CNMCyber practice

History of CNM Cyber Coordinators' position encompasses about nine years.

Pre-structure efforts

The Team of that time initially introduced its pre-entry-level-job positions in 2014. Both paid and volunteer opportunities had been featured since that time and until Early structure was developed.

• Straightly-paid positions or those Coords who were paid on the hourly basis. Titles of paid Coords of that time included Project Management Apprentice, Project Assistant, and, simply, project management learner. Upwork was the primary vehicle for the hiring of paid Coords. Among success stories, Moin from Bangladesh needs to be mentioned; no one else stayed in the Program for more than 3 months. Without a-few-months-long training, the Coords' 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 Coords whose payment was contingent on income. For instance, Mercedes from Northern Virginia succeeded to organize the bootcamp to get prepared 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. 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 that pay model and even fewer could organize anything like what Mercedes organized.
• Volunteer positions or those Coords participated without any pay promise. Those positions were advertised mostly during CNM Cyber events, partner events, and newsletters that were distributed through a partner non-profit group. No pure adult volunteer stayed in the Program for more than a month. Nevertheless, this model was successful with kids and school students. The Program 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 Program on his summer vacation and literally got graduated from what now is known as the Placement. At least, it was found that Kyle has a strong aptitude to the information architect profession.

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.

Although just few hires 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.

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

The Program was marketed under several brand names such as Hotcoe, In2job, CNM Tech Training, and CNM Digital. At the end of the day, early undertakings prompted future ones.

Early structure

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

By the fall of 2020, the 5-level Program, WorldOpp Pipeline, was outlined; two first courses were developed at CNM Certs. Nevertheless, the Placement's deficiency braked the Program's development and success then. The Coords were needed to advance the Program and their recruitment produced too few candidates. Just two students, Mariam from Pakistan and Kevin from Kenia, were graduated from initial training.

Early technology

Since its conception, the Program utilized the technology of its partners. For about one year, the Program was an official partner of Microsoft. The training materials were stored at Microsoft SharePoint farms.

In 2016, the core technology was built with another partner, Sergey from Vinnytsia, Ukraine. All of the developed materials were moved there. However, in 2017, the main dedicated Cyber server crashed and all of the technology developments were lost.

Tech re-built

Since 2018, the technology has been restoring and advancing. Initially, this task led Roman and, after his quitting, Natalia. By mid-summer of 2022, most of the technology existed in prototype stages. The mostly used CNM apps were CNM Certs and CNM Wiki.

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 Program in Belarus and Russia. The Russian version of the Program 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 Program generated six Coords in Ukraine in 2021. Dmitro from Lviv got graduated and hired in the corporate world. Karolina from Kiev, Margarita from Poltava, Alexander from Kharkiv, Yulia from Odessa, and Olga from Lviv remained in the Program as of late February of 2022.

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

Russian war

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 Program and its Coords. Olga got disengaged and Alexander disappeared soon after the war beginning. Yulia and Margarita tried to stay in the Program, but eventually dropped out.

The marketing campaign to recruit new Coords 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 Program offered training rather than jobs.

Russian language that the Program 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 Coords were hired in 2022: Vitaly from Zaporizhzhia Region and Sonia from Kharkiv. The war displaced both of them. From the Coords hired in 2021, just Karolina was productive in 2022. However, every Coord's availability was limited at various degrees.

Tech advancements

In the second half of 2022, the Coords 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.

Concept proving

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

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 Coords specifically prompted to spin off the Team's services. A separate bundle of services for school students, iDosvid, was designed in late 2022 - early 2023. All of three courses were translated into Ukrainian and the first course was adapted to the new audience.

Re-launch decision

Starting in fall of 2022, the Coord's recruitment in Ukraine stalled. It became clear that the Program cannot attract a deal of participants in wartime Ukraine. The Team decided to re-launch the Program in English under CNM Cyber brand name.

Improvements of the Russian-language version were postponed and new developments are supposed to occur in English. By mid-January of 2023, this very wikipage 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.

Developments and plans

As of January of 2023, the Team continues working on the technology platform and, in addition to that, is planning:

• For CNM Cyber services, (a) to restore CNM Cyber events, (b) to re-visit first two courses in English and, when they are ready to get re-introduced to English-speaking audiences, (c) to launch marketing campaigns in Kenia, Pakistan, Ukraine, and USA.
• For iDosvid services, to look for both (a) educational partners to bring school students to the Program and (b) non-profit partners to augment the Team's services.

Consequently, the Coords are needed to both (a) technology developments and (b) marketing of the Cyber services.