Eric Spiegel

Should I have a steak or chicken burrito? Or maybe an enchilada. These were the thoughts going through my head as I sat in an overheated conference room watching an aimless software product demonstration. Perhaps you also have found your mind wandering during a vendor presentation. We humans have naturally short attention spans (especially near […]

The name caught my attention immediately. There it was, staring back at me from the top of the resume — a very foreign first and last name. At least it was foreign to me. This was my first hire as a manager and I wanted to make it a good one. I needed a consultant […]

Don’t quit your day job! This phrase has been heard by countless would-be entrepreneurs. If you are considering starting a company of your own to build the next great software product or service, don’t let the naysayers dissuade you. You just have to do your homework and then find a way to fund your venture. […]

                It’s funny how people in IT can sometimes be the last to jump onto the most obvious bandwagons. You surely have heard of blogs, and maybe take a peek at one now and then. It is a new enough phenomenon that spell checking doesn’t even recognize the […]

First let me start off with the obvious, considering my target audience. The networking I’m going to write about has nothing to do with Ethernet or 802.11 Wi-Fi standards. The topic of this article is about the type of networking IT professionals fear the most — person-to-person networking. Most of us have a hard enough […]

If I were to offer you an opportunity where you could double your pay, would you be intrigued? Even if there were many drawbacks to the offer, doubling your pay is nothing to sneeze at. A senior IT professional’s compensation might be something like $90,000 in a major market. If the opportunity I’m offering (hypothetically […]

“I found the perfect job position for you!” That was the exuberant voice of my very persistent headhunter reverberating in my ear. I wasn’t looking for a new position, but every now and then the phone would ring with an enticing offer. This particular incident was before the Web took hold and I was programming […]

“What did he say?” This was the thought bouncing around my brain as I tried desperately to follow the conversation of the offshore project manager who was on the other side of the world from me. He was speaking English; however the combination of the long-distance connection echo and his heavy accent were throwing me […]

“Interns? We don’t have time for interns!” That was the terse response I received from our VP of engineering when I proposed we bring on a few interns to fill some immediate needs. Although I could understand his response based on the immense impending workload, I also knew from past experience that an internship program […]

I really thought it was a good idea. Many of my team members had been working late, so I approached HR about a new policy that would allow employees working ten hours or more to claim a $10 dinner expense. They would just submit a simple expense form and get a check for ten bucks. […]