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Foojee Updates

Video: ACEs Conference New Orleans 2015

It's been a while since we've posted blogs regularly and in that time we've gone through a number of exciting changes. One change you may have already noticed is that we hired three new people to join the Foojee team! With the year getting into full swing we knew we wanted the team to spend time together bonding. Recognizing that our crammed schedules may not be changing anytime soon, Lucas decided it would be beneficial to bite the bullet and head out for two days. Part fun, part learning, we traveled to New Orleans in mid-May for the 2015 ACEs Conference. For the majority of the team, this was their first trip to Louisiana! Above is a highlight reel of our trip!

The tagline of the ACEs Conference is "For Consultants By Consultants". The conference wasn't necessarily about Apple or their products, but more of an opportunity to dive into the managing and consulting parts of our business. Some of the topics included building your business, crafting your brand, getting vulnerable with clients, and more. On top of all we learned, we got an invaluable chance to network with people in our industry from all over the country. The free time spent out with other consultants and our own team members was invaluable and made the entire trip worthwhile. We're already working to take what we learned and experienced in New Orleans to refine who we are, what we do, and how we do it.

Besides learning and networking we also got to spend some time exploring the riverfront and French Quarter in New Orleans. One of our top priorities was to eat some fantastic cajun food accompanied by plenty of laughter. We had an incredible trip and can't wait for the next Foojee team adventure!

 

 

We're Hiring a Mac and iOS System Administrator

We're looking for an Apple-esque sys admin to join our team. We're especially excited about this next hire, as it will be the sixth person in the company! Right now, Lucas and Brandon are doing most of the advanced implementation and support for our business clients. You would be both managing current, and spearheading new server-based and MDM projects alongside Brandon as Lucas continues to focus on the growth of the company.

Environments you would be responsible for range from 5-person companies needing in-person monthly maintenance visits, to large enterprises needing a 2500 iPad or Mac rollout. We work together on a lot of these projects, but each person has their deliverables they are responsible for.

Position Specifics

With each person that joins our team, we look forward to how they can influence the rest of us, and make Foojee’s offering even stronger. While we love to hire based on character and core values, we also need a certain baseline skill set for this position, of which we’ve outlined below. (We do need to make money with the mad skills we have, after all).

These are the skills we’re looking for:

  • Extensive OS X Troubleshooting.

  • Familiarity with OS X Server and Open Directory.

  • Familiarity with basic scripting, and command line administration in OS X.

  • Intermediate experience with networking including firewall configuration, DNS, and DHCP.

  • Extensive iOS Troubleshooting.

  • Familiarity with at least one MDM, and an understanding of iOS’s MDM features.

Beyond these, we hope you’re as hungry to learn, because that’s a big part of our job. I mean, have you checked iOS’s and OS X’s annual changes lately?

What it's like to work at Foojee

It turns out that we love our jobs. It’s got its challenges and its perks, and while it's hard to explain in a bullet list, we want to give you an idea of what this position will look like.

  • Remote work from home (or wherever) about 30% of the time.
  • On site work at the client’s office the rest of the time. (We meet weekly at Roam for our team meetings, too.)
  • You’ll do lots of driving. Don’t worry, we try to schedule meeting times that avoid traffic, and we get to listen to podcasts like Serial and The Talk Show between appointments.
  • You’ve got to love people. That’s one of our core values. We are here to serve.
  • This doesn’t mean you have to be an extrovert, but just know that you’ll also be in front of people quite a bit.
  • Sometimes we’re called to fix problems, and sometimes we’re called to create amazing solutions. You should feel comfortable with holding the weight of our clients’ problems and being able to deliver a confident solution.
  • We are only as good as our people. We believe each one of us makes our own impact on the company. So we do a lot of listening, debating, and reiterating to improve on our company's approach and processes.
  • We're a small business, so things can move quickly, and sometimes we need to band together to get something done, even if it's outside of our typical role.

How to Apply

We love cover letters, and examples of environments or projects you've done in the past. If you think you're the right fit for this job, not just any job, let us know by sending an email to sysadmin@foojee.com.

VIDEO: Macworld / MacIT San Francisco 2014

From the the early months of starting Foojee, it had always been a goal of mine to take the team to Macworld one year. Part fun, part learning, it's the largest conference/expo for Apple enthusiasts and IT administrators. For the first time since our inception, we were all able to visit the West coast and have a blast in San Francisco! Above is a highlight reel of our trip!

Even though Apple themselves weren't in attendance, there was plenty of excitement for the company's successes and sentiment for what the future holds. Apple continues to build a platform of seemingly simple products, which creates entire product segments for 3rd party developers and accessory makers. The community behind Apple has always been a special part of the company and it's products, and Macworld is as concentrated as it gets for the general public. (There's WWDC that Apple hosts every summer, including June 2 this year, but that's primarily for app developers.)

What doesn't make headlines much is the community of IT administrators that are supporting hundreds and thousands of Apple's products in schools and organizations around the world. This part, called MacIT, was equally fun. We met people from organizations ranging from Facebook to Meredith to several universities, and several startups that use Macs in the majority of their environments. In doing so, it was great to learn and share methods of management, scripting, reporting, and support that helped each other. We're already putting some of those learns into play for our clients back home. We also got to spend time with fellow Apple consultants from other parts of the US, and dear friends like the guys as watchmanmonitoring.com (who are the magic behind Foojee FAST)!

Needless to say, it was a freaking blast. We learned a ton, and got to spend some time sight-seeing in SF. Thanks to the amazing team we've built, what started as an idea on the couch with my great friend Gene, has turned out to be a thrill that I look forward to everyday.

VIDEO: Introducing FAST

Today we are thrilled to announce something special for Mac users. We've been working hard on a brand new service that will shape how Foojee supports you for years to come. After the video head over to the Foojee FAST page for details. We've added the video's transcript below!

Ok, hold on. I think Justin took this a little too far.

We are thrilled to announce a brand new product today, that we’ve been working hard on for months, called Foojee FAST. And while Justin has been hard at work preparing for the launch, I think he’s taking the name a little too seriously.

You know when your Mac may be acting kind of funny, but it may be hard to explain what’s going on, or maybe it’s just running a little slower than normal. Well finding the root cause can be difficult at times. And having to book an appointment to diagnose the issue is even more inconvenient. 

Wouldn’t it be great if your Mac knew what was wrong, and could let us know? Today we are announcing Foojee FAST. Or the Foojee Alert & Support Toolkit. FAST is a small utility that runs in the background on your Mac, and is always looking out for potential problems, and of course will let us know when it finds one. So what does it report? Among other indicators, Foojee FAST will let us know when you’re hard drive is reporting errors, which is commonly mistaken for a slow computer. It’ll also let us know your laptop’s battery health. If it finds any malicious software installed on your Mac. And even how full your hard drive is. And most importantly, it will let us know if your computer hasn’t backed up recently. If any of these indicators are tripped, FAST alerts Foojee instantly without you even having to pickup the phone. The Foojee team will reach out to you to address the issue at a time that’s convenient for you.

Foojee FAST is perfect for preventing downtime, foreseeing IT risks, and even avoiding data loss.

Now for all this reporting, time-saving, and overall disaster avoiding, FAST is just five bucks a month. And for our home users, we’re making FAST available for FREE. FAST will also be free for all of our clients who are on the Foojee Service Plan.

So, if you have any questions, or want to get started, shoot us an email at helpme-at-foojee-dot-com. We are thrilled about this new product, and we think you are going to love it. Now where did we leave off with Justin?

VIDEO: Our favorite Apple announcements from WWDC 2013

Just in case you’ve been under a rock, Apple held their annual World Wide Developer’s Conference this week. On Monday, they announced a few new products, as well as new versions of their iPad, iPhone, and Mac operating systems. In this video, we’ll show you our six favorite things we’re looking forward to most.

Announcing Lunch & Learn Workshops

We’re excited to announce a new partnership with Roam that will bring you another great way to get the most out of your Apple products. Take a look at our video announcement below!

We're looking for our next Apple Enterprise Specialist.

We’re excited to announce that we’re looking for our fourth team member, which will be our second Apple Enterprise Specialist.
 
We love what we do, and our customers know it. So we’re looking for someone who appreciates a challenge, likes to be recognized for his or her accomplishments, and wants to be a part of something that improves lives.
 
So what is it like to work at Foojee? Justin says, “It’s challenging and exciting. I get to work at a place where I totally believe in the leadership and the focus of the company.” While we work closely together on all projects, we'll rely on you to be independent, self-motivated, and disciplined to deliver your part of the project.
 
You will help Foojee take the next step in our growth working alongside Brian by focusing primarily on SMB, enterprise and education related projects. These projects will involve intermediate networking, OS X Client, OS X Server, and iOS deployments. You’ll be using OS X and iOS management tools like JAMF Software’s Casper Suite, MaaS360, AirWatch, and MobileIron.
 
We’re currently doing about 70% of customer work onsite, and 30% of work remotely for both residential and business in Atlanta and a few parts of the southeast. Our remote work is performed from home and our office in Midtown using remote support software, phone calls, and emails. Therefore we’re looking for someone who can communicate clearly over the phone and in writing.
 
Although designing solutions and configuring new Macs and iOS devices are the technical aspects of what you’ll do, our top notch customer service and desire to do things the right way are what make our team so great.
 
Please send an email to jobs@foojee.com with the following:
  • Why do you want to work in Apple IT?
  • What is appealing about working at Foojee?
  • A description of a solution that you have put together for a customer in recent past, and what made the solution right for them.

Also, include these two writing samples:

Scenario: A client of ours just submitted a new ticket. The only line in the email states that her VPN is not working, and she needs it to access her files remotely. Assume your schedule is currently free, and you have her AD username and password on file. Use any resources you have to assist her.

  • Sample 1: Reply to her via email setting expectations of when someone will be able to assist her, and any other questions you may need that will help you resolve the issue.
  • Sample 2: Explain to us, in writing, your troubleshooting steps to resolve her issue. Explain the reasoning behind each step you would take.

Features:

  • Full Time.
  • $32,000 – 38,000 annually.
  • Health benefits available for you.
  • Phone and computer reimbursement.
  • iPhone Personal Hotspot service reimbursement.
  • Progressive work environment.
  • Work with a team that loves doing what they do.
 
System Requirements:
  • At least 2 years experience with sales or support of Apple products.
  • OS X client certification.
  • OS X Server and/or MDM certification preferred.
 
Is it you? Let us know.

[VIDEO] Cloud Syncing Basics and Tips

Learn the basics and some advanced tips of how to take advantage of the cloud. Want to automatically share files with a team or your family? We cover that too! And better yet, you'll see some real world applications of how we use the cloud.