War of broadbands

I must agree with AnakBrunei, this battle of the broadband service is a healthy competition and who would win – you guess it. I don’t normally put my negative thoughts here in my blog but this broadband service is interesting enough I think.

As reported in major local dailies (ehem – you can count in one hand actually), DST launched its broadband service yesterday and is now offering a free upgrade to all of its Prima and Easi subscribers.

So, as you can expect, people thronged DST counters yesterday afternoon, took their queue tickets and waited…and waited…waited..until a lady announced: ‘that’s it people, that’s all we can do today.’

The waiting was painful but the announcement was far crueler. I don’t know what have been done actually but I sure knew that I didn’t get that free upgrade yesterday, along with the dozens of people who have queued for hours. But oh well, we got until the end of the month to have the freebie and after that it will be $10 per upgrade. Boy, I felt pressured!

InfoCom Federation Brunei website

I was browsing the IFB website as its flagship event – the IFB – Brunei ICT Career Day interest me. Nope I am not looking for a job, just interested to see how organisations can help job-seekers. Insya Allah, I will drop by to ICC to the event.

So, the website is interesting. It explains who they are and what they do – normal stuff but the content is very good. There is also a self-assessment page for, err, your own self-assessment. Mine was this:

CHARACTERISTICS:

• people person
• likes communication and teamwork
• walks others through processes
• helps others understand their role
• makes sure everyone is on board
• helps others understand
• happy to share what has been learned

BEST FITS:

• Technical Support
  • help others learn to use technology
  • teach technology classes
  • help others solve problems they have with their computers
• Technology Sales, Consulting, Technology Marketing and Training

Don’t underestimate the importance of “people skills” in IT.  People skills combined with technology skills are a winning combination! 

Scoring Explanation -These scores are intended only to send you to particular categories of IT.  Whether you scored low or high is not important.  These scores do not reflect IT talent, they just send you to different interest areas. 

I also like the part of the site where it says what to expect from the career day. I think this is important for visitors especially teachers and students who would go there.

My past experience with fairs and such was that most visitors especially students do not know what to expect; worse, some didn’t know why they were there in the place! I hope their teachers and parents would guide and pre-brief them next time they are going to any fair or expo, etc.

Anyway, this particular career day is open to fresh graduates, graduates, those who are working and yes, for those who are not. The last para of the ‘What to expect’ page says:

“Authority for Information Technology Industry (AITI) about InfoComm Competency Training Program, which will grant 50% of the course fees to whoever eligible for the ICT Professional Courses under AITI Infomm Competency Training Program. The main purpose of this program is to encourage ICT Professional education and to help developing nation’s ICT industry ( Private & Public Sector ).”

So for those who would like to go and check job options, its better to register at the site now.

IFB – Brunei ICT Career Day