preexisting knowledge from a college degree or previous job. Many people that kind themselves in a sales position do not start there – and in the IT space specifically, many salespeople start in tech support and end up in sales for one reason or another.

I want to start by identifying young men and women who have an interest in IT, but not the interest in really working with it from a troubleshooting or engineering perspective. Personally, I started in a Network Admin role, and found myself to be much better suited to sales than I was networking. This project would provide a bridge to a sales role for that kind of individual especially.

Once the course has been passed, and they pass the ‘final exam’, I would then help the student find work with local tech companies looking to expand their sales force. **I am not charging the companies a recruitment fee

So what does this cost?

It will cost zero dollars, but I would ask anyone who signs up to be dedicated to learning and working with me for 4 weeks. This would consist of two weekly classes and a custom online course that will be provided at no cost (students would need to provide their own laptop/internet).

Why is this free?

The goal is to raise a generation of high performing, low educated business professionals making their own living situations better. Then, maybe they will have more to invest in their own communities and children, so I don’t have to watch everyone shop lift at the self-checkout lines in Walmart. 

I think that while the many coding bootcamps, and vocational courses for things like phlebotomy are great, they are genuinely expensive while also requiring a lot of daytime hours. I feel that excludes the group of people that need this sort of program the most. With a partially self-paced online course, this will have minimal impact on an individual’s work schedule, while also costing zero dollars.

If this is free, how is it funded?

Michael Hudak’s Bitcoins. Maybe donations down the road – I haven’t figured that part out yet. I’m footing the bill for at least the first year, because I am fortunate enough to be able to do so.

I have all I need to get started on this from a technical standpoint, but what I could use help with is finding people that are interested in learning, but don’t have a lot of resources to improve their situation. I also would like anyone with an IT organization interested in hiring sales people to reach out to me, so I can quickly place people that “graduate” through this program. Any organization that is willing to take a chance on this program will have full visibility into every video, test, and meeting if they choose.

If you want to help, reach out – michael@fortifyyourdata.com


Thanks,

Michael Hudak