本人離開前公司差不多兩個月，如果前公司有工作問題問我，我也會回應，順便了解公司近況。 公司之前管理層有五名香港人和一名韓國人總經理，兩個月期間已裁走或迫走了三名香港人(包括我自己)，應該節省了很多工資費用的支出，裁員本是正常的收縮和節流的做法，但是我跟其他兩位被裁員工討論後，我們被快速裁走的另一原因，是因為我們阻礙其他人收回佣騙公司錢；我聽說他們把很多值錢的設備用賤價賣出，例如二手值二十多萬元的設備，只用六萬元賣出，很令人懷疑。我之前也寫過收回佣行騙公司的事情，參考” IT人在工廠日記 – 老板的私心” 一文，文中的所寫的”老板”其實就是那位韓國人總經理，現時他們可放心地騙錢啦，沒有人會防礙他們了。如果 他們 不被揭發，是他們好運，希望他們及早回頭吧！

我於3月26日參加阿里雲支援香港科技券計劃 (TVP)的研討會，覺得申請科技券支助的手很煩複，要政府錢就是麻煩。
研討會除了介紹科技券計劃，亦介紹一些雲應用方案，內容豐富，值得參加。
在研討會中有些有用的資料如下圖，供你參考。
         

Although I was layoff, I still needed to work in office in the notification period. I did some clean-up work in our office and threw away several boxes of rubbish to refuse collection point. However, company did not trust my work. Then, HR asked my best friend colleague to check my throw-away stuff; and I went to the refuse collection point with the colleague to show those throw-away stuff. It was really a shame to me.

I wanted to be a responsible person to continue to help company, but company worried I would do bad thing to company. Some company was very means. So, did not over-estimate your reputation and professional ethics; did your work more careful in your layoff notification period in order to avoid any misunderstand.

I aware that my company is in a very difficult finance situation because of market decline and trade war between US and PRC last year. My company had a big loss starting from the US import tax increase to 10% (even 25%) last year. I was worry about layoff for a long time. Although I expect I will be layoff within year 2019, the layoff is a little bit earlier than I guess. I was layoff by company in the end of Feb. My last day will be a month later, which means company do not pay me one month notification, but ask me to continue to work for a month. My company is too means.

Anyways, I need to find another job aggressively, maybe decrease my starting salary to even HK$25k/month for new job.

Hope I will be good luck.

Year of Dog has already gone. Year of Pig is coming.

In year 2019, my company is still in difficulty situation. Because of trade war between China and US, my company is spreading blood. If trade tax further increases (10% -> 25% -> more), my company will loss more and may further downsize (even shutdown) the operation in China. Actually, our company is planning and is going to outsource operation to other country (such as Korea, Vitname, etc), and reduce staff in China and Hong Kong.

As my risk plan on career, I took several courses last year. I got PMP cert last year, but I did not find it could help me to find another job. I think I will leave IT field if I am layoff by company. I have another plan, and I got several cranio sacral therapist cert last year. I may develop another career path to do energy healing work. Hope it is suitable to me.

Good Luck to everyone in Year of Pig.

我之前有位公司同事離職時，被我們發現他虧空公款，但是我們放他一馬，只要他交還公款，便不再追究。最近，得知這位同事又想回公司上班，我跟老板提起這事，可是，老板仍然招他回來。

這件事，令我聯想起乾隆與和申的關系，雖然乾隆知道和申是貪官，只因乾隆的私心，自己喜歡，便重用和申，任其貪污。實際上，有些老板是不會介意員工的貪污行為，只要員工能討好老板歡心，貪小小錢，小事姐。

Yesterday, I got a big depression due to my general manager (the biggest boss in the factory). I made a minor mistake but was blamed by him several hours. My fault was because not review an internet monthly contract after its expire. However, per the contract term, it would auto-renew after its contract period. The contract cost was cny2600/month for 10M broadband.

My boss treated this matter in serious way, seem over-reacted, and blamed me that I (as an IT manager) had to review all IT contracts timely and accurately. When your boss was in bad mood, you have better not to argue with him, and just say “sorry” and “yeah”. At last, he instructed me to do the following and treated me like a no experience staff: 1) search the up-to-date market price of internet; 2) measure our requirement on the broadband (10M, 20M or 30M); 3) ask China Telecom salesman to come on-site to negotiate about contract cost; 4) write minutes about the meeting with salesman; 5) he need to review the contract before signed.

Maybe my boss targeted me as a next layoff person, while I also prepared myself to leave the company anytime. Anyways, I will still try my best to do my job well. Hope there is no another chance that my boss finds my other fault. God bless.

Finally, this kind of bad boss made me a terrible nightmare, and he might cause me psychological problem. Because of my health, I should try my best to leave his supervisor. Good Luck to myself.

It was a nowadays requirement for any professional to continue study, so, I planned to enhance my project management knowledge which should be useful for my IT management skill. I decided to take a PMP exam and got a PMP certification. PMP stands for Project Management Professional, and it is endorsed by a US’s Project Management Institute (https://www.pmi.org/).

I thought that PMP exam should be easy for me because I had rich experience to handle IT projects. I did not intent to join any course, however, it was a requirement from PMI that a candidate had to register a course, so that I registered a PMP on-line preparing course from https://www.udemy.com/ in Oct 2017. The Udemy PMP course costed only US$10.99, which was a very good price. Although the concept of project management was very generic, I needed to learn many PMP specific terms and definition from Udemy, which were new to me. After I have finished the Udemy on-line course, I could only get 70 marks from its drill test, which I should get 75 marks or above in order to ensure to pass the exam according to the lecturer comment.

After the Udemy course, I borrowed two books from library to self-study: I) “Pass the PMP exam : tools, tips and tricks to succeed” by Sean Whitaker ; ii) “PMP practice makes perfect : over 1000 PMP practice questions and answers” by John Estrella. After I have finished these two books, I still did not comfortable. I searched from web and found a web site  https://edward-designer.com/web/pmp/ which Edward shared his experience about PMP exam. It provided me many useful information.

My final preparation work is to read the PMBOKGuide from PMI, and did more free mock exam questions from web, such as from Oliver Lehmann (Online) and Edwel Mock Exam.

Luckily, I passed the PMP exam in my first in-take. I spent totally 6 months to prepare the exam, and I passed it in Mar 2018.

_____________________________________________________________________

Additional information about Changing of PMP Exam on or after 26 Mar 2018 as below.

The release of the PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition in September 2017, the PMP exam will change 26 March 2018. These updates will ensure the exam content is consistent with the PMBOK® Guide.

Although the PMP is not a test of the PMBOK® Guide, it is one of the primary references for the exam. Some of the updates you can expect to see surround lexicon changes and terminology used within the exam as well as harmonization of process groups, tools, and techniques.

The major updates to the sixth edition are summarized below:

• A new chapter on the role of the project manager has been added to focus on leading projects effectively – competencies, experience, and skills that are all necessary.
• Two Knowledge Areas have been re-named to more accurately reflect which elements can be managed and which cannot:

o    Time Management is now Schedule Management

o    Human Resource Management is now Resource Management

Every Knowledge Area features four new sections:

1. Key Concepts
2. Trends and Emerging Practices
3. Tailoring Considerations
4. Considerations for Agile/Adaptive Environments

The sixth edition will also present new content around considerations for agile/adaptive environments and the PMI Talent Triangle®.

We wish you the best of luck on upcoming exam!

每年春節之後，工厂都有招聘工人的困難，但是今年特別嚴重，已經過了正月，仍未請夠工人。因為趕貨原因，工厂特別要求工厂的文職人員到生產線幫手，連經理和主管级的職員也要参與。大陸的招人問題，真的愈來愈嚴重。

最近，工厂又發生大件事，一名員工在宿舍被殺身亡，疑似是情殺，但是疑兇其後亦在它處被發現自殺身亡，雖然遇害員工是非工傷死亡，但是因為事件發生在宿舍，工厂仍有一定的責任，根據律師估計，工厂賠償不會超過廿萬元，可是，家屬要求工厂賠償八十萬，認真獅子大開口，家屬不肯讓步，談判失敗。這些大陸人的心態，不管合不合理，有機會便盡刮一筆錢，真令人失望。
現時，家屬開始搗事，在工厂門口擺放祭壇，滋擾工厂，而工厂管理層現階段十分忍讓，非必要時不會找公安或外經幫手。

時近年尾春節，發生此事，真是大吉利事，而且工厂的春茗晚飯也因此取消，各人也沒心情興祝啦！希望此事早點完結，死者入土為安，家屬節哀，重新生活吧！