June Writing Roundup

I’m a little slow coming out with this roundup for June.  It was a good month.  I’ve been quite busy finishing a couple of contracts and putting together a new application.


The application is LinkedIn Tip of the Day.  Each day I post to LinkedIn a Tip to help you improve your LinkedIn Profile.  I’ve already begun testing.  You can see the Tips by searching for the hashtag #linkedintipoftheday.  I was not totally satisfied with the initial results.  I thought that the writing style I used was not quite right, maybe too stern, too professorial.  Too much like a Linux man page. Continue reading “June Writing Roundup”

Using LinkedIn Notifications

One of the advantages LinkedIn has over other social media is that your connections share the same core interests as you.  That’s probably why you connected with them in the first place, right?  After all, they are your network.  The best advice is to always be nurturing and developing your network because that is where your best opportunities will come from.

linkedin-notificationsLinkedIn helps by softly nagging you to keep in touch using the Notifications feature.

Notifications advise you of many events that are good excuses to say hello and updates these connections, people you might not speak with frequently, but with whom you want to keep in good contact.

But what should you do with those notifications? Continue reading “Using LinkedIn Notifications”

LinkedIn Update – Weekly Search Appearances

It seems LinkedIn recently updated their user interface. You can see the change by clicking the “me” icon, then select “view Profile” to view your own profile. Scroll down below your photo, headline, and summary and there is a short block showing the count of “Who’s viewed your profile”, “Views of your post in the feed”, and the new count “Weekly search appearances”. This is the number of times your profile appeared in searches during the previous calendar week.weekly-search-appearances Continue reading “LinkedIn Update – Weekly Search Appearances”

How to be Seen in Search

I write frequently about the LinkedIn platform and how it can help boost and build your career.  Today I’m talking about the Experience section of your LinkedIn Profile.

linkedin-profile-experienceThe Experience section of your LinkedIn profile is where you describe your work history, listing all or as many jobs as you think necessary.  In this regard, it is the section most similar to a resume or CV.  When you get the Experience section right, your LinkedIn Profile will consistently appear in search results.

To better understand this section of the LinkedIn Profile and to help you craft yours appropriately, we need to do the numbers.  The Experience section has 9 components, 4 objectives, and 1 writing exercise.  Let’s look at those numbers one-by-one. Continue reading “How to be Seen in Search”

Use Excel for Least Cost Routing

Excel is such a powerful tool because there are so many ways to use it in Telecoms.  Bangkok Beach Telecom offers a Least Cost Routing (LCR) Application for Voice.  The application is written in Perl, uses a MySQL database, and is light enough to run on just about any hardware and Operating System.  The application has achieved blended cost/MOU less $0.004.  That’s quite a bit lower than half a cent per Minute of Use.

The application performs several functions:

  • It accepts costed routes from multiple Long Distance Service Providers,
  • compares the cost route-by-route,
  • identifies the cheapest IXC for each route,
  • produces a file of the new switch translations,
  • and, using an Operator-provided historical call distribution, estimates the expected savings using the new routes.

I wanted an easy way for about anyone to check what would be the impact of running the LCR Application in their situation.  Microsoft Excel is capable of doing this, although it won’t easily generate a file of switch translations.  Only the route-by-route cost comparison and blended cost estimate are produced. Continue reading “Use Excel for Least Cost Routing”