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Simon's Blog
Posted by sidetnee on 27 May 2011
2

Six months ago, I applied for a place on a new Microsoft Learning venture, Career Factor. Being chosen as the successful applicant for the IT Manager role was just the beginning of what for me, has been an amazing journey. My fellow travelers, who started out as just names on an email have now become good friends. Good luck with your future careers...
Posted by sidetnee on 27 May 2011
4

Hi All, As Expected, it's taken me a while to get down my thoughts on the final day of Tech-Ed. The day started like all the others with a long hike to breakfast followed by an equally long hike back to the Hands on Lab area. Amazingly, this was my first opportunity to have some time to visit the HOL's, which by past experience are always a...
Posted by sidetnee on 19 May 2011
1

Another day dawns and the career factor gang were no where to be seen for a 7am start from the hotel. Breakfast was good (welcome back hot food) and i barely noticed the hike back to my first session of the day, an exam cram for 70-432 SQL maintenance and deployment. I've had on the backburner a wish to try and get at least the TS certifications...
2

Goood morning everyone, it's time for an update from Teched on the career factor happenings from day 2. This year's visit to Teched is a little different from my previous ones as rather than having the primary focus being about my learning and "training", it is instead first and foremost about career factor and so for the first part...
Posted by sidetnee on 17 May 2011
2

After spending Sunday bonding with the group, Monday the real work started, Keynote at 9am and past experience told me that breakfast would be busy and the queue to get into the keynote would be on the large side. I was not disappointed on either count and oh my god, how far is it from sessions in B to sessions in C/Meals??? It is a good 15 minutes...
Posted by sidetnee on 16 May 2011
2

Or so they say. I hope that this is actually the case as I am struggling to find time between sessions, career factor activities and partying to write a regular update!! Saturday was a good day, seperate bookings for me and Dan gave us an in at flight check-in - result of asking to be sat together was an upgrade to premium economy. More recline and...
Posted by sidetnee on 12 May 2011
7

Posted by sidetnee on 12 May 2011
5

Clearly I am an incompetent fool who doesn't know what he is doing. Well, that's certainly how I feel right now having flunked my second shot at 70-505, barely improving my previous score despite late nights studying and walking through practise tests. Maybe i'm just too old for the exam lark? I've posted a video blog post of my immediate...
Posted by sidetnee on 7 May 2011
1

Hi everyone, just like the other Career Factor participants, i was recently interviewed by Stephen Ibaraki about my career and time on Career Factor. The full interview can be found here . Enjoy. /SiD
Posted by sidetnee on 7 May 2011
2

Another quick-fire update for you this week, primarily focussed on TechEd. With TechEd fast approaching, I spent the best part of the morning on Wednesday last week working through the schedule planner on the TechEd site trying to work out what Iwas going to be doing whilst i am there. A quick scan through the sessions made me realise that one of me...
Posted by sidetnee on 7 May 2011
1

Hi again everybody, in just 7 days time I will be jetting off across the Atlantic to attend Microsoft Tech Ed North America 2011 in Atlanta Georgia and i can't wait. After a nice long vacation, it was back into the office on Tuesday to the mountain of things that had built up for me in my absence. I had a feeling that things were going to get a...
Posted by sidetnee on 28 Apr 2011
3

Hi again folks, I've just got a little bit of time to keep you in the loop with recent goings on in my world. I've been on holiday for the past week or so and have been spending some time with the family. Having been away from home for nearly a month in the first three of this year has put a strain on things and it has been good to be able to...
Posted by sidetnee on 22 Apr 2011
3

Hi again everyone, it's Simon here with another update. First of all, I mentioned last time that Dan was scheduled for his exam on Monday of this week, I give to you an excerpt from his response when I mailed him to see how he got on... In Summary: Not bitter, honest. Failed, needed 6 more. Many of the questions were so ambiguous that I would have...
Posted by sidetnee on 17 Apr 2011
1

Hi again everyone, its been a busy time (as ever) the last few weeks and i've started but not yet completed a "proper" blog post. I have to say that the title to this one was inspired by the comments of my colleagues in the office on Friday afternoon last week following my failure to pass the 70-505 Windows forms exam in the morning. I've...
0

April 6: Steve gives another update on the last few days

March 1: Simon updates us on his team's work and certification progress

 

February 20: Simon updates everyone on what's going on, including the wrap up of acceptance testing and the start of working on their certifications


January 31: Dana Calleja of the Microsoft Certified Career Conference invites Neil and the rest of the Career Factor participants to attend

My Blog

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Simon Davis

Simon Davis lives in the historic City of Chester in the North West of England. He works as a Principal Software Engineer for Remsdaq Limited, a small company situated just across the England/Wales border in North Wales. Remsdaq specializes in products for security, utility and emergency mobilization industries. Simon manages a team of 7 software engineers whose primary role is to develop the control center software for the security business unit on a Windows platform.

 

Simon holds a masters degree (MEng) in Software Engineering from University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), during which he first began working at Remsdaq. Starting off as a student who they supported in his studies and then following graduation, he has worked his way through the ranks to his current position heading up the master station development team.

 

In June 2008, Simon attained his Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) credential in Windows Development as part of the efforts to allow Remsdaq to obtain Gold Certified Partner status. Since November 2009, Simon has been an active participant in the European group of the Microsoft Learning IT Managers Advisory Council.

 

Simon enjoys traveling, and his current role has given him the opportunity to travel around the world meeting business partners and customers for project meetings and installation/commissioning works stretching from Prisons in the Far East to airports and Military Installations in Scandinavia.

 

Away from the office, Simon likes to spend his time with his partner and their 3-year-old daughter. When it comes to leisure time, he enjoys playing golf at the local club where, prior to the birth of his daughter, he was both a committee member and junior organize. Alternatively, he can sometimes be found playing his mage Yashid in the World of Warcraft.