Providing for your family in hard times

The plight of working overseas to provide financial support for your family. 

When you can't earn a decent wage to support your family in your country you have the option to seek employment overseas. The sacrifice you make to separate from your family to live in a foreign country at the mercy of employers that don't observe labor laws. You have to adjust to customs in their country or you will standout and that's not good.

It's a dangerous endeavor working overseas. You are at the mercy of your employer. Not all employers are bad. It's a dice roll on who you get to work for. I have made some nice friends that have made the difficult choice to work overseas. The employers can be nice to very demanding. They own you. They control your life.

I dedicate this blog post to a dear friend working in the Middle East. That person lost a family member and was unable to return home to be with that loved one. Can you imagine the sorrow in your heart and the strength you need to continue on to perform your job duties. Think about what my friend went through the next time you feel that life is dealing you bad cards.

The Problem Solver

A good Project Manger is the problem solver that needs to know how to respond fast to get a resolution with acceptable outcomes to keep a project moving. Don't just be a delegator. Jump in and work with the team to a find solution.

Having the ability to sense trouble is an asset for a Project Manager. Staying cool and taking ownership of the issue avoids any confusion on who is the point person to get a resolution delivered. You will work with subject matter experts or become one on your quest for a resolution. 

Bring in the Project Manager

The Point Person

A Project Manager is your architect to formulate and execute a plan to deliver a project on-time within the approved budget. Project Managers are involved from the inception of a project or they need to jump in on a project in progress and take it over. 

The Buck Stops Here

Project Managers should assume full responsibility of the project they are entrusted with. Any risks or concerns need to be flushed out. A good Project Manager is transparent. 

Interpersonal Skills

Project Managers need to be approachable. It's a balancing act of authority and treating people with respect. Don't create an atmosphere of fear. Let your team know that you are there for them anytime. You want a team to be open by reporting issues immediately rather than finding out latter when they can no longer cover it up. 

The Project Milestone

Reaching a milestone in a project is an accomplishment. Placing KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) in your Gantt chart after major tasks are completed is your insurance to reach that milestone everyone is working hard to get too. Defining KPI's will provide the needed validation that you are achieving the project goals as you complete critical tasks. Find out early that you are really on track to hit your milestone.

Controlling Scope Creep 

The scope definition of the project should be crystal clear to avoid additional requirements later in the project. Introducing changes and addtional requirements in a project in progress will happen. You need to readjust your Gantt chart to accommodate the new tasks. Be sure to document the justiication for the changes that were inserted in the project. When you start to get many requests for changes that are out of scope that is a red flag. You need to suspend the project and meet with your stakeholders and go over the project requirements again to uncover any additional requirements that might have been missed. New requirements will affect your delivery date and budget. If you just allow changes to keep going through you will miss your delivery date and be over budget with a different deliverable. 

Managing the Vendor 

When you work with vendors they give you a SOW (Statement of Work). You need to build your Gannt chart from the SOW to validate the timeline and the deliverable promised. Some vendors assign their own Project Manager to ensure an implementation is on track. Request a copy of their project plan so you can monitor their progress. You will have your own project plan with high level tasks of the vendors project plan. Reconciling the two project plans will ensure that everyone is on the same page to deliver an on-time project.

The Project is Done

Go over lessons learned to note adjustments for any future projects. Have a celebration to reflect on all the hard work that made the project a sucess. 

My home network is slow on Wi-Fi

I'm keeping it as simple as possible to explain slow Wi-Fi on your home network. If your paying for high-speed Internet service and it's slow that's not good. Test out your Desktop PC or your Laptop that is connected to an Ethernet cable and look at the connection speed to see if your Internet provider is delivering the speed you are paying for. If your wired connection is working fine your Internet provider is not the problem. They are not responsible for your Wi-Fi that's your problem. 

Before you make any router setting changes check the location of your router. The location could be the problem in your home. Try to place the router in the center of the home if possible to see if you get a stronger Wi-Fi signal. The material in the construction of your home could also be causing signal loss. Solution get a (Wi-Fi range extender) to expand the Wi-Fi broadcast to dead spots in your home.

Router channel selection is important too. You should be on the best channel to ensure good Wi-Fi performance. You need to know how to log into your router with your admin login to view and make changes to the settings. There are only three non overlaping channels that deliver better network performance than the other available overlaping channels. The three best channels that do not overlap are 1, 6 & 11. Network performance will improve using one of these channels that do not overlap, but a channel will slowly degrade when it gets overcrowded by other routers genetrating a lot of traffic on the channel. You can experiment by trying out the three channels to find the best one that works for you. In the USA we are not allowed to use channels 12-14.

The view of the 11 available channels that you share with other routers.

The graphical view of the Wi-Fi traffic across the 11 channel spectrum from a Wi-Fi Analyzer app. Note that the Wi-Fi Analyzer app is available only on android devices. The app shows all the network traffic your neighborhood is generating that is near the location you are in. Powerful routers are broadcasting beyond their owners properties causing Wi-Fi congestion across the 11 channels. If you don't have an android device to run the Wi-Fi Analyzer find a friend that has one to help you.

The Wi-Fi Analyzer has many tools to analyze your home network. This is just a sample screen of what it can do.

Handling Rejection

We all encounter rejection at some point in our life. Rejection can be a painful and insulting experience. Don't let rejection change your course in life. Being rejected should make you a stronger person. It gives you an opportunity to do a self assessment to address your weakness to avoid any future rejection. 

Sometimes when you experience rejection it's not you that has the problem it's the other person's inability to see your worth. That's not your problem just move on it's their loss not yours. 

Staying positive is a must if you want to overcome rejection. Always pick yourself up when you hit any wall in life. Tenacity is a quality that you need to reach your goals in life.