CNMCyber history

CNMCyber history encompasses about nine years.

Pre-structure efforts

The Team of that time initially introduced its Jobs in 2014. Both paid and volunteer opportunities had been featured since that time and until Early structure was developed.

Pre-structure models

• Straightly-paid positions or those Residents who were paid on the hourly basis. Titles of paid Residents of that time included Project Management Apprentice, Project Assistant, and, simply, project management learner. Upwork was the primary vehicle for the hiring of paid Residents. Among success stories, Moin from Bangladesh needs to be mentioned; no one else stayed in The Cyber for more than 3 months. Kevin also expressed his initial interest then. Later, he re-joined the effort in 2020 and 2023. Without a-few-months-long training, the Residents' performance was low and didn't allow for high wages. The overwhelming majority of the participants looked for income and dropped when realized that their income depends on their training, both training (as well as its development!) require a deal of time, and their "financial runaway" was too short.
• Contingent-on-income positions or those Jobs whose payment was contingent on income. For instance, Mercedes from Northern Virginia succeeded to organize a training bootcamp to prepare its participants for the PMP exam. The training participants paid some fees and she got their portion. In addition to organizing, Mercedes also served as a trainer, mentor, and sales person. Her involvement stopped after Mercedes moved to Arizona. Later, the Team partnered with an accredited training provider to utilize the same model, but this provider lacked sales expertise. Great demand didn't generate income then. All in all, just few participants were interested in the contingent-on-income-pay model and even fewer could organize anything like what Mercedes succeeded.
• Volunteer positions or those Residents participated without any wage promise. Sometimes, some of the volunteer expenses were reimbursed. Those positions were advertised mostly during CNMCyber events, partner events, and newsletters that were distributed through a partner non-profit group. No pure adult volunteer stayed in The Cyber for more than a month. Nevertheless, this model was successful with kids and school students. The Cyber was introduced to the kids enrolled in after-school programs at Mott Community Center in Northern Virginia. In addition, one school student, Kyle, stayed in The Cyber on his summer vacation and literally got graduated from what now is known as the Bootcamp. At least, it was found that Kyle has a strong aptitude to the information architect profession.

Pre-structure experiments

At that time, training wasn't tailored to pre-entry-level-job participants. The structure of the PMBOK Guide was used for project management curriculum; technology hands-on training was being structured on the fly, as the participants advance.

The Cyber was marketed under several brand names such as Hotcoe, In2job, CNM Tech Training, CNM Digital, and Careerprise. The last brand name was also used to attract contractors without the Residents; that offer was published on the Careerprise bizopp wikipage.

The Cyber generated a few success stories beyond the Jobs' holders. Pretty much every participant who wanted to transition from one industry and profession to another one succeeded in that transition. School-student tutor at that time Malkia P. landed a technical trainer position. Public school counselor at that time Loredana C. obtained a business analyst job. Diana J. who was laid off from printed media business two years before became a manager of web operations. After leaving the US Army, Tony L.'s journey included becoming an IT consultant first, software engineer later, and, eventually, a cyber-security analyst.

Although just few Residents were successful, the experience was positive. Most of the prospects expressed great interest; they dropped out only when they realize that the structure was weak. At any rate, early undertakings prompted future ones.

Weakness of the structure worked only with school students, but their availability was limited as well. With regard to school student availability, The Cyber depended on partners because of legal restrictions. In the state of Virginia, services to minors are licensed; no organization behind The Cyber had that license.

SharePoint training

The Team teamed up with a partner to launch training of SharePoint administrators. All the materials were provided by that partner. Since its conception, The Cyber utilized the technology of its partners. Some COTS products were provided by Microsoft stores in Northern Viriginia, where the Team hosted many of its events.

For about one year, Gary was an official partner of Microsoft, which provided hundreds of subscriptions for various software packages. Using them, the Team attempted to build its own training materials. Guillermo L. and Roger A. led those efforts. The training materials were stored at Microsoft SharePoint farms.

Early structure

The pandemic opened new windows to advance the Resident position. In early 2020, some training videos were posted at YouTube. The job title was changed to IT Project Coordinator (Agile). However, CNMCyber events were postponed and recruitment occurred only through Upwork.

By the fall of 2020, the 5-level bundle of CNMCyber services, WorldOpp Pipeline, was outlined; two first courses were developed at CNM Cert. Nevertheless, the Bootcamp's deficiency braked The Cyber's development and success then. The Residents were needed to advance The Cyber and their recruitment produced too few candidates. Just two students, Mariam from Pakistan and Kevin from Kenia, were graduated from initial training of that time.

Own v1.0 tech

In 2016, the core technology was built with another partner, Sergey from Vinnytsia, Ukraine. All of the developed training materials were moved there because Microsoft subscriptions were about to end. The technology included what is now CNM Cert (Moodle), CNM Wiki (MediaWiki), CNM Page (build on Liferay then), and CNM Venture (Odoo). That development was documented as a part of CNM Cloud Beginnings. The partners agreed to market The Cyber as Virginia Institute of Technology, VIT, and vit4all.

2017 disaster

In early 2017, Sergey was getting more and more orders for his Odoo expertise. His interest in The Cyber was fading. Later that year, the main dedicated Cloud server crashed. The overwhelming majority of the technology developments, as well as all of the training materials, were lost.

Re-built v1.0 tech

Since 2018, the technology has been restoring and advancing. Initially, this task led Roman and, after his quitting, Natalia. After restoring the services, the platform was advanced to a prototype. That platform development was documented as CNM Cloud Embryo.

Bskol spin-off

In late 2020, a classified ad posted at an Ukrainian resource, rabota.ua, unexpectedly generated a good number of candidates. Marina from Kharkiv, Ukraine, was hired to translate the courses into Russian and adopt it to the Ukrainian audience. The Russian language was selected because of its popularity in Ukraine at that time and possibility later to introduce The Cyber in Belarus, Moldova, and Russian Federation. The Russian version of The Cyber was advertised as Bskol.

In September of 2021, the marketing campaign was launched in Ukraine. Besides rabota.ua, the Team also used work.ua. Altogether, The Cyber generated six Residents in Ukraine in 2021. Dmitro from Lviv got graduated and hired in the corporate world by the end of that year. Karolina from Kiev, Margarita from Poltava, Alexander from Kharkiv, Yulia from Odessa, and Olga from Lviv remained in The Cyber as of late February of 2022.

The Bootcamp was also initially structured during that period. However, it was clear that transition from learning to working needed further improvements.

New v2.0 tech

To solve the 2017 disaster problem, Cloud's v2.0 tech was more resilient to crashes. Its architecture encompassed several servers called farms; the applications were grouped and assigned to different servers. Most notably, the databases became redundant.

By mid-summer of 2022, most of the technology, not only the platform, existed in prototype stages. The mostly used CNM apps were CNM Certs and CNM Wiki. Natalia utilized MariaDB Galera Cluster to duplicate their data. Redmine was used for project management. That platform development was documented as CNM Cloud Minimal.

Russian war in Ukraine

In February of 2022, Russian Federation attacked Ukraine from the north, east, and south. Suffering battleground losses for a few months, Russia introduced rocket attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, targeting energy grids and communication networks.

The war heavily affected The Cyber and its Residents. Olga got disengaged and Alexander disappeared soon after the war beginning. Yulia and Margarita tried to stay in The Cyber, but eventually dropped out.

The marketing campaign to recruit new Residents produced more applicants, but significantly fewer participants. Because of the war, people looked for even faster income than in normal times. Applicants perceived that The Cyber offered training rather than jobs.

Russian language that The Cyber utilized in Ukraine also became a disadvantage to some Ukrainian-speaking participants. The number of complaints skyrocketed. In late summer of 2022, both advertising vehicles, rabota.ua and work.ua banned The Cyber from their platforms.

As a result, only two new Residents were hired in 2022: Vitaly from Zaporizhzhia Region and Sonya from Kharkiv. The war displaced both of them. From the Residents hired in 2021, just Karolina was productive in 2022. However, every Resident's availability was limited at various degrees.

Outlined v3.0 tech

The concept for Cloud v3.0 tech was defined in late spring of 2022. The new phase was named CNMCyber Usable. It encompassed:

1. High-availability of production, CNM applications.
2. User-friendly interfaces for both Opplet and applications.
3. Single sign-on.
4. Enterprise-wide features such as help desk and repository.

Since more contractors were needed, CNMCyber Coordinators were envisioned as primary drivers for hiring contractors and working with them.

Expert series

In late spring and summer of 2022, Karolina and Natalia organized a series of meetings with experts, Joseph and Nenad. A wide range of issues were discussed to help the Team resolve immediate challenges. The experience was great; however, the meetings' agendas were tentative and the experts were not prepared to address the questions fully. The series was postponed until a better structure would be developed.

Resident-led v3.0

In the second half of 2022, the Residents succeeded to close two technology projects:

• Karolina mostly worked on CNM Bureau Farm. Working with Natalia, she composed the requirements, as well as sourced and selected the contractor. As a result, this Farm obtained its new bare-metal servers, as well as high availability, security, backup and recovery features.
• Vitaly was instrumental in advancement of CNM Campus Farm to its next level. Working with Natalia, he also composed the requirements, as well as sourced and selected the contractor. As a result, this Farm obtained its new high availability features.

iDosvid spin-off

In 2014-2017, the Team of that time delivered training services to school students. That experience was successful, but the scope of the program was minimal. Lack of strategic partners didn't allow growing those services up to the minimum viable product (MVP) stage.

Difficulties to recruit the participants generally and the Residents specifically prompted to spin off the Team's services. A separate bundle of services for school students was designed in late 2022 - early 2023. Its name, iDosvid, means "and experience" in Ukrainian. All of three courses were translated into Ukrainian and the first course was adapted to the new audience.

The Team hoped to partner with (a) educational partners to bring school students to The Cyber and (b) non-profit partners to augment the Team's services. Vitaly led that endeavor; however, after he got graduated from the Practice, the endeavor was postponed.

Concept proving

Although the war in Ukraine heavily affected The Cyber, the training materials, especially, its Bootcamp, were heavily tested. The first three courses were significantly improved. The most challenging part of The Cyber, its transition from learning to working, gets structured. Vitaly graduated from The Cyber, while landing a professional job in December of 2022. The Team perceives that success as a sufficient proof of concept. Dmitro from Lviv was graduated earlier.

CNMCyber re-launch

Starting in fall of 2022, the Resident's recruitment in Ukraine stalled. It became clear that The Cyber cannot attract a deal of participants in wartime Ukraine. The Team decided to re-launch The Cyber in English under its initial brand name, now stylized as CNMCyber.

Improvements of the Russian-language version were postponed and new developments were moved to the English-language one. By mid-January of 2023, this very wikipage and the linked ones were developed to be used as a structure for an English version of the third course's minimum viable product (MVP). Russian-language resources would be added as additional services.

Sourcing funnel

The Concept proving confirmed that the Bskol spin-off is a success. At the end of the day, someone joined The Cyber, updated the skills, got references, and landed a professional job.

The next goal is to increase the number of the Residents in the Practice. Development of The Cyber requires as many Careerprise contractors as possible, so the more CNMCyber Coordinators are active, the better. As of March of 2023, the Customer could finance ten-twelve Residents, so the number 12 is the target.

By April, 2023, Careerprise Funnel was designed to accommodate the new model of Recruiting the Residents.

Market presence

During the Bskol spin-off, the Team advertised the CNMCyber Coordinator position via job-search websites in Ukraine. That model had two deficiencies. First, potential prospects didn't feel like they are interested in that particular position. Second, the job-search website customers normally sought regular jobs, not practice ones.

To address those deficiencies of Residents' sourcing, its model was redesigned. New Careerprise Presence featured:

• Presence at social media including Facebook, Meetup, TikTok, and YouTube, as well as CNMCyber events to feed the social media news. That feeding could allow for promotion of specific positions. For instance, at the end of Guided CNM WorddPress Tour event, the message can be,

  "Are you interested in becoming a CNM WordPress operator? We are hiring people like you! Visit ... to get started."

• Jobs-for-ladies advertising using TikTok targeting stay-at-home women in Pakistan. Website sections or whole websites shall be designed to educate specifically that group of prospects.
• Cooperation with employment and recruitment agencies in Kenia, Pakistan, and Ukraine to promote CNM Website Developer and CNM Event Organizer positions.

Onboarding redesign

Although The Cyber significantly improved its onboarding procedures during its Bskol spin-off, its efficiency was still low. That spin-off produced no more than 10 Residents out of about 2,000 of those who have enrolled in the first course. So, the conversion rate of sales-qualified prospects to the customers was about 0.5%.

To address numerous drawbacks of Residents' onboarding, it was redesigned. The redesigned onboarding featured:

• WorldOpp Orientation course to introduce the participants to CNMCyber services in details. The Russian-language version of the first course addressed a few points that the old English-language version lacked. The Team decided to re-create the course, while using the Russian-language version as a prototype.
• EmployableU Foundation course to introduce the participants to employability, job market, and job search. The old second course included two sessions -- the session, which was about a half of the course, covered career issues and another did CNM Cloud. The Team decided to leave the first half and move the second half to the third course.
• The Bootcamp now bundles four, not one position. The overwhelming majority of the learners faced significant challenges while starting practicing as CNMCyber Coordinators. So, three new positions were designed to help them get to the coordinator's Job gradually. Initially, the learners would practice as CNM Website Developers to better understand the development process, CNM Event Organizers to get accustomed to meeting facilitation, and CNM Cloud Operators to get experience with documentation. The third course would have four quarters, each of them shall be tailored to only one of the Practice's positions.

This-Week series

Initially, Sonya coordinated endeavors to establish the CNMCyber This Week series and organized the first ones. Surprisingly, Kevin took a part and expressed his interest in re-joining the Team. He took over the series in mid-March as Sonya moved to the Guided-Tours series endeavor. By the end of March, the This-Week series should become instrumental for the Work approval.

Guided-Tours series

Sonya and Natalia organized the first event of the CNMCyber Guided Tours series in mid-March of 2023. It introduced a format of friendly conversation of a newbie, whose Job played Sonya, and a professional. There were some troubles with the event scope and recording; nevertheless, the Customer assessed the first event as a success.

Recruiting in Kenya

Using personal connections, Kevin brought Onesmas from Kenya and Rita from Uganda into The Cyber in March of 2023. The Team agreed that Kevin, as a CNMCyber Coordinator, would take over the recruitment process overall and, specifically, over the CNM Event Organizer description. At that time, Gary worked on the CNM Website Developer position. Onesmas and Rita were offered to get accustomed to the CNMCyber Coordinator position, which was the only developed position at that time, and try to develop the CNMCyber Welcome Session. When the CNM Event Organizer or CNM Website Developer position is available, they can switch to that.

YouTube and Meetup

While CNMCyber websites are not developed yet, the Team has no choice, but to use its CNMCyber Meetup group and Cyber channel at YouTube.

Re-build of events

CNMCyber events are the core of Careerprise Literacy. Their quality is instrumental for success of the recruitment. Early events in February-March of 2023 came with significant challenges as follows.

• Facilitation. Generally speaking, a newbie cannot physically handle all of event organizing tasks including moderation of speakers and handling of requests. Gary proposes to transfer facilitation to Careerprise contractors and, if the Residents facilitate events, assign two of them, not one.
• Recording. Sonya used CNM Talk's recording feature, but it didn't work stably. As of March 19th, she succeeded to record only one event, which was published on YouTube a couple of days later. Being more experienced in videoconferencing, Kevin used OBS Studio, which worked well, but it was not clear whether Sonya and the others would have similar successes when their devices and Internet accesses are not as great as Kevin's one. Gary proposes to (a) record twice from different locations; a virtual machine can be used for one, and (b) evaluate whether the recording function of CNM Talk is reliable.
• Videoconferencing. The Team used CNM Talk as its technology. Mostly, the technology worked well. When Gary tried to participate from an old Windows8 laptop, he showed as "Fellow Jitser" without audio or video. On that laptop, he also couldn't see or hear the others. Gary proposes to try to use CNM Tube. It sounds like an integration of CNM AVideo and OBS Studio can be used for streaming.