September 2017 Update
I am changing the method of deployment for this site from WebMatrix 3, which is going end of life in November, to a local Git Repository. I am also hoping to leave Microsoft Word behind as my editor. I am currently looking to use Blue Griffon, a fre WYSIWYG editor that does not add any schmutz to the html and also offers side by side WYSIWYG and source text editing. In thi configuration, Azure acts as a kind of private GitHub. I also get source control and the ability to edit from any text editor as long as git is locally installed. Blue Griffon also has an Ubuntu version so can even do my WYSIWYG edits from one of the Ubuntu workstations have in my VM labs.
2015
I have been playing with the idea of my own website for a long time. The excuse to set one up came when I was between jobs and I decided I wanted to learn Microsoft Azure as a marketable skill. I found that Microsoft had developed several certification exams so I chose to study for the Infrastructure exam and I set up an Azure subscription for my lab work. Over a period of several weeks I set up multiple Virtual Machines, a SQL database or two and several variations of web sites.
Of course the MCP certification was going to look great on my resume and it occurred to me that it would be convenient to put my latest resume on a website. This has been great for recruiters since there are multiple ways for them to discover me and one of their first requests after starting a conversation with me is for them to send me a resume. Now I can just send them a link which can be done from anywhere and from multiple platforms. I have, for instance, sent this link back to a recruiter within a LinkedIn InMail from my iPhone while I am out and about.
In this age of the Internet, searching for employment is all about networking. Social Networking, Internet Working, Social Media and Search Engines. I have links on this site to both my LinkedIn profile as well as my Facebook page. I want this website to be about my personal life as well as my professional qualifications. So on the one hand, I am becoming “discoverable” and lately I have gotten most of the leads I am following from people that have found me on the Internet. On the other hand, I try to attend at least two in person networking events per week during which I hand out business cards with my name, phone, email, LinkedIn profile and the link to my resume on this website: www.davecoate.com/resume.
From a technical perspective, the site is very basic right now. Professionally, I host websites and while I do understand a number of the languages used to author web pages I am all about the infrastructure. In this sense, the point of this website is how incredibly easy it is host a simple website on Azure. The pages are currently authored in Microsoft Word and I am using Microsoft Web Matrix to deploy it. In addition to content simply published from Word to the site via Web Matrix, I am also providing links to other Cloud providers where I store content.
In Microsoft’s cloud I am using blob storage for the downloadable copy of my resume. I also host a large photo album on Microsoft OneDrive. This was something I set up to share this album as a convenient way to deliver the content to a Mountaineers function. Since that time I have expanded my use of OneDrive to share data between my two computers and my iPhone. That means that most of my personal (but not identity) data exists in three places, my two computers and “in the cloud”. This along with a few routines I have developed are the basis of my data backup strategy. In the future, I may publish some of the tricks I have developed to support this strategy.
From a social perspective, my favorite cloud sharing media for pictures is Facebook. Since so many people use it, I like distilling my photography down to 5 – 15 picture Facebook Albums with commentary. This makes my new content immediately discoverable by my friends. However, I am playing with the idea of using this website to index or sort my albums by grouping the links on to a small number of pages here.
Finally, to wrap it all back around, I provide a link to my LinkedIn profile. This all gets rather circular, but it is easy to do and closes the loop on making me ‘discoverable’ both personally and professionally.