Janet Pinkerton Posts

St. Louis is one city that IT staffing firms see consistently adding more IT jobs. San Francisco, Silicon Valley and New York City may be the nation's largest job markets for IT, but industry staffing firms report that faster growth rates can be found in smaller, less traditional markets as well. Secondary and tertiary markets can provide high-quality, lower-cost standards of living and strong educational systems, and companies find that a very attractive environment for efficient growth. ...

"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 ...

Cyber Information Technology Instructor Chris Rondeau, left, works with a student in the cyber networking lab at Bossier Parish Community College in Bossier City, La. At the advice of its industry advisors, Bossier Parish Community College in Bossier City, La., rigorously mapped the curricula and structure of its young Cyber Information Technology (CIT) program to CompTIA and other IT certifications. The goal: Give students credentials and experience to succeed in the technology workforce a ...

George Kalfas Systems Engineer, CCC Technologies Incorporated 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. "While the IT director was on vacation, I was in charge of the computer lab," recalls Kalfas, now 23. "I was helping with computer problems, working on laptop check-out ...

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 ...

Canada's Information & Communications Technology Council (ICTC), CompTIA, Cisco Canada and other IT groups are campaigning across the nation's provinces and territories to establish the ICTC's "Focus on Information Technology" program in more Canadian high schools and school districts. The Focus on Information Technology (FIT) program is a two-year course designed for 11th and 12th graders that combines training for IT certifications, hands-on lab experience, non-paid work experience, job ...

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 ...

Danny Poull Danny Poull Sr. Systems Engineer, CCC Technologies Inc., Elk Grove Village, Ill. Danny Poull attributes the launch of his IT career to the person who told him that the clocks on the company's phone and computer networks couldn't be synched. "After three hours, I was able to fix it," Poull recalls. "Then I was like, 'What else can I fix?' " That happened in 2006, when Poull was an intern at CCC Technologies, working internal IT support, spending his day changing passwords on V ...

If you can say 'I have juggled multiple tasks successfully, and delivered results on time, within budget and with high levels of customer satisfaction,' you are doing the work of two or three people! Now that can help you land a job." Donna Farrugia, executive director, The Creative Group 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 budg ...