Another New Adventure

In 25 or so days my contract with Giant Eagle will be coming to a close.  This wraps up a pretty cool gig and opens up some new doors that I'll get to walk through. 

 

One part of the newness will be getting to go back to the main office for a while a do a revamp of the companies websites.  Keep your eyes out over the next couple of months for a facelift to www.consultusa.com and www.pmcentersusa.com.

 

I'll be using DotNetNuke for the revamp of the site, it'll be the first time that I've gotten to use it.  The best part is, after getting DotNetNuke running 80% of my work will be done!  The rest will be updating the pages and the content and expanding the functionalities of the site.  I'm looking forward to getting this stuff moving.

 

I will have to custom code one or two modules, but that shouldn't take long.  So, I say that about 3 - 4 months I'll be back out in the real world looking to get placed in a new contract.

 

Now, to you, my faithful and dedicated readers, if your company is looking to bring in a contractor/consultant in the Pittsburgh area, call me at 412.963.8621.  That is the number for our home office, ask for Shaun Eutsey, I'll call you back when I get the message (I'm off-site at the moment.)  I would like to have my next contract open up some business opportunities for ConsultUSA.  That will do two things for me, one, it'll make me look great in my new .Net Practice Director position and it will allow me to work with you, my faithful and dedicated reader.

 

So, If you would like to see me, Shaun Eutsey, the Viceroy of VB, The Crown Prince of C#, The Sovereign of SQL, come and work for your company... Call Now! 

Heroes Happen Here!

Well, everyone, yesterday was the Pittsburgh Heroes Happen Here launch event for Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008.  

All in all, it was a lot of fun.  I got to hang out with some friends, meet some new ones and hand out a lot of business cards.  We also got some pretty nice swag.  Check out me holding the cooler that we received, and it was full of food! 

There were three presenters for the developer track.  All three of them were very informative.  They ranged from ASP.Net, AJAX and the AJAX Toolkit to Office Development and WPF. 

The most interesting part of the day occurred before we even arrived at the event.  Apparently, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton decided to show up at a United Steel Workers Union conference that was happening at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, which is attached by a skyway to the Westin Convention Center (the location of Heroes Happen Here).  So my buddies and I decided to leave for the event early to combat the traffic which we were anticipating, and to accommodate the potential walk that we could have.

Well, could have a walk turned into did have a walk.  We parked by PNC Park, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  For those of you who don't know, the Pirates are actually a Major League Baseball team.  About 15 years ago they were actually pretty good, but ever since then they have become the minor league team for the rest of the league.   PNC Park, in distance, isn't that far away from the convention center, but you do have to cross the Allegheny River, and walk about 10 blocks.  It's wasn't too bad, but it would have been really nice to have been able to park in the garage that is, you know, ATTACHED TO THE CONVENTION CENTER.

That really is my only real complaint about the day. All in all, it was pretty cool.  We did walk away with some nice swag and some good information.  The swag included:

• The pictured cooler
• Visual Studio 2008 Standard
• Windows Server 2008
• SQL Server 2008
• Windows Vista Ultimate (not expected)

For all of the things that people can fault Microsoft for, the one thing that you have to say is that they know how to do a launch event and make it work.  If only the presidential candidates would have come a day earlier or a day later my calves would be hurting nearly as bad as they are today.

4 Mid Level .Net Developers Needed!

Hello Everyone!

ConsultUSA has 4 immediate openings for mid-level .Net Developers.

So, I turn to you my faithful readers to help me fill these positions in the Pittsburgh, PA area.  These would be full-time consultant positions with ConsultUSA.  We have great benefits that include paying for continuing education and certifications.

Let me know if you, or someone you know may be interested and I'll have one of our recruiters get in touch.

Thanks, in advance, for any help that you can give.

--Shaun--

Promotion!

Promotion!

 

Well, it's finally happened!  I have been promoted to the position of .Net Practice Director at ConsultUSA in Pittsburgh, PA.

 

This new position has many challenges that I am responsible for accomplishing.  Some of these tasks I will be able to accomplish on my own, but for the vast majority of them, I will need help, from you, my humble, yet dedicated, readers.

 

My first and by far the largest challenge of the new position is to take ConsultUSA from being a Microsoft Partner through the path to becoming a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner.

 

I know, it doesn't sound that difficult, but believe me it is going to be much harder than it sounds.  First we need two Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCP).  We have two already, but only one of them fulfills the next thing that we must gain...

 

Microsoft Competency in Custom Development Solutions (Web Development Specialization).  To get this we also need to acquire three references from current clients.  Well, I'm on site at Giant Eagle and I have been able to get one reference submitted.  This means that I have to get in touch with some of our other clients and get information on other projects that we are doing in other places.

 

The last part of becoming a Gold Partner is to earn 50 Microsoft Qualifying points (for Certified level) and then 120 points for Gold.  This happens when we have more certifications, more referrals and more competencies.

 

These are all things that I need your help, my humble, yet dedicated, reader.  If your place of employ is looking for some good .Net Consultants to come in and help boost your staff, or if you have one or more .Net projects that you would like to have done by an outside consultant, give me a call at 412.963.8621.

 

If you are a .Net Developer in the Pittsburgh, PA area and are looking for an exciting opportunity with the chance to grow, you call as well, we are always looking for solid developers with the desire to learn (we pay for you to be certified as well as give you the opportunity to become a Business Analyst or Project Manager through PMCentersUSA.)

 

In the meantime, I look forward to being of service to you, my humble, yet dedicated, reader!