Ihar Irkho at HOTCOE IT Career Orientation Day, Tysons Corner, VA, June 12, 2012

I am Ihar Irkho. I develop enterprises, products, information and user experience (UX) architectures. I also recruit, mostly, technical folks.

I have a dream that one day everyone will get access to the best hands-on training, technical education, and meaningful employment.

For this reason, I created the HOTCOE programs for people discovering their career calling, launching new careers, positioning or re-positioning themselves on the job market, and accelerating their job search.

The leader of Career Network Ministry (CNM), Bob Korzeniewski, once adviced me boosting my professional experience in America and gave me a chance to serve as the Volunteer Tech Skills Training Leader for the Continue reading →

Mack Sigman and Scott Hoag deliver MS SharePoint Administrators’ Training, Tyson’s Corner, VA, August 20th, 2012

At Hands-On Training & Career Opportunities for Everyone meetup group (HOTCOE meetup group), we teamed up with Mack Sigman, the President of Federal SharePoint User Group (FEDSPUG) to launch new MS SharePoint Admin Training. The first (of ten planned) session took place on August 20th, 2012.

Mack Sigman, the training leader, says, “And yes there will be homework and there will be tests. In order to move on Continue reading →

Frank Gary at HOTCOE MS Excel training, Tysons Corner, VA, May 29, 2012 (photo: Ihar Irkho)

HOTCOE stands for Hands-On Training & Career Opportunities for Everyone. Initially, this was the name of the HOTCOE meetup group, which was also known as a social enterprise. This post is about this original group.

Other HOTCOE Ventures

The HOTCOE group gave birth to the HOTCOE programs for people discovering their career calling, launching new careers, positioning themselves on the job market, and accelerating their job search.

The HOTCOE programs are designed by Virginia Institute of Technology. The services were initially delivered to the general public through International Club.

Since May of 2012, our group has been serving as an outreach of the Office of Business Development of Virginia Institute of Technology, which administers the HOTCOE programs. Our website, http://hotcoe.com is the official website of these programs.

HOTCOE Milestones

There are some milestones,

• Ihar Irkho founded HOTCOE group on January 31st, 2012 as a meetup group at www.meetup.com/HandsOnTraining. At its early stage, the HOTCOE group survived because of Career Network Ministry at McLean Bible Church, as well as personal help of its activists, first of all, Bob Korzeniewski, Dr. Mallard Owen, John Venable, and Mayumi Okada
• In partnership with Microsoft Store in Tysons Corner, VA, the HOTCOE group has been developing its tech skills training for CNM attendees at 4PM every Tuesday since April of 2012. More than 400 people had been trained by September of 2012


On July, 7th, 2012, the social network meetup.com featured our group on its home page

• Since May of 2012, the HOTCOE programs are delivered by Virginia Institute of Technology. International Club, a non-profit corporation in Washington, D.C., offered these programs at no cost
• On July, 7th, 2012, the social network meetup.com featured our group on its home page
• In partnership with Mack Sigman, President of Federal SharePoint User Group, HOTCOE offered MS SharePoint Administrator’ training in August of 2012

Continue reading →