CompTIA Blog

An IT career was something Derrick Graham pursued for years, completing online-college level IT classes while enlisted in the Navy and working as an aircraft mechanic.  But it wasn’t until he completed CompTIA certifications required by Department of Defense Directive 8570 at a New Horizons Learning Center in Durham, N.C., that Graham won his first IT job. Derrick Graham “I didn’t get my first break until after obtaining Security+, which met one of the DoD Directives,&rd ...

When you call the IT department or tap the talents of developers inside your organization, chances are you’ll be dealing with a man. While women accounted for 47 percent of the total U.S. labor force in January, they comprised just 28 percent of core IT occupations, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Much of this gap can be attributed to the fact that women are underrepresented in the STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and math.  Between 2000-2001, women ear ...

Lewis Shoulders is still in his teens, yet he’s already a respected IT network technician in the United Kingdom, flying round the world, working on luxury yachts, rubbing shoulders with celebrities.By age 18, he had earned his CompTIA A+ and CompTIA Network+ certifications, using the UK training company Zenos to train for Network+ and set up job interviews before landing a job with Livewire Connections. The Surrey, England-based provider of maritime IT networks and entertainment systems uses mob ...

Lewis Shoulders is still in his teens, yet he's already a respected IT network technician in the United Kingdom, flying round the world, working on luxury yachts, rubbing shoulders with celebrities. By age 18, he had earned his CompTIA A+ and CompTIA Network+ certifications, using the UK training company Zenos to train for CompTIA Network+ and set up job interviews before landing a job with Livewire Connections. The Surrey, England-based provider of maritime IT networks and entertainment systems ...

When you call the IT department or tap the talents of developers inside your organization, chances are you’ll be dealing with a man. While women accounted for 47 percent of the total U.S. labor force in January, they comprised just 28 percent of core IT occupations, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Much of this gap can be attributed to the fact that women are underrepresented in the STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and math.  Between 2000-2001, women earned 57 ...

Small tech companies have gained a significant victory that will streamline and lessen the costs of obtaining equity capital.  Yesterday, the Senate approved the JOBS Act by a vote of 76-23, following its overwhelming passage by the House of Representatives just last week.  However, before passage, the Senate did tack on an amendment (by a vote of 64-35) that would provide more investor protections for crowdfunding while increasing the individual investment limitations: Individuals earning $40,0 ...

When was the last time a client asked you to implement a unified communications (UC) solution? Chances are, it doesn’t happen often, but that doesn’t mean convergence isn’t in demand. Often times, business owners and managers know the goals they want to accomplish, but don’t know the platform to get there. If their objectives focus on improving customer service levels, creating greater sales team efficiencies or enabling remote workers with more access, unified communications should be part of t ...

Takeaway of the week is a bright future for the right job seeker in locales as diverse as Seattle and Asia. Cloud computing, big data and - who knew? - software sales are the dominant themes in the rumbling IT job market. The upshot? Stay current, become business savvy and that bright future could be yours. Coffee, Rain and Tech Is Seattle the new Silicon Valley? While the job market continues to percolate in the titan of tech regions, several factors are leading many to point to the emerald c ...

The House Small Business Committee passed a series of small business contracting bills this morning, all by voice vote.  This legislation now will go to the full House of Representatives for action.  CompTIA supports this legislation, as well as six other contracting bills passed by the Committee on March 7, and will call on the full House to act on this legislation quickly.  Here is a brief summary: HR 3985- “Building Better Business Partnerships Act of 2012” – This bill would authorize the SBA ...

A look at the week of March 19 in public advocacy for the IT channel:  This week, the Senate is reviewing the House’s JOBS bill which aims to increase means of raising capital for businesses.  The Office of Management and Budget has released a report that federal cyberattacks have decreased in the past year.  The Huffington Post examines the current landscape of cybersecurity legislation and the possible future outcomes.Senate Debates Small-Business Bill — The Senate has taken up the House’s JOB ...

This is the second of a two-part article commemorating the latest members of the IT Hall of Fame, who will be inducted April 11th at the CompTIA Annual Member Meeting in Chicago. The first honorees were the solution providers who helped found Ingram Micro’s Venture Tech Network (VTN), represented by Jane Cage, Steve Harper and Ted Warner. Today, we celebrate the work of the late Jacob “Jack” Goldman, a scientist with the vision to start one of the world’s most innovative research facilities.     ...

The big smile on her face stopped him in a hall of the Chicago Tech Academy High School (ChiTech).  After some small talk, ChiTech Head Recruiter Walid Johnson finally learned why one of his high school students was smiling so wide. She told him, “For the first time in my life, I feel like it’s actually OK to be smart.” That was the biggest compliment Johnson ever heard a student give the school, and it came from a young woman, whose gender currently make up 49 percent of ChiTech’s student ...

The big smile on her face stopped him in a hall of the Chicago Tech Academy High School (ChiTech).  After some small talk, ChiTech Head Recruiter Walid Johnson finally learned why one of his high school students was smiling so wide. She told him, “For the first time in my life, I feel like it’s actually OK to be smart.”That was the biggest compliment Johnson ever heard a student give the school, and it came from a young woman, whose gender currently make up 49 percent of ChiTech’s student body.C ...

This week, the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations issued an alarming report, U.S. Education Reform and National Security, on the connection between our comparatively weak schools and how they put America at a national security risk. The report notes that while the United States invests more in K-12 public education than many other developed countries, its students are ill-prepared to compete with their global peers. U.S. students rank 14th in reading, 25th in math, and 17th in science compared to ...

This is the first of a two-part article commemorating the latest members of the IT Hall of Fame, who will be inducted April 11th at the CompTIA Annual Member Meeting in Chicago. The first honorees are the solution provider founders of Ingram Micro’s Venture Tech Network (VTN), represented by Jane Cage, Steve Harper and Ted Warner.  From my first encounter with the VTN (VentureTech Network) community at their invitational meeting several years ago, the importance of the peer group to its solution ...