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Employee Name: Afreen Ismail

Title: Customer Success Manager in Singapore 

Why did you choose to work at LogicMonitor? 

Cloud computing and SaaS-based solutions have long piqued my interest. Coming from a hardware tech consulting experience helped me realize the significance of infrastructure monitoring for customers. LogicMonitor gave me the opportunity to transfer domains while continuing my interests in customer-centric solutions.

What is the biggest thing you have learned in your role so far? 

Be patient, broaden your understanding of the problem, and never make assumptions.

What advice has helped you be successful? 

Being agile, accepting new challenges, and striving to improve every day

If you could choose anyone, who would you pick as your mentor? 

I always try to take something away from every conversation that will help me improve professionally and personally. If I had to pick a few who have always helped me, it would be Billy Yuliadi (Technical Account Manager at Tanium) and Luke Fogarty (Director, Technical Services APAC in LogicMonitor): they have believed in me, given me opportunities, support, and guidance to grow in my career.

What are three words you would use to describe LogicMonitor?

Efficient, Empowering, and Encouraging

What do you like to do in your spare time? 

I like acrylic painting and gardening because they help me focus and make me happy 🙂 

If you could monitor any one thing, what would it be?

My water intake. I need to devote more time to my health and nutrition.

In today’s business climate, innovation is critical to business success, and IT leaders are pressed to consistently innovate at a pace that the business has come to expect.

LogicMonitor is thrilled to feature a Q&A with Melissa Person, the Global Vice President of Enterprise Products and Operations for PVH, the parent company of iconic fashion brands such as Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, and others. Person discusses her expertise as an IT and DevSecOps leader which spans numerous Fortune 4 to 500 organizations, including an entrepreneurial stint leading her own firm. Her career has been centered on delivering financial growth, strength and stability. 

Person describes herself as someone who defines technical strategies to build and deploy state-of-the-art architecture, applications and information security for revenue acceleration. She discusses how she is helping PVH pivot to a more agile IT framework, how she feels about being a woman in a male-dominated field, and how she’s working to get more women into technology leadership.

Following are edited excerpts of that conversation. 

How did you get started in IT?

My career in IT began in college as an intern at Aetna. I was hired as a full time employee at Aetna and placed in Aetna’s IT leadership development program, which rotated me through all of their different IT departments giving me exposure and visibility that was invaluable. Because of this, I was able to move into leadership in my third year out of college. Aetna made investments in the technical, personal and professional development of their employees and this is where I began to learn how to implement a scaled agile framework enterprise as an IT and DevSecOps foundation. 

What has been your experience watching this industry evolve?

As a woman in IT leadership, I love seeing new opportunities for women that I did not see in the past. In the early years of my career I would often be one of the only women in the boardroom – seeing more women in leadership is really empowering. We have made tremendous progress in diversity in STEM. It is rewarding. Women bring a more collaborative thought process to planning and business.

Why have you decided to stay in IT?

I’m an avid reader and a lifelong learner inherently. Multitasking is exciting to me. I would consider myself an adrenaline queen and I love approaching things with a can-do attitude. IT provides me the opportunity to be constantly challenged and think of ways to improve. Change is something that I have always embraced and the digital transformation that we are experiencing in IT is exactly what I need in order to feel continuously challenged. 

What advice would you give to someone just getting started in IT?

Always have a mentor inside the corporate workplace as well as outside the workplace. People aren’t buying your product or service they are buying you – build the connection, relationship and trust. Bring humanity to the workplace however you can. Certifications are great but if you aren’t making connections you won’t realize great success. Create autonomy and empowerment. I do not believe in hierarchy but rather in highlighting individual strengths. 

Are you doing anything to increase the number of women in tech in the leadership pipeline?

Hiring and promoting women! When you see someone taking initiative – give them the opportunity to step up. When you see someone providing value, give them the opportunity to learn. Everybody is equal and brings the same value. Bringing that human element will help you. Teach people the way that they learn best.

What are your passions outside of work?

I’m an avid Motorcyclist – my Harley Davidson is my pride and joy. I’ve always been active – from racing motocross as a young person to a dedicated runner throughout my entire life. I also love  weightlifting, pilates, yoga and TRX. I even swam in the junior Olympics! To me, health is spiritual, emotional and physical – mind, body and spirit. In the little spare time that I have, I’m also a volunteer at a maximum security prison. It’s important to me to give hope to people who are incarcerated. I’m also a Devils, Giants, Yankees, and Nets superfan. I’ve been a season ticket holder of the Devils since the ’80s! 

What is the best advice you’ve been given in your career? 

One of her leaders at Aetna – you can run the Hartford marathon at lunchtime as long as the customers are happy and the work is done. Work-life balance is incredibly important. He said “If it isn’t life threatening then don’t worry about it” and I’ve brought that philosophy to every position I’ve held.

What are you most looking forward to, personally and professionally, in 2023?

Digital transformation at PVH is top of mind for me. My goal is to move our leadership away from waterfall and towards scaled agile framework enterprise and kanban boards. I feel strongly that their monolithic process is detrimental to growth. I’m hoping to take PVH’s IT strategy to the next level and continue the digital transformation through sophisticating our IT and DevSecOps stack. On a personal level, I’m looking forward to seeing how many more people that I can help. It’s also my goal to be able to run a 6 minute mile again!

Programming and coding are sought-after skills in many industries, but they’re non-negotiable for those working in DevOps, data management, or other aspects of application development. Ensuring you’re up to date with the most desirable programming languages could propel your career to new heights.

Whether you’re about to start an exciting role in DevOps, IT, or data science, or you’re already highly experienced but need to stay ahead of the technological curve, you’ll want to learn the following programming languages in 2022 and beyond.

JavaScript

More than 97% of websites use some level of JavaScript, making it an essential language for most developers or programmers to learn. JavaScript, an entirely separate entity from its ancestorJava, is used for web-based and non-web-based browser applications and server-side website deployment.

Advantages

JavaScript is widely used, so learning this language will help you get a development or programming role in many companies. It’s easy to understand, quick to implement, and puts low demand on website servers.

Drawbacks

There can be cross-browser incompatibilities that must be considered when coding with JavaScript.

Potential roles and salary expectations

In the United States, there are about 7,000 jobs for JavaScript developers open right now. The average starting salary is $114,169, with roles in top companies reaching $199K and above.

Go

The Go Language, sometimes shortened to Golang, is a programming language that Google created. As such, it’s no surprise that this language focuses heavily on web applications, API creation and management, and other internet-based tasks. Golang is agile and designed to meet the needs of developers who work across disparate systems or larger-than-usual projects.

Advantages

Many consider Go easy to learn due to its straightforward code that is compatible with numerous systems and platforms. The language is fast, agile, and ideal for various uses.

Drawbacks

Developer support for Golang is limited, and few online document resources are available.

Potential roles and salary expectations

Go software engineers can achieve salaries above $140,000, though the average salary for this position is $108,000. Senior software engineers may earn up to $179,000. Other roles include lead software engineers, site reliability engineers, and full stack software developers. One of Go’s highest-paid roles is the principal software engineer, where skilled applicants can earn over $207K.

Python

Python is a free and open-source programming language widely used by programmers and developers at all levels. In addition to applying Python to animation and the video game industry, developers can use Python for deep learning and machine learning techniques. Massive brands like Instagram, Pinterest, and even YouTube use Python.

Advantages

Most programmers consider Python highly intuitive and easy to learn. They also find Python easy to adapt to when pivoting from another language. Masses of official documents and support resources are available for this language, and there are many huge community groups dedicated to sharing Python information and best practices.

Drawbacks

Python is unsuitable for programmers or developers with low experience levels as many basic concepts are abstracted.

Potential roles and salary expectations

Python developers can expect average starting salaries of $116,559, but wages may be much higher with the right experience. Salaries also depend upon the company and location. For example, a Python-skilled deep learning engineer in New York could earn more than $245K a year.

C++

C and C++ are widely used for operating systems and file systems within organizations. Anyone aiming to be a system-level programmer must consider learning C++. This language is fast and stable, and it has the advantage of the C++ Standard Template Library (STL), which provides ready-to-use templates for algorithms, data structures, and more. C++ can also be a stepping stone to learning and comprehending more complex programming languages.

Advantages

C++ is ideal for various development tasks, including GUI applications, gamification, systems creation, and mathematical simulations. It is low-level, efficient, fast, and runs close to the system hardware level.

Drawbacks

The syntax can be complex, and there may be issues with memory corruption and buffer overflow. C++ also lacks an efficient object-oriented system, and it can create proficiency challenges due to its complexity.

Potential roles and salary expectations

Currently, there are more than 60,000 jobs available in the United States that require C++ experience. Average salaries hover around the $114K mark, with high-level developers earning more than $241K per year.

Swift

If you want to explore iOS development, you must learn Swift, the language used for all iOS applications on Apple devices. Support is widely available because Apple backs this programming language, although community support and resources are somewhat limited compared to other coding languages. Swift is highly scalable and compatible with numerous other languages and systems.

Advantages

Swift is easy to learn, with a high-level language syntax that requires only fairly basic coding skills. Swift works with the IBM Swift Sandbox plus IBM Bluemix, and tutorials are widespread for programmers and developers who want to learn Swift from scratch.

Drawbacks

Swift has no backward compatibility. So, once the iOS updates, apps and systems that use it must update to continue receiving further support. There is also a notable lack of interoperability with many third-party tools.

Potential roles and salary expectations

iOS developers can expect average base salaries of $103,927. Roles include software developers, software engineers, and mobile developers, with senior positions earning more than $146K.

PHP

PHP, one of the older programming languages on our list, hails back to 1990. PHP is still widely used today, primarily for coding server-side scripts. Other programming tasks include developing desktop applications or writing command-line scripts. A backend programming language, PHP is helpful for anyone who wants a career in backend development or DevOps.

Advantages

PHP is popular thanks to extensive and robust frameworks, numerous automation tools, and excellent debugging capabilities. This coding language also supports functional programming and object-focused programming. Accessible and straightforward for most people to learn, PHP comes with a vast community that provides support and resources.

Drawbacks

Using PHP for an entire project or webpage can make it run slower than other languages. Plus, data security is more challenging to implement with PHP, and developers may need to use multiple extensions to achieve their goals.

Potential roles and salary expectations

The average base salaries for PHP developers are slightly lower than those for people skilled in other coding languages. Starting annual wages are about $88,847 but can go much higher, with top salaries reaching $197,335.

Learning a new programming language can open up many doors for you — especially in the ever-growing realm of DevOps, where you might create applications and systems across varied and complex tech infrastructures.

At LogicMonitor, we help companies transform what’s next to deliver extraordinary employee and customer experiences. Want to learn more? Let’s chat.

The success of any managed service provider (MSP) is dependent on the people who work for it. When MSP employees are dissatisfied, unhappy, or unengaged they will be less motivated, efficient, and productive. Employees make or break a company, so it’s vitally important to keep them satisfied with their work.

How To Empower Your Employees

It’s a known maxim that companies benefit tremendously from happy workers. This is an easy idea to wrap one’s mind around since it intuitively makes sense. If an employee is happy and engaged with their employer, they work harder. If they are unhappy, they tend to be less productive.

A famous study from the University of Warwick found that “happy employees were 12% more productive, while dissatisfied workers proved 10% less productive”. This is a 22% swing in productivity from employee happiness alone! It is critically important for MSPs to focus on their employee happiness levels if they want to achieve long-term business growth.

So, what can you do to empower MSP employees? How can you keep them happy and engaged?

Do you want your employees to feel empowered to go Super Saiyan?

Resolve Blockers

One of the most de-motivating things for employees can be the inability to complete work effectively due to a third-party dependency. When an employee’s work is frequently blocked by the work of a different team, an inefficient process, a lack of documentation, technical debts, or any number of other potential bottlenecks, it can be extremely difficult for the employee to be productive. They can begin to feel like they aren’t accomplishing anything in their day-to-day work, which can drive down efficacy and motivation. These types of blockers should be found and remedied as quickly as possible.

Allow For Autonomy

Recent research has shown that employee autonomy is essential for an employee’s:

Whether it be autonomy over the details of how to perform or do their actual work, autonomy over their personal work-life balance, or autonomy over their ability to choose what they actually work on, giving more autonomy to employees is an easy way to empower them and enhance company efficiency.

Here are some interesting research points related to autonomy:

It’s clear that giving employees the ability to have a say in different aspects of their work creates network effects that can lead to increases in company efficiency and can lead to long-term growth.

Increase Mentor-Mentee Work

At some MSPs, peer work is reserved for new employees who are trying to learn the ropes. A new employee is onboarded through a standard process, and they learn from their more experienced coworkers for the first month or two before being able to effectively complete tasks on their own. 

Despite this common trend, it has been empirically shown that strong personal relationships between coworkers lead to significantly higher job satisfaction. An easy way to help coworkers create meaningful relationships at work is through a mentor-mentee program. 

The mentor-mentee experience is a net-positive for everyone.

When there is a mentor-mentee relationship in place, the more senior employee can teach another team member how to effectively solve more difficult issues, how to improve their code or work, how to manage their time more effectively, or any number of general tips they have learned over time on the job.

By creating this relationship, both employees will feel more engaged in their work and in the company itself. This type of peer work can also engender a sense of empowerment in the mentor as they begin to feel responsible for the success of their mentee. The mentee gets the benefit of creating a meaningful relationship inside the company while simultaneously becoming more effective in their job.

Give Employees Ownership

Another great way to improve employee engagement is to give them more ownership of their work. By allowing employees to have full ownership of what they are working on from start to finish, employees can become more engaged and excited with the work itself. There’s an innate sense of pride that comes with creating a product, feature, tool, etc. from scratch, and being the owner of a major project can be particularly empowering for an employee.

Gamify the workplace

Overwhelmingly, IT professionals love games. Gamifying the workplace is the perfect opportunity to create stronger connections in the workplace, as well as improve problem-solving times and focus on innovation. 

Every company is different and effective gameplay can vary from team to team, so keeping things fluid is helpful when thinking about gamification. Games can vary from something as simple as recognition-based work apps, to hackathons and everything in between. Studies show that gamifying the workplace in a way that shows off employee achievements improves productivity, engagement, and loyalty. 

Reduce Employee Burnout

MSPs are designed to automate, optimize, and standardize processes that other companies do not want to be responsible for on their own. By the nature of this business model, individual MSPs tend to solve the same problem many different times for multiple clients. This leads to one of the largest issues with MSP employee’s motivation: burnout.

Worker fatigue is an inevitable effect stemming from repetitive work. When an employee’s work begins to feel like the same thing over and over again, it’s only natural for their motivation to decrease. Low motivation leads to lower productivity, and ultimately lower company efficiency.

Here are some ideas to reduce monotony for technical workers:

Provide time for certifications

MSP practitioners are often very certification-oriented in their goals for growth as employees. Considering many MSP jobs require certifications to prove IT skills, helping employees continue their journeys to gain new certifications is crucial to empowerment. Providing reserved time for a new certification course, or even fund allotments to help practitioners pay for certification courses can help empower employees in a variety of ways. Allowing time to focus on education lets MSP employees learn new skills, refine skills, and level up into new roles in their careers. 

Interested in what the top certifications for IT Professionals are? 

Create 80-20 Programs

Larger tech companies (such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.) have some version of an 80-20 program for their employees. These programs vary from company to company, but the main idea is that employees do their day jobs from Monday to Thursday (80%), but on Friday (20%) they are free to work on any project within the company that appeals to them. This allows employees to sample work in different areas of the company and learn new skills while still being productive. It also creates the potential for internal lateral moves over time, if the employee wants to eventually switch roles.

Introducing these programs and providing employees with this degree of autonomy over their work has shown huge increases in productivity at the companies that have implemented them. It’s also a great way to reduce employee fatigue as they are able to work on problems that interest and excite them on a weekly basis and have the ability to move positions after some time.

Happiness Is Key

It is well known that there is a correlating relationship between employee happiness and employee productivity. When it comes to an individual’s work, empowered employees are both happier and more motivated to see the success of their respective companies. More often than not, this empowerment directly leads to higher productivity and efficiency within the company itself. 

MSP companies should do everything in their power to keep employees feeling empowered. To do this, MSPs can try to provide ways for employees to feel ownership over their work, mix up individual work to avoid burnout, reduce bottlenecks, and facilitate mentor-mentee relationships.

The key to better MSP employees starts and ends with being happy in the workplace.

Want to see how you can improve operational efficiency with monitoring best practices? Watch our webinar today!

Last updated September 2022.

How LogicMonitor continues to be named one of the best places to work

For me, one of the biggest draws of LogicMonitor was the company culture. As I started talking to LMers from different teams to get a lay of the land, it quickly became apparent this is a place where collaboration and inclusiveness are truly valued. It is a place that generates innovation and high performing teams, and continues to do so even during a time of rapid growth and while adapting to a hybrid work model. 

While many other organizations have felt the pressure to completely revamp their cultures in order to retain and attract talent these last few years, ours continues to shine, earning recognition this year from awards like Fortune’s Best Medium Workplaces, Inc. Magazine’s list of Best Workplaces, and Glassdoor’s list of Best Places to Work.

But culture isn’t established overnight; it is built over time and is a continuous work in progress. There are always new challenges to address, such as ensuring our culture doesn’t exist solely within the office, but permeates virtually to our people working remotely. And just as we must stay one step ahead with tech innovation, we must do the same for culture innovation. 

An important part of culture innovation means listening to employee feedback and finding ways to align our values, even as those values may shift with the changing times. Customer obsessed, better every day, one team, trust, and agile are the five values that guide everything we do at LogicMonitor, but there are also three elements of our culture that are important to LMers, and therefore important to the company as a whole:

Belonging

First and foremost, we want every single LMer to truly feel a sense of belonging here. We embrace and celebrate people from all backgrounds, valuing different perspectives. We care about each other’s success, offer help when needed, motivate each other to constantly learn, and always share our knowledge. While there’s always work to be done to ensure a respectful, diverse, inclusive, and equitable workforce, we continue to do that work, have tough conversations, and create supportive communities for our people.

Empowerment

We emphasize manager training to ensure our leaders are valuable guides and coaches to their team, who can create safe and supportive environments that empower LMers to do their best work. We reward each other for upholding company values and promote numerous training and development initiatives to ensure employees are fully equipped for any challenges in their careers. These initiatives reinforce our supportive company culture and have been effective in empowering employees to perform better by providing them with the tools they need to resolve difficult work situations. These include mentoring programs, leadership programs, onboarding training and bootcamps for sales, and career shadowing.

Flexibility

Flexibility came to the forefront during the pandemic and is a priority that is here to stay. As other organizations draft elaborate return to work policies, we’re veering away from the mandates and reimaging how we view our offices. As centers of energy, providing human connection after years of being deprived those connections. A place to collaborate, learn, and celebrate.

At the end of the day, people not only want to feel good about the work they’re doing but they want to feel good about where they work. We’re committed to creating an environment where LMers can do great things with great people in a great place! If you want to learn more about what it’s like being a part of the LogicMonitor team, check out our career’s page at https://logicmonitor.com/careers.

Employee Name: Claudia Sharpe

Title: APAC Team lead, Business Development

Why did you choose to work at LogicMonitor? 

The amazing company culture. It was always very clear that the team here in Sydney is like one big family and everyone is always happy to help, no matter what department they’re in. The Career progression was also very appealing, as LM was evidently expanding quite fast in the ANZ region.  

What is the biggest thing you have learned in your role so far? 

I’ve learned a lot in my 3 years at LogicMonitor. When I began here, fresh out of University, I didn’t even know what the term SaaS meant, so my knowledge of the Tech industry has increased immensely. In addition to this, I have learned a lot of interpersonal skills particularly, since I’ve stepped into the Team lead role.

What advice has helped you be successful? 

Never burn a bridge – Always treating everyone with respect and kindness as you never know when you may cross paths with them again. 

Additionally, a good Work-Life balance has always helped me keep motivated.

If you could choose anyone, who would you pick as your mentor? 

Rebel Wilson 

What are three words you would use to describe LogicMonitor?

Progressive, Rewarding & Agile 

What do you like to do in your spare time? 

In my spare time, I like to exercise, particularly by playing AFL, basketball and going on walks/exploring. I also love going out with my friends with some DJing on the side too. 

If you could monitor any one thing, what would it be?

My basic human requirements like they do in Sims

Title: General Manager, LM Logs

Why did you choose to work at LogicMonitor? 

Two things attracted me to LogicMonitor:

What is the most rewarding part of your role? 

Developing talent is the most rewarding for me as a human, and having a leadership role gives me the platform to identify someone with potential, invest, and watch them do amazing things. I don’t need to be the person in the spotlight, I prefer it when my team is on the stage because they did something transformative for our customers. 

What do you find most challenging about your role? 

Ha! Ask me again in a year and my answer should be different. Prioritization of what makes the biggest impact across as many customers as possible. It has become evident that customers love us and are pulling us into additional products (logs, APM, and cloud monitoring) and features. LM has a proven track record of product execution. With so many opportunities to add customer value, prioritizing what we do now vs. later is the most challenging thing I currently experience. 

What is your advice on how to be successful every day? 

Success is a team sport. Make sure you have a team around you and roll together. If you don’t have a team, create one (and they don’t have to be direct reports). A team doesn’t always have to agree, in fact, I like to debate and if need be argue in the locker room, but when you hit the field you never clip your teammate. Everyone loses. 

Was there a certain moment in your career that you felt was a turning point? 

Finding and keeping my voice-  as an introvert with imposter syndrome, it was the realization that my opinion was just as valid as someone else’s. I promised myself that I would not be the silent introvert in the room, regardless of how often I said the awkward/wrong thing. Making that promise to myself has been the single biggest accelerant to my career. 

If you could choose anyone, who would you pick as your mentor? 

I have two great mentors in my career today. Dug Song (co-founder and CEO of Duo Security) and Thomas Wyatt (Chief Product and Strategy Officer, People.ai). Here is why I think they are great mentors:

If you don’t have a couple, find one quickly. Also, make sure you are mentoring others at the same time as being mentored. 

What about LM Logs excites you the most?

The potential of the business outcomes we can drive for our customers. No one builds logs for the sake of logs (at least I hope not). Instead, logs empower amazing use cases including anomaly detection, unified logs, and metrics. Combining log anomalies with an infrastructure alert saves IT teams a lot of time and frustration by surfacing the logs that have changed, reducing MTTR exponentially (see the war room mission above). 

What are three words you would use to describe LogicMonitor?

Customers, Authentic, Growth.

What do you like to do in your spare time? 

I have many hobbies including adventure travel, foodie (both the consumption and creation), and being an aspiring general contractor for my home remodel. Most recently, I have been learning how to sail a 34’ Pearson sailboat in the San Francisco Bay with my youngest daughter.

What book would you recommend that you have read recently? 

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, I love the book as the classic Asian immigrant experience, with interesting adaptations that highlight Koreans immigrating to Japan, and Korean-Japanese immigration to the US. If you want to see some of the implications of World War 2 in a relatable human way, I would strongly recommend reading this book. 

Making time and resources available for learning, development, and certifications are some of the most important ways to help improve employee engagement within IT organizations. In addition to helping you attract and retain talent, team members with specific certifications bring technical knowledge and skills to your operation that can vastly improve efficiency and aid in your overall operations.  

When it comes to available processes and methodologies, few are more useful for IT projects than Agile. This project management framework is widely used by software and development operations of all sizes. There are a few Agile certifications available to choose from, and in this article, we’ll discuss the best agile certifications currently available for IT professionals. 

Contents

What Is Agile?

Agile is a project and process management methodology centered on the ideas of responding to and managing change. While more traditional project management methodologies focus entirely on milestones and deadlines, Agile is a practice-driven philosophy designed with IT, software, and programming operations in mind. 

Agile is rooted in core principles based on The Agile Manifesto:

Because of these core principles of flexibility, product operability, and customer satisfaction, Agile is regarded as a highly practical umbrella under which a number of development practices fall. Most Agile frameworks are designed by software developers, for software developers. However, the flexibility and nimble nature of Agile has led to its adoption in a number of sectors, including manufacturing, product development, information technology, web development, and even marketing and advertising agencies. 

Agile frameworks and methods include the following, which are typically covered in certification coursework: 

PMI Agile-Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is one of the foremost certifying bodies for project management methodologies. Their Agile certification is held to the same high standard as all other PMI certifications. The PMI-ACP certification is a more general certification, requiring demonstrated knowledge in both Agile theory and practice. Like most other PMI certifications, the exam is rigorous and all-encompassing. 

This certification is useful for IT professionals who have demonstrated their value and knowledge as Agile practitioners and is more of a badge of honor than a true learning opportunity. Like most other PMI certifications, there are many prerequisites to earn this particular certification and ensure 

To become a PMI Agile-Certified Practitioner, you must pass the three-hour, 120-question multiple-choice exam. Additionally, you must hold a secondary degree, undergo 21 hours of training in agile practices, have eight months of Agile-specific project management experience in the last three years, and 12 months of general project management experience in the last five years.   

Administered by: The Project Management Institute (PMI)

Cost: $435 for PMI Members, $495 for PMI Non-Members.

ICAgile Certified Professional

ICAgile is dedicated exclusively to promoting the implementation of Agile through learning, development, and education. The ICP certification program is centered primarily on the fundamentals of Agile, including values, principles, and key concepts. In true Agile fashion, this certification’s coursework doesn’t focus on prescriptive methodologies but rather emphasizes having an Agile mindset and using a combination of core methods to improve operations. 

Certification criteria is slightly less specific when compared to other certifications on this list. To earn the ICAgile Certified Professional designation, you must complete a course authorized by ICAgile to offer this certification, typically about 14 hours long, and each with its own examination and completion criteria. 

Administered by: International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile)

Cost: Varies, but starts at around $600 in the United States.

Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)

Rather than a generalized certification, the Certified ScrumMaster coursework focuses entirely on maximizing the Scrum framework. Scrum is built on the concept of ceremonies, which includes sprint planning, daily stand up, sprint review with customers/stakeholders, and retrospectives. A sprint can be anywhere between one and four weeks. This ensures that tasks are completed in a timely, methodological manner, allowing room for flexibility as new tasks and problems arise. 

The CSM certification is one of the gold standard Agile certifications and the one that typically comes to mind first when discussing Agile certifications with those in the know. This certification is awarded after completing a 14-hour training course and successfully passing a 50-question, 60-minute test. 

Administered by: ScrumAlliance

Cost: Starts at $495 for coursework, including exam fees.

Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I)

The Professional Scrum Master certification track was developed by one of the co-developers of Scrum. It’s designed to ensure mastery of the fundamentals of this framework. Additionally, the certification is entirely rooted in the Scrum Guide and its application within teams rather than anything specific to a particular project type. By ensuring that you have the knowledge to apply Scrum within any team, you can diversify the projects you work on. 

To receive this certification, all that’s required is passing an exam based on the Scrum Guide, which can be downloaded for free.  While no specific coursework is required to obtain this certification, there are several courses offered by Scrum.org that can assist in preparation for the exam. 

Once you carry the Level I certification, you can continue to advance your knowledge (and value to your organization and prospective future employers) with the Level II and Level III certifications. 

Administered by: Scrum.org

Cost: $150.

SAFe Product Owner and Product Manager (SAFe POPM)

SAFe refers to the Scaled Agile Framework, a specific framework designed for enterprise software operations. This certification centers on the tactical responsibilities of product owners and product managers and carrying this certification positions the bearer for a strong future in either of these roles. Most advantageous in 2022 is the SAFe methodology’s emphasis on working with multi-location and remote teams, which, as we all know, is becoming the new normal within organizations of all sizes. 

At its core, the SAFe POPM certification is centered on delivering outcomes rather than following rigid, specific processes that many enterprise operations fall victim to. The SAFe POPM certification is awarded after completing a course provided by a licensed trainer and successfully passing an exam at course completion. 

Administered by: Scaled Agile 

Cost: Typically starts at $599 and includes the first exam attempt.

Certified FDD Aware Status

Feature driven development (FDD) is focused on being customer-centric, iterative, and incremental in the software development process. This particular methodology is extremely useful for IT professionals and teams involved in DevOps, applications, and other large-scale software projects that benefit more from documentation than daily collaboration meetings to ensure work gets done. 

FDD also differs from other Agile methodologies such as Scrum in that it’s focused more on features (as the name implies) and less on delivery. This ensures the product is functioning seamlessly with all the desired elements, on a feature-by-feature basis, rather than on a holistic product level. This allows the minimum viable product (MVP) to be a single feature working to exact specifications, rather than multiple features working to base-level requirements. 

The FDD Aware Status is the base-level FDD certification, which puts you on a path toward higher levels of certification currently in development. The FDD certifications are intentionally designed as a hierarchy, with each level indicating a deeper level of understanding. 

To earn FDD Aware Status, a certified course in feature-driven development must be completed. 

Administered by: Feature Driven Development

Cost: Varies.

AgilePM Foundation Certifications

The AgilePM Foundation offers highly specific certifications that enable project managers, product owners, and IT professionals in many industries to learn how to apply agile methodologies in specific circumstances, including particular project types, industries, and job functions. Any of these certifications can help an IT professional become better versed in applications most useful for their specific career path. 

Administered by: AgilePM Foundation

Cost: Varies based on course and certification.

Other Ways to Improve Operational Efficiency

Employing Agile methodologies is just one way to improve operational efficiency for IT professionals. Obtaining one or more of the above certifications will position you to become an organizational leader and an attractive talent asset as your career grows. These Agile certifications can help demonstrate not only your knowledge of Agile frameworks, methodologies, and techniques, but also a commitment to customer satisfaction, product quality, and operational efficiency.

To further demonstrate this commitment, you should remain immersed in the latest knowledge about your industry, seek out ways to further improve operational efficiency, and identify opportunities for automation and monitoring solutions that support your efforts. 

Interested in how LogicMonitor can help increase your IT operational efficiency? Start a free trial and immediately see how simple setup and single-screen monitoring across your IT operations can help reduce downtime, improve efficiency, and lead your entire operation toward a more Agile workflow. 

LogicMonitor’s Employee Referral Program has an impact seen throughout the organization. As 24% of our new hires in 2021 were the result of employee referrals, this program directly affects our growth. LMers essentially become brand ambassadors; broadcasting our celebrated culture, values, and business to their networks. Subsequently, we have some extremely talented professionals (and pretty cool people) join our team!

Jo Saunders joined LM as Account Executive, Mid Market I in January 2022. I had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her experience as a referral and how her life has changed since her first day at LogicMonitor.

How did you first learn about LogicMonitor?

I had been searching for a new job for about three years; sometimes very actively, sometimes just passively. As soon as I knew I was moving to Santa Barbara from San Diego, I dove into one of my very active searching phases. I looked up the local “rockstar” tech companies and came across LM very quickly. Not too long after that though, a good friend brought LM up as a potential company for me to look into.

Tell us a bit about the person who referred you to LM.

I had two separate referrals happen at once. One was through Dave Bryson, the other was through William Hidalgo. William is the one that submitted first though, so that was quick thinking for him! He used to work with an acquaintance of mine. I first contacted that acquaintance to just get his take on LM in general, but then it morphed into him making a LinkedIn intro between me and William. Fantastic.

The second one was through a good friend of mine that works at SHI and has worked on deals with Dave Bryson in the past. She emailed him directly, he asked for my resume, I sent it to her, and then Ernesto (my current manager) called me up!

What factors helped you to make your decision in choosing to work at LM? 

The interview process was thorough. I was confident in asking all the hard questions of everyone I talked to during that process. I only heard good things from friends/acquaintances from within the industry. Everyone I met along the way was pleasant and felt generally happy about working at LM.

The location was a bonus for me because I can walk or bike to the office 2-3 times a week. That hybrid WFH/office model is a big deal for me too. And last but not least, the total benefits packages are great.

What was your overall first impression of LM?

I was pleasantly surprised at the efficiency level of each of my initial touchpoints with people from the start. The diversity (especially with women at the C-level) is a big part of what attracted me to the company, along with local people I could interact with and hopefully become a normal, social human again after the pandemic.

What do you love about the team you work with now?

I like the responsiveness level. When anyone needs something or has a question, someone is on it – fast!

In what ways have you grown since starting at LM? What have you learned or accomplished? Or what do you hope to do?

Coming from an incredibly niche market, selling capital equipment in the amusement industry and private sector, I have learned a new way of selling and succeeding. Working in small groups with people that have similar goals is very helpful. It’s nice to have that built-in support and I can’t wait to be part of that support system for new people once I can stop treading water as a newbie myself.

What are you excited about going forward?

Career growth is what I was after while I was looking for a job. The everyday learning opportunities along with the LM-supported learning opportunities (i.e. seminars, books, LinkedIn Learning, etc.) will really help that happen. The most exciting thing for me is just talking to people – getting to know them and helping them solve problems within their business.

How has being referred to LM changed your career, life, or goals?

Getting out of the house and into a real work environment, albeit only a few days a week, is incredibly helpful especially since I am new to the entire area. I am a social person, so interacting with just my cat and Zoom meetings all day was starting to take a serious toll.

Breaking into the tech industry from “the outside” was the first major hurdle in the career growth that I have been working towards, so being welcomed here is the first HUGE step!

Lastly, the other thing that started to take a serious toll was working for an organization that did not walk the talk. So seeing decision-makers here at LM walking the talk or at least trying their hardest to do so, is an absolute game-changer. Nobody wants to trek up figurative work mountains only to find brick walls; that’s not a cool, easy, supportive, or sustainable work environment.

If you were to refer someone to LM, what advice would you give them or what might you tell them to help them make their decision?

If you put the work in, you will be supported and successful. And ask questions!

With today’s fluid, highly-competitive job market, companies have evolved their recruitment efforts to develop high-achieving teams across functions, while preserving a solid bottom-line. At LogicMonitor, we’ve experienced over 40% growth in headcount in the last 12 months. In order to sustain this level of rapid growth and scale our recruitment efforts for the future, we decided to launch a newly-scaled, formalized University Recruiting (UR) plan to build teams from the ground up… and so far it’s working!

Focusing on Regional Efforts

We’re excited to be hosting 13 interns this spring and summer! Let’s take a look at how we got here, and why this program will be essential for our continued growth and success. As we began planning last year for the 2022 program, it was vital for us to explore internal areas of opportunity to hire, train, and manage interns for summer 2022. We also had to research rich talent pools located near our regional offices in Santa Barbara, Austin, and Boston. From there, discussions with the Career Services teams began, providing clarity and exposure for us to better identify ideal talent pools for LM.

How did we choose our University partners for 2022? Our UR team is fairly lean, and still in the early stages, so it was pertinent that we engaged with student bodies that align with the goals and objectives of this new strategic program. Here’s a glance at some of our guiding goals:

Given that 10 of our 13 internships are taking place for teams primarily located in the Austin, TX area, we’re partnering closely with two local universities: The University of Texas at Austin (UT) and Texas State University (TSU), both with robust technical and non-technical academic programs and colleges, virtual and in-person engagements that foster recruiting conversations and brand awareness, and diversity initiatives and student-led programming that encompass enablement of a new generation of talent working in tech.

In addition to the two universities in Texas, we’re also partnering with the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), located across town from our Santa Barbara headquarters, and Northeastern University in Boston, MA, which offers unique, highly technical academic programs and experiential learning programs that foster growth for some of our most technical teams.

A Commitment to Diversity

As a company that’s been rated as one of the “Best Places to Work in Austin” for four years straight, it’s important that we highlight diversity when engaging with students. We’ve shed light on our inclusive culture by discussing our growing list of community groups at LogicMonitor  – employee-run organizations that support employees in feeling welcome and foster a sense of belonging – and how students can participate in these groups during their internships. Below are examples of these community groups:

PeopleofColor@LM – Our mission is to create a supportive and educational community that strives to spread awareness and understanding around topics/issues that are experienced by people of color. 

Pride@LM – Our mission is to create an inclusive environment for both our LGBTQIA+ and ally teammates alike. We strive to serve our local communities through volunteer events and celebrate our vibrant community while doing so. 

Women@LM – Our mission is to create an inclusive working environment for those who identify as women at LogicMonitor by sharing stories, empowering others, and creating a supportive community that is aware of issues affecting women+.

In line with our DEI efforts, we’ve formalized partnerships with diversity-focused student organizations at UT Austin, showcasing our commitment to building a diverse generation of talent at LM. We’re also working with specific student groups such as diversity councils, a woman in business council, and a student group called “Target Your Future,” dedicated to building success for first-generation college students. Topics of discussion vary across the dozens of programs and events taking place this spring, but have ranged from “Communicating Confidence,” to “Building Your Brand,” to “Being Valuable Members of Diverse Teams.”

New Collateral

As we carved out specific roles for internships this summer, we felt it was important to develop an Early Careers Page, a tool that could showcase entry-level opportunities, perks, initiatives, testimonials, and more – all targeted toward university students. This has been especially useful since the site went live, and we’ve seen an increase in engagement each week. This site’s user-friendliness, clear and concise content, and creative makeup are reasons we feel we’ve gotten strong traction and engagement with candidates.

In addition to this site, we wanted to develop new collateral targeted toward specific student audiences. A couple of examples are listed below:

What’s Ahead

We’re now approaching mid-spring, and we’ve filled 90% of our internship requisitions, so we’re super excited that efforts have worked thus far! Ahead for us is formalizing an onboarding and integration plan that will acclimate this year’s interns in the professional and personal development-related initiatives at LM. We’ve accomplished a lot already, but excited for more opportunities ahead! Stay tuned!