ITJobCafe Tech Blog (www.itjobcafe.com)

IT Employment Passes 4 million, Regains Recession Losses

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:32:00 +0000

(Courtesy: By Patrick Thibodeau, CW & TechServe)

Good news is that IT employment has surpassed the magic mark of four million for the first time since November 2008 when two months after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and Hewlett-Packard announced plans to lay off some 25,000 workers, IT employment had reached four million for the first time.

From that point on, the economy worsened rapidly and companies quickly shed jobs. By mid-2009, nearly 200,000 IT jobs disappeared.

The recession was particularly hard on older IT workers. For women in IT, age 55 and above, the unemployment rate hit 9.4% last year.

TechServe Alliance, a collaboration of IT services firms, clients, consultants and suppliers, that analyzes U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, said Monday that IT employment has finally returned, surpassing the November 2008, 4 million high point for the first time.

The new record came in February, but wasn't known until this month following a subsequent and routine revision of BLS data according to TechServe.

Strong Demand for IT Professionals "I am heartened by the continued strength of IT employment topping 4 million jobs for the first time since November 2008,” stated Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. "While a somewhat arbitrary threshold, it is an important psychological milestone putting us well along the path toward surpassing the previous all-time record for IT employment in the near future,” observed Roberts.

Roberts said TechServe Alliance has seen strong demand from IT staffing firms, typically a bellwether for broader IT hiring.

"I would characterize demand for IT professionals as very strong," said Roberts. "Given the severity of the recession, many projects were shelved, hiring was severely constrained, layoffs were commonplace."

IT employment, now at 4,009,900 jobs up almost 136,000 jobs from April 2010, has increased for sixteen straight months, he added.

Some Uncertainties Linger Nonetheless, there are some signs of trouble ahead.

Cisco is widely expected to be on the verge of a major layoff, and a recently leaked memo by Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker warned of "another tough quarter," according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

HP is being hurt, in particular, by slumping PC sales. Though HP today reported a net profit of $2.3 billion on revenue of $31.6 billion for the second quarter ended April 30, up from a net profit of $2.2 billion and revenue of $30.8 billion a year earlier, it said that its personal systems group, which includes commercial and consumer products, was down by 5%.

The company did note that revenue generated by the sale of servers, storage and networking grew by 15% in the second quarter while software grew by 17%. Services revenue, however, only increased by 2%, it said.

Roberts believes the issues faced by Cisco and HP are unique and don't reflect a broader trend.

"The data and anecdotal reports all point to strong growth going forward," said Roberts.

Key Sectors IT jobs are found in virtually every sector and industry in varying degrees.

The following table presents information about the total number of jobs in certain sectors that provide a significant amount of employment for IT professionals as well as to the number of all jobs.

Comparisons of TechServe Alliance's IT Employment Index to employment in some key sectors with significant numbers of IT jobs as well as to all private-sector jobs.

February 2011	TechServe Alliance IT Employment Index	Computer Systems & Design Services	Data Processing, hosting & Related Services	Telecomm	Total Non-farm Jobs
number of jobs	4,009,900	1,493,200	239,300	871,900	131,028,000
change from previous month	+0.12%	+ 0.52%	- 0.04%	- 0.34%	+ 0.19%
change from same month, one year earlier	+ 3.50%	+ 4.24%	- 1.36%	- 4.36%	+ 1.01%

note: all figures are subject to revision
Sources: Department of Labor/U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and TechServe Alliance

Should You Lower Your Salary Expectations?

(Courtesy: Kaitlin Madden, Careerbuilder)

Everyone is pinching pennies these days, including employers. Hiring freezes, lower salary offers to new hires and smaller raises for existing employees have become commonplace. The unfortunate effect is that many workers will have to accept or at least consider accepting lower salaries. Still, taking a pay cut is a big deal. So how do you decide whether lowering you salary expectations will help your job search or hinder you in achieving what you're really worth?

Unfortunately, the answer isn't clear-cut, says Cheryl Palmer, a career coach and owner of Call To Career. "Many job seekers do not know what the market will bear, and as a result their expectations are out of sync. Some people arbitrarily decide that they will not take anything less than the salary that they made before being laid off. Others read or watch the news reports of the bad job market and decide that anything is better than nothing. Both of these approaches can lead to poor decision making because they are based on incomplete information."

Research Your Industry and Salaries

In order to make an informed decision on whether your salary expectations are reasonable, you must first research your industry and the salaries of others in comparable positions. "It is imperative that job seekers research salary information so that they know what is reasonable to expect for someone with their level of experience in the geographic location where they are looking for work," Palmer says. By finding out what the going rate is for skills like yours, you can be sure your asking price is in line with that of your peers.

Your salary research will shed light on your job search in one of two ways. If you find that you are earning wages in line with others in your field, there is no need to make an adjustment. Asking for a salary below the industry average will not necessarily give you a competitive edge, and may in fact be a hindrance to getting hired; if your salary timeline shows a history of making more money than you are asking an employer for, the company may be afraid you will bolt as soon as a better offer comes along. As long as you're asking for a reasonable salary that is in line with the going rate for your position, there is no need to lowball yourself.

Are Your Salary Expections Too High?

On the other hand, you may find out you are shooting too high: "If the median salary range in your region of the country and position is $75,000 to $85,000 and you have expectations of six-figure earnings, you will be disappointed," says J.T. Kirk, author of "Confessions of a Hiring Manager." If you find that you are making more than 20 percent above the industry average, you may want to re-evaluate your asking price.

Some Factors to Help You Decide

If you do find yourself in the latter category, consider the following factors before deciding to lower your salary requirement and by how much.

1. Urgency: "If there's less pressure to find something immediately, then job seekers may be able to stick closer to their ideal salary expectation – it just may take longer to find something," says Greg Masiewich of IQ Partners, a Canadian recruiting firm. "If someone needs a job immediately, then often lowering salary expectations will help them do that."

2. Competition: "An industry where there is a ton of competition and candidates are plentiful may result in people needing to lower salary expectations," Masiewich says. "If they're in a specialized industry where their skills are still in high demand, then they may not have to, it comes back to supply and demand."

3. Benefits: Consider what extras; such as an excellent 401(k) plan, flexible scheduling or a family-friendly corporate culture are worth to you. Benefits can make up for a smaller salary.

4. Negotiation: "If someone does have to accept a lower level position or take a pay cut, I think they should try and negotiate an offer that contains some sort of pay for performance provision," advises Linda Duffy, president of Leadership Habitude, a career strategy consultancy based in Irvine, Calif. "If they can show the prospective employer their added value and help the employer achieve some specific goals, then they would receive a bonus or bump in base pay on a date certain. Not all companies are willing to make that deal, but it doesn't hurt to ask."

Additionally, if you have special skills, an advanced degree or experience at a name-brand company, you may be able to negotiate a higher salary than those who don't.

5. Your bottom line: Although you may be willing to take a pay cut in order to get a new job, it's important to figure out your bottom line; what you need to make in order to pay your bills and live comfortably before accepting a lower salary. If you accept too little money, you may find yourself unable to make ends meet or resenting your low pay, and you'll wind up looking for a new job all over again.

Ultimately, taking a pay cut is tough, and the decision to do so depends heavily on your personal situation. Doing your research, figuring out your bottom line and keeping an open mind will help you best determine your optimal salary.

Do You Know if Your Job Skills are Current

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:22:00 +0000

(Courtesy: Scott Herrick, Dice.com)

If you’ve ever been in one of those “career planning” meetings — especially in a group — you’ve seen the presentation. You know the one. The one that says your industry considers your job skills important, but when you transform the job, the skills move to a different level (where you need to get). There’s usually the boring PowerPoint, a few cute graphs that show you how to get from baseline skills to this magical place where you land sometime in the future. Out there somewhere sometime maybe possibly yeah.

Yawn. Really nice meeting — a good break from the relentless drumbeat of tasks and escalations. Five minutes after walking out, everything that was said is gone from your awareness.

Gone, of course, except for those who are serious about their employability and understand that job skills always, always evolve. What those people just saw was a roadmap to staying employable at the leading edges of the job market. What they now do is review their job skills, figure out gaps, and build a plan to fill them.

A year or two later, those people get the cool new jobs and everyone wonders how it happened. I can tell you: They took specific actions to move their job skills from where they were to where they needed to go.

Qualifications Count

Your job skills are the fundamental requirement for getting an initial interview. If the person reviewing your resume doesn’t put a little check mark next to the job skills needed enough times, you get thrown out. Leading companies want people with leading job skills.

For example, showing experience as a project manager isn’t enough. Some years later, you not only need experience managing projects, but also to have worked in an environment that has methodology as part of the PM approach. Some years later, you not only need all that, but also you need to show your dedication by having a PMP certification. And some years after that, you need to show how all of this helps drive business results.

And those that don’t evolve their job skills? Yup, those are the resumes hitting the trash bin. They’re usually from the same people who loudly proclaim their experience while never showing results from their evolved skills.

Your Resume Shows Your Evolution

If you want to see how your resume stacks up, go pull some job descriptions for open positions on your favorite job board or ITJobcafe.com, the ones you think you qualify for, or which look really interesting no matter the location or where you are in your job search. Print that job description. Print your resume. Now compare your resume’s job skills with the ones in the job description. How many check marks did you get?

If you didn’t get enough, is the issue that you don’t have the job skills on your resume — or that you don’t have the skills needed for the work? One is easy to fix — update your resume. The other isn’t as easy. It requires a plan, and then its execution, to get the skills you now need.

Of course, one can argue that companies want Superman and Superwoman to do the job of a Data Janitor. But if you compare enough job descriptions to your resume, you’ll be able to see what you have versus what you’re missing.

So the choice is yours: Will you execute a plan to improve your job skills now, or will you ignore the need and later proclaim all your experience even while your resume gets thrown in the trash?

The stakes for staying in the career game keep going up. Are you keeping up?

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Why You Shouldn't Take a Pay Cut to Telecommute

(Meridith Levinson, CIO.com)

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 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.

IT Industry Redefines Titles, Roles but not Salaries

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:13:00 +0000

(Courtesy: David Foote, Computerworld)

Two decades ago, a change started occurring in IT organizations. The business units began attracting workers with tech smarts, business savvy, "soft" skills and a grasp of what customers wanted and how to deliver it to them.

The initial trickle of support personnel and business application developers became a torrent accelerated by demand for ERP, CRM, e-commerce, data warehousing and a hundred other technologies. Suddenly every enterprise function, product and service team, and project group wanted these multiskilled IT-business specialists. The definition of "IT professional" changed forever.

The unenviable task of defining the roles of these IT migrants and then figuring out how to compensate them fell to frazzled HR departments. Were they IT workers, or were they sales engineers, marketing consultants, logistics engineers or operations specialists? Or were they both? With salary surveys, which are organized by job title, you can't comfortably have it both ways.

The problem was complicated by the relentless adoption rate of new technologies, globalization and senior management's demands for fast and flawless execution. Compensation specialists were in over their heads as the war for IT talent, until then outwardly facing, turned inward.

So, how are things today? Better, but not great. It is shocking that so many HR departments still struggle with chaos in the axis of IT job titles and salary surveys, and the countless new combinations of technical skills and subject matter expertise. Many can barely handle the demands for talent that arise as new ideas gain traction.

It is astounding that WorldatWork, the world's largest professional organization educating and certifying compensation professionals, hasn't yet grasped the differences in pay practices that separate the two groups of IT workers in the U.S.: the 4 million who work in more traditional IT jobs, and the 16 million IT-business hybrids who don't. Specialized compensation training unique to this fast-growing hybrid segment is scarce.

But are job titles really the most important thing to consider when we think about IT compensation? May not be so. Titles can't be ignored, but specialized skills are what's really in demand in today's IT talent marketplace of contractors, consultants, managed services, cloud computing, outsourcing and offshoring. And without pay premiums awarded for specialized skills, it's nearly impossible to accurately calculate the true market value of many of today's IT professionals. Moreover, without paying skills premiums, the ability to use compensation to attract and retain talent is undermined.

Skills pay premiums allow employers to differentiate pay for people who have identical job titles but considerably different job descriptions and responsibilities -- a widespread problem not likely to disappear soon. Likewise, avoiding the addition of a zillion new job titles makes HR administration simpler and cheaper. And skills premiums can be applied to consulting rates or full-time pay, adjustable up or down at any time according to market forces and internal skill demands. Fortunately, there are reliable, frequently updated surveys on skills and certification compensation available.

Keep this in mind when you hire your next expert in social media, mobile computing, data analytics, collaboration technology, SAP -- or any of a few hundred other hot specialties.

____________________________________________________________________

2011 IT Salary Trends by Region

How much do you earn versus your peers in your region and in other parts of the country. The survey shows interesting results:

Titles	Pacific States	Mountain States	North Central	South Central	South Atlantic	Middle Atlantic	New England
CIO/VP IT	$160,655.00	$161,842.00	$165,351.00	$159,554.00	$205,437.00	$214,469.00	$236,750.00
IT Director	$139,930.00	$110,907.00	$110,348.00	$110,082.00	$115,191.00	$137,791.00	$119,764.00
Systems Analyst	$88,244.00	$87,531.00	$71,480.00	$59,942.00	$84,423.00	n/a	$87,125.00
Sysadmin	$76,818.00	$75,134.00	$68,678.00	$67,970.00	$73,699.00	$68,148.00	$79,362.00
IT Manager	$106,469.00	$182,710.00	n/a	$89,345.00	$95,279.00	$99,964.00	$100,979.00
Network Admin	n/a	n/a	$57,848.00	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Software Engineer	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$105,385.00	n/a

(Courtesy: CIO.com)

How to Retool Your IT Skills for the Cloud

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:08:00 +0000

(Courtesy: Meridith Levinson, CIO)

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.

10 things that define a true professional

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:59:00 +0000

10 things that define a true professional

Date: July 27th, 2010
Author: Alan Norton

You may be a brilliant developer, a highly skilled net admin, or a crackerjack DBA -- but if you're unprofessional, your career is likely to fall short. Alan Norton offers some attributes to strive for.
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How IT consultants think

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:58:00 +0000

How IT consultants think

Date: July 23rd, 2010
Author: Rick Freedman

Prejudices, biases, or faulty thought patterns can potentially distort the consulting relationship and lead to prescribing solutions that are inappropriate for the client. Rick Freedman explores these issues.
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IT consultants' best defense for clients who cannot pay

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:56:00 +0000

IT consultants' best defense for clients who cannot pay

Date: July 23rd, 2010
Author: Brad Egeland
Brad Egeland says there's one measure that IT consultants can take to protect their assets in the event that a client cannot pay for services rendered. Read his recommended strategy.
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What BP can teach us about IT

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:55:00 +0000

What BP can teach us about IT

Date: July 21st, 2010
Author: Patrick Gray

While many have a barely tenuous connection to the BP disaster, the parallels to an IT "disaster" and the relevance of the associated lessons are striking.
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Improve project collaboration with LiquidPlanner

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:53:00 +0000

Improve project collaboration with LiquidPlanner

Date: July 28th, 2010
Author: Andrew Makar

LiquidPlanner's collaboration features and its approach to scheduling make it a standout tool for project execution and delivery. A project manager discusses his favorite features of LiquidPlanner.
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Pros and cons of mini blades vs. full blades

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:13:00 +0000

Pros and cons of mini blades vs. full blades

Date: July 27th, 2010
Author: Rick Vanover

There are a number of advantages to selecting blades for the server platform in the data center. Yet, there are many obstacles to fully realizing the benefits of this form factor. IT pro Rick Vanover explains the mini blade alternative.
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TechRepublic's geek reading list

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:47:00 +0000

TechRepublic's geek reading list

Date: July 23rd, 2010
Author: Mary Weilage

Here's the list of 75 titles featured in the TechRepublic gallery of must-read geek books. Add your recommendations to the list, and let us know if you're buying more e-books than hardbacks.
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MacPaint source code donated to the Computer History Museum

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:46:00 +0000

MacPaint source code donated to the Computer History Museum

Date: July 22nd, 2010
Author: Justin James

Apple has donated MacPaint source code to the Computer History Museum. Justin James encourages TechRepublic members to check out the amazing code.
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Poll: How important are programming patterns?

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:41:00 +0000

Poll: How important are programming patterns?

Date: July 20th, 2010
Author: Justin James

Justin James has noticed a huge surge of interest in programming patterns. Take the poll to let us know whether you think these patterns are important.
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Web design sites with must-read tips

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:39:00 +0000

Web design sites with must-read tips

Date: July 26th, 2010
Author: Justin James

Web developers, Web designers, and Webmasters can benefit from bookmarking the 10 Web design sites featured in this TechRepublic gallery.
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Study: High demand for HTML5, PHP, mobile app projects

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:37:00 +0000

Study: High demand for HTML5, PHP, mobile app projects
Date: July 23rd, 2010

Author: Chip Camden

DoNanza recently published a study detailing trends in the work-from-home market. IT consultant Chip Camden presents some of the results from the study.

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IT burnout: Can it be avoided?

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:42:00 +0000

IT can be a breeding ground for burnout
Date: June 14th, 2010
Author: Toni Bowers

The IT field offers a lot of stress factors that can lead to career burnout. Here are some of them and what you can do to remedy the situation.
Read more...

RIM's new touchscreen BlackBerry and tablet are both risky

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:01:00 +0000

RIM's new touchscreen BlackBerry and tablet are both risky

Date: June 14th, 2010
Author: Jason Hiner

A new report says BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion is prepping two new devices to keep BlackBerry from being engulfed by the momentum of Android and iPhone.

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The flipside: Five things Microsoft is doing right in 2010

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:18:00 +0000

# Date: June 14th, 2010

# Author: Jason Hiner

We've criticized Microsoft for its Windows debacle, its failed mobile strategy, and more. However, here are five Microsoft bright spots that you might have missed.

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Microsoft offers its vision of public vs. private cloud

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:14:00 +0000

Date: June 11th, 2010

Author: Jason Hiner

All of the big tech companies have an angle on cloud computing these days. Microsoft talked up its stance at TechEd 2010. Here's a visual.

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How do I use a Windows 7 Virtual Hard Disk as a backup device?

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:34:00 +0000

Date: June 9th, 2010
Author: Greg Shultz

In this edition of the Windows Desktop Report, Greg Shultz shows you how to create and use a virtual hard disk (VHD) as a backup device.
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How many recruiters should you work with in finding a job?

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:10:00 +0000

Date: June 9th, 2010
Author: Tim Heard

To be successful in finding a job, try to resist working with several recruiters at once. Here's why.
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Is perfectionism killing your career?

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:04:00 +0000

Date: June 7th, 2010

Author: Toni Bowers

In a time when adaptability is the name of the game for success, the rigidity of perfectionism may be an unwanted trait.
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Microsoft offers its vision of public vs. private cloud

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:57:00 +0000

Microsoft offers its vision of public vs. private cloud

Date: June 11th, 2010
Author: Jason Hiner

All of the big tech companies have an angle on cloud computing these days. Microsoft talked up its stance at TechEd 2010. Here's a visual.

Read More...

SharePoint Customization Best Practices Global Knowledge

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:39:00 +0000

SharePoint Customization Best Practices Global Knowledge

Incremental Design: User Experience and Agile Processes CollabNet

noreply@blogger.com (ITJOBCAFE GROUP) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:37:00 +0000

Design: User Experience and Agile Processes This presentation will be available to audience members until May 27, 2011 at 09:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time. With traditional approaches to user interface design, it’s often difficult to map customer needs to an intuitive interface that is both easy and fun to use. But, the interactive nature of Agile development, where there is a close relationship with the customer, helps to alleviate this problem. CollabNet Product Manager Brian Zeichick leverages his expertise in user-centric design as he discusses Agile Application Lifecycle Management, from conceptual design to finished product.
Click for the presentation...