Five Must-Have IT Skills For the Future of Work
The Huffington Post, September 14
In order to prepare for the future of work, job seekers should focus on building expertise related to SMAC (social, mobile, analytic and cloud) technologies. Data and analytics are now at the center of how marketing is done, and that means companies want to hire individuals who know how to examine this data, make correlations and then create new value based on the ability to perform mass customization. The article explains how IT workers can go about understanding and championing SMAC technologies. Only by doing so can they understand the data created and consumed by users, the role of design in influencing customer behaviors, and the trade-offs involved in any security solution.
Driven by the needs of the consumer market, SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) technologies have clearly transformed our personal life and now they are adding a new dimension to company business models. The SMAC technologies help workers and their organizations become more connective, collaborative, real-time and productive. Secondly, IT workers need to understand the "code halos" around consumers: Every online action leaves a digital trail (the "halo"), which some companies have become very good at seeing, leading to market share gains. "Code halos" are becoming increasingly vital to the success of every business.
Design matters and from an IT perspective one of the new skill sets required today is the ability to build beautiful and engaging systems for consumers. Design is more than just a pretty interface, it's how someone interacts with your product. Consumer oriented design has to become a core competency of the technology team and they need to not only design the experience but also the business model to deliver them. Technology driven marketing gives companies the ability to build 1-to-1 relationships, create individualized experiences and leverage technology in new ways. It's important to find people who understand systems and data infrastructure and who also have a great interest in the business. Using data to refine the experiences you offer down to that segment of one opens up new opportunities for mass customization and influencing the product development life cycle.
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When Programming Is a Second Career
Mashable, August 21
For older IT workers, there now exists a rapidly expanding set of ways to brush up on or learn new programming skills, ranging from free online tutorials to semester-long online classes. Though there might not be an immediate payoff, learning a new programming skill can help ease the inevitable discouragement that comes during a job hunt, especially for older job candidates. The article highlights some of the more popular options for learning new programming skills in order to become a more attractive job candidate.
With as many as five jobs open for every applicant, the shortage of qualified applicants has led employers to lower their standards. A computer science degree is now a bonus rather than a requirement. Oftentimes, successful hires aren't even college graduates. Instead, they are intellectually curious or they are problem-solvers. That opens the door to people who have learned to program via Codecademy or Coursera. For a more rigorous, hands-on educational process, some older workers prefer programs like Code Fellows, a Seattle-based company that provides intense boot camp-like courses that promise programming proficiency — even if you've never coded in your life.
The problem is, mid-career switchers aren't necessarily motivated by a love of coding. Inevitably, the lure of a higher salary and job stability has trumped their initial passion. A recent study shows that switching careers solely for money and stability is a bad choice. Those with strong internal motives for success did better than those who were highly internally motivated but also strongly influenced by instrumental motives like the ability to secure a job later in life. In other words, if you like fixing things and solving puzzles, you'll probably be a better coder and enjoy work more than someone who is merely doing it for the paycheck. While many people never complete the programming courses they start; however, since the courses are free, it can't hurt to try.
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How to Get a Job in Computer Security
Computerworld, September 8
Cybersecurity is best approached as a high-level specialization within the computer field rather than as an entry-level position. The implication of this is that cybersecurity is a career for those in the computer field to aspire to, and not a trade. If you want to just learn basic security tools and perform tasks like vulnerability scans, it's better to look for some basic IT certifications. Cybersecurity is a position that should be earned with significant experience in the computer field.
One thing that will make a difference for you is getting a college degree. While cybersecurity degrees are not the best way to go, a college degree is still quite valuable, and here's why. Most college degrees require that you learn to communicate better. They require you to take writing courses that many of us would never take voluntarily. They require that you take courses that are outside your area of interest, which helps make you well rounded. Business courses, for example, can help you better understand the organizations that you will serve. It isn't always possible to see these things at the time. More importantly, if you want to advance your career, the absence of a college degree will impede promotions and make it more difficult to get the jobs you want. That degree on your résumé is a baseline that recruiters and hiring managers are going to be looking for. If you can't include it on yours, you will need some way to grab their attention and show just how truly exceptional you are at what you do.
Once you have a degree, the next step toward a career in cybersecurity is to get a job that doesn’t involve cybersecurity. Instead, get a job doing general computer work. The logic behind this is that you cannot be expected to protect computers if you don't know how to administer a computer system, you can’t secure a system that you can't properly configure on your own, you can't secure a database if you aren't fluent in the database management system, and you certainly can’t write secure code if you can't code at all. Whether you have a job in the computer profession or not, you can do other things that will contribute to your experience. Teach yourself to code, if you don't know how to do so already. You can practice securing your computers and your network. If you really want to get into penetration testing, you can practice hacking your own computers with different configurations. Another option — one that will allow you to be actually useful — is to donate your time to a charity or other organization. Such organizations often need help with their security, and anything you can do to keep them safe will be invaluable to them and a public service.
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Corporate America, Your Future Engineers Aren't Attending Career Fairs Anymore
Tech Crunch, September 11
When it comes to recruiting software engineers, hackathons are becoming more important than traditional college career fairs for finding and hiring top talent. Methods like traditional career fairs are outdated and will get you nowhere in the race for developers, especially since companies across a broad array of industries – from retail to finance to energy – are looking to hire top developer talent. The best developer candidates aren't necessarily at the universities you'd expect and, moreover, aspiring developers (even those enrolled in CS programs) are seeking opportunities to gain engineering experience outside of formal educational settings. At the same time, employers need better ways to validate a potential hire's coding abilities than a resume.
In the arms race for software developer talent, there's one place that has become the new career fair for developer talent: hackathons. A record 1,500 hackathons are planned for 2014. They take many forms, but the underlying idea is for teams to take nascent ideas and turn them into reality as quickly as possible using code. In terms of size, they can range from a physical gathering of 20 developers to a digital gathering of thousands, with prizes ranging from bragging rights and free pizza all the way up to sizable cash payouts and lucrative jobs. Not all hackathons have the same goals or structure. Some are sponsored by companies looking to directly stimulate product innovation, while others are dedicated to supporting developers from under-represented groups, or to come up with solutions to problems like hunger or conflict in the Middle East.
With so many hackathons taking place online, it has become an incredibly broad pool of talent to see in action — from places that companies otherwise would not have access to or even be in contact with at all. One area that's seeing big growth in the hackathon world is the university hackathon. These on-campus hackathons are part career fair, part classroom, and they are based on the real-world experience that students need and employers want to see. They provide a powerful way for students to show off their skills, creativity and talent, while giving companies a forum to simultaneously vet and possibly even recruit potential hires. In general, there are three different types of hackathons: on-campus, off-campus and virtual, all of them with their unique advantages. For example, on-campus hackathons help employers raise awareness of their brands, and also allow for pinpointed targeting of specific students.
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Three Make-or-Break Interview Questions for Developers
InfoWorld, September 18
The most important questions you will be asked during an IT interview will be those that test your ability to think critically and learn new skills. For example, potential employers might ask you to describe a particular project or ask you to diagnose a hypothetical problem to better understand your thought process. At a time when employees with specific IT skills may be hard to find and then hire, it's important to be able to hire people with certain prerequisites and then train them to do more. And in order to test for these critical thinking skills, firms need to have a process for learning about a candidate, whether it comes from a conversation about technical skills or the submission of sample code or a sample project.
After asking a set of questions to get candidates familiar and comfortable, corporate recruiters will often ask a lot of basic technical questions to ensure the resume isn't full of buzzwords that candidates don't know the meaning of. There are people who have used all of the tools, but lack the depth to do so without deep supervision; for example, they may have used an RDBMS but don't know how locking works or why their query might be slow. Companies will ask about matters you should know if you've been working in the technologies you say you've been working in.
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Four Classic IT Jobs That Are Moving to the Back Burner
ZDNet.com, September 2
While the overall IT employment picture may be relatively healthy, new technologies and trends are influencing the IT requirements of businesses and eroding the popularity of the following positions: mainframe programmers, systems administrator, help desk technician and SMB IT manager. Experts cite the volatility of IT job requirements, which can shift almost on a monthly basis, making it difficult to understand where the trends really are headed. These four positions aren't going extinct any time soon, and there are still lucrative careers to be found in some of these areas, but the overall trends are for fewer job openings.
Before there was web development, before there was a lot of custom software development, mainframe programming was really the primary programming job. With the advent of web-based software, and more client server software, mainframe applications are not used so much. Fewer people are learning COBOL and looking for careers in mainframe programming. This is not to say the job role is extinct – governments and large financial institutions still use mainframes and will continue to do so. And mainframes still run 60 percent of business applications worldwide. Systems administrator is another area in which bigger trends like the cloud, virtualization, and even outsourcing and large consultancies are affecting the demand for these roles. You see some of these roles where companies have people administering servers and systems, and computer hardware – as a lot of that moves to cloud computing or virtual computing environments, some of those roles are less important for certain organizations.
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Five Questions To Ask Before You Take A Tech Job
Computerworld.com, September 11
Asking carefully crafted questions can tell you a lot about a company's values and about the experience you'll gain, which, in turn, can shape your career for years. Doing a little homework and then asking the right questions can help you pick the right job offer. With that in mind, the article provides a list of basic questions and follow-ups to ask. The most important thing to keep in mind, say experts, is to ask questions that can help to align expectations. There's often a big difference between a job posting and how the position plays out day-to-day, so ask what your typical daily duties will be to make sure your work preferences match the position.
Important questions to ask are those that indicate whether you'll have opportunities to grow your skills at the job. How will this position change after I've been here a while? How will you use my skills if something unexpected arises? These questions are particularly important for younger professionals because early positions shape subsequent career moves. Also, find out about career paths ahead of you, so ask where this particular position leads next. Technology advances rapidly, but not all companies are able to keep pace. You don't want to come off as a diva, but neither do you want a job that will turn you into an expert in a technology that's on its way out. As a result, ask about the project/product roadmap for the next one to three years. Look for specific details in the answer to get a sense of the overall vision.
People don't build technology for the sake of technology. They build tools and frameworks for people to use, so it's important to see whether the department you'll join shares that view. Is it driven to enable and advance? Or is its most ambitious aim just to plug along? By asking about mission, you'll understand how a company views its IT department – and the particular job you're applying for. You might ask how your work will contribute to the overall mission of the company, and whether the IT department is viewed as overhead or as a drain on resources. The problem is that workers in cost centers tend to be seen as more expendable, especially when the economy goes south. Also, ask if you will work with business units. Someone who understands the business side as well as the technical side makes for a more well-rounded IT professional, and is more valuable.
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Computer Science Is Where the Jobs Are, But Schools Don't Teach It
San Jose Mercury News, September 12
California prides itself as being home to Silicon Valley, but the state's high schools are not doing enough to prepare its students for a career in computing, says one prominent California educator. While California high school enrollment has risen 15 percent since 2000, the number of classes on computer science or programming fell 34 percent, and the number of teachers assigned to those courses fell 51 percent. When it comes to curricula, computer science doesn't count toward California high school graduation requirements or toward the admission requirements in math or science for admission to the University of California. That has to change if California ever hopes to make computer science a priority for students or a priority for schools when determining course offerings based on limited budgets.
Schools have no state or federal curriculum standards to follow for computer science -- not as part of Common Core, nor in the Next Generation Science Standards. When teachers are assigned to teach computer science, California has no computer science certification to insure that they have the appropriate content knowledge. Today only 175 of California's 1,325 public high schools offer the advanced placement (AP) course in computer science. More than half of the students are Hispanic or Latino, yet they make up less than 8 percent of those who take the AP exam in computer science. African-Americans represent 6.7 percent of high school students, but they are only 1.5 percent of those taking the AP exam.
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Why You Should Consider Submitting to DEF CON
Computers in Entertainment Blog, August 21
A computer science professor who gave a talk on cyber-hijacking at this year's DEF CON conference comments on the advantages of attending and presenting at the annual event. First of all, DEF CON draws people from all around the globe. That gives the opportunity to meet new people who will be great resources for current and future research. Secondly, a presentation at the event could be a launch pad for new opportunities within a specific industry. The author concludes by encouraging anyone who thinks she or he has something to contribute to the information security field to submit a talk to DEF CON.
Sometimes the right topic for DEF CON is not something that's planned well in advance. In the example cited by the article, the author originally had submitted a talk on low-tech ways of detecting surveillance. However, then Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared, prompting a surge in sensationalized stories of how airliners could be cyber-hijacked from afar. That led to a rare chance to debunk some of the myths being promoted within the media about cyber-hijacking and reach a bigger audience than originally planned.
As soon as the cyber-hijacking talk was posted on the DEF CON website, the author was inundated by requests from several people in the information security community, including the ones whose myths the author intended to debunk. This, in turn, led to greater discussion of the technologies at work and how they could be deployed within specific instances. That might be the greatest advantage of giving a DEF CON talk: having the opportunity to debate important topics with leading practitioners in the field.
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MOOCs and Technology to Advance Learning and Learning Research
Ubiquity, September 2014
In order to determine the long-term impact of MOOCs, we must consider not only cognitive and technological factors at work but also cultural ones, such as the goals of education and the cultural processes that mediate the diffusion of a new teaching mode. Whether MOOCs really are the future of education or whether they are just a bubble in the making has important implications for creating models of effective pedagogy as well as framing higher education's core mission. What's needed, first and foremost, is an understanding of the role that cultural assumptions play in influencing the research agenda. Without an understanding of culture, we risk both asking research questions that will not help us achieve the larger goals and missing important additional research questions about the mediation itself.
Generally, when we talk about MOOCs as potential tsunamis, we are also implicitly talking about Clayton Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation. Applied to education, the argument is that colleges have passed the point where they are adding new features to their products that are useful to most of their customers and are mostly now competing for the most lucrative customers by adding high-end features. According to the theory of disruptive innovation, a new product that could simply and inexpensively provide a subset of the features that traditional college schooling provides would be a "better" product, and we would know that it is "better" because an overwhelming majority of consumers of the old product would flock to the new one.
If we buy this notion of a "better" education, then we might construct a MOOC research agenda that focuses on the degree to which MOOCs are able to achieve some of the attributes that we think are important measures of success for traditional schooling. Completion is a good example. Completion is important to measure if you think that getting students to cover a certain amount of material is an important feature of a "good" course. But what if your model for the kind of "good" education that a MOOC can provide has fundamentally different characteristics than the typical college course? For example, one view of education holds that the value is not in the students' accumulated store of knowledge but in the development of their skills to acquire or construct it. A course is an "artificial construct" in that it is defined by the amount of content covered and, presumably, mastered by the students.
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