Many of us have a tendency of checking emails the moment we reach office but instead we should set a time aside for reverting to emails with a calm mind as email handling takes approx. 10-15% of the work day.

Any overloaded mailbox is frustrating but handling emails inadequately would waste a lot of work time. Email is usually also considered as a distraction because many of us have a habit of checking any email pop-up immediately and sometimes clicking into the inbox in order to check whether connectivity to network .

There are many email management best practices for making productive and effective reverts. But before applying any best practice you should ask yourself some sort of questions like:

• How much time do you spend daily on reverting emails?
• What type of emails do you actually receive?
• Do I need to revert all the emails?
• Which email is my first priority?
• Do I use sub folders or keep all emails in 1 folder only?

Make sure you have answers of above questions before applying any tips for effective inbox management. Here I am going to explain some of the outlook email management best practices that you can use to manage emails effectively. These email inbox management tips will simplify your day to day reply mail management or customer email management. Some people use email management softwares or email management tools to manage their inbox effectively. You can also go for some option.

Microsoft Outlook Email Management Best Practices

Find the list of points that you can use to manage your email inbox effectively.

1) Reply Mail Management: You can block your calendar for approx. 30-60 min for reverting on emails or for reply mail management and prioritize reverts basis email importance. You can also further categorize them in order to identify that which is to be reverted today or it is to be kept in follow-up. For this you can use the “flags” along with a set time notification for reminder.

2) Create Templates: We have a habit of typing emails but instead we can draft sample email responses as most of the queries received would be similar and using this template would save our time. You can also customize these templates basis the email requirement.

3) Read Pertinent Emails: If you receive 60 emails a day you are not required to read all of them as they might also include some advertising / information emails, group mailbox responses etc. You can just move them to the relevant folder and address them whenever required. This will reduce the number of emails available in the Inbox Folder.

4) Know What to Reply: Sometimes we receive lengthy emails which more or less look like an essay and most of us have a habit of reverting in the similar fashion. We should always focus into making our email content short and to the point. You can consider this point as a subpart of reply mail management.

5) Alternate Tools:  For short messages you can use alternate tools for communicating within the organization like skype etc. and avoid writing emails.

6) Email Header: This is something which should be clearly looked into whenever any email gets triggered into your mailbox. Most of the time the email is intended to someone who is marked in “To” and all marked in “CC” are just for information. You can ignore emails wherein you are marked in CC as that is just for information and no action is usually required on them. Even you can apply a rule to move all such emails in to a folder by applying below step by step process.

Tips: How to set rules for automatically transferring emails to a folder whenever in “CC” in MS Outlook?

1. Click at Home tab and go to its Ribbon area.
2. Click at Rules option
3. Select Create Rule
4. Here, you will get another window, here select Advanced options
5. Now Clink on where my name in CC
6. Select Next
7. Select folder where it is to be moved
8. Finish

7) Acknowledge emails: Whenever you receive any email and if you think this might take more than 1 day to revert, just send a small email acknowledgement to the sender. This is to notify the sender that you are working on the email and it might take a specific time for closure. This will avoid further email reminders on the subject.

8) Folders: Inbox zero is a very famous term which helps us minimizing the email count in the mailbox. You can have separate & specific folders for transferring emails for future reference. “Rules” option can be used for automatic transfer of emails to the specific mailbox folder. Read below tips to transfer emails to a specific folder automatically in Outlook.

Tips: How to transfer emails to specific folders automatically in MS Outlook?

1. Click on Home tab of Outlook and go to its Ribbon
2. Click on Rules
3. Select “Create Rule…” option
4. Select From, display New item , move item to folder
5. Click OK

9) Subject Line: Use similar subject line to track emails faster in your mailbox as tracking long email threads with different subject lines makes mail management more challenging.

10) Out-of-office replies: This is the most significant feature which you can use whenever you are on leave, left early for the day or in training and would not be able to revert to the sender instantly. By using this “OOO” feature you would be able to notify the sender about your availability and managing email response. Have a look at below tips to configure out of office in your outlook.

Tips: How to set “OOO” for specific time in MS Outlook? 

1. Click at File tab.
2. Then click at Automatic Replies (Out of Office)
3. Choose second option “Send Automatic Replies”
4. Click at the checkbox option “Only send during this time range”
5. Select Date & Time
6. Edit the content
7. Click ok

11) Email Answering: Every email which triggers the mailbox should be either answered, forwarded, archived or deleted. This will reduce the count of emails which are to be handled. You can also request for email delivery at a specific time but your outlook should be running during that time.

Tips: How to set delay delivery in MS Outlook?

1. Open New Email
2. Click on Options tab.
3. choose Delay delivery option.
4. Update details in the compose message window

12) Different Signatures: You can have different signatures for different set of replies sent to specific people. This will save time of drafting signatures.

Tips: How to manage signatures in MS Outlook?

1. Click at File tab of MS outlook.
2. Click at the Options
3. Another window will appear on your screen. Now click at Mail tab from left side pane.
4. Now click at Signatures tab from right side pane.
5. Click New to create signature
6. Click ok
7. Edit signature content
8. Click save

13) Use Voting Option: We usually sent a lot of emails wherein we have to collate responses in yes/no, true/false etc., so instead of doing manual work we can use the voting option available in outlook

Tips: How to set voting option in MS Outlook? 

1. Open new email
2. Click at Options
3. Now again click at Use voting options to select voting option.
4. Customize if required
5. Send email

Here, I have explained best way to manage emails in outlook. I hope you like this article. Please follow our Facebook page and Twitter handle to get latest updates.

Read More:

• 4 Areas you can focus to boost your Self Confidence
• How to Prepare for a Job Interview?
• How to Deal with Arrogant People at Work?

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Typically, presales means prepare yourself before selling your services or products. It is imperative to understand pre-sales consultants are technical person who fully understand the domain he or she decided to represent or work upon. However, in most of the cases these consultants choose their domain based on their experience for e.g. Infra Consultant, Platform consultant, product consultant, software consultant in cloud (IaaS, PaaS & SaaS).

As the name pre-sales suggest preparing yourself to present, respond and demonstrate your services in smartest way to win deal for your organization. Essentially Sales and Presales consultant work very closely for any Request for Information (RFI) and Request for Proposal (RFP). Refer to my article on for additional information on RFI and RFP.

• Is Presales a Good Career Opportunity in IT/ITeS? 
• IT Presales Interview Questions & Answers – Part 2

Presales Interview Questions

Question 1 – The very first question in any presales interview will always be “Tell me about yourself”?

Answer: As you introduce yourself to the interviewer you need to understand he/she wish to know lesser about you more about your profile and how you can fulfil their requirements.

Tips:

• Start with your introduction and try rapping it up in a minute.
• In Introduction give brief about your educational qualification.
• Precise introductions about your overall experience in industry or as mentioned in your CV.
• Give 2 minutes to talk about your relevant experience in pre-sales how it started and how you have grown up in this role as a consultant.
• Rap up on positive attitude about your hobbies or interest.

Question 2 – Tell me about your current role in your organization as a presales resource?

Answer: There are many roles in Presales consulting, you need to be specify and talk about your role. You must ensure you choose wisely the profile you mention as it will decide the course of interview session.

• Deal Managers (Could be different abbreviations in your firm)
• Finance Operative (Could be different abbreviations in your firm)
• Solution Architect
• Technical Architect
• Sales Consultant
• Legal Consultants

Tips:

1. Explain your role as a solution Architect and in what stage you get involved.
2. Explain what kinds of deals you have handled so far and you can provide generic details about the deal Size (Number of FTE’s), total deal cost and domains involved but remember never to mention the client name as you need to ensure Data Privacy norms.

Question 3 – What all area you cover in deal scope (e.g. Infra, Software, help desk, support or overall deal)?

Answer: Consider below points while answering this type of questions.

• Here you need to choose the best technical domain of yours and then brief about the same.
• All Scope of work or service catalog of your technical domain or you could provide solution in a deal.
• Explain how you gather the client requirement and how you planned a solution
• Brief on documents you prepared for the solutions. 

Question 4 – Tell me something about your projects, deals which you have worked upon?

Answer: Explain about your past projects where you have contributed as Presales Consultant. Explain your part of contribution.

Tips:

• Brief descriptions on overall experience on projects as per your CV.
• Brief on Distinct deals you handled during the tenure of your service as a presales consultant. 

Question 5 –  What was your role in projects or deals you have worked upon?

Answer: Specify your role as a Solution Architect or whatever suits your profile as described below along with some of your contributions to the deals.

• Deal Managers (Could be different name in your firm)
• Finance Operative (Could be different name in your firm)
• Solution Architect
• Technical Architect
• Sales Consultant
• Legal Consultants 

Questions 6 – What’s all frameworks have you worked upon?

Answer: This is very important question and need to be answered carefully with full knowledge of framework you decided to speak on. See below few frameworks for e.g.

• ITIL
• COBIT

Question 7 – Have you ever designed an operating model for Level 1 Support / Help Desk? Provide a brief description of the same?

Answer: Consider below points while answering this question.

Tips:

• As in presales each client comes with their own set of requirements hence every deal needs different operating model.
• Prepare in advance your well versed operating model which you can explain in few minutes. It should be easy, short and quick to explain best is L1, L2 support or Help desk. You can explain the onsite off shore model here.

Question 10 – How good are you with Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, MS Word and Power point?

Answer: Be honest and answer whatever knowledge you have about these applications.

Tips:

• You can rate your skills on the scale of 10 based on your expertise. These are much needed skills in presales so you can say you are well versed with these software’s.
• You can name excel functions for e.g. v-look up, If and else statements, Sum, Average, count, password protection etc.

Question 11- How will you manage Shortfuse deals?

Answer – Shortfuse deals are the ones with short deadline to submit solution. You can take any example where you got < 2 days for providing solution, getting approval, costing etc. and describe its challenges and how did you overcome it. Explain how you planned it.

Example/Tips:

• Get all stakeholders on call to gather requirement / scope and provide solution in power point.
• Send solution deck to all stake holders for approval and suggestions.
• Inform the Finance team in advance about costing request.
• Onboard delivery team to participate in solution approval and cost drill down exercise.
• Divide submission documents among other stake holders to finish the docs on time.
• All documents should be versioned and kept on SharePoint repository and Quick follow calls twice /thrice a day should be scheduled to wind up the short fuse deal on time.

All the above steps will allow you to manage short fuse deals but onboarding stake holders, Quick follow-up calls and Team work is mandatory for successful submission and win.

Question 12– Have you ever presented to client/Client Orals?

Answer: Share your experience by picking any relevant deal where you presented your solution.

Tips:

• Talk about you preparatory work.
• Then describe the audience and Presentation challenges.
• Explain how your presentation provided a positive impact.

Question 13 – Did ever presented to CTO’s or CEO what was your preparation?

Answer: Share your experience if you have ever presented any solution to CTO/CEO.

Tips:

• Talk about you preparatory work.
• Explain how your presentation provided a positive impact.

Questions 14 – Did you ever analyze the lost deals and prepared report for the same and shared with all stakeholders?

Answer:  Yes, every firms do root cause analyses of lost deals. There is various factor which we analyze. Some of the factors are given below.

• Less competitive pricing
• RTO & RPO was not presented
• Lack of experience in domain
• Solution provided was not cost effective
• Solution not fit to the Client requirement

Question 15 – How good are you in handling pressure?

Answer: I hardly feel pressure as presales is my passion and don’t feel weight about it. I get excited about the dynamic which presales brings in my life. I believe if we have technical knowledge with blend of confidence and motivation there is no pressure which can oppress us. 

Question 16 – How did you manage escalation for a short fuse deal?

Answer: The Short fuse deal comes with pressure and panic among all which could lend us to escalation in some cases. However, if I decided to take responsibility I ensure I complete it and I have hardly faced any major escalation in my tenure. I always plan my work in 3-way process.

1. Acknowledge the responsibility / Area of scope which I can provide solution with timelines
2. Address the concern of Sales and delivers teams in my area of scope
3. Timely sending the progress report to stake holders to avoid panic and escalations. 

Question 17 – What all certification have you done on Solution Architect?

Answer: Answer about your certifications or trainings you have done to learn presales role.

Tips:

It’s not mandatory to have Solution Architect certification however if someone wishes to excel in the same. BCS Intermediate level certificate is there or either TOGAF 8 or TOGAF 9 level 2 certificate could be useful.

Question 18 – Do you have any experience in Upsell?

Answer: In case you have any experience, you can talk about it.

Tips:

Basically, in this question you can showcase your sales skills. How did you analyze client requirement and able to convince them to buy proposed solution to solve their concerns. 

Question 19 –  what was your role post you won the deal?

Answer: You can explain about your role post winning the deal and tell about till what stage you were involved.

Tips:

• SOW (scope of work)
• Final contract
• Project Initiation
• Handover to delivery  

Question 20 – How good are you in preparing SOW and what all you cover in the same?

Answer: You can define scope of work providing few major headings below.

• Scope of services
• Cover client requirement
• Terms and condition
• Final deliverables
• Sign off procedure
• Any legal contractual terms and conditions/Governance
• RACI Matrix
• Assumptions & Key Dependencies
• Termination/Exit Plan

Questions 21 – How comfortable are you with travelling on short notice?

Answer: I am comfortable in travelling considering the fact presales /Sales is a Travel job. 

Question 22 – How many deals you can handle in parallel?

Answer: I can work on 3-5 deals in parallel depending on the size of the deal.

Tips:

It is imperative that you speak truth in this question. As it’s like commitment so unrealistic figure can get you in trouble. With Presales as carrier 3 deal at a time is Business as usual so Be Honest here. 

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The first thought which comes to the mind about interview is that on which side of the table are we going to be? Interview sessions are pretty hectic and painful for both candidate as well as the interviewer. But in general more pressure is on the candidate appearing for the job interview because this is the situation which is somewhat like a rapid Q & A round. We are judged on the basis of our answers to these questions. There is no second chance in interview and we cannot correct or modify our answers once said.

Preparation is 1^st and most important which a candidate should do whenever an interview call letter is received. Apart from curriculum preparation self-confidence, concentration and positive attitude are also similarly important. We can control our nervousness and give our best by focusing on interview, and avoiding the thought of other interviews and our fear of rejection.

Prepare for the Day

Normally there are a set of questions which everyone prepares for a job interview apart from their primary skill. These questions are like:

• Tell me something about yourself?
• Why do you want to join this company?
• Why do you think we should hire you?
• Describe your 2 strengths and weakness?
• What is your salary expectation?
• Any questions about the organization?

While everyone is busy preparing on the above questions, there are some small tips or points which a fresher usually misses while preparing for the D day.

1. Gather information about the company: This is the first and the most important point as this is the answer to the question “why do you want to join our company?” Whenever you appear for an interview you should know everything about the company like its history, products, function areas, market share, competitors, top management and employee reviews e.t.c. You can easily find this information on the internet or you can contact people in your network for gathering information.
2. Reach the venue on time: By reaching on time you reflect your quality of being punctual. Interviewers like candidate who are punctual and not those who report late for interviews and then give excuses of traffic jams and not being familiar with the locality e.t.c
3. Appearance: Your appearance should be professional and not casual as your first impression is the last one. Following are few points which require focus :
   1. Your outfit
   2. Your face expression
   3. Folder to carry resumes and certificates/documents e.t.c
4. Be confident: Most of us are in a habit of answering every question asked by the interviewer whether we know the answer or not, but actually we should avoid this. Instead we should simply say a “No” to questions whose answers we do not know and answer confidently for rest.
5. Work on communication: We should practice our replies at home preferably in front of mirror and should work on our communication skills. Whatever we say should be clear enough because interviewers use this in judging the candidate’s nature and competencies. While describing we should use some key words which can bring out our skills and strengths e.t.c

All above points will apply when you are attending a face to face interview. But there are other forms of interviews also like telephonic, through Telepresence wherein you are not facing the interviewer directly and you are judged on whatever you say.

Telephonic Interview: This kind of interview is used as a first level of selection so it is very important that you should focus and prepare for this religiously

• Listen patiently and answer to only what is asked.
• Do not elaborate and try to be descriptive
• Ask for feedback

Telepresence Interview: This type of interview is organized when the interviewer and the candidate are in different locations and interviewer is not willing to pay the travel cost to the candidate.

• You should be dressed properly.
• Consider this as a face to face interview only and answer the questions as you would do in a formal interview.

Sample Interview Questions & How to Answer Them

Below are some sample answers to generally asked Job interview questions.

(a)Tell me something about yourself: While asking this question interviewer wants to know about you as a person, so while answering you should be sure of what you are answering is correct and actual. You should not start your answer with “I am xxxx, have 2 sisters, parents e.t.c”. Instead your answer should start from your educational background, work experience, hobbies well supported with examples.

(b)Tell about your strengths and weakness: Most of the time the possible answer for strength is given as “I am good listener”, “I am positive” e.t.c. The answer should always focus around the requirements as mentioned in the job description.

Example: If you have come for a customer service interview so answer can be “I have good analytical skills which can be useful in resolving queries. I am a good listener and team player with good communication skills.”

For weakness the answer should not be like “I like completing work on time”, “I like stretching shifts” e.t.c. rather this question should be answered in a way wherein you can turn your negative aspect into positive.

Example:” I like completing my work before deadlines”. Hearing this answer the interviewer will think that if you are in a habit of completing work before time then you might make mistakes. So instead the answer should be “I like completing work before deadlines, but I divide my schedule in such a way that sufficient time is given for checking work.

(c) Where do you see yourself 5 years from now: This is a very tricky question and no one can answer this accurately. By asking this question the interviewer wants to know about your ambitions and whether you are serious about the job position or not. Most people respond by saying that “I want to be CEO or director of this company” which is not an intelligent answer.

Example: Answer can be “I want to see myself at a position in your company where I can grow and develop my skills which can further contribute towards personal and organizational growth”.

(d) Why do you think we should hire you: The interviewer wants to know about your skills of how better you can convince the interviewer to hire you? To answer this question you should be fully aware about the job responsibilities and company products.

Example: The answer can be “that my past job experience matches with the company profile and the responsibilities as mentioned for the new job.

(e) What are your salary expectations: The answer should not be accurate as 25 %, 30 % e.tc. After hearing this answer interviewer might feel that your focus of changing job is just monetary hike.

Example: Answer can be like “the market trend of salary hike for my position is between xx to yy and I am expecting a hike of XX % approximately. So would request you to give the best possible compensation for my skills and experience which match the current market trends also .

I hope you like this article. Please follow our Facebook page and Twitter handle to get latest updates.

Read More:

• SQL Server Interview Questions & Answers
• RedHat Linux Interview Questions & Answers
• vRealize Automation Interview Questions & Answers
• How to Improve your Self-Confidence to Crack a Job Interview?
• Visit this link to get more tips on Learning

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Let’s start with describing the difference between confidence and arrogance. Both the traits are considered as strong topics of debate as they contribute a lot in controlling human behavior. There is a thin line between confidence and arrogance as one attracts and the other resists. The difference between both traits can be defined by saying “arrogance requires advertising and confidence speaks for itself “.

For understanding whether you are confident or arrogant you should ask self some questions and a yes to the below questions means that you are part of the negative trait.

• Do you feel insecure by success of peoples around you?
• Do you like praises and seek everyone’s consent on situations?
• Do you have the “only me and I am right” attitude while having discussions?
• Do you like interacting to new people or enjoy working in your own network?

Characteristics of an Arrogant Person

Let’s understand characteristics of an arrogant person so that we can learn better way to deal with arrogant people. There is a strong relationship between confident and arrogant people and excess confidence can lead to arrogance sometimes. Below are some key differences between these two traits. Here, you can also understand the characteristics of an arrogant person by below comparisons.

1. Arrogant people are least approachable whereas confident people will help others.
2. Arrogant people would not want to come out of failures whereas confident people learns from failures.
3. Arrogant people do not entertain anyone while debating on topics whereas confident people will value thoughts of others too.
4. Arrogant people have the “I am the best” feeling and hate other’s success whereas confident people value and celebrate success of others.

If we talk about being confident or arrogant at work , it starts from the job interview session itself as interviewers are always looking for confident candidates with strong mind rather than who are just talking about their experience and awards. Below is a small example for better understanding:

Interviewer: How is your present job and why do u want to leave?
Confidant candidate: The job is really great, I am happy but want to leave for better exposure and learning.
Arrogant candidate: The job is really great and I am the best in the team. But want to leave because of monetary benefit.

Interviewer: Why should we hire you?
Confidant candidate: I have good amount of experience in my field and i would want to contribute towards your organizational growth.
Arrogant candidate: I have got many awards & appreciations for the work which I do so it would be good for you if you hire me.

Interviewer: How much salary hike would you want?
Confidant candidate: I am currently holding a salary package of X amount. You can give hike as per market standards.
Arrogant candidate: I am currently holding a salary package of X amount and 25 % hike would not be a challenge for your company.

Interviewer: Where do you want to see yourself after 5 years?
Confidant candidate: I want to learn as much as in can so that I can become an asset to the organization and also an inspiration for others. My growth in 5 years will be a reflection of my learning and sincere hard work.
Arrogant candidate: My goal is to become CEO or director of any company so that I can be on the top and grow in life.

Here, i have given some key ways to project confidence instead of arrogance at your workplace.

• Admit and accept mistakes
• Communicate effectively by respecting views of others
• Be open to learning
• Ask for feedback and work on improvements.

We have understood characteristics of an arrogant person with the help of above examples. Now let’s understand how to deal with arrogant people in below section.

Ways to Deal with Arrogant People at Work

Arrogance is a defense mechanism and people having this trait are a serious threat to the organization/team as they feel insecure. They can be easily judged by their body language, voice / expression and words. There might be few such people around you in the work area and dealing with them might be frustrating sometimes. You can follow below approach to deal with such people.

Listen Patiently

During a discussion with arrogant/overconfident people one can often be in a situation of argument. The common factors could be the topic of discussion and our professional relationship with that person. The best practice can be:

• Listen patiently
• Summarize the whole discussion and ask questions as arrogant people do not like questions and often try to run away from the situation.

Cross Question by Asking How To Do

Arrogant people have a tendency to divide and conquer so whenever you are in a situation when things are put on you then you can simply ask a quick question “How do you think we should do this?” This will leave the other person in a situation of confusion as he / she was not prepared for cross questions.

Remain Calm

While dealing with a negative and gossiper person at work it is important to remain calm and be good to them. The discomfort you are facing from them should not reflect in your behavior and your anger will only provide that person opportunity to trouble you more.

Understand Intentions

Try to understand the other person’s intention for identifying the below points:

• Why is he / she acting in this manner?
• Is anyone trying to change his mind?
• Possible ways to resolve that situation.

Be Interactive

We usually interact through emails, chats, calls but sometimes person available on the other side may misunderstand your thoughts and words. So it is important to also have face to face discussion in order to avoid misunderstanding and to increase the impact of conservation.

Perspective from Others

Share your discomfort with your peers, friends and managers if you trust them. They might have gone through the same situation during their professional career and would have some golden advice for you.

Ignorance

This is the last best possible effort which you can put from your side to control the situation and avoid argument.

Escalate to Higher Authority

Incase all possible efforts have failed in controlling arrogant coworker, then the last step is to escalate it to the management for intervention. This should not be followed all the times as excess use of this might force your manager to think that you are incapable of handling situations. This is effective in controlling arrogant people who often refuse to cooperate.

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Most Common Causes of Losing Confidence Level

The key factors of losing self-confidence at work are given in below points.

• Work Environment
• Job Satisfaction
• Team Coordination
• Lack of Resources

Work Environment

Work Environment is most important part to have a good confidence level. If work environment within your team is not good or you are not comfortable in the current work environment then it would create a problem for you and it will end up with lower self-esteem or say lower self confidence. This applies to any industry whether you are in Information Technology, Pharma, Finance, Insurance, Telecom etc.

Rather than keep thinking and taking stress about the work environment, you should work to face the reality. Here, first you should identify what is making you uncomfortable in current work environment? Ask some questions to yourself like:

• Is this uncomfortableness due to your Boss behavior?
• Is there too much workload?
• Is there conflict with teammate/s?
• Is there micro management in current work environment?
• Any other issue within the team?

Once you will have answer of above questions, you can easily identify what is the problem that are degrading your self-confidence.

You can speak to your supervisor if you are overloaded and has too much workload. If you have too much work then you might not deliver quality work that can reduce your confidence level. Try to track everything that you do in your job. That will help your boss to make a case in front of seniors to get additional resource that can share your load. Sometimes, our seniors are not aware of the amount of work we do because they have their own work so you need to track everything possible.

If there is any issue with any teammate or you supervisor has bossy nature then you should sit with them individually and figure out the problems between both of you. We are human and everybody has different point of view so we should respect each other’s view and move on. Act like mature person and sort out all issue rather than keeping it inside and harming your own career and growth.

If you still feel that things are not improving then it would be wise decision to change the team or and get some other work but believe me you might get similar people there also because as I said every person is different so better you should learn how to deal with such people. Try to be diplomatic in some cases.

Sometimes Work environment is good but work profile doesn’t satisfactory that also leads to losing your self-confidence. For example, if you are in IT support or Customer service then you have to do face to face interactions, telephonic conversations, email and chatting with customers or users. Sometimes you may face some agitated customers facing issues. But this situation should not affect your confidence level instead you should learn from these incidents for improving work and performance and how to deal with such users.

Always believe in yourself and have positive attitude towards work and do not let negative people affect your morale and performance. Things will become smoother if you trust yourself and carry positive attitude.

Job Satisfaction

Job Satisfaction plays key role for boosting your confidence level. If you are not satisfied with your job then you might lose your confidence level that directly impacts your personal growth. First find out why you are not satisfied in your current job. This might be due to several reasons. Some of the reason are:

• You might be in wrong profile.
• There is no work life balance in your current job profile.
• You don’t enjoy working at your workplace.
• You are not getting enough perks.
• Too much workload

You need to identify it and work towards increasing the job satisfaction. Don’t leave things as it is rather you should speak to your supervisor or your seniors to get things settle. To avoid any clash with your supervisor always perform assigned tasks religiously because any work done with full pride will enhance the confidence level too. Try to learn new things so that you can switch to another job profile that is as per your choice and area of interest. You should have proactive approach for getting yourself trained as per industry standards and requirements. This will help in performing the assigned tasks efficiently resulting into recognition from top management and monetary appraisals.

Job dissatisfaction is sometimes self-created and is the most common factor of losing confidence. We should focus on giving our best in whatever we do as this is the only thing which is in our control. If we will give our 100% and perform excellent then we would have a strong point to switch the profile or move to next level that will definitely boost the confidence level.

Team Coordination

Team coordination is also one of the prime factor that can be improved by respecting other’s viewpoint, reverting promptly, effective communication and not blaming others. Management support is the backbone for better team coordination and they should never entertain crying babies. So, initiative should be taken by you only and best viable solutions should be figured out well in advance before reaching out the management for issues and concerns. This will help in discussing and coming up to a best possible resolution.

As we know everybody is different in nature, thought and behavior so definitely if you do something then some of your teammates don’t like it even they might criticize you. Criticism should be taken positively and steps should be taken for improvements as we are the best judge for ourselves and know our strengths and weakness.

Team coordination becomes little different for newcomers. New comers are often bullied by seniors as a part of monopoly but this should not let anyone affect their confidence level and performance. Newcomers should focus on capturing as much knowledge as they can by being a good listener, putting up questions, monitoring past trends.

Lack of Resources

Sometimes we lose our confidence level if we do not have enough of required resources to perform our job. Sometimes we need right people to do right thing or we need right resources in place in terms of logistics or anything that impact your job delivery.

Feel free to raise your voice to the leadership or seniors and get anything needed for your delivery. Don’t hesitate otherwise you will be end up with lot of escalations because you are the person who can best judge what and how should any work be done in your area.

Sitting idle and leaving everything as it is is not a solution and anyway this will not help you to perform and grow in your career ladder. So, speak up, raise your concerns and ask for whatever is needed for your job.

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Cloud Computing brings best in breed technologies mesh to provide high availability, durability and capacity with minimum time frame. In simple words your traditional data center (DC) would have flew down from on-premise to somewhere with big giants Cloud Service Providers DC like GCP (Google Cloud Platform), AWS (Amazon Web Services), Azure, IBM, Salesforce etc.

Why Should You Learn Cloud Computing?

As i mentioned above, Cloud Computing is growing faster than ever and creating lot of high paying jobs. The reason behind its popularity is its Pay As You Use model.

All cloud services are running on “Pay As You Use” model. You only pay for the services till you are using and can increase/decrease the usage capacity in few hours only. The Cloud Computing takes away hassle of procurement of servers, software’s & resources. It also removes the need of building, managing & maintenance of Data centres that is why most of the organizations are adopting cloud computing these days.

As more organizations will move to cloud, more cloud related jobs or opportunities will arise. So, it is imperative to learn cloud computing technology so that you can make use of it in your IT career. The added advantage of learning cloud is that you can bring value to your organization and its clients.

Prerequisites to Learn Cloud Computing

Today I will brief you about the skills needed to learn cloud and build promising career in it. Cloud can add value to your CV/Resume. Every IT professional need to have some familiarity with cloud. It has become an essential part of Information Technology. We as Digital Users are leveraging cloud Technology every day in our life. The most common example is social media, mails, music, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, News etc. Everything where data is stored in huge size is using cloud technology in the background.

Cloud Computing services falls into three categories:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS),
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Software as a Service (SaaS).

Although this article is very much applicable to all three categories for learning standpoint but primarily we will talk and refer about IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) model. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a form of cloud computing that provides virtualized compute resources over the internet following pay per use model.

As in earlier days Data center had multiple roles and responsibilities, similarly in cloud you can get similar technology, roles and career. If you belongs to IT Infrastructure services, then you  can pursue your career in IaaS cloud computing.

One can learn cloud as a beginner even if you have very basic skills in computers, prior experience in IT is an added advantage.

To begin with cloud there are three-important area to cover:

• Virtualization concepts
• Networking in virtual environment
• Operating systems (Linux & Windows)

Virtualization

It is important to understand how virtualized environment operates. In cloud context, virtual machines lie over and above hypervisor layer. Multiple VM’s shared same physical hardware and all the network equipment but are isolated or virtually separated from the other client machines using hypervisor technology. Virtualization means every type of application or workload which needed physical machines in past now can run by using shared resources across many clients. For more information refer to

Networking

The most important aspect of cloud is to understand cloud networking. It is very difficult section in cloud, and even those with some robust skills, typically require time to fully understand it.

Operating System (Linux & Windows)

Hands on experience on Linux and Windows is with excellent command lines skills is must before begin journey in cloud computing. One must begin with above three concepts to enter cloud computing.

How to Start Learning Cloud Computing?

The very first thing you need to do is, you need to decide the cloud service provider for which you want to learn and pursue distinct roles. There are many Cloud service providers in the market. You can choose any of them but it’s always wise to choose from top 3 service providers. Currently, Amazon is top cloud service provider in the market followed by Microsoft. Below are the names of some popular cloud service providers.

1. Amazon Web Services (AWS)
2. Microsoft Azure
3. IBM Cloud
4. Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
5. Salesforce

Once you have chosen the right cloud service provider then you should focus on the distinct domains. For example, if you had prior experience in networks you can choose to become Cloud Network Architect role and start focusing on CSP network services. If you are a system administrator then you can pursue Cloud System Administrator role. Below is the list of some cloud computing roles.

You can choose any roles given below as per your choice and are of interest. It would be an added advantage if you choose a domain in which you have some knowledge. The Distinct Technical roles which you can pursue in cloud are given below.

• Cloud Operations Engineer
• Cloud System Administrator
• Cloud Solution Architect
• Cloud Technical Architect
• Cloud Network Architect
• Cloud Security Architect
• Cloud Sales Consultant

I have explained the responsibilities and job profile of each and every role in below points.

• Cloud Operation Engineer – You should have at least 3 years of experience in this role. You need to ensure management of daily operations like adding Virtual machine (VM) to the cloud stack, installing software’s on the VM’s, monitoring cloud usage, controlling access to cloud environment, Identify and Access management for cloud.

• Cloud System Administrator – This job profile is similar to the system administrator job in legacy environment. Here, you need to take care of your cloud deployments and administration.  In cloud context security is shared responsibility however the systems security is client accountability. This role is mainly focus on hardening the Operating system and maintaining it. This will cover antivirus installation, policy control and overall protection services offered by cloud service provider. Strong Linux command line skills are needed.

• Cloud Solution Architect – You should have more than 6 years of experience to pursue a cloud solution architect role. The Cloud Solution Architect roles means to understand client requirement and propose possible design for the cloud IaaS. This comprise of servers, Data storage strategy, location, region, monitoring, security, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity solution. Cloud SA may need to design a Hosting solution for some website or Data analytics, Data warehousing, Graphics processing solution. The responsibility of cloud SA is to understand all services provided by the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) so that he can design a suitable solution considering all services and their relative cost.

• Cloud Technical Architect – You should be on senior role or at least 7 years of experience to work as cloud Technical Architect. The Technical Architect role is to create the proposed design by the cloud Solution Architect. The responsibility of the Architect is to manage all technical queries in creating the entire cloud stack. Expert in shell, Perl, python compiled code language will be an added advantage. You must have expert level knowledge of Linux and windows operating system. This role demands knowledge of all fields including Networks, Infrastructure, Servers and settings, Identify and Access management. The Architect need to fix any issue which comes under configuring access, or security settings, Roles distribution etc. The hands-on experience on all services provided by CSP is mandatory for this role.

• Cloud Network Architect– The Network Architect need to configure Virtual Private Network(VPC), load balancing in cloud, manage ports, Incoming and outgoing connections, Tunnelling, Internet to cloud connection etc. Deep understanding of TCP/IP, Subnetting, DNS, DHCP, NAT and routing, strong knowledge of layer 2 network protocols, Good knowledge of IP routing, scripting abilities Perl or Shell. CCNA or CCNP preferred certification. The Network Architect need to design, create and maintain any network related issues.

• Cloud Security Architect –The role is most crucial and important in cloud environment considering the fact you can access cloud from anywhere anytime and its security need to be designed by Cloud Security Architect. The data security at rest and in transit, encryptions and descriptions, to avoid data loss and exposure. Good understanding of Internet and hosting from network layer up through the application layer, monitoring tools, clustering and internet security. The cloud security policies, governance, risk assessment, Multi-factor authentication and Authorization. Read attached article if you want to understand the basics of Cloud Security and Data Protection.

• Cloud Sales Consultant – Must be a business administration preferable MBA, Client facing roles, excellent communication skills, building strategic partnership at the C-level. Google knowledge of market leader in cloud in terms of services and costing. Love travel jobs.

Study Materials

There are lot of study materials available on internet to start with. Many portals have free courses that you can register to learn cloud computing. You can also buy a cloud related course on Udemy or Coursera. I have given specific training courses for each cloud providers in below links. You can access as per your choice to learn different cloud courses like AWS, Azure, GCP etc. You can also get practice papers as well if you are preparing for AWS or Azure certifications.

Online Training Courses for Top Cloud Service Providers:

• AWS Certified Solution Architect – Online Training Courses
• Architecting with Google Cloud Platform
• Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions
• Hands on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) – Cloud Architect

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Read More:

• Is Presales a Good Career Opportunity in IT Industry?
• Top 5 Cloud Service Provider Accreditations and Third Party Auditor Reports
• Understanding Cloud Computing
• Understanding Cloud Security and Data Protection

The post How to Learn Cloud Computing? appeared first on Techyaz.com.

Related Article:

• Presales Interview Questions & Answers – Part 1
• IT Presales Interview Questions & Answers – Part 2

What is Presales in IT?

Pre-sales team work hard to accomplish the client requirement which includes Solutioning, Costing, Resourcing, Presentation etc. There are dedicated, passionate and Technical Presales resources behind every deal won by any organization.

These days Presales has been providing very fascinating and promising career prospects in IT/ITes. Maximum beginners are not aware of this career option. It’s not mandate to be an MBA for starting your career as presales consultant but it’s always an added advantage.

Presales resources are individual contributor and work closely with sales teams. The focus of Presales job profile is essentially in gathering requirement, running feasibility checks, design and build solutions.

Effective career as pre-sales consultant is a blend of technology and finance, as an Individual contributor this team is part of CoE (Center of excellence) in many organization.The basic job of pre-sales folks is to understand client requirement from a business standpoint is significant and then leveraging your writing, presenting and designing skills to stich the solution into a proposal.

The nature of the job is so dynamic that every Request for Information (RFI), Request for proposal (RFP) comes with new challenges and set of prerequisite, so need humans to analyze and manage the client requirement. Hence the presales job cannot be automated or done by robots but there is always a scope of automation that can be done at process or task level.

Presales Job Responsibilities

The benefits Pre-Sales resources get in front of client is that they can show actual expertise on the products or solutions they sell. Below are the list of responsibilities an organization expects from a Presales resource:

• Main responsibilities of Pre-Sales executives are to design a cost effective and competent solution that captures client requirement. Showcase your company achievements, experience and position in providing best quality service.
• A Presales consultant need to present customer finest solution which covers their need and future aspects considering market trend and forecast.
• Sales executives generally don’t have the forte in solution, hence Presales Team needs to be vigilant in designing solution which fulfill client requirement as well as  be cost effective and bring profit to their organization. It’s not just about winning deal it’s more about increasing company revenue.
• Presales consultant mostly need to be assertive for a constructive conflict with sales and delivery team both, and at times in some exceptional cases with the customer as well.
• The Pre-Sales must have good content writing skills.
• Presales accountability should be taken very serious as final scope of work(SOW) gets documented by Presales guys that becomes Bible for delivery and customer teams.

Read below article If you are preparing for a Presales Job Interview.

• Presales Interview Questions & Answers

Understanding Terminology used in Pre-Sales

Request for Information (RFI)

This is the first stage of any deal. Many Organization release RFI to understand their vendor eligibility to fulfill their project/deal/job requirement. In RFI documents client/customer may ask any of the following information to decide the eligibility criteria:

1. Technical expertise
2. Financial history
3. Overall User base
4. Credentials
5. Artefacts
6. Certifications
7. Technical Questionnaire
8. Legalities
9. Regional constraints
10. Strategy
11. Best possible Recommendation based on client requirement

It’s Presales Team who respond to RFI’s and make your organization eligible to bid for RFP’s. RFI’s response need to be crisp and to the point so that customer shortlist your company for next stage of bidding which is called Request for proposal (RFP)

Request for Proposal (RFP)

Once client will shortlist your organization during RFI process, you will be qualified for this stage known as Request for Proposal (RFP). Any company who wishes to hire/outsource/contract any piece of job/activity/project leveraging different vendors in market release their requirement in the form of RFP. The RFP contain all information related to client requirement such as:

1. Eligibility criteria for vendors
2. Submission dates
3. Client Requirements
4. Selection procedure
5. Confidentiality, Legal Terms and Conditions
6. Regional constraint
7. Quotations request details
8. Presentation request
9. Submission doc type in word document or Powerpoint presentation

Post successful bidding client will declare the deal Winner and as a final stage of process SOW needs to be signed between the customer and the successful Vendor who had won the deal.

Solutioning

Analyzing client requirement for a deal/job/project/contract to enhance client business so that they can meet market demands, equipped with latest trend & technology. The IT/third party/vendors /outsourcings firms provide optimal, cost effective resolution/ products/services to solve the concerns/hurdles of client. Presales resources analyze client requirements and convert that requirement in to best possible solution. They plan, design and build a layout document or powerpoint presentation to showcase the solution. Solutioning comes under RFP stage.

Costing

Every Deal/project/RFP have some budget. As per the type of deal client ask for quotes to deliver project in certain duration. The outsourcing company will provide cost for the job/activity in which the project would be completed. This includes complete budget plus margin to recover company expenses. Costing is part of RFP stage.

Costing includes the following:

• Travel expenses
• Asset procurement
• Software License cost
• Resources
• Any Trainings
• Governance

Sizing

Sizing means number of resources required to finish the project/job/activity. Sizing is the most crucial part of Pre-Sales, you must identify number of FTE (Full Time Employees) needed for respective technology, their tenure, total numbers and their Trainings need to finish the project on deadlines. In some cases, it also includes additional time for KT (Knowledge Transfer) and Reverse KT if needed.

Governance

For any deal/project/job there is a need of governance layer, who can manage any client escalation, communication along with entire project delivery management. The Governance layers will always be shared resources as they can manage multiple projects at one time. There could be some dedicated project managers depending upon the deal size and complexity.

Scope of Work (SOW)

Final stage of bidding for any contract/outsourcing/project is signing SOW. SOW is detailed document that clearly defines the following

1. Roles and Responsibility between the client and the Vendor
2. Details project plan
3. Project timelines
4. Terms and Condition (Legal)
5. Knowledge transfer plan
6. Project kick off dates
7. Travel plan If any
8. Governance
9. Contract signed as mutually agreed between partner and client

Presales Technical Skills Requirement

Person should have very good knowledge about overall IT infrastructure architecture or about your vertical. Apart from this you should have:

• Domain knowledge
• Ability to understand Client Requirement
• Content writing
• Good communication & presentation skills
• Good Knowledge of Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Visio, Excel & word)

Presales Training Courses

We live in Internet age so we have lot of options to learn any technology on Internet. These days you don’t need to buy a physical book to learn anything. You can get lot of study materials available over internet that will be helpful to learn any subject.

Udemy is one of the website that promotes digital learning. They have more than 40000 online video courses that anybody can use to learn as per their interest. I have also found one of the very good Presales course on Udemy. You can click on below link to directly access this course.

• Online Training Course on Presales Management – IT Solutions & Service Providers

Who should join Presales?

Presales is very promising field with lucrative remuneration and appreciation from management. You will help generating new business for your organization which will give you all the attention needed. Considering the above-mentioned facts if you really decided to join presales it’s important to be focus on below mentioned points:

• Passionate about Technology to pursue presales as career
• Good listener and reminisce it
• Can work under pressure as mostly they had to deal with short fused deals
• Can deal and manage communication with diverse workforce
• Decent content writer is essential part of presales
• Continuous Skill development and Sound knowledge of emerging trends and technology is must
• Decent knowledge on Costing and Finances
• An Assertive leader to deal with delivery teams
• Positive Attitude to manage success and failure graciously.
• Virtuous negotiator

Who should NOT join Presales?

Presales job will come with lots of responsibility and challenges. If you don’t like new change every day than you may not like the dynamic presales filed. The nature of this job is high pressure on delivering right solution at right time. It’s very crucial how you deal with win and miss deals. So please consider below facts before thinking of presales as career option:

1. Don’t like Dynamic job with multiple skills
2. Don’t enjoy working under pressure
3. Don’t enjoy Writing & making Powerpoint presentations
4. Don’t like sudden change
5. Don’t like travel
6. Don’t enjoy long hours calls
7. Casual Attitude

Experience needed to become Solution Architect (SA) in IT?

Generally, 5+ years in IT industry which includes domain knowledge of at least 2 years. Multi-skills and good learners’ folks can enjoy this challenging role that will give you lucrative salary and Bonus along with recognition among all teams and higher management.  You can consider Presales as your career option if you have all above mentioned skills and qualities.

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