Janet Pinkerton Posts

"The closer you are to the application, the stronger the demand," says Dice.com Vice President Jennifer Bewley. That seems to be the trend for IT skill demand in 2013, as reported recently by IT staffing companies Dice, Robert Half Technology and TEKsystems. Skill sets seeing strongest demand this year include: Data Analytics/Business Analytics — "The term 'Big Data' has become so trite, but the demand for data analytics skills is off the chart," says Bewley. "Companies are willing to invest ...

A computer enthusiast and Japanese Anime buff as a teen, George Kalfas debated whether to pursue business or web graphics design in college. But a summer job working as an assistant to his high school's IT director piqued his interest in IT itself as a career.

We're not moving to the cloud just to move to the cloud. The cloud is a tool to reduce cost and make collaboration easier. Brian Glick, vice president of global information services, Vandegrift Forwarding Company Cloud is becoming a mainstream platform for IT solutions. Are you ready to take advantage of the opportunity for your company and your career? Moving processes and systems to cloud-based solutions requires IT personnel to gain not only new tech expertise, but also savvy critical t ...

Students work through through CCNA 2 curriculum involving basic router and switch configuration at the CompTIA/Cisco Networking Academy classroom/lab at Burnaby South Secondary in Burnaby, BC, Canada. The Computer Networking Technician (CNT) program at Burnaby South Secondary School, located in a Vancouver suburb, is creating student pathways to IT-related jobs and higher education, thanks to great local partnerships, an exceptional instructor and strong district support. For Burnaby South ...

Let your customer vent their frustrations first, advises Sharon Nielsen, account manager at One Prospect Technologies. "Most people, once they have vented their frustrations and felt heard, calm down on their own and become more willing to listen to your suggested resolutions, or provide feedback with suggestions of their own," she says. Your customer is screaming, or worse, quietly seething. What is the best way for you to respond? Several seasoned IT professionals recently shared their best ...

What does a senior systems engineer do every day? Let's find out!

Good project management skills are highly valued in IT and other industries. But people generally don't arrive in the workforce knowing how to initiate, plan, execute and close a project on time and on budget.

"The evidence keeps growing that career academies work," says Andrew Rothstein, special advisor on educational policy at the National Academy Foundation (NAF), a non-profit that supports a national network of 60,000 students in 469 academies, including some of Florida's IT career academies. NAF works with school districts to develop the career academies in general and often provides technical assistance to support non-NAF academies. According to the NAF: In 2011, 97% of NAF seniors graduated fr ...

Writing well is a critical skill for IT professionals who have to convey technical information to technical and non-technical people. "The better you can communicate your message in ways that other people understand, the more likely you are to succeed in whatever you are trying to do," says James Chartrand, founder of Damn Fine Words, an online writing course for business people. Do you find yourself repeatedly frustrated because people misunderstand your emails, or fail to take the right act ...

Meet Andrew DiCosmo, software engineer, Peters & Associates.