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The Fourth Annual Southern California Linux Expo

Stephen Friedl

Stephen Friedl A UNIX developer for 25 years, Steve has lectured on advanced C/UNIX topics at IBM and AT&T Bell Labs. He lives and breathes C code, and can get by in C++, SQL, perl and PHP. He's also also a Microsoft Security MVP.

Steve took a B.S. in Mathematics/Computer Science from Kent State University, and works out of his home in Southern California. And his license plate really does read "UNIX WIZ".

Abstract

With more than 20 years of independent computer consulting under his belt - including still working with his first customer - Steve is uniquely qualified to address the aspiring consultant.

Based on his popular paper So you want to be a consultant...?, Steve's talk will touch on points which may not be entirely obvious to one whose background is more on the technical side. These include:

  • It's all about the warm fuzzy feeling
  • Your customer is more important than your agenda
  • Your reputation is more important than you think
  • Sometimes you have to use the "M" word
  • The customer is not always right
  • As long as you're sleeping, you still have inventory
  • Speaking at SCALE is good for business