Bender's Symposium

What makes or breaks a manager? This is a question that I have been asking myself for a few years now and one that I ask as I am about to pursue a management position, hopefully in near future. I have had ample opportunity to watch management at all levels and I have watched...very closely. The best way to learn is to watch others, watch their mistakes, watch their successes, watch what you like and what you don't like.  In my opinion, after watching many managers at different levels, I have come to the conclusion of what makes or breaks someone in a management position is their people. The workers below them will ultimate determine whether a manager is successful or not.  Why do I bring this up? Why is this important? Because I believe this is a fundamental issue that is slowly being forgotten about in our society. The best managers that I have had, are those who have not forgotten where they came from and have taken the time and effort to take care of their people. By...

I saw a post today about placing an Air Force Badge on your Facebook profile page to honor the Airmen that serve this great country. Of course me being in the Air Force and having close friends in the Air Force, I put one on my page. Even though I am separating from the Air Force in six months, I will always be proud to have been apart of serving this country during a time we had two wars and be proud I was able to serve during those times and do my part. I will always be proud of the Airmen that serve this country as I am truly proud of many close friends who will continue to serve, and the new Airmen I see coming into the Air Force and will be future leaders one day. Even when I separate, I will always do what I can to support and help out those Airmen, Soldiers and Sailors, and I will always be proud of the military and the service they provide to our country everyday. That got me thinking about what I am going to miss being apart of and serving in the military. I am going to miss ...

I was walking through the hall at work today and over heard one student tell another student, "If I could go back and change....". I could not hear the rest of what he said as I got out of ear range and had to get back to my class but that immediately got my brain churning. I started wondering what people would say if I asked them, "If you could go back in time and change one thing in your life, what would it be?" I would never ask my wife this as she asks me all too many times to remind her why she married me. Now poor, innocent, and angelic me would never provoke this comment from her.....ok, so maybe I deserve that comment from her occasionally after some good teasing. But I wondered what people would say. Then I got to thinking about how I would answer that question. What in my past, if given the opportunity, would I change? This caused me to think through my life thus far. I got thinking through my memories, thinking of all the good and bad things that have ha...

As I have stated and aluded to in previous posts, I am going to begin separating from Air Force. I made this decision almost three years ago and a few events and experiences since have solidified my feelings that I do not want to make this a career. The military has been good to me over all and has provided me with plenty of experience in the IT world and has more than paid for my education. I served my country for nine years now and have put my country before myself in many occasions. But now I am ready to put me first, work for my goals and desires and make the rest of my life what I want it to be, not dictated to me by the Air Forces needs or desires. I still want to serve my country just on my terms and hopefully one day at a level much higher than military positions. Now I love the atmosphere and the types of people that the military brings. So for that, I won't be going far. I am seeking employment with a company that contracts out positions in the Air Force. So I will still ...

When I was a little kid, clear to sometime in high school, I always said I wanted to be teacher. When I was in high school and realized the low pay teachers got, plus the hassle they have to put up with in society now days, all rules and abuse from students and the inability to do anything about it, etc., I went on to new career choices. Little did I know that the military would still give me that chance.  For the last year and half now, I have been teaching new military members the fundamentals of my career field. Building a foundation for them to build on once they arrive at their first duty station and be able to perform my occupational job in the operation field. I have logged about 1400 teaching hours and need about 600 more to get my Occupation Instructor Certification which will allow me to teach lower level, career oriented class at colleges and what not. I am really striving for this certification, not with the hopes of teaching at a college or community college, but beca...

Wasn't sure what I was going to post today until someone called me a computer geek. Now I got something... Ok, my profession is working on networks and global communication lines. I install, maintain and troubleshoot them. My degree is in, as stated in a previous post, Information Technology Management. I love my job and could not see myself working in any other proffession. I decided to get a degree in the management area of my carreer field because I don't want to be a grunt worker all my life and would like to get in the management/leadership realm eventually, if not the near future. Now, when people ask me what I do and I give them the brief explanation of what I do, I think all they hear is "networks" and they respond almost everytime with "oh, you are a computer geek". No, I am not a computer geek and I will explain why. Computer geeks are often thought of as those who are constantly working on computers, writing computer programs, and a party for t...

I haven't had any "profound" thoughts today (I use profound very loosely as I am not sure Derek and profound can really be put in the same sentence) but I have been thinking of a question that has plagued me since I was kid. I decided to share this as I still don't know the answer and to also give those who read Bender's Symposium a little background information on myself. Serving in the military gives one the opportunity to meet new people, especially being an instructor. This has become an almost daily event for me. Part of the process of meeting new people is trying to find some common ground in which more conversation can be built off of. Being in the military, and everyone coming from different places, had led to the guarantee of one question always being asked when meeting new people. This question, after nine years of service, has become my most hated question. "Where are you from?". Its not the question so much I hate, its the mere fact that I h...

So, I have spent most of my day sitting in an Emergency Room with my wife. She is fine...she just has a few medical issues that do have us visiting the hospital enough to were I am pretty sure they will be naming a wing after us soon. That is for a future blog. Any how, as anyone who has spent time in an emergency room knows (unless you are the person who is recieving the "happy shots"), there is a TON of waiting time. It was during one of these extended waiting periods I started to think about some of my upcoming decisions (again more detail on those in future blogs) and thinking through wether some of the choices I have made are in deed the right ones and thinking of the decisions I still have to make. Anyone that knows me well enough, knows I have a lot of "squirrel" moments (for those who have seen the movie "UP") and I had one of those during my future planning. No one has ever accused me of good timing. During this "squirrel" moment I sta...

So, for the last seven years I have been working on my Bachelors Degree in Information Technology Management, in between deployments, family responsibilities, etc. Most people that go to school for seven years are called doctors, I will settle for "Mr". Needless to say, my last seven years have been busy to say the least and spare time has not been in my vocabulary. I have been done with my degree for two weeks now and all that is left is receiving the diploma. It feels good and I have a sense of accomplishment that I have never felt before. Two weeks now I have gone to work and then home right after work. I have enjoyed coming home, plopping my backside down on the couch and do nothing. Sitting there watching tv, talking with friends and family, etc., all the while not having to worry about due assignments, upcoming classes, so forth and so on. It has been great, but after seven years of studying and constantly having things that need to be done, I am now getting rambunctiou...