August 18th, 2008
Data architects: You’re “hot”
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| Yes you are. |
Information and data architects and information security experts, here’s some good news: You’re the hottest.
Fear not, data and content-oriented business analysts, business and enterprise architects and vendor management experts: You’re extremely hot as well. Enterprise application strategists, IT planners, network architects and enterprise project managers, you’re not doing so badly either. And account managers, desktop/virtualization experts, mobile operations and device experts, service managers and business process analysts? They want to keep you around as well.
So what’s all this about? I mean, surely it’s not every day that you’re called hot on the basis of your IT job alone, yet in a new Forrester report, these 16 roles are called out as being what CIOs need right now. And if you’re already doing them?
Hot.
According to Forrester, the need for these workers is being driven by a mixture of factors, including changes in technology, a greater emphasis on risk-management and a limited supply of key roles. But they had some themes in common, as well.
The “hottest” ones, such as information and data architects, emphasized policy-making and oversight for data and security. Others, such as enterprise architects, emphasized information and process management, as well as vendor oversight. Roles such as enterprise project managers and IT planners were considered key because they coordinated business units and complex projects.
However, even if you’re not in one of these roles already, there’s still time to change this. Forrester vice president and principal analyst Marc Cecere encourages CIOs without the right mix of these people in their departments to find ways to rectify this, by tailoring career paths and incentives to these roles and by cultivating them from within their departments.
“Many of the hot roles required breadth, influence without formal power and knowledge of company culture,” explains Cecere. “Rather than hiring these from the outside, source roles (like account managers or business process analysts) from within. This can be done by recruiting from the business functions and units, or through job rotation, training, and management of individual career paths.”
In other words, even if you’re not the “hottest” right now, there’s still hope.
August 15th, 2008
My Awesome IT Job: IT Service Manager, University of Illinois
Hey, we all complain about work from time to time; we’ve all had lousy jobs. But before you call it a day and head off to the support group that meets at the bar, here are a few words from an IT pro that loves their work.
 |
Name: Gale Stafford
Location: Chicago, IL
Profession and specialization I.T. service manager–messaging/email systems. I manage the campus email service for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Hobby: Studying psychology
Last book read: “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale
Latest accomplishment: Improved the way we manage knowledge on IT services — this cuts costs on knowledge transfer and training of backup service managers
Toughest technology lesson learned: Last summer, my email servers were crashing frequently. It was frustrating, and I was getting paged at all hours of the day and night. I had to bring together internal engineers and outside vendors to figure out the problem. The vendor for our storage device kept reassuring us their device was working fine and said the problem lied elsewhere in our system. Similarly, the vendor for our messaging server kept reassuring us their systems were operating normally and just responding to a problem in the storage device. In the end, we found our storage vendor had a bug in their firmware. From this experience, I learned about forming alliances and partnerships to invite the best efforts from everyone involved when working on a tough problems in complex systems.
Advice to an up-and-comer: Be always on the lookout for new ways of doing things that can cut costs or improve services to better suit the customer; when you come up with a good idea, bounce it around with your peers or form it into a proposal for your manager or senior leaders to consider. Your idea or proposal could get accepted; or it could easily get shot down. Don’t take anything personally in business. Celebrate your failures and use the lessons learned from each failure to propel you to greater levels of personal effectiveness.
[Know someone who thinks their IT job is awesome? Introduce them to me at debperelman [at] gmail [dot] com.]
August 15th, 2008
It’s just a TPS Report: How to step away from your Desk Rage
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| Workers Gone Wild! Like Office Space, but less funny. |
If, perhaps, you shared my weakness for the 2008 Olympics Women’s Gymnastics All-Around Competition and watched the event all the way until the very end last night and then continued to watch NBC long enough to catch the late late news, you might have caught a report on the “newest serious workplace threat”–drumroll–Desk Rage.
Type these words into Google and it will return over 60,000 results with headlines ranging from “Workers gone wild!” to “Workers: More and more out of control” and “Is there one in your office?” NBC’s on-the-ground reporting found a few gruff-looking guys weighing in with their own on-the-job war stories: “I’ve seen someone pick up the phone and beat someone over the head with it” said one, while another “once saw someone throw a chair at a window and break the window.”
First there was road rage, then there was air rage and now there is desk rage? Is desk rage truly the newest “workplace killer” or is this just a contrived story to fill out news hours in the dog days of summer when most of America is more deeply engrossed in Phelps Fanticism than whatever those news anchors are going on about in South Ossetia?
Not to make light of the real-life scary workplace headlines this week such as “Arkansas Supsect Quit Job on Day of Killing” but it seems that much of the advice on handling desk rage might at best be hard to apply and at its worst, entirely misses the mark. Dr. Kerry Sulkowicz of the Boswell Group told NBC news that “rage can be avoided when workers can talk about what’s wrong in the office.” In an illustrated slideshow, Forbes suggest that one go as far as to drive their troubled coworker to a therapist’s office to get them help. And Career Builder, via CNN.com, suggests that employees dealing with an enraged coworker apologize for anything they might have done to set him or her off. Hm, okay then.
The next time you’re at work and something has gone down that you have decided is the last straw consider instead The IT Grind’s Three No-Nonsense Steps to Stepping Away From Your Desk Rage (TM)
August 14th, 2008
IT is shedding jobs–should you worry?
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| Recent IT employment reports are foreshadowing a lot of this. |
The August 1 Bureau of Labor Statistics employment situation report included the kind of gloom-and-doom that has become de riguer in this recessionary cycle: nonfarm payroll employment slipped by 51,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate rose to 5.7, a full one percent increase in the last 12 months.
But buried within the report were some statistical punches that seemed aimed right for the technology gut: Employment in the information industry declined by 13,000 in July and by 44,000 over the past 12 months. Telecommunications alone lost 5,000 jobs in July.
The BLS report comes on the heels of two other reports bearing grim IT news. Two weeks ago, Gartner found that fewer IT organizations would be increasing their staff levels in 2008 than did in 2007, and those that would still anticipated a decelerated hiring pace. And last month, a survey of CIOs put out by Goldman Sachs found that the number of IT jobs would drop in 2009, and that IT contractors would bear the brunt of the cuts.
So what does this mean for you? I asked a few tech recruiters to tell us where they’re seeing signs of hiring life.
Johanna Rothman, a blogger and author of “Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People” says that IT job security in this recessionary cycle will come from being the kind of techie who wears a lot of hats.
“Hiring for people who are adaptable at several roles is up. So if you understand performance and databases, or financial systems and security, or some other combination of things, you are more likely to find a good job. If you’ve categorized yourself as a ‘Java programmer’ you are out of luck.”
Curt Sterling, a partner at The Cydio Group, an IT staffing firm in San Diego, is more positive, saying he’s had little trouble moving techies who had been laid off from companies reducing their workforce into sectors that are growing, such as wireless and technology infrastructure companies.
“We have found that although some banks and real estate related companies are reducing their workforce, in many other industries IT hiring remains strong…. If you have good experience and a Computer Science or related degree, you should be able to find work in IT pretty easily.”
Audrey Chernoff, senior technical recruiter with the HCR Group, a New York-based recruiting firm says that even investment banks caught in the mortgage crisis are still looking for strong developers and architects.
“People who love to code. Right now I am looking for C#, .Net, Java, and C++ developers and architects. Even managers must be very hands on in this economy,” says Chernoff.
So what can you pull from all of this? Though there has yet to be a job category that comes with a “no-layoff guarantee” (though if you find one, please, do share), there are clearly organizations that are still hiring. The safety of your IT job has to do with so many factors–such as your specialty, industry, the health of your employer, their view of the importance of in-house IT–but also the luck of having the specific skills a specific organization is looking for at a specific time.
How about you? Are you worried about the security of your current job?
August 11th, 2008
Compete away, whether you live in California or not
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| California just made it easier for your career path to look like this. |
California, a state notorious for having a dismissive attitude towards employee noncompete agreements, went one step further last Thursday in a unanimous state Supreme Court decision (ruling PDF), ruling that all worker noncompete clauses would now be null and void.
This ruling is no small triumph for workers in the Golden State, whose rights to move from one company to another, to work for a competitor or start their own business in the same specialization are now further entrenched.
Though the case was actually brought to court by a CPA formerly of Arthur Anderson, it may be an even bigger triumph for technology workers, many of whom bear the brunt of the limitations of noncompete agreements. Such a clause could theoretically prohibit a Microsoft software engineer from leveraging their expertise at Google or Yahoo due to a few lines in their contract that businesses say they need to protect their trade secrets but have been called by employee advocates everything from “a forced career-limiting move” to “vehemently anti-worker.”
In fact, some analysts argue that California’s already-lax approach to enforcing noncompete agreements–resulting in the free movement of technically inclined professionals from one start-up to another–was central to supporting the innovation that has made Silicon Valley tech epicenter it is today.
However, just because you don’t live in competition-embracing California doesn’t mean that if you’ve signed a noncompete agreement that you fear might limit your next career move you’re out of luck. Most employment lawyers will tell you that even the most clearly-written non-compete is difficult to enforce in a court of law.
To enforce one, companies “have to show it’s necessary to protect some legitimate business interest, such as trade secrets,” David Barmak, a lawyer with Sherman Meehan Curtin & Ain, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. told Inc.com–it can only be applied to what companies can legally protect, something difficult to define by even the savviest lawyer.
Furthermore, no matter how tightly worded an agreement is, it may not hold up in court if it limits the ability of a worker to make a living.
“If the employer’s restriction against competition prevents you from working anywhere for anyone, it is probably too broad,” explains attorney Neil Klingshirn at myemploymentlawyer.com. “Few employers will be able to convince a court that their business interest is important enough to prevent an employee from working for anyone else.”
How about you? Have you ever signed a noncompete you wish you hadn’t, or felt pressured into doing so in order to land a job you wanted?
August 8th, 2008
My Awesome IT Job: Developer, New York Times
Hey, we all complain about work from time to time; we’ve all had lousy jobs. But before you call it a day and head off to the support group that meets at the bar, here are a few words from an IT pro that loves their work.
 |
Name: Michael Donohoe
Location: The New York Times Building, New York City
Profession and specialization Developer in Client Technologies Group for nytimes.com
My role is a bit of a mix between front and back end in relation to web development for nytimes.com. On any given project I could be focused on any combination of; Javascript, CSS, XSL, PHP, with some third party API (or some level of integration) and the various libraries,
protocols and formats that go with them. At this moment in time the two core ones in my life are Javascript with the Prototype framework and PHP. There is enough variation so almost every project is unique, but grounded in a small enough subset of languages so I can reinforce anything I learn along the way.
We are also encouraged to contribute our own ideas to the development of nytimes.com. Right now I’m also playing with microformats and other under-the-cover changes to make our site more semantic and standards friendly.
Hobby: Hobbies are a great idea. I like to think that someday I will have one, maybe even two. Leaving my computer at work usually means resuming on a different one when I get home - whether pet projects or like now where I’m learning Cocoa so I can work on the NYTimes iPhone app. However I’m getting better at putting all that to one side and spend more time with my wife and baby daughter.
Last book read: Not counting books on programming (Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X), I’ve just re-read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It remains one of my all time favorites and each time I return to it I find some new sub-plot that I missed that last time. However I would advise against reading the sequel (Closing Time) which misses the mark completely.
Latest accomplishment: I’m working on a project called TimesPeople, along with a small number of other developers, which just has its initial closed release. It is a new social aspect to The New York Times. It remains one of the more exciting and rewarding projects I’ve been lucky enough to have come my way.
Toughest technology lesson learned: Saying ‘no’. Everyone has a wish-list of features and changes they’d like to see made. You want to be helpful and oblige–but there are only so many projects and features that you can do effectively. In the very short term that’s fine, but when you suddenly have to deliver on everything you’ll feel the heat.
Advice to an up-and-comer:
- Never pad your resume unless you’re able to back it up. I’ve interviewed candidates and if they had kept to what they really knew they’d have been better off. We have a number of open spots and there is nothing worse than someone nixing their chances because they have overextended themselves.
- However long you’ll think a task takes, add an additional 20 percent. If you’re feeling unsure, add another 20 percent.
- Don’t start work on anything until the requirements have been set in stone. However the real trick is trying to ensure no one then changes the requirements…
[Know someone who thinks their IT job is awesome? Introduce them to me at debperelman [at] gmail [dot] com.]
August 7th, 2008
The shine is off another apple
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| Techies to Apple: You treat us like indentured servants. |
In a lawsuit filed Monday that the plaintiff hopes to turn into class-action that could include all staff at retail stores, an Apple employee alleges that the company denied technical staffers overtime pay and other compensations required by state law. The network engineer employed by Apple from 1995 until 2007, David Walsh, says that he spent innumerable evenings and entire weekend on call without any overtime pay, fielding tech support calls that came after 11 p.m.
Furthermore, Walsh says that Apple “intentionally and deliberately created numerous job levels and a multitude of job titles to create the superficial appearance of hundreds of unique jobs, when in fact, these jobs are substantially similar and can be easily grouped together for the purpose of determining whether they are exempt from overtime wages,” reads the complaint.
Now raise your hand if you’ve ever worked in a tech support job that stiffed you on overtime or had you on call at absurd hours. Oh wait, all of you have? Then this means that it probably doesn’t surprise you that techies at Sun Microsystems, Electronic Arts, IBM and Dell have pursued similar suits with varying degrees of success.
But what stands out here–to this writer at least–is Apple’s name on it. No, this isn’t being in the RDF that precludes one from seeing or hearing any evil about shiny Mac products, but about the fact that Apple is such a coveted place to work, it is described in different accounts as “cool,” “a dream job,” “the holy grail of aesthetic accolade” as well as “a great way to meet chicks.” (And these were just the top of search results.)
It sounds instead like another case of employment realities at Workplace Wonderlands–it seems the cooler a workplace is perceived to be, the less hard it has to fight to fill openings, and fewer it has to bait them with–even the legal guarantees of overtime pay and the promise of a few hours off each week.
August 7th, 2008
When IT culture changes with or without you
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| Are you suddenly a bad fit for your IT department? |
Workplace culture is one of those terms you hear HR professionals, executive strategists and job boards throw around all the time, but what it means is generally less clear–and usually depends on who’s doing the talking. HR pros often speak about their workplace’s culture in terms of selling their attitude toward work to new candidates, execs in terms of employee productivity and the bottom line and job boards to goad you into a better one, perhaps one that is a better fit for you.
However, what all have in common is that conversations about workplace culture are more often about “transforming” or changing it than embracing the status quo.
IT is no different. In a new report, Forrester interviewed 15 CIOs and 41 IT decision makers about IT culture, and signs–from an unclear IT mission to a top heavy decision-making process or employees that are discouraged from extending their skills sets–that an overhaul is needed. Though CIOs and IT leaders are advised on how to go about making big changes to their IT culture, less is said about what changes could mean for the staffers within the department.
“It depends on the nature of the change,” explained principal analyst and report author, Marc Cecere. A culture change from decisions being made from a large to a small group of people might force an employee to quickly adjust the way they get things done. A change from a U.S.-centric IT organization to a global one might put pressure on a worker to adjust their schedule, and their way of communicating with customers to fit the culture.
However, the message is that the onus is on the IT professionals to adapt to the changes being made within their departments. Yet most employees have from time to time felt that the culture of their group was changing and perhaps leaving them behind. Is the only option to quietly plot one’s escape?
“First you’d want to make sure that things have really changed in a way that shuts you out. Sometimes you just perceive that things aren’t going your way. This is something that happens on the lower levels of the organization, where they only see a small part of the organization,” said Cecere.
“If the change is not in sync with your ethics, that’s one thing. But if it’s about the way decisions are made, who makes the decisions, global versus local, that is not in sync with what you think it should be, consider how much it matters, or consider that you might just be dealing with what you know versus what you can learn.”
August 1st, 2008
My Awesome IT Job: Senior vice president, CA
Hey, we all complain about work from time to time; we’ve all had lousy jobs. But before you call it a day and head off to the support group that meets at the bar, here are a few words from an IT pro that love their work.
 |
Name:Corrine Lattell, Senior Vice President, Global Services Operations, CA, Inc..
Location: I am based out of CA’s Long Island headquarters, in Islandia, New York but I live in Agawam, Massachusetts. I split my time between CA’s Islandia office and its East Windsor, Connecticut office a few days in each office each week.
Profession and specialization: Are you familiar with Mr. Potato Head, Monopoly, G.I. Joe or Play-Doh?
I started my career in IT as a system’s programmer for Milton Bradley (now Hasbro Toys), supporting its IT systems and applying my engineering and computer science degree. I started off at the bottom of the barrel, an associate system’s engineer with CA 20 years ago. After years of company loyalty and gaining the vital field experience needed for the operations role I have now, I’m responsible for the strategy, planning, execution, and improvement of global CA Services Operations. I help improve back office processes and applications, manage components like analytics and corporate performance, analyze trends and help implement policy and standards.
I love my job because I love the unique usage and application of technology to solve a problem to make a difference for the better, not just for my team, but for CA. It’s rewarding to see changes you make improve teams, processes and technology. I also very much enjoy the people I work with and highly respect the executive management team. When you feel you make a difference, it’s a great job. And the most fun part of working in IT is that you are never be bored. There is always more to learn and challenge you.
Hobby: I’ve been horseback riding since I was eight years old. While I never competed, nor do I own a horse, it’s always been a passion of mine. Another passion is heavy metal music. This comes as a shock for most, but I’m a huge fan. I’ve seen Metallica three times, just saw Iron Maiden last month and love Tool, Ozzy, AC/DC, Audioslave, Motley Crue, Soundgarden, Disturbed and Godsmack. A new favorite, Dragonforce. This band is big with the Guitar Hero set. They supposedly have the fastest song on Guitar Hero 3, and I’m going to see them in a few weeks!
Last book read: I should preface this by noting these are my teenage daughter’s books, but I most recently completed the Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfield, which includes the Uglies, Pretties and Specials. The New York Times best sellers are popular among teenagers, and are very sick books, but very entertaining. When I went to check out the alternate ending on the Web site, the author mentions how adults never read his books. I sent him an email noting otherwise, and just received an unexpected reply!
August 1st, 2008
Gartner’s grim IT hiring outlook
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| IT professionals are seeing signs like this. |
Gartner released its 2008 IT market compensation study this week and the news was anything but upbeat. Projecting that IT organizations would be cautious about their 2008 and 2009 hiring plans due to IT budget cuts, a decline in IT hiring is anticipated.
Though nearly 58 percent of U.S.-based IT organizations projected an increase in their IT staff levels, including full-time employees and contractors, this was a notable drop from the 66 percent who reported the same in the 2007 study. Furthermore, the percentage of organizations that projected that they’d be increasing their headcount by more than 10 percent in the coming year slipped more than three percentage points from the year prior.
So what will this mean if you were hoping to land a new gig or full-time job in the coming year? Diane Berry, managing vice president for Gartner’s CIO workforce group and a coauthor on of the study, says that the best way for IT professionals to improve their marketability to pick up as much business experience and competence as possible.
“The HR leaders and CIOs I talk to are having a hard time finding the talent that they need,” Berry explained. “They’re looking for some people with business expertise or competence, who are keeping their skills relevant. They’re hungry for good talent, and it would be best to learn as much of the business as you can. It increases your value tenfold.”
What this means for IT workers that would like to stay entrenched in technology is less clear.
“You’re going to need to have that business expertise, so if I was an 18-year old going into college I would be marrying my CS degree with a business degree,” said Berry.
Do you agree? Do you think pure tech players are going to have a rougher time in the coming year than those that hone their business skills?
Deb Perelman is a journalist in New York City with a focus on tech and the daily grind. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
Recent Entries
- Data architects: You’re “hot”
- My Awesome IT Job: IT Service Manager, University of Illinois
- It’s just a TPS Report: How to step away from your Desk Rage
- IT is shedding jobs–should you worry?
- Compete away, whether you live in California or not
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