Big Corporation Vs. Small Business: What’s Best For You?
...“Would you rather be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a sea of water?” Weighing out the pros and cons of large versus small companies is not a foreign task for most of us. So, you have your chosen field, now which environment is right for you: a big corporation or a small business?
For the second year in a row, Apple, Google, and Walt Disney rank as the top companies undergraduates believe to be their “ideal” employers. Furthermore, business majors are still eager to join big name firms like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.
Alternatively, there are those searching for something entirely different. A more intimate work setting without the big name appeals to other job seekers, and for different reasons.
No matter the size, most companies are looking for good, honest, and hard working individuals to fill their next open positions. If you have those three nonnegotiable traits and the proper skills to match the position, the ball is in your court. When choosing you next job, it is important to consider a multitude of aspects directly affecting you and your future happiness and success: one of which being to go big or go small.
Below are characteristics describing the culture of large corporations and small businesses. Know yourself and imagine how you might fit:
Large Corporation:
Structure: If you are an individual who thrives off of structure and organization, then a large corporation might be for you. Most Fortune 500 companies have rotational and training programs in place to prepare their employees for their future roles in the company. Your position comes with a list of very specific responsibilities and they will often be outlined for you. Though not immune to the unpredictable economy, entry-level positions can be considered risk-averse and respectively stable.
Your role: You are one of many working on a team at a large corporation. If you enjoy collaborating and relying on a group dynamic, then you will be productive on the job. Be aware of the ever-present diffusion of responsibility existing in the companies. “That’s not my problem” can only be used as a reason when many people are involved in the same project.
Your future: On your very first day on the job, you will be handed a competitive network on a silver platter. You will have successful leaders in your field surrounding you during the workday. As far as moving forward, you will know the exact corporate ladder of your company. The vision of working your way up is clear and you know what you have to accomplish to get there.
Small Business:
Structure: The structure of small business is often times a little more flexible than those of large corporations. Because the environment in a small business is ever-changing, your schedule may be also. You may have the opportunity to take longer lunches, work from home, or spend a little more time on balancing your personal life. For those who choose not to set a predetermined trajectory of a career path, the small business route gives you a little more wiggle-room.
Your role: Rather than having a strict and straightforward title attached to many corporate workers, you may be expected to juggle many roles when you work for a small business. If you find a small business opportunity with a mission you are passionate about, you can be a driving force in the company’s success and you have the ability to receive more responsibility sooner.
Your future: In a small business, you are competing for a higher position with less people than Fortune 100 companies. You are in control of you own destiny in a small business and your voice will get heard, whether you like it or not. If you find the company you chose isn’t for you, employers love seeing small business experience on a resume. A candidate with small business experience usually is more of a self-starter, company-focused and has ideas.
Big or small, if you have a will to succeed, your future will be bright. Consider the structure, your role, and your future when deciding what size company is the best fit for you.
Source: Posted by Heather Huhman, Glassdoor.com • June 12th, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
How To Make Yourself Indispensable in the Current Job Market
Ditch the slackers, take on dirty work, do it with data -- here's how to get the inside track on a highly rewarding career in IT.
How do you keep your job or get a better one in an era when hiring is in a freeze and budgets are perpetually squeezed? Follow these maxims and find out.
Some of these ideas are practical advice you've probably heard before (and ignored). Being familiar with the business objectives and how technology can improve the bottom line is more important than ever. But so is expanding your portfolio of IT skills. Mastering cloud services or data management will help ensure your relevance in a rapidly changing work environment. You'll also want to reach out and communicate with your colleagues across the aisle and the organization, and take on dirty jobs nobody else wants. Eventually it may even mean leaving the comfort of a big organization and branching out on your own.
But remember: Becoming "indispensable" can be a double-edged sword. Get too indispensable and you might find yourself unable to move beyond your niche.
Effective IT Habit No. 1: Get Down to Business
You may be your organization's most talented developer or dedicated systems administrator. But if you don't know what the business is selling or what service it's providing, you're an unemployment statistic waiting to happen.
First step: Learn as much about the business as you possibly can, advises Mark A. Gilmore, president and co-founder of Wired Integrations, a strategic technology consulting firm.
"Ask yourself, 'How does it make its money? What are its strengths and weaknesses?'" Gilmore says. "Once you understand how the company works, you can use your IT knowledge to improve the company thus making yourself more valuable and less dispensable."
It helps to have a deep understanding of the company's critical infrastructure and to keep abreast of tech trends, he adds. But this may also require broadening your worldview.
"Don't look at things from strictly an IT perspective," he says. "Widen your vision to see how things relate to the business world around you. That will make you more valuable than 20 technical certifications and a master's degree."
Effective IT Habit No. 2: Keep Your Eye on the Bottom Line
Your job isn't just to keep the lights on and the data center humming. It's to help your organization use technology to improve the business; especially by trimming costs and increasing efficiency.
Servers running at a fraction of their capacity? If you haven't already virtualized your data center, now's the time. Software licenses dragging down your budget? You have an increasingly broad choice of low-cost cloud-based apps that let you pay only for what you use and only for as long as you use it. That's barely scratching the surface.
"IT professionals need to focus on areas which either drive down costs, such as virtualization, cloud computing, and converged networking, or on areas that help to generate revenue, such as social media, mobile marketing, and SEO," notes Rick Mancinelli, managing partner for IT consultants Cloud Computing Concepts.
"Ultimately, those IT professionals that have a positive impact on the bottom line will be the most valuable to their employer."
Effective IT Habit No. 3: Keep Your Head in the Cloud
Because so many traditional IT functions are moving to the cloud, which any business user can procure with a phone call and a credit card, your company may no longer need you to flip switches, connect cables, or troubleshoot machines. But they will still need someone who can tell them what services are available, which ones are worth looking at, and which ones they should avoid.
"If your organization plans to rely more on public cloud providers, especially for basic infrastructure needs, you may find you need fewer in-house operations people to maintain, patch, and upgrade systems," says Mark White, chief technology officer of Deloitte Consulting's technology practice. "But you'll still require people with expertise in managing a catalog of cloud services, handling subscribers, brokering agreements with cloud providers, and intervening when problems arise.
"The cloud puts greater demands on both your technical and your business-of-IT skills. If you're CIO, it's an opportunity to take your capabilities up to the next level."
Effective IT Habit No. 4: Broaden Your Tech Horizons
Besides mastering their own tech domains, savvy IT pros broaden their skill sets to include other areas of expertise. If a crisis arises in one of those areas and the persons responsible for handling it aren't available, you may be able to step in and save the day.
"This helps employers view them as valuable team players who can easily branch out to handle other jobs," says Dr. Issac Herskowitz, dean of the Graduate School of Technology at Touro College. "And an employee who has more than one area of expertise is more valuable when a department is downsizing."
The easiest way to develop new skills (and impress your boss) is by volunteering your services to other areas of IT and to stay on top of emerging tech trends, Herskowitz adds. The more you know about the latest and greatest tech, the more likely you'll be invited into the conversation when those technologies are being considered for adoption.
Effective IT Habit No. 5: Don't Become Literally "indispensable"
The problem with being labeled indispensable is that it can become a trap. Your talents can become so critical to an organization's survival that you can never leave or rise to a new position within your company, says Steven A. Lowe, CEO of Innovator LLC, a consulting and custom software development firm.
"A friend of mine is an excellent developer who has created a few critical software systems for the company that employs him," Lowe says. "No one else can step in and do what he does, and the company can't 'afford' to promote him to a more senior position or pay him much more money. So he's frustrated and miserable -- but he's certainly indispensable!"
The way to avoid this trap: Don't hoard information or expertise. Delegate responsibility. Start training your own replacement now, or find ways to outsource your current responsibilities so that you can take on more challenging assignments.
"I have been both indispensable and dispensable, and I had better job security and was happier when I was dispensable," says Jen Hancock, author of "The Humanist Approach to Happiness: Practical Wisdom."
Hancock says, "When I was indispensable, things fell apart. If I tried to take a long weekend I came back to a mess I had to clean up. The longer I was away, the worse the mess. When I finally got my act together enough to manage the work and delegate it out properly, everything ran more smoothly."
Effective IT Habit No. 6: Ditch the Slackers. Find a Mentor
Hanging with a crew that likes to take long lunches and knock off at five (or earlier)? You're not doing your career any good, says David Maxfield, author of "Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success," a book about alter your career-limiting habits.
"The habits that hold you back are likely enabled, tolerated, or encouraged by others," he says. "Use positive peer pressure by surrounding yourself with hardworking friends who share your career goals. Distance yourself from the office slackers."
Instead, Maxfield advises you seek someone with more experience to steer your career in a positive direction. "Find a trusted mentor," he says. "That will help you navigate the career development opportunities that exist within the organization."
Courtesy: Dan Tynan, Infoworld
How do you keep your job or get a better one in an era when hiring is in a freeze and budgets are perpetually squeezed? Follow these maxims and find out.
Some of these ideas are practical advice you've probably heard before (and ignored). Being familiar with the business objectives and how technology can improve the bottom line is more important than ever. But so is expanding your portfolio of IT skills. Mastering cloud services or data management will help ensure your relevance in a rapidly changing work environment. You'll also want to reach out and communicate with your colleagues across the aisle and the organization, and take on dirty jobs nobody else wants. Eventually it may even mean leaving the comfort of a big organization and branching out on your own.
But remember: Becoming "indispensable" can be a double-edged sword. Get too indispensable and you might find yourself unable to move beyond your niche.
Effective IT Habit No. 1: Get Down to Business
You may be your organization's most talented developer or dedicated systems administrator. But if you don't know what the business is selling or what service it's providing, you're an unemployment statistic waiting to happen.
First step: Learn as much about the business as you possibly can, advises Mark A. Gilmore, president and co-founder of Wired Integrations, a strategic technology consulting firm.
"Ask yourself, 'How does it make its money? What are its strengths and weaknesses?'" Gilmore says. "Once you understand how the company works, you can use your IT knowledge to improve the company thus making yourself more valuable and less dispensable."
It helps to have a deep understanding of the company's critical infrastructure and to keep abreast of tech trends, he adds. But this may also require broadening your worldview.
"Don't look at things from strictly an IT perspective," he says. "Widen your vision to see how things relate to the business world around you. That will make you more valuable than 20 technical certifications and a master's degree."
Effective IT Habit No. 2: Keep Your Eye on the Bottom Line
Your job isn't just to keep the lights on and the data center humming. It's to help your organization use technology to improve the business; especially by trimming costs and increasing efficiency.
Servers running at a fraction of their capacity? If you haven't already virtualized your data center, now's the time. Software licenses dragging down your budget? You have an increasingly broad choice of low-cost cloud-based apps that let you pay only for what you use and only for as long as you use it. That's barely scratching the surface.
"IT professionals need to focus on areas which either drive down costs, such as virtualization, cloud computing, and converged networking, or on areas that help to generate revenue, such as social media, mobile marketing, and SEO," notes Rick Mancinelli, managing partner for IT consultants Cloud Computing Concepts.
"Ultimately, those IT professionals that have a positive impact on the bottom line will be the most valuable to their employer."
Effective IT Habit No. 3: Keep Your Head in the Cloud
Because so many traditional IT functions are moving to the cloud, which any business user can procure with a phone call and a credit card, your company may no longer need you to flip switches, connect cables, or troubleshoot machines. But they will still need someone who can tell them what services are available, which ones are worth looking at, and which ones they should avoid.
"If your organization plans to rely more on public cloud providers, especially for basic infrastructure needs, you may find you need fewer in-house operations people to maintain, patch, and upgrade systems," says Mark White, chief technology officer of Deloitte Consulting's technology practice. "But you'll still require people with expertise in managing a catalog of cloud services, handling subscribers, brokering agreements with cloud providers, and intervening when problems arise.
"The cloud puts greater demands on both your technical and your business-of-IT skills. If you're CIO, it's an opportunity to take your capabilities up to the next level."
Effective IT Habit No. 4: Broaden Your Tech Horizons
Besides mastering their own tech domains, savvy IT pros broaden their skill sets to include other areas of expertise. If a crisis arises in one of those areas and the persons responsible for handling it aren't available, you may be able to step in and save the day.
"This helps employers view them as valuable team players who can easily branch out to handle other jobs," says Dr. Issac Herskowitz, dean of the Graduate School of Technology at Touro College. "And an employee who has more than one area of expertise is more valuable when a department is downsizing."
The easiest way to develop new skills (and impress your boss) is by volunteering your services to other areas of IT and to stay on top of emerging tech trends, Herskowitz adds. The more you know about the latest and greatest tech, the more likely you'll be invited into the conversation when those technologies are being considered for adoption.
Effective IT Habit No. 5: Don't Become Literally "indispensable"
The problem with being labeled indispensable is that it can become a trap. Your talents can become so critical to an organization's survival that you can never leave or rise to a new position within your company, says Steven A. Lowe, CEO of Innovator LLC, a consulting and custom software development firm.
"A friend of mine is an excellent developer who has created a few critical software systems for the company that employs him," Lowe says. "No one else can step in and do what he does, and the company can't 'afford' to promote him to a more senior position or pay him much more money. So he's frustrated and miserable -- but he's certainly indispensable!"
The way to avoid this trap: Don't hoard information or expertise. Delegate responsibility. Start training your own replacement now, or find ways to outsource your current responsibilities so that you can take on more challenging assignments.
"I have been both indispensable and dispensable, and I had better job security and was happier when I was dispensable," says Jen Hancock, author of "The Humanist Approach to Happiness: Practical Wisdom."
Hancock says, "When I was indispensable, things fell apart. If I tried to take a long weekend I came back to a mess I had to clean up. The longer I was away, the worse the mess. When I finally got my act together enough to manage the work and delegate it out properly, everything ran more smoothly."
Effective IT Habit No. 6: Ditch the Slackers. Find a Mentor
Hanging with a crew that likes to take long lunches and knock off at five (or earlier)? You're not doing your career any good, says David Maxfield, author of "Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success," a book about alter your career-limiting habits.
"The habits that hold you back are likely enabled, tolerated, or encouraged by others," he says. "Use positive peer pressure by surrounding yourself with hardworking friends who share your career goals. Distance yourself from the office slackers."
Instead, Maxfield advises you seek someone with more experience to steer your career in a positive direction. "Find a trusted mentor," he says. "That will help you navigate the career development opportunities that exist within the organization."
Courtesy: Dan Tynan, Infoworld
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Where Should You Look for IT Jobs in 2012?
As the economy continues through its recovery and corporate earning improve, businesses across North America are reinvesting in IT projects that were put on hold through the recession, according to a survey from three top IT staffing companies.
The industries with the strongest growth, including technology and health care, are adding the most IT jobs today, and the IT positions in demand today are a combination of those directly related to profit drivers (product and service development) and back-office operations (such as networking and database administration), a positive indicator for the economy overall.
The distribution of the “Top Cities” across the region also points to the fact that IT job growth is not confined to those areas traditionally considered IT “hubs,” such as Silicon Valley. And with the most skilled IT workers today seeing multiple job offers and commanding higher salaries, 2012 is the year for IT pros to find a new job, the report concluded. Three national staffing firms—Modis, Robert Half Technology and Technisource—shared their lists of the best U.S. cities for finding IT jobs. Here are their picks:
Washington, D.C.
The nation's capital and its environs (and McLean, Va. in particular) top the list of the best cities for finding IT jobs. The federal government may not be creating many jobs, but the systems integrators, defense contractors (hence the picture of the Pentagon), and professional services firms servicing the government are making up for it, according to staffing industry execs. Banking companies in the area are also hiring tech workers, as well as rising tech startups.
These companies are primarily looking to hire developers (especially JAVA and .NET), says Matt Colarusso, a regional manager with Technisource's parent company Randstad. Modis notes that business analysts, information security professionals, project managers, and database administrators and architects are also in demand.
Houston, TX
It should come as no surprise that oil and gas companies are major catalysts for tech hiring in Houston. Notably, the healthcare industry is beginning to rival the energy industry as a top tech employer in the area. Houston has "a massive healthcare and medical presence," says John Reed, executive director of Robert Half Technology. This presence includes M.D. Anderson Clinical Care Center, CHRISTUS St. John Hospital and Bayshore Medical Center. All of those organization (and more) need IT professionals who can help them meet deadlines for compliance with new Federal regulations.
Some of the most sought-after IT skills in Houston include network engineers, project managers, business analysts, and JAVA and .NET developers, according to Modis CEO Jack Cullen.
San Francisco, CA
Add San Francisco, the East Bay, San Jose and Walnut Creek to our list of the usual suspects for finding IT jobs. As IPO fever rises and venture capital flows, tech startups are creating jobs. So too are the industry stalwarts. Application developers of all stripes are in great demand.
The healthcare industry is also contributing to the explosion of tech jobs in and around the Bay Area, says Randstad's Colarusso. Both Kaiser Permanente and UCSF Medical Center have large presence in the Bay area.
Minneapolis, MN
Colarusso, Cullen and Reed agree that Minneapolis is a great place to find work, especially in IT. Several Fortune 500 companies including Best Buy, Target, 3M and General Mills, are based in one of the Twin Cities or surrounding areas. Cullen notes that the unemployment rate in Minneapolis, at 5.1 percent, is low, and it's even lower for IT workers. He refers to Minneapolis as "one of the best kept secrets" as a place to live and work in the U.S.
The retail, manufacturing, financial services and healthcare companies in the area are all looking to hire IT professionals—specifically project managers, business analysts, application developers, network security engineers and help desk analysts, according to Modis's Research.
Seattle, WA
"It's hard to talk about tech jobs without mentioning Seattle," says Robert Half's Reed. Besides Microsoft's looming presence in Redmond, a host of smaller tech companies, including Avanade, Lizard Tech and Big Fish Games, call Seattle their home. Randstad's Colarusso says that he recently read that Seattle has experienced the most sustained growth in IT jobs than any other city over the last 10 years. He adds that the most common positions Seattle-based tech companies need to fill are business analysts, project managers and developers.
Boston, MA
Five major industries are booming in Beantown and its neighboring cities and suburbs: financial services, healthcare, biotech/pharma, education, and of course IT. And all need tech talent. Boston's most prestigious educational institutions, Harvard and MIT, are based just across the scenic Charles River in Cambridge. They provide local tech and biotech companies, which include EMC, Analog Devices, iRobot and Genzyme, with a ready talent pool, and they give local venture capital firms such as Greylock Venture Partners and OpenView, promising MBAs (or dropouts) to invest in.
The IT jobs in highest demand across all five major industries in Boston include JAVA and .NET developers, storage engineers, project managers, business analysts, business intelligence analysts and data management professionals, according to Modis.
Detroit, MI
Car sales in the U.S. have been growing steadily since the second quarter of 2011, according to the Wall Street Journal, and that's fueling a resurgence in Detroit. While General Motors continues to struggle, Ford and Chrysler are seeing year over year sales growth.
When car makers like Ford and Chrysler do well, so too do their suppliers and subcontractors in the Detroit market, which increasingly includes tech companies developing mobile applications and devices for cars and trucks, says Modis's Cullen. As all of these companies experience sales increases, they have money to invest in IT, which creates demand for project managers, business analysts and JAVA developers, according to Modis.
New York, NY
Robert Half's Reed says that his firm sees the most employment activity in NYC and the surrounding area because of the high concentration of large companies based there. The two industries for which the Big Apple is known—financial services and media (and in particular, digital media)—are creating jobs for JAVA, SharePoint, .NET, PHP and mobile application developers, as well as for project managers, business analysts, business intelligence analysts and quality assurance testers, according to Modis.
Orlando, FL
Tech job opportunities in Orlando, Fla., are increasing due to the new Medical City project's adding 10,000 new jobs in Orlando (driving health care IT jobs) and the increasing networking needs of companies of all industries (driving telecommunications jobs).
McLean, VA
McLean has a lot of startups and growing industries, resulting in an average unemployment rate that is well below the national average. The federal government and contractors continue to drive the need for more workers and open jobs.
Walnut Creek, CA
Many traditional industries are looking for cost savings by using technology to be more efficient, and they need IT workers to build these technologies. This is creating a higher volume of job opportunities, as some data centers are located here as well.
Jacksonville, FL
A low cost of living, coupled with large companies that have invested in the growth of Jacksonville’s economy by adding many IT jobs, have increased the demand for even more people with technology skills. Jacksonville employers have embraced cutting- and bleeding-edge technologies that help drive top IT talent.
Denver, CO
Denver has a diverse economy with a mix of established and startup companies. It also has a low unemployment rate for IT workers and a strong midmarket sector. The report noted Denver has always been a city where people want to live, and as a result, it attracts talent from other markets.
(Courtesy: eWeek & CIO)
The industries with the strongest growth, including technology and health care, are adding the most IT jobs today, and the IT positions in demand today are a combination of those directly related to profit drivers (product and service development) and back-office operations (such as networking and database administration), a positive indicator for the economy overall.
The distribution of the “Top Cities” across the region also points to the fact that IT job growth is not confined to those areas traditionally considered IT “hubs,” such as Silicon Valley. And with the most skilled IT workers today seeing multiple job offers and commanding higher salaries, 2012 is the year for IT pros to find a new job, the report concluded. Three national staffing firms—Modis, Robert Half Technology and Technisource—shared their lists of the best U.S. cities for finding IT jobs. Here are their picks:
Washington, D.C.
The nation's capital and its environs (and McLean, Va. in particular) top the list of the best cities for finding IT jobs. The federal government may not be creating many jobs, but the systems integrators, defense contractors (hence the picture of the Pentagon), and professional services firms servicing the government are making up for it, according to staffing industry execs. Banking companies in the area are also hiring tech workers, as well as rising tech startups.
These companies are primarily looking to hire developers (especially JAVA and .NET), says Matt Colarusso, a regional manager with Technisource's parent company Randstad. Modis notes that business analysts, information security professionals, project managers, and database administrators and architects are also in demand.
Houston, TX
It should come as no surprise that oil and gas companies are major catalysts for tech hiring in Houston. Notably, the healthcare industry is beginning to rival the energy industry as a top tech employer in the area. Houston has "a massive healthcare and medical presence," says John Reed, executive director of Robert Half Technology. This presence includes M.D. Anderson Clinical Care Center, CHRISTUS St. John Hospital and Bayshore Medical Center. All of those organization (and more) need IT professionals who can help them meet deadlines for compliance with new Federal regulations.
Some of the most sought-after IT skills in Houston include network engineers, project managers, business analysts, and JAVA and .NET developers, according to Modis CEO Jack Cullen.
San Francisco, CA
Add San Francisco, the East Bay, San Jose and Walnut Creek to our list of the usual suspects for finding IT jobs. As IPO fever rises and venture capital flows, tech startups are creating jobs. So too are the industry stalwarts. Application developers of all stripes are in great demand.
The healthcare industry is also contributing to the explosion of tech jobs in and around the Bay Area, says Randstad's Colarusso. Both Kaiser Permanente and UCSF Medical Center have large presence in the Bay area.
Minneapolis, MN
Colarusso, Cullen and Reed agree that Minneapolis is a great place to find work, especially in IT. Several Fortune 500 companies including Best Buy, Target, 3M and General Mills, are based in one of the Twin Cities or surrounding areas. Cullen notes that the unemployment rate in Minneapolis, at 5.1 percent, is low, and it's even lower for IT workers. He refers to Minneapolis as "one of the best kept secrets" as a place to live and work in the U.S.
The retail, manufacturing, financial services and healthcare companies in the area are all looking to hire IT professionals—specifically project managers, business analysts, application developers, network security engineers and help desk analysts, according to Modis's Research.
Seattle, WA
"It's hard to talk about tech jobs without mentioning Seattle," says Robert Half's Reed. Besides Microsoft's looming presence in Redmond, a host of smaller tech companies, including Avanade, Lizard Tech and Big Fish Games, call Seattle their home. Randstad's Colarusso says that he recently read that Seattle has experienced the most sustained growth in IT jobs than any other city over the last 10 years. He adds that the most common positions Seattle-based tech companies need to fill are business analysts, project managers and developers.
Boston, MA
Five major industries are booming in Beantown and its neighboring cities and suburbs: financial services, healthcare, biotech/pharma, education, and of course IT. And all need tech talent. Boston's most prestigious educational institutions, Harvard and MIT, are based just across the scenic Charles River in Cambridge. They provide local tech and biotech companies, which include EMC, Analog Devices, iRobot and Genzyme, with a ready talent pool, and they give local venture capital firms such as Greylock Venture Partners and OpenView, promising MBAs (or dropouts) to invest in.
The IT jobs in highest demand across all five major industries in Boston include JAVA and .NET developers, storage engineers, project managers, business analysts, business intelligence analysts and data management professionals, according to Modis.
Detroit, MI
Car sales in the U.S. have been growing steadily since the second quarter of 2011, according to the Wall Street Journal, and that's fueling a resurgence in Detroit. While General Motors continues to struggle, Ford and Chrysler are seeing year over year sales growth.
When car makers like Ford and Chrysler do well, so too do their suppliers and subcontractors in the Detroit market, which increasingly includes tech companies developing mobile applications and devices for cars and trucks, says Modis's Cullen. As all of these companies experience sales increases, they have money to invest in IT, which creates demand for project managers, business analysts and JAVA developers, according to Modis.
New York, NY
Robert Half's Reed says that his firm sees the most employment activity in NYC and the surrounding area because of the high concentration of large companies based there. The two industries for which the Big Apple is known—financial services and media (and in particular, digital media)—are creating jobs for JAVA, SharePoint, .NET, PHP and mobile application developers, as well as for project managers, business analysts, business intelligence analysts and quality assurance testers, according to Modis.
Orlando, FL
Tech job opportunities in Orlando, Fla., are increasing due to the new Medical City project's adding 10,000 new jobs in Orlando (driving health care IT jobs) and the increasing networking needs of companies of all industries (driving telecommunications jobs).
McLean, VA
McLean has a lot of startups and growing industries, resulting in an average unemployment rate that is well below the national average. The federal government and contractors continue to drive the need for more workers and open jobs.
Walnut Creek, CA
Many traditional industries are looking for cost savings by using technology to be more efficient, and they need IT workers to build these technologies. This is creating a higher volume of job opportunities, as some data centers are located here as well.
Jacksonville, FL
A low cost of living, coupled with large companies that have invested in the growth of Jacksonville’s economy by adding many IT jobs, have increased the demand for even more people with technology skills. Jacksonville employers have embraced cutting- and bleeding-edge technologies that help drive top IT talent.
Denver, CO
Denver has a diverse economy with a mix of established and startup companies. It also has a low unemployment rate for IT workers and a strong midmarket sector. The report noted Denver has always been a city where people want to live, and as a result, it attracts talent from other markets.
(Courtesy: eWeek & CIO)
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
How to Retool Your IT Skills for the Cloud
Keith Fafel entered the world of cloud computing during the summer of 2010, while he was working as a product manager with Rackspace, the San Antonio, Texas-based provider of hosted IT infrastructure services.
At the time, Fafel was working in Rackspace's monitoring services line of business, which provides information on the performance of the hardware and software that Rackspace runs for its customers. Rackspace had begun developing cloud-based hosting services, and it was trying to create monitoring solutions for customers provisioning those cloud-based services so that they could be assured their servers and load balancers were working properly. Fafel says he "inserted" himself in the conversation Rackspace was having on how it would develop monitoring software for the cloud.
"The excitement about the cloud was growing, and I wanted to be in the exciting growth areas," he says.
Fafel, who is now Rackspace's director of product for monitoring services, says the move to develop cloud-based monitoring services was a natural career progression for him. For many IT professionals, however, the move to developing applications and managing infrastructure based in the cloud feels anything but natural. Indeed, it seems downright intimidating, especially in light of all the talk about the possibility of cloud computing eliminating IT jobs.
Fafel and others working in the burgeoning field of cloud computing say the transition from a traditional IT environment to a cloud computing environment doesn't have to be difficult or daunting. They acknowledge it's a dramatic paradigm shift for IT, and they admit that the move will be hard for those IT professionals who dismiss cloud computing as a fad and who are wedded to particular operating systems and technology platforms. But for the IT professionals like Fafel who view adding cloud computing skills as a career opportunity, retooling their skill sets for the cloud will be a relatively straightforward process, they say.
Begin Retooling Now
"There's a great benefit today in that there are so many [training] resources available," says Bernard Golden, CEO of cloud computing and virtualization consulting company HyperStratus. "There are a lot of online resources, and a lot of these products you can use for free or they're dirt cheap. You have a real opportunity to get hands-on experience with a low barrier to entry."
IT professionals interested in learning about cloud computing would be wise to begin their education now, cloud computing experts agree.
"Right now, everyone is doing something as it relates to the cloud," says David Nichols, CIO Services leader for Ernst & Young. "They may have one or two applications in the cloud or are using it for storage. For just about everyone, what they're putting in the cloud is so small relative to the rest of their infrastructure that they don't have to worry about addressing this new business model separately."
The fact that most enterprises and IT departments are currently inching their way to the cloud, as Nichols describes, works to IT professionals' advantage: It takes some pressure off of them. They can learn at their own pace, as opposed to having to quickly come up to speed in the midst of a major cloud transformation. By starting their training now, they can get ahead of the technology curve.
"Cloud is here to stay. It is not a flash in the pan. It is a paradigm shift, and IT professionals need to recognize it," says Andy Knosp, vice president of professional services for Eucalyptus Software, a provider of a platform for private infrastructure-as-a-service clouds. "If they are going to increase their skills and their value in the [job] market, now is the time to get trained."
Here, cloud computing experts offer advice to IT professionals on how they can adapt their skill set for the cloud.
Get Your Head in the Cloud
The first step in retooling your skill set for the cloud is to understand the basics: That is, the concept of cloud computing, the different deployment models (public, private and hybrid) and use cases for them, and how the model differs from traditional IT operations.
At its most basic level, cloud computing is a way of dynamically delivering customized IT resources (such as applications, storage and server capacity) over the Internet and "on demand." It relies on virtualization software, which pools available computing resources from many servers, to provide that seemingly instant access to applications, storage or servers.
The reason cloud computing represents such a radical paradigm shift for IT is because of this instant access to scalable IT capabilities that it facilitates. The classic example of this concept is the time it takes to provision a server for a new application. In a traditional corporate IT environment, this process can take weeks: A new server may need to be purchased. Once purchased it needs to be configured and software has to be deployed for it.
In a cloud environment, the server capacity is already in place, and it's virtual. Instead of weeks, it can take minutes to get a server running. The process of provisioning a server to run an app is almost entirely automated, and users only pay for the computing capacity they use, as opposed to paying for all of the capacity that an entire physical server provides.
Cloud computing differs from traditional IT in several other ways. It presents new problems and therefore requires new approaches to solving those problems. For example, when Rackspace began to develop monitoring services for its cloud customers, it looked to traditional IT management and monitoring tools from several major vendors. Fafel says Rackspace quickly realized that those tools, which are designed for enterprises in which there's a known set of users and are managed in a centralized fashion, didn't work in a multitenant cloud environment. Rackspace ultimately decided to use monitoring software from a small cloud company, CloudKick, which it later acquired.
"As you're evaluating solutions to build within the cloud and work within the cloud, you have to be open to looking at startup companies that are just getting off the ground," says Fafel. "That's a hard pill to swallow for many IT leaders."
Select Areas of Specialization and Certifications
IT professionals who understand the concept of cloud computing, its different deployment models and use cases will be able to speak confidently about how their organizations might take advantage of the cloud and the benefits they might derive from it. Talking about cloud computing inside their IT organizations will distinguish them as knowledgeable and can help get them moved onto cloud computing projects, says Golden.
He recommends IT professionals learn about cloud computing's hot areas, such as platform-as-a-service (and Cloud Foundry in particular) and non-relational database management systems such as NoSQL, Apache's CouchDB and Cassandra databases, and Mongo. He also urges IT professionals to learn how to manage cloud infrastructure services environments and the management frameworks that sit around them, whether BMC or RightScale, for example.
All of these recommendations may seem overwhelming. The good news is that resources for you to educate yourself abound.
"It's dead easy to learn those things," says Golden, "because they all have online versions that are dirt cheap."
Indeed, many vendors in the vast cloud computing ecosystem, including Rackspace, Eucalyptus, RightScale, enStratus and Opscode, offer in-person or online training courses, documentation, white papers, demos, webinars and other resources on their Websites. These resources are often free for customers and partners. Sometimes they're free to the public or available for a low cost.
"Most everything an IT professional would need these days is freely available or relatively inexpensive," says Rackspace's Fafel. "You don't need a $5,000 server to help you learn. Launch your Web browser, launch a few servers in the Rackspace cloud, dig into blogs, and absorb as much information as you can."
As you build your knowledge of cloud computing, Eucalyptus's Knosp suggests investigating and obtaining certifications. He said he believes that when employers advertise positions for cloud administrators and architects, they will seek candidates with vendor-specific certifications. IT professionals who hold those credentials will be in a better competitive position in the job market.
(Courtesy: Meridith Levinson, CIO)
At the time, Fafel was working in Rackspace's monitoring services line of business, which provides information on the performance of the hardware and software that Rackspace runs for its customers. Rackspace had begun developing cloud-based hosting services, and it was trying to create monitoring solutions for customers provisioning those cloud-based services so that they could be assured their servers and load balancers were working properly. Fafel says he "inserted" himself in the conversation Rackspace was having on how it would develop monitoring software for the cloud.
"The excitement about the cloud was growing, and I wanted to be in the exciting growth areas," he says.
Fafel, who is now Rackspace's director of product for monitoring services, says the move to develop cloud-based monitoring services was a natural career progression for him. For many IT professionals, however, the move to developing applications and managing infrastructure based in the cloud feels anything but natural. Indeed, it seems downright intimidating, especially in light of all the talk about the possibility of cloud computing eliminating IT jobs.
Fafel and others working in the burgeoning field of cloud computing say the transition from a traditional IT environment to a cloud computing environment doesn't have to be difficult or daunting. They acknowledge it's a dramatic paradigm shift for IT, and they admit that the move will be hard for those IT professionals who dismiss cloud computing as a fad and who are wedded to particular operating systems and technology platforms. But for the IT professionals like Fafel who view adding cloud computing skills as a career opportunity, retooling their skill sets for the cloud will be a relatively straightforward process, they say.
Begin Retooling Now
"There's a great benefit today in that there are so many [training] resources available," says Bernard Golden, CEO of cloud computing and virtualization consulting company HyperStratus. "There are a lot of online resources, and a lot of these products you can use for free or they're dirt cheap. You have a real opportunity to get hands-on experience with a low barrier to entry."
IT professionals interested in learning about cloud computing would be wise to begin their education now, cloud computing experts agree.
"Right now, everyone is doing something as it relates to the cloud," says David Nichols, CIO Services leader for Ernst & Young. "They may have one or two applications in the cloud or are using it for storage. For just about everyone, what they're putting in the cloud is so small relative to the rest of their infrastructure that they don't have to worry about addressing this new business model separately."
The fact that most enterprises and IT departments are currently inching their way to the cloud, as Nichols describes, works to IT professionals' advantage: It takes some pressure off of them. They can learn at their own pace, as opposed to having to quickly come up to speed in the midst of a major cloud transformation. By starting their training now, they can get ahead of the technology curve.
"Cloud is here to stay. It is not a flash in the pan. It is a paradigm shift, and IT professionals need to recognize it," says Andy Knosp, vice president of professional services for Eucalyptus Software, a provider of a platform for private infrastructure-as-a-service clouds. "If they are going to increase their skills and their value in the [job] market, now is the time to get trained."
Here, cloud computing experts offer advice to IT professionals on how they can adapt their skill set for the cloud.
Get Your Head in the Cloud
The first step in retooling your skill set for the cloud is to understand the basics: That is, the concept of cloud computing, the different deployment models (public, private and hybrid) and use cases for them, and how the model differs from traditional IT operations.
At its most basic level, cloud computing is a way of dynamically delivering customized IT resources (such as applications, storage and server capacity) over the Internet and "on demand." It relies on virtualization software, which pools available computing resources from many servers, to provide that seemingly instant access to applications, storage or servers.
The reason cloud computing represents such a radical paradigm shift for IT is because of this instant access to scalable IT capabilities that it facilitates. The classic example of this concept is the time it takes to provision a server for a new application. In a traditional corporate IT environment, this process can take weeks: A new server may need to be purchased. Once purchased it needs to be configured and software has to be deployed for it.
In a cloud environment, the server capacity is already in place, and it's virtual. Instead of weeks, it can take minutes to get a server running. The process of provisioning a server to run an app is almost entirely automated, and users only pay for the computing capacity they use, as opposed to paying for all of the capacity that an entire physical server provides.
Cloud computing differs from traditional IT in several other ways. It presents new problems and therefore requires new approaches to solving those problems. For example, when Rackspace began to develop monitoring services for its cloud customers, it looked to traditional IT management and monitoring tools from several major vendors. Fafel says Rackspace quickly realized that those tools, which are designed for enterprises in which there's a known set of users and are managed in a centralized fashion, didn't work in a multitenant cloud environment. Rackspace ultimately decided to use monitoring software from a small cloud company, CloudKick, which it later acquired.
"As you're evaluating solutions to build within the cloud and work within the cloud, you have to be open to looking at startup companies that are just getting off the ground," says Fafel. "That's a hard pill to swallow for many IT leaders."
Select Areas of Specialization and Certifications
IT professionals who understand the concept of cloud computing, its different deployment models and use cases will be able to speak confidently about how their organizations might take advantage of the cloud and the benefits they might derive from it. Talking about cloud computing inside their IT organizations will distinguish them as knowledgeable and can help get them moved onto cloud computing projects, says Golden.
He recommends IT professionals learn about cloud computing's hot areas, such as platform-as-a-service (and Cloud Foundry in particular) and non-relational database management systems such as NoSQL, Apache's CouchDB and Cassandra databases, and Mongo. He also urges IT professionals to learn how to manage cloud infrastructure services environments and the management frameworks that sit around them, whether BMC or RightScale, for example.
All of these recommendations may seem overwhelming. The good news is that resources for you to educate yourself abound.
"It's dead easy to learn those things," says Golden, "because they all have online versions that are dirt cheap."
Indeed, many vendors in the vast cloud computing ecosystem, including Rackspace, Eucalyptus, RightScale, enStratus and Opscode, offer in-person or online training courses, documentation, white papers, demos, webinars and other resources on their Websites. These resources are often free for customers and partners. Sometimes they're free to the public or available for a low cost.
"Most everything an IT professional would need these days is freely available or relatively inexpensive," says Rackspace's Fafel. "You don't need a $5,000 server to help you learn. Launch your Web browser, launch a few servers in the Rackspace cloud, dig into blogs, and absorb as much information as you can."
As you build your knowledge of cloud computing, Eucalyptus's Knosp suggests investigating and obtaining certifications. He said he believes that when employers advertise positions for cloud administrators and architects, they will seek candidates with vendor-specific certifications. IT professionals who hold those credentials will be in a better competitive position in the job market.
(Courtesy: Meridith Levinson, CIO)
IT Employment Finishes Strong in 2011
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- In December, the economy added IT jobs at a robust pace, contributing to the totals of an already strong year for IT employment.
According to a monthly index of IT jobs developed and published by TechServe Alliance, a collaboration of IT services firms, clients, consultants and suppliers, the number of IT jobs increased by more than 15,300, (.4%) rising to 4,082,100 jobs in December. On an annual basis, IT jobs were up 3.3% in 2011 over 2010. This reflects an annual rate of growth in IT employment that is more than double rate the growth rate experienced in 2009 (1.3%).
By comparison, overall job growth for the economy was up only 1% year-over-year; though an improvement over 2010 when the labor force actually contracted on year-over-year basis (-.7%).
"As we begin 2012, I am heartened to see accelerating growth in IT employment," stated Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. "Based upon both the data and anecdotal reports of my members companies, one of our greatest challenges going forward will be a shortage of IT talent in key skillsets," added Roberts.
For a complete December 2011 IT Index, please visit http://www.techservealliance.org/pressroom/documents/IndexreleaseDecember2011FINAL.pdf
ABOUT TechServe AllianceTechServe Alliance is a collaboration of IT services firms, clients, consultants and suppliers dedicated to advancing excellence and ethics within the IT services industry. Hundreds of IT staffing, IT solutions and IT consulting firms and tens of thousands of affiliated professionals, count on TechServe Alliance to keep their leadership informed, engaged and connected. TechServe Alliance serves as the voice of the industry before the policymakers and the national and trade press. By providing access to the knowledge and best practices of an entire industry and tapping the "collective scale" of hundreds of companies, TechServe Alliance supports its members in the efficient delivery of best-in-class IT services for clients and exceptional professional opportunities for every IT consultant.
SOURCE TechServe Alliance
Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
According to a monthly index of IT jobs developed and published by TechServe Alliance, a collaboration of IT services firms, clients, consultants and suppliers, the number of IT jobs increased by more than 15,300, (.4%) rising to 4,082,100 jobs in December. On an annual basis, IT jobs were up 3.3% in 2011 over 2010. This reflects an annual rate of growth in IT employment that is more than double rate the growth rate experienced in 2009 (1.3%).
By comparison, overall job growth for the economy was up only 1% year-over-year; though an improvement over 2010 when the labor force actually contracted on year-over-year basis (-.7%).
"As we begin 2012, I am heartened to see accelerating growth in IT employment," stated Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. "Based upon both the data and anecdotal reports of my members companies, one of our greatest challenges going forward will be a shortage of IT talent in key skillsets," added Roberts.
For a complete December 2011 IT Index, please visit http://www.techservealliance.org/pressroom/documents/IndexreleaseDecember2011FINAL.pdf
ABOUT TechServe AllianceTechServe Alliance is a collaboration of IT services firms, clients, consultants and suppliers dedicated to advancing excellence and ethics within the IT services industry. Hundreds of IT staffing, IT solutions and IT consulting firms and tens of thousands of affiliated professionals, count on TechServe Alliance to keep their leadership informed, engaged and connected. TechServe Alliance serves as the voice of the industry before the policymakers and the national and trade press. By providing access to the knowledge and best practices of an entire industry and tapping the "collective scale" of hundreds of companies, TechServe Alliance supports its members in the efficient delivery of best-in-class IT services for clients and exceptional professional opportunities for every IT consultant.
SOURCE TechServe Alliance
Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
Monday, December 19, 2011
More Than 700 Tech Jobs in Tampa Bay to Fill in 2012
TBTF Jobs Survey: More Than 700 Tech Jobs to Fill in 2012
Friday, December 16, 2011
85 percent of the companies surveyed said they are hiring in the coming year.
Tampa, Fla. (December 16, 2011) – Encouraging news for Tampa Bay’s job market was announced by the Tampa Bay Technology Forum today when it released the results of its job survey. The survey discovered that more than 700 technology jobs will need to be filled in 2012.
"One of Florida’s greatest economic challenges is unemployment and underemployment. We believe that the long term answer to employment and over-all economic growth and stability will be technology related jobs,” said Heather Kenyon, TBTF president and CEO. "By surveying local technology companies we were able to gain a better understanding of some of the challenges related to workforce. Many companies state that finding qualified workers in the region can be challenging. TBTF is dedicated to assisting the technology industry and, to a greater extent, the region’s economy by helping to connect the industry with the needed resources to find, educate and develop the talent they need.”
More than 100 companies completed the survey, and 85 percent of respondents revealed they are hiring right now and through 2012. The positions identified that will need to be filled range from IT services, engineers and architects to sales and marketing. Three of the companies – Blue Rhino Group, Tata Consultancy Services and WellCare – indicated they expect to bring on 100 new hires in 2012. TBTF’s survey aligns with recent national news that tech jobs are the one bright spot in the economy. A recent Business Week article listed the top ten cities with the biggest growth in tech jobs, and Tampa was eighth on the list.
"I am encouraged by the 2012 staffing outlook, and believe it is a great time to be in the IT field,” said John Kuemmel, senior vice president, information technology at Catalina Marketing. "We are seeing an uptick in the level of IT staffing going into 2012. The people we are looking for are concentrated on business intelligence, project managers and Java developers. Our focus for 2012 will continue to be on new product innovation and business process optimization applications.”
About Tampa Bay Technology Forum
Founded in 2000, the Tampa Bay Technology Forum (TBTF) is a non-profit membership association committed to connecting and growing the technology community in Tampa Bay. TBTF’s 300+ member companies represent technology entrepreneurs, business and community leaders, investors, government representatives, researchers and educators. For more information, visit http://www.tbtf.org/.
Friday, December 16, 2011
85 percent of the companies surveyed said they are hiring in the coming year.
Tampa, Fla. (December 16, 2011) – Encouraging news for Tampa Bay’s job market was announced by the Tampa Bay Technology Forum today when it released the results of its job survey. The survey discovered that more than 700 technology jobs will need to be filled in 2012.
"One of Florida’s greatest economic challenges is unemployment and underemployment. We believe that the long term answer to employment and over-all economic growth and stability will be technology related jobs,” said Heather Kenyon, TBTF president and CEO. "By surveying local technology companies we were able to gain a better understanding of some of the challenges related to workforce. Many companies state that finding qualified workers in the region can be challenging. TBTF is dedicated to assisting the technology industry and, to a greater extent, the region’s economy by helping to connect the industry with the needed resources to find, educate and develop the talent they need.”
More than 100 companies completed the survey, and 85 percent of respondents revealed they are hiring right now and through 2012. The positions identified that will need to be filled range from IT services, engineers and architects to sales and marketing. Three of the companies – Blue Rhino Group, Tata Consultancy Services and WellCare – indicated they expect to bring on 100 new hires in 2012. TBTF’s survey aligns with recent national news that tech jobs are the one bright spot in the economy. A recent Business Week article listed the top ten cities with the biggest growth in tech jobs, and Tampa was eighth on the list.
"I am encouraged by the 2012 staffing outlook, and believe it is a great time to be in the IT field,” said John Kuemmel, senior vice president, information technology at Catalina Marketing. "We are seeing an uptick in the level of IT staffing going into 2012. The people we are looking for are concentrated on business intelligence, project managers and Java developers. Our focus for 2012 will continue to be on new product innovation and business process optimization applications.”
About Tampa Bay Technology Forum
Founded in 2000, the Tampa Bay Technology Forum (TBTF) is a non-profit membership association committed to connecting and growing the technology community in Tampa Bay. TBTF’s 300+ member companies represent technology entrepreneurs, business and community leaders, investors, government representatives, researchers and educators. For more information, visit http://www.tbtf.org/.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Higher Salaries, More Jobs for IT Pros in 2012
While the overall employment picture in the United States remains tight, many IT pros can look forward to a more prosperous 2012.
Even with several negative economic indicators nagging workers worried about availability of jobs, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released late last week and a survey out this week by online employment site Dice show that technology professionals have been more isolated than most from market woes.
According to BLS, unemployment only went down a hitch to 8.6 percent from 9.0 percent, while the number of workers who have given up looking for jobs increased by 315,000 unemployed workers last month. The number of long-term unemployed workers without jobs for over 26 weeks continued to make up nearly half of those unemployed today. But in the technology sector, there was some good news.
Though two of the IT-related sectors measured by BLS lost jobs -- Telecommunications and Data Processing, Hosting and Related Services -- two other IT segments saw notable growth. Combined, the Management and Technical Consulting Services and Computer Systems Design and Related Services segments experienced a net gain of nearly 129,800 jobs in the last twelve months.
According to David Foote, CEO of IT analyst and employment research firm Foote Partners, this tracks with his research.
"Among the 2,200 employers who participate as research partners in our industry research, there’s no question that consulting firms and systems integrators are benefitting from these employers’ purchases of managed services and investments in cloud computing as an alternative to acquiring technology skills in house,” Foote says.
IT recruitment firm Dice, which queried nearly 1,200 IT hiring managers and recruiters recently about their plans for 2012, saw more employment going inhouse. Released this week, the data showed that 65 percent of employers will be seeking to hire technology professionals in the first half of 2012. About a quarter of those report that they plan to expand staffs by more than 20 percent during the same time period.
"The tech recruiting market is active, although the pace of improvement has been impacted by broader economic concerns," said Alice Hill, Managing Director of Dice.com. "Many companies are chasing mid-career talent. The elevated economic uncertainty makes it tougher for hiring managers to lure tech professionals into leaving their current position."
This is working to technologists' benefit salary-wise as many companies are luring new recruits from the safety blanket of their current situations with higher pay. Dice found that 42 percent of hiring managers predict that new-hire salaries will rise in 2012.
Source: [CI] channel insider 2011-12-07
By Ericka Chickowski
Even with several negative economic indicators nagging workers worried about availability of jobs, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released late last week and a survey out this week by online employment site Dice show that technology professionals have been more isolated than most from market woes.
According to BLS, unemployment only went down a hitch to 8.6 percent from 9.0 percent, while the number of workers who have given up looking for jobs increased by 315,000 unemployed workers last month. The number of long-term unemployed workers without jobs for over 26 weeks continued to make up nearly half of those unemployed today. But in the technology sector, there was some good news.
Though two of the IT-related sectors measured by BLS lost jobs -- Telecommunications and Data Processing, Hosting and Related Services -- two other IT segments saw notable growth. Combined, the Management and Technical Consulting Services and Computer Systems Design and Related Services segments experienced a net gain of nearly 129,800 jobs in the last twelve months.
According to David Foote, CEO of IT analyst and employment research firm Foote Partners, this tracks with his research.
"Among the 2,200 employers who participate as research partners in our industry research, there’s no question that consulting firms and systems integrators are benefitting from these employers’ purchases of managed services and investments in cloud computing as an alternative to acquiring technology skills in house,” Foote says.
IT recruitment firm Dice, which queried nearly 1,200 IT hiring managers and recruiters recently about their plans for 2012, saw more employment going inhouse. Released this week, the data showed that 65 percent of employers will be seeking to hire technology professionals in the first half of 2012. About a quarter of those report that they plan to expand staffs by more than 20 percent during the same time period.
"The tech recruiting market is active, although the pace of improvement has been impacted by broader economic concerns," said Alice Hill, Managing Director of Dice.com. "Many companies are chasing mid-career talent. The elevated economic uncertainty makes it tougher for hiring managers to lure tech professionals into leaving their current position."
This is working to technologists' benefit salary-wise as many companies are luring new recruits from the safety blanket of their current situations with higher pay. Dice found that 42 percent of hiring managers predict that new-hire salaries will rise in 2012.
Source: [CI] channel insider 2011-12-07
By Ericka Chickowski
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
IT Job Market Turbulent, But Opportunities Abound
While the view of the overall U.S. job market looks bleak, IT professionals have several options at their disposal.
A sudden and unexpected burst in private-sector downsizing pushed the number of announced job cuts to a 16-month high of 66,414 in July, according the latest report on downsizing activity released this week by outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Similarly depressing figures regarding the U.S. job market have made headlines for the past few months, but IT professionals can take comfort in some more encouraging news.
The July surge in job cuts was dominated by a flurry of large layoffs by a handful of private-sector employers, the report noted, including Merck, Borders, Cisco Systems, Lockheed Martin and Boston Scientific. The job cuts from these five companies alone accounted for 38,100, or 57 percent, of the July total. Despite the increase in job cuts last month, the pace of downsizing in 2011 remains slower than 2010, but it is quickly gaining ground. So far this year, employers have announced 312,220 cuts, 8 percent less than the 339,353 announced in the first seven months of 2010.
“The spate of job cuts should definitely raise some red flags, but it is important to keep the monthly job-cut total in perspective. Yes, this is the largest job-cut month in over a year, but the last year has seen some of the lowest monthly job-cut totals since the late 1990s,” said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “The 66,000 job cuts recorded last month are still well below the 105,000 job cuts per month averaged between January 2008 and December 2009.”
Dice’s August jobs report found the number of available IT jobs as of the first of the month stood at 81,498, down from July’s report, which found 82,867 available IT jobs. Of the positions tallied in the report, 49,540 were full-time positions, 34,855 were contract positions and 1,578 were part-time positions. The New York/New Jersey metro area was the top region to find a job, with 9,378 jobs posted as of Aug. 1. That represents a 14 percent rise in available jobs in the region, compared with the same period last year.
In a recent interview, CompTIA president Todd Thibodeaux told Channel Insider that about 400,000 IT jobs are currently unfilled in the United States, with top markets such as New York and Silicon Valley unable to fill the job openings they have. While many of these positions are entry-level, certain skill sets are commanding premium pay such as cyber-security experts, mobility experts and systems integrators who can make one cloud application work well with another, he said.
However, SurePayroll’s Small Business Scorecard for July 2011, an economic indicator that tracks the health of the U.S. small business economy, found small business hiring is down in 18 metro areas. For July 2011, both hiring and paycheck levels were down slightly from the previous month, resulting in year-to-date decreases of 2.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
In addition, optimism among small-business owners plummeted from 67 percent in June to 47 percent in July. For the last several months, Michael Alter, president and CEO of SurePayroll, has said the small-business economy is in neutral and teetering on the brink of improvement or downturn. Now, he believes “the economy is in reverse,” adding that the turmoil surrounding the U.S. debt-ceiling debate certainly played a role.
(Courtesy: Nathan Eddy, eweek)
A sudden and unexpected burst in private-sector downsizing pushed the number of announced job cuts to a 16-month high of 66,414 in July, according the latest report on downsizing activity released this week by outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Similarly depressing figures regarding the U.S. job market have made headlines for the past few months, but IT professionals can take comfort in some more encouraging news.
The July surge in job cuts was dominated by a flurry of large layoffs by a handful of private-sector employers, the report noted, including Merck, Borders, Cisco Systems, Lockheed Martin and Boston Scientific. The job cuts from these five companies alone accounted for 38,100, or 57 percent, of the July total. Despite the increase in job cuts last month, the pace of downsizing in 2011 remains slower than 2010, but it is quickly gaining ground. So far this year, employers have announced 312,220 cuts, 8 percent less than the 339,353 announced in the first seven months of 2010.
“The spate of job cuts should definitely raise some red flags, but it is important to keep the monthly job-cut total in perspective. Yes, this is the largest job-cut month in over a year, but the last year has seen some of the lowest monthly job-cut totals since the late 1990s,” said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “The 66,000 job cuts recorded last month are still well below the 105,000 job cuts per month averaged between January 2008 and December 2009.”
Dice’s August jobs report found the number of available IT jobs as of the first of the month stood at 81,498, down from July’s report, which found 82,867 available IT jobs. Of the positions tallied in the report, 49,540 were full-time positions, 34,855 were contract positions and 1,578 were part-time positions. The New York/New Jersey metro area was the top region to find a job, with 9,378 jobs posted as of Aug. 1. That represents a 14 percent rise in available jobs in the region, compared with the same period last year.
In a recent interview, CompTIA president Todd Thibodeaux told Channel Insider that about 400,000 IT jobs are currently unfilled in the United States, with top markets such as New York and Silicon Valley unable to fill the job openings they have. While many of these positions are entry-level, certain skill sets are commanding premium pay such as cyber-security experts, mobility experts and systems integrators who can make one cloud application work well with another, he said.
However, SurePayroll’s Small Business Scorecard for July 2011, an economic indicator that tracks the health of the U.S. small business economy, found small business hiring is down in 18 metro areas. For July 2011, both hiring and paycheck levels were down slightly from the previous month, resulting in year-to-date decreases of 2.4 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
In addition, optimism among small-business owners plummeted from 67 percent in June to 47 percent in July. For the last several months, Michael Alter, president and CEO of SurePayroll, has said the small-business economy is in neutral and teetering on the brink of improvement or downturn. Now, he believes “the economy is in reverse,” adding that the turmoil surrounding the U.S. debt-ceiling debate certainly played a role.
(Courtesy: Nathan Eddy, eweek)
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
The future of IT jobs? It's in three types of roles.
Interesting article by Jason Hiner of ZDNet
There’s a general anxiety that has settled over much of the IT profession in recent years. It’s a stark contrast to the situation just over a decade ago. At the end of the 1990s, IT pros were the belles of the ball. The IT labor shortage regularly made headlines and IT pros were able to command excellent salaries by getting training and certification, job hopping, and, in many cases, being the only qualified candidate for a key position in a thinly-stretched job market. At the time, IT was held up as one of the professions of the future, where more and more of the best jobs would be migrating as computer-automated processes replaced manual ones.
Unfortunately, that idea of the future has disappeared, or at least morphed into something much different.
Read the entire article here http://tinyurl.com/428nu6s
There’s a general anxiety that has settled over much of the IT profession in recent years. It’s a stark contrast to the situation just over a decade ago. At the end of the 1990s, IT pros were the belles of the ball. The IT labor shortage regularly made headlines and IT pros were able to command excellent salaries by getting training and certification, job hopping, and, in many cases, being the only qualified candidate for a key position in a thinly-stretched job market. At the time, IT was held up as one of the professions of the future, where more and more of the best jobs would be migrating as computer-automated processes replaced manual ones.
Unfortunately, that idea of the future has disappeared, or at least morphed into something much different.
Read the entire article here http://tinyurl.com/428nu6s
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Why You Shouldn't Take a Pay Cut to Telecommute
A recent survey shows that more than one-third of IT professionals would take a 10 percent pay cut to telecommute.
Telecommuting appears to be the most underrated employment perk of the digital age—underrated by employers, that is. Most employees would love the opportunity to telecommute full-time. In an informal online poll conducted by job search website FINS, a whopping 92 percent of site visitors said they'd accept a dream job even if it meant they had to telecommute.
A separate survey conducted recently by another job search website, Dice, shows just how much some IT workers want to telecommute. More than one-third (35 percent) of survey respondents said they'd be willing to take a 10 percent pay cut in return for the privilege of being able to telecommute. Many members of Slashdot, responding to the same question (Would you take a 10 percent pay cut to telecommute?) said they'd do the same.
It's one thing to want to telecommute. It's another thing to be willing to give up money to do so. Those IT workers who are willing to relinquish 10 percent of their pay to telecommute must have money to burn. That or they haven't quite thought through such a trade-off. No one should compromise their pay. Pay cuts hurt. That's why they're called cuts.
In fact, employers should pay their employees more to telecommute. Here's why: First of all, unless you're a complete slacker, your productivity will rise when you telecommute. You can devote the time you would otherwise spend in traffic to getting actual work done, and you won't be distracted by conversations with co-workers. That means your employer will get more out of you. If a productivity increase isn't worth more money, then what is? It's certainly not worth a pay cut. In fact, making employees take a pay cut to telecommute would make them less productive, as they would lack the financial incentive to work hard. Most people work hard as a telecommuter to maintain this good work-at-home gig.
Some people say they'd rather work in an office because they worry they'd be too distracted by household chores or the TV. If you have enough work, NOTHING will tempt you to leave your home office. Oprah/ESPN, the laundry and dishes can wait.
Second, you're saving your employer money. You're one less mouth to feed on the odd occasions when the company decides to bring in pizza to boost morale. More important, it's in a company's financial interest to have as many employees as possible telecommuting. The more people who telecommute, the less office space the employer will need, resulting in reduced real estate and infrastructure costs. Employers will also save on office supplies.
Meanwhile, your household expenses will increase when you telecommute. You'll be using more electricity to light your office and to power your computer, monitor, printer, etc. You'll have to heat your home during the day in the winter when it otherwise would be unoccupied. You'll also be consuming more water (every time that toilet flushes) and more household items. So any savings you might have gained, for example, from not having to put gas in your car to commute will be offset—if not exceeded—by this increase in household expenses.
Finally, most corporations will use any excuse to cheat their employees out of more money. As soon as they see data suggesting that employees would do a job for less money provided they could do it from the comfort of their own home, they'll start nickel-and-diming. Most corporations would pay their employees in dryer lint if they could get away with it. So let's not give these companies any ideas.
Source: (Meridith Levinson, CIO.com)
Telecommuting appears to be the most underrated employment perk of the digital age—underrated by employers, that is. Most employees would love the opportunity to telecommute full-time. In an informal online poll conducted by job search website FINS, a whopping 92 percent of site visitors said they'd accept a dream job even if it meant they had to telecommute.
A separate survey conducted recently by another job search website, Dice, shows just how much some IT workers want to telecommute. More than one-third (35 percent) of survey respondents said they'd be willing to take a 10 percent pay cut in return for the privilege of being able to telecommute. Many members of Slashdot, responding to the same question (Would you take a 10 percent pay cut to telecommute?) said they'd do the same.
It's one thing to want to telecommute. It's another thing to be willing to give up money to do so. Those IT workers who are willing to relinquish 10 percent of their pay to telecommute must have money to burn. That or they haven't quite thought through such a trade-off. No one should compromise their pay. Pay cuts hurt. That's why they're called cuts.
In fact, employers should pay their employees more to telecommute. Here's why: First of all, unless you're a complete slacker, your productivity will rise when you telecommute. You can devote the time you would otherwise spend in traffic to getting actual work done, and you won't be distracted by conversations with co-workers. That means your employer will get more out of you. If a productivity increase isn't worth more money, then what is? It's certainly not worth a pay cut. In fact, making employees take a pay cut to telecommute would make them less productive, as they would lack the financial incentive to work hard. Most people work hard as a telecommuter to maintain this good work-at-home gig.
Some people say they'd rather work in an office because they worry they'd be too distracted by household chores or the TV. If you have enough work, NOTHING will tempt you to leave your home office. Oprah/ESPN, the laundry and dishes can wait.
Second, you're saving your employer money. You're one less mouth to feed on the odd occasions when the company decides to bring in pizza to boost morale. More important, it's in a company's financial interest to have as many employees as possible telecommuting. The more people who telecommute, the less office space the employer will need, resulting in reduced real estate and infrastructure costs. Employers will also save on office supplies.
Meanwhile, your household expenses will increase when you telecommute. You'll be using more electricity to light your office and to power your computer, monitor, printer, etc. You'll have to heat your home during the day in the winter when it otherwise would be unoccupied. You'll also be consuming more water (every time that toilet flushes) and more household items. So any savings you might have gained, for example, from not having to put gas in your car to commute will be offset—if not exceeded—by this increase in household expenses.
Finally, most corporations will use any excuse to cheat their employees out of more money. As soon as they see data suggesting that employees would do a job for less money provided they could do it from the comfort of their own home, they'll start nickel-and-diming. Most corporations would pay their employees in dryer lint if they could get away with it. So let's not give these companies any ideas.
Source: (Meridith Levinson, CIO.com)
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
How to get Promotion at Your Tech Job
There are plenty of opportunities for advancement in the tech world, but determining the right path and approach to landing a promotion means taking the time to figure out your goals, hone your skills, and showcase your value to the business.
"In career management for IT professionals, you need to look forward," says Steve Andriole, Professor of Management and Operations at the Villanova School of Business. "There's still a lot of work that needs to get done that's looking backwards, but if you are looking to move up, you really need to be vigilant about career management and getting on the stuff that's new."
While business functions vary across the technology field, experts say there are clear management and technology areas that offer the greatest opportunity for upward mobility. Figuring out where and how you can fit in is key to getting promoted in those fields.
Figure Out Your Goals
Do you want to get involved more deeply in business management? Are you interested in vendor management or focusing on architecture and governance? These three areas offer the strongest opportunities in growth moving forward, says Andriole, and determining early on what you want to focus on can help you tailor your approach.
For example, if business management is your interest, figure out ways to more closely align yourself with the business side of projects -- developing relationships with business managers and taking a hand at working with business metrics. If it's vendor management that you are most interested in, Andriole suggests investigating certifications you can get to legitimize yourself in the field. If its architecture and governance that you want to pursue, staying up-to-speed on emerging architectures is especially critical to show hiring managers you have a handle on the industry.
Align Yourself With Emerging Technologies
Step back to look at what technologies are most forward-thinking and figure out how you can get involved in those. "If you keep getting assignments in application support for a claims processing system that's 21 years old, you have to go to your manager and say, 'You are giving me stuff the field is running away from," says Andriole. "You need stuff that the field is running toward."
Janice Weinberg, author of the book "Debugging Your Information Technology Job Search" says with more and more companies using cloud computing internet technologies to access web-based services, professionals looking to get ahead in their career ought o spend some time learning about this field. Similarly, Andriole suggests mobility and social media as two other critical areas in which business growth will take place in the coming years. While your manager may not give you opportunities to learn about these technologies, taking the initiative to do so on your own will help you get up to speed when opportunities do arise.
Get Business Savvy
Understanding the business side of technology offers some of the best opportunities for promotion, says Weinberg. While your current position might be heavily focused in putting technology in place rather than assessing its business value, Weinberg suggests taking steps toward getting yourself more in the know about the business impact you are having. It can be something as small as helping put together project budgets and plan staffing requirements, she says, but getting more involved in how the company handles the business side of things will show you are capable of stepping into a line management role where you're responsible for staff and budgeting decisions.
Go Beyond Your Nine to Five
It's easy to fall into the routine of a daily job, but if you want to show you're ready to move up in your IT career path, going beyond what's asked of you is critical, says Kingsley Tagbo, IT Career Coach for Exacticity, Inc., a Missouri-based career coaching firm. "Take on work that no one is willing to take on," says Tagbo. "Everyone appreciates someone who steps up."
Weinberg suggests volunteering to be part of task force committees where you can use your non-technical skills more. Making yourself visible to stakeholders and senior managers is also a critical way to help increase your chances of promotion says Tagbo. During stakeholder meetings, make an effort to give presentations at meetings so that you get on the radar of top managers.
"Prepare yourself for additional duties above and beyond your role," says Tagbo. "It says, 'I can help other people get their work done.'"
Using Mentorship as a Way into Management Opportunities
Often a promotion means moving from a technically-focused role to leading others. But if leadership isn't something you've had experience with, Tagbo suggests seeking out mentorship opportunities as a start. Taking the time to help interns or entry-level employees learn the ropes is one way to show your manager you're capable of overseeing others.
Weinberg suggests you go as far as proposing an internship program if your company does not have one. For example, if you know the company needs to hire two entry level quality assurance software engineers and that the budget is tight, propose initiating a relationship with a local university and establishing an internship program in the IT department. While such an undertaking takes extra work, it also shows you as a self-starter. "[You] could have an accomplishment on [your] resume that would speak to [your] initiative and the fact that it saved the company $60,000 to $100,000 dollars," says Weinberg.
Address Pitfalls
While landing a promotion often means seeking out opportunities that might not be officially out there, if you do have chance to apply for a vacant position within your organization, Weinberg advises that you really take the time to research why the position opened and what areas of need you can contribute to if you get it. "If you know what created the job, it can help you prepare to sell yourself more effectively," she says.
If available, look into customer satisfaction surveys from previous projects to get a sense of where the last manager's weaknesses were. For example, if you know a survey of internal customers came back with negative comments about delays, think about possible solutions you can present during an interview. Weinberg suggests making a handout of solutions to show you've thought through a particular problem and can clearly outline your approach to solving it.
Weinberg cautions against waiting for a position to fall into your lap. "Someone who aspires to a managerial role should not be waiting until they hear of a promotion opportunity," says Weinberg. "They should be approaching their daily responsibilities always with an eye toward creating the impression that they are ready for management."
By identifying the management areas you're most interested in, staying up to speed on technologies that have the greatest potential moving forward, learning the business-side of the job and stepping up to go beyond what's expected of you, you send a message to managers that you're ready to take on the responsibilities that a promotion entails.
(Courtesy: Jane Porter, Fins.com)
"In career management for IT professionals, you need to look forward," says Steve Andriole, Professor of Management and Operations at the Villanova School of Business. "There's still a lot of work that needs to get done that's looking backwards, but if you are looking to move up, you really need to be vigilant about career management and getting on the stuff that's new."
While business functions vary across the technology field, experts say there are clear management and technology areas that offer the greatest opportunity for upward mobility. Figuring out where and how you can fit in is key to getting promoted in those fields.
Figure Out Your Goals
Do you want to get involved more deeply in business management? Are you interested in vendor management or focusing on architecture and governance? These three areas offer the strongest opportunities in growth moving forward, says Andriole, and determining early on what you want to focus on can help you tailor your approach.
For example, if business management is your interest, figure out ways to more closely align yourself with the business side of projects -- developing relationships with business managers and taking a hand at working with business metrics. If it's vendor management that you are most interested in, Andriole suggests investigating certifications you can get to legitimize yourself in the field. If its architecture and governance that you want to pursue, staying up-to-speed on emerging architectures is especially critical to show hiring managers you have a handle on the industry.
Align Yourself With Emerging Technologies
Step back to look at what technologies are most forward-thinking and figure out how you can get involved in those. "If you keep getting assignments in application support for a claims processing system that's 21 years old, you have to go to your manager and say, 'You are giving me stuff the field is running away from," says Andriole. "You need stuff that the field is running toward."
Janice Weinberg, author of the book "Debugging Your Information Technology Job Search" says with more and more companies using cloud computing internet technologies to access web-based services, professionals looking to get ahead in their career ought o spend some time learning about this field. Similarly, Andriole suggests mobility and social media as two other critical areas in which business growth will take place in the coming years. While your manager may not give you opportunities to learn about these technologies, taking the initiative to do so on your own will help you get up to speed when opportunities do arise.
Get Business Savvy
Understanding the business side of technology offers some of the best opportunities for promotion, says Weinberg. While your current position might be heavily focused in putting technology in place rather than assessing its business value, Weinberg suggests taking steps toward getting yourself more in the know about the business impact you are having. It can be something as small as helping put together project budgets and plan staffing requirements, she says, but getting more involved in how the company handles the business side of things will show you are capable of stepping into a line management role where you're responsible for staff and budgeting decisions.
Go Beyond Your Nine to Five
It's easy to fall into the routine of a daily job, but if you want to show you're ready to move up in your IT career path, going beyond what's asked of you is critical, says Kingsley Tagbo, IT Career Coach for Exacticity, Inc., a Missouri-based career coaching firm. "Take on work that no one is willing to take on," says Tagbo. "Everyone appreciates someone who steps up."
Weinberg suggests volunteering to be part of task force committees where you can use your non-technical skills more. Making yourself visible to stakeholders and senior managers is also a critical way to help increase your chances of promotion says Tagbo. During stakeholder meetings, make an effort to give presentations at meetings so that you get on the radar of top managers.
"Prepare yourself for additional duties above and beyond your role," says Tagbo. "It says, 'I can help other people get their work done.'"
Using Mentorship as a Way into Management Opportunities
Often a promotion means moving from a technically-focused role to leading others. But if leadership isn't something you've had experience with, Tagbo suggests seeking out mentorship opportunities as a start. Taking the time to help interns or entry-level employees learn the ropes is one way to show your manager you're capable of overseeing others.
Weinberg suggests you go as far as proposing an internship program if your company does not have one. For example, if you know the company needs to hire two entry level quality assurance software engineers and that the budget is tight, propose initiating a relationship with a local university and establishing an internship program in the IT department. While such an undertaking takes extra work, it also shows you as a self-starter. "[You] could have an accomplishment on [your] resume that would speak to [your] initiative and the fact that it saved the company $60,000 to $100,000 dollars," says Weinberg.
Address Pitfalls
While landing a promotion often means seeking out opportunities that might not be officially out there, if you do have chance to apply for a vacant position within your organization, Weinberg advises that you really take the time to research why the position opened and what areas of need you can contribute to if you get it. "If you know what created the job, it can help you prepare to sell yourself more effectively," she says.
If available, look into customer satisfaction surveys from previous projects to get a sense of where the last manager's weaknesses were. For example, if you know a survey of internal customers came back with negative comments about delays, think about possible solutions you can present during an interview. Weinberg suggests making a handout of solutions to show you've thought through a particular problem and can clearly outline your approach to solving it.
Weinberg cautions against waiting for a position to fall into your lap. "Someone who aspires to a managerial role should not be waiting until they hear of a promotion opportunity," says Weinberg. "They should be approaching their daily responsibilities always with an eye toward creating the impression that they are ready for management."
By identifying the management areas you're most interested in, staying up to speed on technologies that have the greatest potential moving forward, learning the business-side of the job and stepping up to go beyond what's expected of you, you send a message to managers that you're ready to take on the responsibilities that a promotion entails.
(Courtesy: Jane Porter, Fins.com)
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The Soft Skills You Need to Succeed in a Software Career
Every software developer knows they need to stay on top of the latest programming languages to remain relevant in the job market. What many often overlook is the importance of soft skills to their careers.
"Technical skills usually get a person hired," says Steve Coscia, author of the forthcoming book, The Trade Technicians Soft Skills Manual. "But the lack of soft skills is what usually gets them fired." Your company won't typically train you on such techniques, but your boss still will expect you to have them, says Coscia. That means you must take matters into your own hands.
Here are the soft skills software developers need to stand out in the workplace.
Be a Team Player
Being able to work effectively in a team is a valuable skill and one that takes time to develop. "If you want to get involved in anything reasonably complex, you'll need to work in a team," says Scott Ambler, chief methodologist for Agile/Lean at IBM's IBM Rational product.
Being able to resolve conflicts peacefully is one of the main skills needed to work with a team, says Coscia. One way to develop this ability is to tap into events such as local user group meetings where you can work informally with others.
Your reputation as a team player can also be developed through the small things you do in the office. Many are so small, you probably don't even think about them. Whether it's handing a project in a few days early or buying a coworker coffee, showing such consideration will go a long way toward showing that you can work effectively with others. Following up on conversations or meetings with a phone call or email is another way to send the signal that you have the best interests of your colleagues in mind, says Coscia.
Pump Up Your Presentation Skills
Brilliant as you are, if you can't get your ideas across effectively, you're at a disadvantage, says Regina Clark, a Goshen, N.Y.-based executive coach and corporate trainer who works with IT Professionals. She suggests checking out resources like your local Toastmasters chapter, where you can meet with others to practice your public speaking and presentation skills.
Modeling, or displaying ideas visually using diagrams and charts, is an asset when making presentations, says Ambler. Whether it's working on a whiteboard or paper, learning how to diagram and break down ideas visually will help you communicate with others. "Developers need to recognize that there's value in these visual ways of communicating," says Ambler.
Check out continuing education classes in modeling and pay close attention to how others higher up in the company give presentations.
Learn to Put It in Writing
It's easy to get absorbed in the nitty-gritty of technology or coding and forget that writing about your work is crucial in letting others know what you're accomplishing, says Tom DeMarco, principle of the Atlantic Systems Guild, a systems think-tank, and co-author of the book, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. Being able to synthesize information clearly and concisely is a skill that will be essential as you move up in the management ranks. "That guy who can write a one-page summary of a meeting is absolutely essential," says DeMarco.
Getting involved in online discussion forums is another great way to brush up on your writing skills, suggests Ambler. "Just by interacting with other people [even online], you can improve some of your softer skills," he says.
User-friendly Thinking
Many developers are good at building interfaces for other techies, when it comes to creating a user interface for non-geeks, they don't know what their audience is looking for, says Ambler. While interface design might seem like a technical skill, it's really about paying closer attention to what end users need and how they process information so that you can better meet their needs. "If you can't interact with your stakeholders effectively, you won't be able to produce the results that they want," he says.
Brushing up on interface design, whether through coursework or studying effective examples is one way of setting yourself apart from other programmers. Knowing how to demo your work is another way to show your boss and others that you're able to take complex ideas and present them simply and clearly - an important skill for every manager to have. It's not just modeling up on a white board that's important. Practice sitting at a computer with a non-tech-savvy person and walk them through a demo of your work. You'll find it's not as simple as it seems.
Thinking long-term about your programming career means brushing up not just on your technical skills but on soft skills that make managers successful. Be mindful of how you work in teams, practice your presentation skills, look for ways to work on your writing, and learn how to demo your work effectively and you'll be priming yourself for long-term success.
(Courtesy: Jane Porter, FINS)
"Technical skills usually get a person hired," says Steve Coscia, author of the forthcoming book, The Trade Technicians Soft Skills Manual. "But the lack of soft skills is what usually gets them fired." Your company won't typically train you on such techniques, but your boss still will expect you to have them, says Coscia. That means you must take matters into your own hands.
Here are the soft skills software developers need to stand out in the workplace.
Be a Team Player
Being able to work effectively in a team is a valuable skill and one that takes time to develop. "If you want to get involved in anything reasonably complex, you'll need to work in a team," says Scott Ambler, chief methodologist for Agile/Lean at IBM's IBM Rational product.
Being able to resolve conflicts peacefully is one of the main skills needed to work with a team, says Coscia. One way to develop this ability is to tap into events such as local user group meetings where you can work informally with others.
Your reputation as a team player can also be developed through the small things you do in the office. Many are so small, you probably don't even think about them. Whether it's handing a project in a few days early or buying a coworker coffee, showing such consideration will go a long way toward showing that you can work effectively with others. Following up on conversations or meetings with a phone call or email is another way to send the signal that you have the best interests of your colleagues in mind, says Coscia.
Pump Up Your Presentation Skills
Brilliant as you are, if you can't get your ideas across effectively, you're at a disadvantage, says Regina Clark, a Goshen, N.Y.-based executive coach and corporate trainer who works with IT Professionals. She suggests checking out resources like your local Toastmasters chapter, where you can meet with others to practice your public speaking and presentation skills.
Modeling, or displaying ideas visually using diagrams and charts, is an asset when making presentations, says Ambler. Whether it's working on a whiteboard or paper, learning how to diagram and break down ideas visually will help you communicate with others. "Developers need to recognize that there's value in these visual ways of communicating," says Ambler.
Check out continuing education classes in modeling and pay close attention to how others higher up in the company give presentations.
Learn to Put It in Writing
It's easy to get absorbed in the nitty-gritty of technology or coding and forget that writing about your work is crucial in letting others know what you're accomplishing, says Tom DeMarco, principle of the Atlantic Systems Guild, a systems think-tank, and co-author of the book, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams. Being able to synthesize information clearly and concisely is a skill that will be essential as you move up in the management ranks. "That guy who can write a one-page summary of a meeting is absolutely essential," says DeMarco.
Getting involved in online discussion forums is another great way to brush up on your writing skills, suggests Ambler. "Just by interacting with other people [even online], you can improve some of your softer skills," he says.
User-friendly Thinking
Many developers are good at building interfaces for other techies, when it comes to creating a user interface for non-geeks, they don't know what their audience is looking for, says Ambler. While interface design might seem like a technical skill, it's really about paying closer attention to what end users need and how they process information so that you can better meet their needs. "If you can't interact with your stakeholders effectively, you won't be able to produce the results that they want," he says.
Brushing up on interface design, whether through coursework or studying effective examples is one way of setting yourself apart from other programmers. Knowing how to demo your work is another way to show your boss and others that you're able to take complex ideas and present them simply and clearly - an important skill for every manager to have. It's not just modeling up on a white board that's important. Practice sitting at a computer with a non-tech-savvy person and walk them through a demo of your work. You'll find it's not as simple as it seems.
Thinking long-term about your programming career means brushing up not just on your technical skills but on soft skills that make managers successful. Be mindful of how you work in teams, practice your presentation skills, look for ways to work on your writing, and learn how to demo your work effectively and you'll be priming yourself for long-term success.
(Courtesy: Jane Porter, FINS)
Thursday, February 24, 2011
5 Steps to Giving Quality Interviews
5 Steps to Giving Quality Interviews
Source: Careerbuilder.com
Interviewing should be taken seriously and anyone giving an interview must be prepared. Learn ways to run a more effective interview, asking great questions that can keep candidates on their toes, and allow you to learn more about your prospects.
Your business depends on your ability to make a good hire. But making a good hire is not exactly an easy task. After sorting through resumes and selecting the few choice candidates considered worth your time is only half the battle. Often the hardest part of the hiring process is conducting a job interview that differentiates between who the candidate wants you to see and who is really sitting across from you.
Below are five keys to helping you conduct a better job interview and questions you can ask candidates to keep them on their toes:
Do your homework
Going into the interview, you should have already studied the candidate you are about to meet face-to-face.
You expect the candidate to walk in to your office with some knowledge of who your company is and what it is you do, right? It's in your best interest to prepare for the interview as well. Going into the interview, you should have already studied the candidate you are about to meet face-to-face. The least you could do is to become familiar with his or her resume, cover letter, and any other materials that were submitted to you for consideration of the job.
Before the interview is also the appropriate time to Google your candidate to see if anything interesting pops up. You should also find out if they have a MySpace or FaceBook page, and if so, what type of content appears on those pages. You might find something that does not mix with your culture or morals. Or, you might be pleasantly surprised as a candidate relives the days spent saving the whales, if you're into to that sort of stuff, too.
The benefit of doing your homework beforehand is that you don't waste too much of your interview time going through these materials together. You come in to the interview with questions or comments on their experience, background, work, and can spend the entire interview getting to know more about the real candidate, and not who they are on paper.
Some interesting icebreakers to kick off the interview are:
"How about those (insert local sports team here)?"
"What do you think about this weather, huh?"
"Did you have any problem finding the place?"
Don't Rush to Judgment
So often we base our opinion on someone by their appearance or the impression we get of that candidate within the first few minutes of meeting them. The problem with this is that it clouds our heads, and if your first impression is not a favorable one, it is an uphill climb for the candidate without them even knowing it.
When a candidate enters your office for a job interview do whatever it takes to not form an immediate opinion of them. If it helps, say to yourself that you believe this candidate to be a certain a way, and then flush this out of your head any way you know how.
Stop doing this! When a candidate enters your office for a job interview do whatever it takes to not form an immediate opinion of them. If it helps, say to yourself that you believe this candidate to be a certain a way, and then flush this out of your head any way you know how. Give the candidate a clean slate and let their talents and qualifications (or lack thereof) form your opinion. You don't want to blow off a potential top talent because his or her appearance reminds you of a neighbor you didn't like growing up.
A few good secondary questions to ask now are:
"Tell me about your last job."
"Tell me about a time when you did something that was a huge success."
"Why did you become a (insert title of position here) in the first place?"
Study Behavior
Asking behavioral questions requires candidates to draw upon their background and experiences to describe how they used skills that are relevant to your position. Their resume may be filled with "I'm a team player", "Organized", "Multi-Tasking", and "Born Leader", but anyone can include this on their resume. Asking questions that force candidates to speak about these traits enables you to discover whether or not they do in fact possess them. Be sure to ask plenty of these questions right in the middle of the interview and score your candidates on how quickly they respond and the amount of tap dancing they do. But be careful – if it sounds too rehearsed then chances are it is.
Behavioral questions to ask:
"Tell me about a time when you took charge of a situation and made something positive happen."
"Describe a situation when you were given a tight deadline to perform, and tell me how you managed to get it all done."
"Talk about when you had to deal with a co-worker that was hard to get along with. How did you get along with them?"
Change Things Up
You're past the halfway point of conducting a better job interview, so now is the time to get a little bit crazy. Ask the candidate a question that has no right or wrong answer.
You're past the halfway point of conducting a better job interview, so now is the time to get a little bit crazy. Ask the candidate a question that has no right or wrong answer. It could be why the sky is blue or why grass is green? It could even be why do worms not have eyes? Whatever your question, judge your candidate on how well they answer and if they are thrown for a curve or not. If they stay on the ball and answer as if it was expected then you have a pretty sharp candidate sitting across from you. Even if they laugh a bit at first but manage to form a pretty good answer, you know you have someone who can improvise and react to situations. If they stumble about and seem completely flustered, you have to wonder about the candidate's ability to respond to pressure seeing as the candidate has a hard time speaking off the cuff. Remember, these questions are not meant to derive a correct answer. The purpose is only to gauge the candidate's reaction to a tricky situation.
Great abstract questions to ask:
"If nothing ever sticks to a Teflon pan, then how do they make Teflon stick to the pan?"
"Can a fish drown?"
"Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?"
Maintain a Consistent Evaluation Process
Just because you've concluded your face-to-face job interview, doesn't mean the process is over. Go back and examine the answers to your questions and score these answers against a guide that makes it easy for you to judge. This guide needs to be somewhat flexible as there is not an exact answer for qualitative data, but you can form a set of guidelines for what the ideal answer would be. Having a set guide makes it easier for you to fairly judge each candidate's response and select a candidate that fits your company's needs. You should be well on your way to making a better hire after following these five steps for conducting a better interview.
Source: Careerbuilder.com
Interviewing should be taken seriously and anyone giving an interview must be prepared. Learn ways to run a more effective interview, asking great questions that can keep candidates on their toes, and allow you to learn more about your prospects.
Your business depends on your ability to make a good hire. But making a good hire is not exactly an easy task. After sorting through resumes and selecting the few choice candidates considered worth your time is only half the battle. Often the hardest part of the hiring process is conducting a job interview that differentiates between who the candidate wants you to see and who is really sitting across from you.
Below are five keys to helping you conduct a better job interview and questions you can ask candidates to keep them on their toes:
Do your homework
Going into the interview, you should have already studied the candidate you are about to meet face-to-face.
You expect the candidate to walk in to your office with some knowledge of who your company is and what it is you do, right? It's in your best interest to prepare for the interview as well. Going into the interview, you should have already studied the candidate you are about to meet face-to-face. The least you could do is to become familiar with his or her resume, cover letter, and any other materials that were submitted to you for consideration of the job.
Before the interview is also the appropriate time to Google your candidate to see if anything interesting pops up. You should also find out if they have a MySpace or FaceBook page, and if so, what type of content appears on those pages. You might find something that does not mix with your culture or morals. Or, you might be pleasantly surprised as a candidate relives the days spent saving the whales, if you're into to that sort of stuff, too.
The benefit of doing your homework beforehand is that you don't waste too much of your interview time going through these materials together. You come in to the interview with questions or comments on their experience, background, work, and can spend the entire interview getting to know more about the real candidate, and not who they are on paper.
Some interesting icebreakers to kick off the interview are:
"How about those (insert local sports team here)?"
"What do you think about this weather, huh?"
"Did you have any problem finding the place?"
Don't Rush to Judgment
So often we base our opinion on someone by their appearance or the impression we get of that candidate within the first few minutes of meeting them. The problem with this is that it clouds our heads, and if your first impression is not a favorable one, it is an uphill climb for the candidate without them even knowing it.
When a candidate enters your office for a job interview do whatever it takes to not form an immediate opinion of them. If it helps, say to yourself that you believe this candidate to be a certain a way, and then flush this out of your head any way you know how.
Stop doing this! When a candidate enters your office for a job interview do whatever it takes to not form an immediate opinion of them. If it helps, say to yourself that you believe this candidate to be a certain a way, and then flush this out of your head any way you know how. Give the candidate a clean slate and let their talents and qualifications (or lack thereof) form your opinion. You don't want to blow off a potential top talent because his or her appearance reminds you of a neighbor you didn't like growing up.
A few good secondary questions to ask now are:
"Tell me about your last job."
"Tell me about a time when you did something that was a huge success."
"Why did you become a (insert title of position here) in the first place?"
Study Behavior
Asking behavioral questions requires candidates to draw upon their background and experiences to describe how they used skills that are relevant to your position. Their resume may be filled with "I'm a team player", "Organized", "Multi-Tasking", and "Born Leader", but anyone can include this on their resume. Asking questions that force candidates to speak about these traits enables you to discover whether or not they do in fact possess them. Be sure to ask plenty of these questions right in the middle of the interview and score your candidates on how quickly they respond and the amount of tap dancing they do. But be careful – if it sounds too rehearsed then chances are it is.
Behavioral questions to ask:
"Tell me about a time when you took charge of a situation and made something positive happen."
"Describe a situation when you were given a tight deadline to perform, and tell me how you managed to get it all done."
"Talk about when you had to deal with a co-worker that was hard to get along with. How did you get along with them?"
Change Things Up
You're past the halfway point of conducting a better job interview, so now is the time to get a little bit crazy. Ask the candidate a question that has no right or wrong answer.
You're past the halfway point of conducting a better job interview, so now is the time to get a little bit crazy. Ask the candidate a question that has no right or wrong answer. It could be why the sky is blue or why grass is green? It could even be why do worms not have eyes? Whatever your question, judge your candidate on how well they answer and if they are thrown for a curve or not. If they stay on the ball and answer as if it was expected then you have a pretty sharp candidate sitting across from you. Even if they laugh a bit at first but manage to form a pretty good answer, you know you have someone who can improvise and react to situations. If they stumble about and seem completely flustered, you have to wonder about the candidate's ability to respond to pressure seeing as the candidate has a hard time speaking off the cuff. Remember, these questions are not meant to derive a correct answer. The purpose is only to gauge the candidate's reaction to a tricky situation.
Great abstract questions to ask:
"If nothing ever sticks to a Teflon pan, then how do they make Teflon stick to the pan?"
"Can a fish drown?"
"Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?"
Maintain a Consistent Evaluation Process
Just because you've concluded your face-to-face job interview, doesn't mean the process is over. Go back and examine the answers to your questions and score these answers against a guide that makes it easy for you to judge. This guide needs to be somewhat flexible as there is not an exact answer for qualitative data, but you can form a set of guidelines for what the ideal answer would be. Having a set guide makes it easier for you to fairly judge each candidate's response and select a candidate that fits your company's needs. You should be well on your way to making a better hire after following these five steps for conducting a better interview.
Monday, January 17, 2011
IT employment Grows By Almost 100,000 Jobs in 2010
Source: TechServe Alliance
Alexandria, VA, January 14, 2011 – IT employment continued its pattern of month-over-month growth by adding 3500 jobs in December—representing the 13th consecutive monthly increase. According to a monthly index of IT jobs developed and published by TechServe Alliance, a collaboration of IT services firms, clients, consultants and suppliers, in December, IT employment stood at 3,911,900 jobs; reflecting incremental growth of 0.1 percent. Along with December’s positive news were upward revisions of both October’s and November’s IT employment numbers. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment was up 2.6 percent, approximately 100,000 jobs, compared to only a 0.9 percent increase in total non-farm employment.
Read the complete article here http://www.techservealliance.org/research/documents/IndexreleaseDecember2010.pdf
Alexandria, VA, January 14, 2011 – IT employment continued its pattern of month-over-month growth by adding 3500 jobs in December—representing the 13th consecutive monthly increase. According to a monthly index of IT jobs developed and published by TechServe Alliance, a collaboration of IT services firms, clients, consultants and suppliers, in December, IT employment stood at 3,911,900 jobs; reflecting incremental growth of 0.1 percent. Along with December’s positive news were upward revisions of both October’s and November’s IT employment numbers. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment was up 2.6 percent, approximately 100,000 jobs, compared to only a 0.9 percent increase in total non-farm employment.
Read the complete article here http://www.techservealliance.org/research/documents/IndexreleaseDecember2010.pdf
Thursday, January 6, 2011
2011 Job Forecast - Careerbuilder.com
A new year brings with it new hope for change and the promise of a fresh start... and if CareerBuilder's 2011 Job Forecast is any indication, there will plenty of both in the coming months.
"2011 will usher in a healthier employment picture as business leaders grow more confident... The year will be characterized by steady, moderate gains across various industries."
- Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder
More employers plan to grow full- and part-time staff.
Employers will increase their reliance on contract/temporary help.
Fewer employers plan to downsize than last year and the year before.
Employers' compensation offers will become more competitive.
Sales is the most popular functional area employers said they will be recruiting for in 2011 as they focus on expanding their customer base and market penetration. Twenty-seven (27%) percent plan to add sales positions in the New Year, with Information Technology (IT) a close second at 26%. The top ten functional areas for recruitment include:
1. Sales – 27 percent
2. Information Technology – 26 percent
3. Customer Service – 25 percent
4. Engineering – 21 percent
5. Technology – 19 percent
6. Administrative – 17 percent
7. Business Development – 17 percent
8. Marketing – 17 percent
9. Research/Development – 15 percent
10. Accounting/Finance – 14 percent
COMPENSATION
Forty-one (41%) percent of employers are concerned that their best talent will leave their organizations once the economy improves, as heftier workloads and longer hours take their toll on worker morale. Sixty-one (61%) percent said they will increase compensation for their existing staff in 2011, up from 57 percent in 2010. While most employers estimate the average raise will be 3 percent or less, one-in-ten (10 percent) expect the average increase will be 5 percent or more.
Thirty-one percent will provide higher initial job offers to job candidates, up from 29 percent last year. While most increases will likely fall within the same 1 to 3 percent range, 8 percent of employers expect to up initial job offers by 5 percent or more.
"2011 will usher in a healthier employment picture as business leaders grow more confident... The year will be characterized by steady, moderate gains across various industries."
- Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder
CareerBuilder recently surveyed over 2,500 hiring managers and over 5,000 workers for its annual forecast. Among the major findings for what's in store for 2011:
More employers plan to grow full- and part-time staff.
Employers will increase their reliance on contract/temporary help.
Fewer employers plan to downsize than last year and the year before.
Employers' compensation offers will become more competitive.
Sales is the most popular functional area employers said they will be recruiting for in 2011 as they focus on expanding their customer base and market penetration. Twenty-seven (27%) percent plan to add sales positions in the New Year, with Information Technology (IT) a close second at 26%. The top ten functional areas for recruitment include:
1. Sales – 27 percent
2. Information Technology – 26 percent
3. Customer Service – 25 percent
4. Engineering – 21 percent
5. Technology – 19 percent
6. Administrative – 17 percent
7. Business Development – 17 percent
8. Marketing – 17 percent
9. Research/Development – 15 percent
10. Accounting/Finance – 14 percent
COMPENSATION
Forty-one (41%) percent of employers are concerned that their best talent will leave their organizations once the economy improves, as heftier workloads and longer hours take their toll on worker morale. Sixty-one (61%) percent said they will increase compensation for their existing staff in 2011, up from 57 percent in 2010. While most employers estimate the average raise will be 3 percent or less, one-in-ten (10 percent) expect the average increase will be 5 percent or more.
Thirty-one percent will provide higher initial job offers to job candidates, up from 29 percent last year. While most increases will likely fall within the same 1 to 3 percent range, 8 percent of employers expect to up initial job offers by 5 percent or more.
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