Saturday, 27 February 2016

Exam 220-901 CompTIA A+ Certification Exam

Today’s IT professionals face an ever expanding variety of technical issues. CompTIA A+ 220-901 & 902 has been updated to address the
increased diversity of knowledge required of today’s technicians and validates what is currently necessary to perform effectively on the job.

“A+ opens the door to understanding mobile device sensors, small and large storage, as well as wired and wireless transmission standards.
These three things are, in many ways, three pillars for the Internet of Things

The New A+ Preparing today’s IT pros for tomorrow’s technology

A+ 900 SERIES DOMAINS
Hardware - 34%
Networking - 21%
Mobile Devices - 17%
Hardware & Network Troubleshooting - 28%

Candidates still earn the CompTIA A+ certification by passing two CompTIA A+ exams: 220-901 & 220-902.
Both exams include multiple-choice and performance-based questions that require candidates to solve real-world problems.

What’s Changed and Why

SECURITY
Security is not just for the Security Administrator. Help desk and technical support professionals form one of the first lines of defense for any organization.

• While the Security domain weighting remains the same at 22%, there is an increased emphasis on the ability to apply security-related knowledge. For example, candidates are asked more frequently to “deploy” and “use” security best practices, rather than simply “describe.”

• The sub-objectives for the Security domain have also been expanded to reflect the increased attack surface of a typical organization along with the resources and tools that have arisen to protect it. For example, compare sub-objective 3.4 in A+ 902 with sub-objective 2.3 in A+ 802.

• Security concerns permeate both the 901 and the 902 exams. In fact, 8 of the 9 total certification domains have an objective or sub-objective containing a security consideration.

HARDWARE
Broad adoption of a variety of computing devices demands more of today’s IT technicians.

• Mobile devices earn their own hardware-focused domain on the 901 exam.

• The new exams are weighted less heavily toward PC-focused hardware, decreasing from 51% spread across two domains on the 801 exam to 34% on the 901 exam.

• While the weighting changes (meaning the total number of items presented), the range of knowledge specific to hardware remains intact – familiar printer and PC hardware objectives remain on the exams.

NETWORKING
The increasingly network-aware help desk/tech support environment requires command of networking principles to perform the IT support role.

• Enterprises increasingly rely on a combination of cloud and on-premises IT systems. For those supporting those systems and their users, cloud concepts must be well-understood.
The A+ 900 series starts an IT pro on that journey with an introduction to cloud and virtualization, the cloud’s core underlying technology.

• Like the 800 series exams, the 900 series continues the emphasis on a tech’s ability to apply core concepts and protocols such as IPv4, IPv6, DHCP, and subnet mask to set up and support wired and wireless networks

MOBILE DEVICES
Mobile continues to dominate personal and business technology with multiple types of systems tied to one user.

• 5 of the 8 new objectives found in the 900 series belong to mobile devices.

• Mobile devices break out of their single-domain treatment. Previously they were covered only in 802, now 220-901 covers mobile device hardware and 220-902 covers mobile device applications, operating systems and security.

• Also added are items specifically related to troubleshooting mobile device issues.


SOFTWARE, HARDWARE & NETWORK TROUBLESHOOTING
Customers increasingly demand instant, accurate diagnosis and resolution.

• The IT role has expanded from supporting desktops and laptops to include myriad types of other devices, from laptops and mobile phones to industrial sensors and wearables.

• The demand is high for quick accurate problem solving.

• Technicians must consider many different scenarios when solving a problem including:
- Wireless
- Mobile
- Cloud Technologies

• Troubleshooting is represented on both A+220-901 and A+ 220-902. Previously, it was only represented on A+ 802.


OPERATING SYSTEMS
Technicians need to increase their knowledge of operating systems across a wide variety of devices to effectively support the end user.

• The 900 series features a Windows OS domain along with a second OS-focused domain - The second OS domain includes objectives requiring a working knowledge of Mac OS X and Linux.

• Operating systems serving as the platforms for mobile device applications – including iOS, Android and Windows – are covered within the 220-902 exam.

QUESTION 1
A technician replaces a failed hard drive with a brand new one. The technician boots from a PE CD and attempts to install a custom OS build deployed from the network. The hard drive is visible in the system’s BIOS. However, once in the preinstallation environment, the drive is not recognized in the imaging process and the process fails. Which of the following is MOST likely the cause of failure?

A. The boot CD has failed and needs to be replaced.
B. The hard drive needs to have its configuration manually defined in the BIOS.
C. The PC’s power supply is not providing enough power to the new hard drive.
D. The hard drive has not been partitioned correctly.

Answer: D


QUESTION 2
Which of the following wireless technologies is LEAST likely to be intercepted by a third party?

A. NFC
B. Bluetooth
C. WiFi
D. Cellular

Answer: A


QUESTION 3
Joe, a user, receives a wireless router from his ISP with a pre-set password and configuration. He can connect to the router fine via Ethernet but cannot see the wireless signal on any of his devices. The LEDs on the router indicate that a wireless signal is broadcasting. Which of the following settings on the router does Joe need to adjust to enable the devices to see the wireless signal?

A. DHCP
B. IPv6
C. DMZ
D. SSID

Answer: D


QUESTION 4
Which of the following protocols would be used for file sharing between MAC OS and Windows OS workstations on a LAN?

A. IMAP
B. SMB
C. SSH
D. RDP

Answer: B


QUESTION 5
Which of the following is used to facilitate communications with a user’s smartphone in order to make purchases and payments by proximity?

A. Bluetooth
B. IR
C. NFC
D. WPS

Answer: C


Saturday, 20 February 2016

650-155 ISIWS Cisco IronPort Security Instructor - Web Security

Exam Number 650-155
Duration 60 minutes (50-60 questions)
Available Languages English

This exam tests your knowledge of Cisco IronPort web security appliances. To receive this certification, you should be able to train students on how to install, configure, administer, and troubleshoot Cisco IronPort web security appliances.

Exam Topics
The following topics are general guidelines for the content likely to be included on the exam. However, other related topics may also appear on any specific delivery of the exam. In order to better reflect the contents of the exam and for clarity purposes, the guidelines below may change at any time without notice.

There is no specific recommended training course associated with this exam, however knowledge of the exam topics and the product(s) associated with this exam are recommended to pass this exam. Cisco Partners can access the Partner Education Connection (PEC) for access to a variety of training content to help them prepare for this exam.


QUESTION 1
Which of the following commands is used to view the cache hit rate?
Select exactly 1 answer(s) from the following:

A. proxystat
B. proxyconfig
C. advancedproxyconfig
D. webcache

Answer: A

Explanation:


QUESTION 2
Match the HTTP response code with the meaning or use.



Answer:



Explanation:
401-3
403-1
404-4
407-2


QUESTION 3
Which of the following S-Series CLI commands car help troubleshoot WCCP?
Select exactly 1 answer(s) from the following:

A. weep debug enable
B. tail proxylogs
C. tail accesslogs
D. show weep

Answer: B

Explanation:


QUESTION 4
Match the port number to the use on the S-Series.



Answer:



Explanation:
80-2
443-3
8080-1
8443-4


QUESTION 5
Which of the following is a draw-back in using McAfee heuristic scanning?
Select exactly 1 answer(s) from the following:

A. Heuristic scanning increases the probability of false positives.
B. Heuristic scanning increases the probability of false negatives.
C. Heuristic scanning cannot detect new malware with unknown signature.
D. Heuristic scanning requires a separate license key.

Answer: A

Explanation:

Wednesday, 10 February 2016

650-128 CGAM Authorized Connected Grid Account Manager Knowledge Verification

650-128 CGAM Authorized Connected Grid Account Manager Knowledge Verification

Exam Number 650-128
Duration 30 minutes (20-25 questions)
Available Languages English

This exam will test the knowledge of account managers regarding the features, functions, and design of the Cisco Connected Grid technology solution. There will be a focus on the features and benefits of the Cisco 2010 Connected Grid Router (CGR 2010) and the Cisco 2500 Series Connected Grid Switch (CGS 2500). How these products are positioned within energy and utility companies and how to identify new opportunities and set customer expectations will also be covered on this exam.

Exam Topics
The following topics are general guidelines for the content likely to be included on the exam. However, other related topics may also appear on any specific delivery of the exam. In order to better reflect the contents of the exam and for clarity purposes, the guidelines below may change at any time without notice.

Introduction to Cisco Connected Grid Go-to-Market and Product Positioning
How to Sell
Cisco Connected Grid Ordering and Support
Cisco Connected Grid Solutions

QUESTION 1
Which of these trends is the main driver toward smart grid technology?

A. increased supply, which requires the integration of distributed generation sources
B. reduced demand, which causes an increase in demand and peak load
C. compliance with regulations involving government funding and rules
D. increased carbon footprint

Answer: C

Explanation:


QUESTION 2
How many levels or types of priority can be assigned on a Cisco TAC case?

A. 1
B. 2
C. 4
D. 3

Answer: C

Explanation:


QUESTION 3
Which statement reflects the overall Cisco Smart Grid vision?

A. Sell the existing Cisco IP-based products from end-to-end of our utility customer's smart grid
deployments.
B. Design and architect an end-to-end communications infrastructure that is integrated with the
power grid.
C. Integrate intelligent routing protocols into existing electrical grids.
D. Create a single infrastructure for unified communications from electrical generation plants to all
primary and secondary substations.

Answer: D

Explanation:


QUESTION 4
Which of these is a grouping of elements that are part of the Cisco Substation Automation
solution?

A. multi service communications networks
B. protection and control, auto meter reading, data analysis
C. protection and control, grid monitoring, multi service communications networks data center and
customer call centers
D. customer call centers, electrical auto recharging, home energy management

Answer: C

Explanation:


QUESTION 5
Which of these is part of mission critical substation communications (Operation Data)?

A. physical security alarm
B. workstation email
C. physical access (deny access)
D. fault detection and restoration

Answer: D

Explanation:

Thursday, 4 February 2016

650-082 MITSE Mobile Internet Technology for System Engineers

Exam Number 650-082
Duration 60 minutes (55-65 questions)

This exam will test System Engineer's knowledge of features, functions and design of the Cisco ASR 5000 mobile internet solution. There will be a focus on design and planning for deployment. Candidates should prepare for this exam by taking the Mobile Internet Technology for Account Managers course as the MIT SE exam covers content from both the AM and SE training courses.

Exam Topics
The following topics are general guidelines for the content likely to be included on the exam. However, other related topics may also appear on any specific delivery of the exam. In order to better reflect the contents of the exam and for clarity purposes, the guidelines below may change at any time without notice.

Describe ASR 5000 Hardware and Software
Describe Understanding the StarOS Command Line Interface (CLI)
Describe Software Licensing and Upgrade
Describe ASR 5000 Core services for GPRS/UMTS - SGSN and GGSN Functionalities
Describe the Design and Implementation of xGSN
Describe Billing & Policy
Describe Statistics and Alarms
Describe Services Overview
Describe the Design and Implementation of LTE


QUESTION 1
What Cisco ASR 5000 services are needed for communication between a Serving Gateway and
Packet Data Network Gateway?

A. EGTP and GTPU
B. GTPU and PGW
C. SGW and GTPU
D. EGTP and SGW

Answer: B


QUESTION 2
Which option helps to define activities that are needed to successfully deploy and operate Cisco
technologies?

A. Smart Services
B. Cisco lifecycle Services
C. TAC
D. Cisco Technical Services

Answer: A


QUESTION 3
Which card has the resources to run multiple services?

A. system management card
B. switch processor I/O card
C. packet service card
D. redundant crossbar card

Answer: C


QUESTION 4
Which of these statements about the Web element Manager is true?

A. Clients can connect only by using the internet explorer or Safari Web browser.
B. The application provides FCAPS.
C. Fault management implements an easy-to-use point-and-click GUI to provide configuration for
one or more systems.
D. Supported accounting management operation system allow user to examine and perform real
time statistical analysis.

Answer: C


QUESTION 5
Which controller task is used to facilitate IP routing across and within contexts?

A. Session controller
B. Drive controller
C. VPN controller
D. Resource management controller

Answer: A

Friday, 22 January 2016

Google's cloud finds a friend in Red Hat

A symbiotic move

Google and Red Hat had a Kumbaya moment today when the two companies announced integration between Red Hat's OpenShift platform as a service and Google's IaaS public cloud platform.

Specifically, Red Hat will offer OpenShift Dedicated, the managed OpenShift cloud service on Google’s Cloud Platform (GCP). It's a win-win for both companies.

Since Diane Greene came on board at Google we've been waiting for some news from Google. While not every little announcement from Google should be viewed as Greene acting as a puppeteer, these moves also would not be happening if she disagreed with them. So, I think it’s safe to surmise that Greene's fingerprints are beginning to show up at GCP.

It's a good partnership for Google. At its most basic level, this is a big customer win for Google’s cloud. Red Hat will be running its PaaS on top of Google’s IaaS. Down the line, the two companies will partner to integrate Google Cloud Platform features into the OpenShift platform.

Job number one for Greene, according to many in the industry I've spoken with, was to build up enterprise traction for Google's cloud. Red Hat is as good of a partner as any to do that with. This is not a new partnership though. Before Greene came on board, Google began offering Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) OS on its cloud. They’re partnered on the Cloud Native Computing Foundation too.

It's a good move for Red Hat too. The venerable open source giant is trying to build itself up as THE container focused company. And Google’s cloud is seen as one of the best platforms for running containers, thanks to its Kubernetes container manager. Red Hat completely redesigned OpenShift to be a container-centric PaaS. So it makes sense that Red Hat would want to host OpenShift on the best IaaS for containers. The move reinforces the need for PaaS vendors to find an IaaS partner. Salesforce's Heroku, for example, runs atop Amazon Web Services.

Another interesting note is that Google has a partnership with VMware too. Google provide scale-out IaaS capacity beyond VMware’s vCloudAir’s capabilities. VMware and Red Hat are fierce competitors. Greene will have to navigate these partnership waters carefully. But at this point all of the partnerships (Google/Red Hat and Google/VMware) make perfect sense for all these companies.
Click here to view complete Q&A of 220-802 exam
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Wednesday, 6 January 2016

Inside AT&T’s grand dynamic network plan

The service provider shares lessons learned from early adopters of its first Network on Demand service and outlines what comes next

AT&T is pouring billions into its network to make it more dynamic, which is resulting in new capabilities for enterprise customers. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently stopped by AT&T headquarters in Dallas to talk to Josh Goodell, VP of Network on Demand, about what the company is learning from early adopters of its Switched Ethernet on Demand service and what comes next. Among other things, Goodell explains how provisioning now takes days vs. weeks, service profiles can be changed in seconds, and how he expects large shops to use APIs to connect their network management systems directly to AT&T controls. Oh, and a slew of virtual functions are on the horizon that will enable you to ditch all those appliances you’ve been accumulating.

Let’s start with the big picture view of AT&T’s dynamic network efforts. What’s the goal?
Usually when I talk about our strategy I start at the network access layer. This is the physical infrastructure that AT&T has built over years – the fiber network and technologies like LTE on the wireless side, and what we call Lightspeed, which is a combination of fiber and copper. It’s a very robust network that has a tremendous reach and tremendous speed. All of that is foundational to what we’re doing now. Our Network on Demand platform acts like rapid onramps to that very fast network. So that physical layer is important and one area of the overall puzzle.

Another area is driven by John Donovan, Senior Executive Vice President of Technology and Operations, who is driving our software-centric architecture. We’ve called it different things over the last couple of years, including Domain 2.0, but at its core it’s about driving virtualization within our own network. He’s made the commitment that by 2020 we’re going to virtualize 75% percent of our network. That’s all about driving up utilization in the network and enabling scale and flexibility.

Where does SDN make sense? We ask Fidelity’s Director of Global Network Architecture

The third piece is enabling these same types of capabilities for our business customers, and that’s really where Network on Demand comes into play. It’s taking technologies that we’re utilizing internally and making our core strategic services better by utilizing the same technologies.

The Network on Demand platform initially launched with one capability -- AT&T Switched Ethernet on Demand -- and the second service that will launch is Managed Internet Service on Demand. Then we will continue to add additional services over time. So Network on Demand is creating this platform that enables customers to have a rapid onramp to that very robust network.

That gives customers more control of their network, the ability to rapidly scale up or scale down their network, and improves TCO, not just because you have the ability to use exactly what you want, but also because you can be more productive. You can spin up a location more rapidly than you could have in the past.

Then we will also start getting into services that take advantage of both SDN and NFV, where you’re actually virtualizing what has typically been purpose-built appliances. We don’t have a product in the market yet but we’ve announced that the first iteration will be available in the next few months.

We’ve reorganized our entire technology organization around network simplification and a software-centered network, and then exposing those capabilities to our customers. That’s the big picture and Network on Demand is one piece of that picture.

It’s important to understand that we have a lot of conviction across all three of those areas. From 2009 to 2014 we spent about $140 billion in those three areas. These aren’t hobbies. These are how we’re committed to drive a differentiated network experience.

How long has the switched Ethernet service been available?
We opened the first market in Austin Texas in November 2014, expanded to five markets in February of this year, and in April expanded to 170+ markets. So that is very, very fast for any service we’ve ever stood up. Part of it is the technology. It’s different. It’s building on a software layer that allows for a rapid product instantiation, but we also used an agile approach to development, a DevOps model, and the combination of those things allowed us to move at a rapid pace.

When does the Internet on Demand service go live?

Managed Internet on Demand is CI in Atlanta. Interestingly, with AT&T Switched Ethernet on Demand there’s no virtualization happening. It is an SDN layer on top of existing network infrastructure. Managed Internet on Demand is a different architecture that actually takes advantage of both SDN and NFV, so we’ll be virtualizing the customer edge. Typically the customer has a router on-premise that will be virtualized in the AT&T cloud, and then we will also be virtualizing the provider edge. It’s a big deal because I expect that over time we’ll be virtualizing a lot of different services, so we’re going through what it takes to do this with this next service for the first time ever.

The initial offering will be a virtualized router only. If they want they can buy a switch and put it at the end of their network and run something off of that. Eventually we’ll have a use case where we’ll actually deploy a piece of CPE on-premise they can use, but the initial use case is a pure virtualized router.

The first place to tackle SDN? In the WAN

Coming back to the Ethernet On Demand service, how many customers do you have?
It’s been really interesting to see the way that has played out. As of today it’s over 350 customer networks, about 1,000 locations. That’s a lot more than what we had expected. Market demand has been pretty strong.

Is there a typical customer profile emerging?
It has been across industries. The largest network we have provisioned is about 150 locations and as small as two-locations. So it’s run the gamut. It is more prevalent so far in the mid-market and down-market, but every single one of our segments has seen traction.

One interesting thing is how we’ve simplified the selling experience. We’ve enabled our sales people to use an iPad to order the service and do all of the contract work with the customer on their premise. Historically the presale cycle alone was days. Now everything can be done in one sit-down discussion. That’s not the cool, interesting technology that SDN represents, but it is an interesting case of how, when you take friction out of the experience on both the seller’s side and the customer’s side, you’re going to see traction and we’ve seen it with Ethernet.

How long does it take to deliver Switched Ethernet On Demand?
When fiber is available to the customer building, and if you take out the “Customer not ready” situations, it’s five days. The equivalent when you’re in a fiber location but not on Network on Demand is probably closer to four weeks. When you don’t have fiber availability the cycle time obviously goes up because you have the build process, but we’re still automating the overall process with Network on Demand.

How much are early customers actually changing the Switched Ethernet service profile once they are online?
There are a couple of things customers can do, one of which is to add locations. Customers can go into the portal, which knows the inventory of their locations, and go from, say, a two-location network to a three-location or a four-location network in a matter of days without ever having to talk to anyone. That’s a big deal. Historically that would have been multiple phone calls and a fairly long provisioning cycle. Customers can now do it themselves at their own convenience.

And another common use case is the ability for a customer to scale up or scale down their network. Any business that has seasonality is going to be interested in that use case. For example, we have K-12 as well as college institutions that are very interested in that capability.

We’ve also talked to a few hospitals that have branch locations that do analysis on medical images that are interested in the ability to scale up the network to send large payloads and then scale it down again, which isn’t something they could do before.

One of our large customers uses Network on Demand service for redundancy between data centers. They have this as a secondary network and keep it scaled all the way down, and in the event they have an issue they can scale it up within seconds.

Another interesting use case is around rapid provisioning for M&A activity. After a merger or acquisition the network may go from 10 locations to 20 locations literally within a week, and provisioning agility is important for those types of situations.

Does it surprise you that the mid- to smaller-size shops are the early adopters? I would think the largest shops would be dying for these capabilities?
It does surprise me a little bit. I think there are a couple of things at work. I mentioned that customers manage their networks through a portal. Some of our very large customers will want to have their own network management tools tap directly into our network through APIs. We expect to do that. We just haven’t gotten there yet. In fact, I expect at some point we will federate our SDN Layer 2 network with other carriers that have SDN Layer 2 networks. It’s a very natural evolution. And federating the network with a large customer’s network management tools is just another version of that. It’s more of a northbound API as opposed to an east-west interface.

I also think we have a service now that hunts very effectively against competitors that have been attacking us down market.

Going back to bandwidth flexibility, obviously the seasonal use cases make sense, but are other customers tweaking the settings more or less often than you would have expected?

Less often than I expected. When we started we limited the number of changes allowed to one per day because we had no idea what the actual behavior would be. What we’ve seen is customers aren’t going in and ratcheting it up and down frequently during the month. They may do it once or twice, but it’s not as prevalent as I would have expected. It’s still early, though. Since we’ve really been at scale only since April, it’s a bit early to say how much the behavior is going to shift.

What are the increments you can scale up and down?
It goes all the way from 2mbps to 10Gbps with several increments along the way.

You said you’re in 170 markets. How many states is that?
Our incumbent AT&T 21-state footprint. We do have fiber assets in other areas, including New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Those markets are not available yet on Network on Demand, but we expect that we will bring them on net in the future. For now the Ethernet on Demand service is limited to our 21-state footprint and the 170+ markets.

Internet on Demand is up next. What comes after that?
The next capability after Managed Internet is what we call Network Functions on Demand. Network Functions on Demand is basically re-looking at how premise-based appliances are used. Typically today you have purpose-built appliances, whether that’s a router or a firewall, a WAN accelerator, you name it. In the future we will offer what we call universal CPE that can run multiple virtual functions, so software instances of those capabilities on that universal CPE platform.

We are also building the ability to deliver those same types of virtual functions directly through our AT&T cloud. So you can envision a time where customers will have a series of capabilities that are delivered both through a universal CPE on their premise -- again, things like router functionality, firewalls and WAN accelerators -- as well as capabilities delivered directly through our cloud.

There would be advantages to using one versus the other. For example, an application that is going to be shared across multiple locations, you probably want to use more of a cloud approach, whereas an application that’s more specific to a location will sit on the universal CPE.

That capability will begin to roll out in the next few months. It will evolve dramatically over time. The first instantiation of it will be that universal CPE capability with a virtual router. Then we will add other virtual instances within the portfolio over time, and I expect it will evolve pretty dramatically throughout 2016.

I presume the universal CPE is a server that you manage?
Yeah, it’s a white box x86 server modeled to run three to four virtual functions. It’s got a Gig of throughput, so it’s a fairly robust platform. The box will be managed by AT&T. The virtual router will be managed by AT&T. But I expect over time you’re going to have multiple virtual functions on this box and we will have options for both AT&T managed as well as customer managed functions.

Will the virtual functions be available from different suppliers?
Yes, it’s an open platform and an ecosystem of partners. We’ve announced some partners and the ecosystem will expand over time. We’ve announced Juniper, Cisco, Brocade.

The appeal to the customer is fewer appliances to manage?
There are different value propositions with the universal CPE concept. One is you go from having multiple boxes to having one box. That’s a big deal. Just from power consumption and having less to worry about, that’s a big deal.

The other thing that is important is, because the functionality is being delivered through software that can be downloaded at any time, the issue around box obsolescence is less of a problem over time. And the installation cycle time agility plays out here as well. Historically, if we were to install multiple boxes on a customer premise, that typically happens sequentially and it may take 30 days for the first one and upwards of 90-120 days all told. In the future this is a plug-and-play model.

Does NetBond fit into this picture?
As we talk about the AT&T SDN story, NetBond is an element of that story. NetBond is basically secure connectivity to third-party clouds. Today if a customer wants to take advantage of NetBond and AT&T’s Switched Ethernet on Demand, they can. In the future I expect they will become more and more integrated and it will just be an extension of an overall on-demand experience. They both can be used today but they’re not fully integrated through one management pane of glass.

Thursday, 17 December 2015

10 signs it's time to look for a new job

In the high-stakes world of high tech, a subtle look can be enough to know it's time to jump ship to a new gig

10 signs layoffs are coming for your job next
The signs are usually hiding in plain sight. Your boss doesn’t give you the time of day anymore. Large groups of people go out for lunch -- then never come back. The company stock takes a nosedive.

When these things start to happen, it may be time to grab a life jacket and head for the nearest escape raft. Yes, the boat is sinking and about to take you with it.

Don’t go down with the ship. Downsizing and layoffs aren’t a laughing matter for those who suddenly find themselves without a paycheck. But many companies have become a parody of themselves in how they handle such monumental changes. That’s why we decided to have a little fun at their expense. Hopefully if you’ve experienced a layoff yourself, this will give you a laugh, too.

Here’s our take on the signs you should watch out for. If nothing else, you may know what the problem is if your email suddenly doesn’t work.

Co-workers simply ... disappear
Weren’t Devin and Susie simply making a run for the nearby food truck? That’s what you thought -- but that was Tuesday. Today is Friday. Yes, right before the layoffs begin, you might notice a slow drip of people who peace out for good. Usually it means that something is up, and for some reason others are privy to the details. Time to ask around and find out if you should be the next one to check out one of the mysterious taco trucks.

Big company meeting, little advance notice
The dreaded all-hands meeting -- as you might have guessed, a lot of things that aren’t all that good come from it. It could be a new product rollout. Or it could be the word you haven’t been waiting for: you and your colleagues don’t work there anymore. If you get an invite to an “all hands on deck” meeting, maybe you want to have one foot out the door just in case.


The company bus careers right by
You show up to work as normal, coffee in hand and ready to get some work done on the company bus. You see it coming. You make sure your bag is adjusted, laptop in hand.

Then, there it goes. Yes, the company bus has blown by you. Sure, this scenario may be a little far- fetched, but with the way that some companies treat those whom they unceremoniously dump, is it really so unlikely? It might be worth taking the train or walking to the office the next few days if there are any signs of this unsavory behavior.


You start getting strange looks
Maybe you’ve noticed something different about the way your boss looks at you. Their eyes tend to glance off into another direction. You approach him or her with a question, and instead of answering, they suddenly have a phone call or a meeting to run off to. You’re getting the cold shoulder. Was it something you said? A reflection on your performance? Nope, it’s the look of someone who knows too much.


That (dreaded) meeting is cancelled
You likely aren’t thrilled by the weekly calendar invite to the team planning meeting. Before you rejoice that you’ve avoided the most boring part of your week, consider another scenario: It’s cancelled because there’s no one to attend. Companies tend to slack off right before a major cull, so be wary if your schedule suddenly frees up because all those riveting meetings are canceled.

The mood swings low, low, low
Company morale often ebbs and flows. But you may want to pay particular attention to things if there’s a longer, widespread depression spell. You know the feeling -- everyone looks around like they’re an extra in "The Walking Dead." No one chats around their desks or the time-honored water cooler. If you see such symptoms, ask around and see if there’s more to it. This way you don’t have to show up one day to an empty office.

Suspicious training assignment
It may sound innocent enough. A fresh face arrives in the office, and you’re assigned to show them how things work. All goes well until you realize they have the same title and responsibilities as you. Yep, you’re training your replacement. It happens, so be a bit wary about that next eager hire who gets a little too comfy at your desk.

Merger talk
It’s often best to avoid rumors, but sometimes you have to pay attention so that you aren't left out of the loop when it comes to a potential merger. Yes, usually before a company is acquired by another there is some type of scuttlebut that leaks out. Listen to those who engage in such nefarious talk or implore you to keep information on the down low. This may be your tip that it’s time to dust off the résumé and hit the pavement for a new gig.

Your company’s stock price upends
If you work at a publicly traded company, keeping investors happy is a major part of success. Investors are like your mama: If she’s not happy, ain’t nobody happy. Just like what happened with Twitter, when the stock tanks and numbers (in this case user growth) aren’t good, then get ready to see fewer co-workers around. If things are heading south, perhaps you should be heading out.

The box of shame
Most businesses love Dropbox. It holds onto what you want and is easy to use. Unfortunately, there’s another beloved storage tool that fits the bill: a cardboard box. If you see such a contraption on your desk, you’re probably about to be sent packing. Gathering your stuff and heading out the door is the office equivalent of the walk of shame. The best you can do is to get through it. But at least you’ll have a new toy for your cat.