1.
IT
Career Field News Clippings: Topics about Your Career in IT
- Assuming
that you have decided to go into IT as your chosen career field,
you have to pick what aspect of IT you want to work in. Just
looking at the range of NVCC Associate degree specializations and
certificate programs gives you a "menu" of choices. But what are
the real world conditions of any of these specialties like? You
might ask, "Do I belong in ________ (fill in the blank)?" Justin
James, who writes a softwware developer's blog for Tech Republic, gives you some very
focused points of analysis from a real-world
programmer/analyst/developer/manager's perspective on whether you are
"cut out" to be a software developer. He gives it to you in
reverse - 10
signs that you aren't cut out to be a developer. Good
questions all on "Do I have what it takes to be a software
developer?".
- Since
American employers claim that IT skills are in such short supply, a new
Senate amendment to a spending bill will mandate that those who
apply for H-1B visas to import foreign workers will pay more in
fees. Employers will now find increased fees from $1500 to $5000
for each
worker needed to perform work in the US. Most of the fees will go
to establish scholarships for students to pursue associates, bachelors,
or graduate degrees in high technology fields. Read
the details.
- The IT
Departments of many organizations have a bad reputation for
numerous
reasons - some that are their fault, some that are the fault of the
organization (and its leadership), as well as others caused by
outside factors such as impracticality, unreadiness of supporting
technology. etc. This article provides some thoughtful
analysis of the problems and some directions for improvement in the
21st
century.
- A
first followup (with many thoughtful reader insights) lists eight
key problems in the IT profession. One that particularly hit home
was the discussion of the problems of Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) - it sure did sound like the
years of living with the VCCS experiment with PeopleSoft, a definite
"square peg in a round hole." Since PeopleSoft (now owned by
Oracle) was originally designed to be a personnel-management software
platform, it was not well-fitted to become the platform for managing
all college/university academic record-keeping. After several
years, colleges all over the country who use the product changed their
business processes to fit into the PeopleSoft paradigm so that it
"works" - now do you understand why you as a student have an EmplID
(employee ID) when you are not an employee? Once again, the
necessity of all IT people understanding the nature of the
business emerges as the key to success in the IT profession.
You
should find this article timely for thinking through how you can
prepare yourself to help the IT profession grow and succeed in the
future - that is a bigger part of your education than just learning
technical skills that may be "obsolete in five years," the usual
complaint about the inadequacy of college-educated students who enter
the
marketplace.
- Is
"off-shoring" (overseas outsourcing) still a threat - Yes or No?
It seems like the realistic answer is somewhere between yes and
no. Off-shoring is still a business reality that can save money
for some businesses in some circumstances, but many companies are
finding that it is not the great panacea that they anticipated.
This article has some key take-away advice for now and future thinking:
- "... Keep
your skills up-to-date and move up the skills ladder into these
higher-end IT jobs because it cannot be denied that there are places in
the world where the other work costs a lot less"
- "...
Position [yourself] in roles that will be hard to recreate elsewhere
because they include significant business-specific knowledge"
especially be aware "jobs that are more client-facing will be far less
likely to move offshore."
- "Am
I a Bad Parent? Society
needs teens such as my math-whiz son to become IT pros and scientists.
Am I wrong to encourage him to pursue his dream of becoming a music
composer?" What would you advise this Dad to tell his son?
- Many pundits
have noted that young women have not been coming
into
computer and information systems careers in the recent years; in fact,
the number of women in Computer Science and Information Technology
programs has been declining since 2001. Yet, another Grace Murray
Hopper has emerged as a role model, a champion
for young women in (computer)
science, by becoming one of the 'Net's most powerful women.
Leslie Daigle has been named the first chief Internet technology
officer at the Internet Society.
- Just
how big is Microsoft and its "ecosystem" in the US and the world's
commerce as well as US IT employment -- 10%, $2 Trillion? Guess
again!!
- Is
there an IT worker shortage? How bad is it? Should
we allow or increase all of the special-purpose academic and
employment visas (H1Bs, etc)? Where do younger workers fit into
the field? What are the conditions for mid-career workers?
What are the requirements and issues for Baby Boomers and other older
workers? Do companies and non-IT executives really care to
address the issues? Learn what conclusions and manipulation
can be worked from creative uses of statistics. This
article and the lengthy comments that follow provide lots of
perspective for thought.
- Go
West, Young Man/Young Woman
for
the gold rush (something like
what Horace Greeley once said)!! The future in IT jobs is
continuing
to look upward, especially in Western states. In a Robert Half
Technology survey of CIOs (referenced
in Baseline Magazine)
on their intended hiring for the fourth quarter of this year, about
seven times as many said they would be hiring more than the number of
those laying off IT workers (14% vs. 2%). And the leading skills
in
demand include network administrators, especially with Windows Server
2000/2003 backgrounds. They noted a solid good reason for more
hiring
an-- corporate growth. "CIOs said they were adding I.T. workers
[to
support corporate growth], followed by a need to boost end user support
and the deployment of new enterprise software applications."
- Go
West - because the #1 High -Tech Region in the US is, of
course, Silicon Valley. But if you don't want to go West,
where is #2? You might just be surprised - read on ....
- Go East,
Young Woman - as it turns out, women working in IT today are not in
Silicon Valley, but rather they are going east to numerous Eastern
cities, some that you might not even suspect.
- But what about unemployed
students
with liberal arts degrees - is there any future in IT
for them? Guess what -- CIOs are
looking for smart, hard-working
liberal arts grads. There are some good possibilities for
programming,
software development, project/program management, systems
analysis. Sometimes liberal arts majors have a better business
sense (customer service, strategic vision, organizational dynamics, the
flow of business processes) and don't get lost in technical
details. What do you think?
- Are Certifications Important for Career
Enhancement? Pros
(Yes) & Cons
(No)
- Are the stories about low salaries and burn-out overwork really
true? This article asks the question about the last detail - "Do
Computer Pros Work Less Than Others?"
Salaries
in the Field. Trends
- As the number of IT jobs is continuing to increase (from 3,
410, 000 in 2000 to 3,470, 000 in 2006 - that's 60,000 more IT jobs last year - and still
rising - over the 2000 peak of the dot.com boom) , yet the
number of women
going into the tech world is declining. WHY?
A second look at "Where
the Girls Aren't"
- Are "women the canaries in the
coal mine." - Some
thoughts on changing faces of computer science and geekdom.
- Some
more information about "hot" certs and skills. One thing
to note especially here is the reminder that what is "hot"
constantly changes, and so you must plan to adapt in today's IT world.
- The
Dice.com Tech Salary Survey Results: it shows that the average
salaries for technology professionals increased 5.2 Percent in
2006! The reference link shows the statistics by expereince
level, geographical area (metro areas and regions, salary satisfaction,
gender, industries, job titles, employments type (company
employee vs consultant), and company size.
- The more
that IT changes, the more that IT (and all technologies, in general)
stays the same. For some profound thoughts about the
underlying principles that govern how the IT field works, this article
will knock your socks off!
- Practicing
drive and initiative now in College correlates with drive, initiative,
and success later in the "Real World" of IT - Maintaining
skills top priority for IT pros
- I
shouldn't let you peek into the crystal ball and see the
path from 2007 to 2012 in IT, but ....
- Some
thoughts on the value of Information
Security as a future field -
degrees vs certs, etc.
- Where
is the IT field going in terms of its people and your
future? Find out what
the CIOs are saying, in what ways are they bullish on the field,
what they think about retaining staff members now, especially their
valued people, what they are doing about entry level staff hiring.
- Are
Network/Telecommunications and Information Security worth considering
for a career? Read
this before you decide!
- In
this superb
article there are many nuggets of job-placement and job-advancement
wisdom. Some key take-aways:
- A
"... degree can show the applicant can stick to a task,
certifications
show a willingness to expand one's skill set." [Which is
best? Are you allowed to get both?]
- "For
IT professionals under the age of 32, degrees and certifications play a
larger role. But as experience mounts, documented work experience on
specific projects overrides the need for certification."
- "Besides
computer science and information technology degrees, many businesses
prize an MBA, believing that applicants have the ability to better
understand technology as it relates to the
company's core business."
- [Many
companies] "... view certifications as "dessert" and a degree as
the "meat and potatoes" of an applicant's résumé. "We
consider a degree higher than certifications; if a certification
matches the skill set we're looking for, then that's a bonus."
- ...
high in importance are such soft skills
as character,
communication,
time
management, change
management and whether the applicant is a team player.
- [plus]
the small
details, such as how a résumé is organized and writing
a coherent cover letter - "Many [resumes] are not very professional,
and some people seem to have forgotten those standards like how to
organize a résumé or write a cover letter; like most
people, I'm pressed for time, and those go to the bottom of the pile."
- The
world of Business & IT as
seen from the eyes of consultants who "worked in the trenches long and
hard - before
they were gurus."
- In addition to off-shoring software
and services, especially helpdesk services, to India, China, and
Russia, you might also add the Czech Republic and Ireland to the mix of
skilled workers as Cisco
has just identified.
- 2006:
the Year for Living Globally?
Globalization,
Internationalization, Off-shore Outsourcing and E-Commerce
- what do they all mean for your employment future in a global
economy? Read the article
and better yet, view the slide
show with its excellent
pictures and stories.
- Does
Age and Technology Matter in the IT Culture?
Although some analysts think
that older IT folks don't understand
technology the way the younger
generation does, is that
so? Is it age-discriminatory? An
older IT executive told searchCIO: "To say that the 'qualities' of our
grandchildren are something that must be accommodated by technology and
in the workplace is one of the more abominable crocks of excrement that
is currently being foisted on the American public." Another
was more to the point: "It's lame, really, really lame." Make
sure to read the above article and form your own opinion.
- The
Geekiest License Plates
-- Check these out!
- Ten
Thankful Things in IT for 2006 A perspective of some good
things that happened in the world of technology over this past
year. Do you recognize them all?
- U.S. Tech Czar Says We're Short-handed When
It Comes to IT People
Although the U.S. government doesn't seem to have any real long-term
strategy for making sure that we have enough IT talent on hand, it's
nice to see that at least somebody in government now recognizes that
this is becoming a major strategic issue.
- The 30
Most Important IT Trends for 2007
- Summary of 30 Most Important IT Trends shows
that "it looks like 2007 is finally going to be the year that IT gets
down to business, according to a survey of CIO Insight readers. Helping
their companies become more efficient by leveraging technology to
create new ways of doing business is now the No. 1 priority of CIOs"
--> Businesess Process Managment (BPM) is the #1 Priority
- The Hottest Skills for 2007 - You're
not surprised about security, but what about programming and business
analysis and managment (business knowledge in depth and thinking
skills); of course, help desk is always an entry card - this really
good read from Computerworld gives you some focused job insights.
- IT
Worker Shortage --> Job
Survival and Advancement ?
Jobs will be more readily available now and in the
foreseeable future as the IT business market expands and as "BabyBoom"
employees retire.
- Finding
a job in IT demands that you are aware of the problems of the
marketplace in general. The article referenced ("IT Turkeys:
Technology Issues That We Don't Give Thanks For") has a theme of
Thanksgiving - or its negative - but there are several issues raised
that are especially relevant: the resume, Indian offshoring,
outsourcing, and finally, IT and the recession. Even though the
subject matter is addressed to corporate CIOs, the ideas presented are
meaningful to all of us if we are thinking about the job market both
now and later.
[For
many of the websites (above) you can make a good clean copy
for saving/printing by clicking on their "print this" or the
equivalent.]