Stay a relevant IT worker in 2009

1. Pay attention to where the hiring is.
We all get caught up in our work. We all bear down for months and even years at a time on one all-encompassing project or another — this is a good thing — but the danger is in looking up and seeing that the field around you has changed. Keeping your eye on the “prize” so to speak — where the hiring is still taking place, even in a downturn — is essential for continued career success.
So where is this mythical hiring surge? It depends on who you ask, of course. Some people, such as Read Write Web’s Jobwire, point to the growing use of community managers and new media specialists and that developers are still being hired at twice the pace of sales and marketing folks. Others put their money on SAP, .Net and help desk support. But all agree that even in a downturn, there will be small pockets of growth.

2. Keep your skills current.
Advising tech pros to keep their skills current may be advice as old as time, but it doesn’t change the fact that if you’re still boasting skills at the top of your IT resume that haven’t been a central focus of enterprise organizations in years, or worse, a decade, you’re going to have a harder time selling yourself for a promotion or to a new company.
It’s not something to put off, either. “Any IT Pro knows that keeping up with the latest technology is a career key. Make it easy on yourself by reading technology news and subscribing to various newsletters and technology magazines. If you keep up consistently, you can’t be overwhelmed by falling behind,” explained Kristin Clifford at CompTIA.

3. Be a documenting fiend.
Most IT departments are a place where the cowboys still roam — the “cowboy” being the guy that everyone in the department depends on because he or she knows how to run things. Productivity can hinge on them, and dangerously so.
But this is now an age of standardized processes — things like CMMI and ITIL are more popular than ever — and documentation is at the core of this. Being someone who is organized and keeps track of what they’ve done, even if your boss doesn’t require it, will mean that you can always reference your work so that your successes can be repeatable. If this is where IT is going, you want to be there first. Heck, you might even like it.

4. Stay curious.
If the thought of devoting any time or energy to expanding your creative horizons or embracing something new or different sounds ridiculous to you, you may very well be spending too much time at the office. Which is exactly the kind of place — with its repeated tasks, beige color scheme and endless rows of cubicle walls — that can drain the curiosity that drew you to technology in the first place.
But this doesn’t mean that the workplace cannot be a place where you try new things in 2009. Whether it’s new technologies or simply something you wanted to learn more about, but never thought you could, showing the initiative and asking — taking advantage of any and all opportunities to learn — could make a daunting year and a sober economic environment a little more fun.

5. Step away from the technology once in a while
Every so often, a poll — polls that are no doubt unscientific bordering on superfluous — comes out that shows just how frightening some of our technology addictions have become. A recent one sponsored by Intel found that nearly half of women would rather go without sex for two weeks than give up the Internet for that long, a sentiment shared by 30 percent of men. Have our technology addictions gone too far?
I’ll save that question for others to philosophize over, but in the meanwhile, it’s hard to argue that shutting down the laptop once in a while to go experience the world outside of it can do wonders for your frame of mind — not to mention your creative energy when you return.
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

Study Finds Pervasive Networking Talent Shortfall in North America

Demand for Networking Professionals to Outstrip Supply through 2011

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 28, 2008 - Cisco, in collaboration with the Cisco Learning Institute, today announced the results of a study on networking labor needs in North America. According to an IDC white paper sponsored by Cisco Learning Institute, "Networking Skills in North America: Trends, Gaps and Strategies," there is a 60,000-person shortfall between the supply of networking talent and the market demand for highly skilled information technology (IT) workers in the workforce today. As the demand grows for IT professionals, who now represent 14 percent of the workforce, this gap is expected to continue through 2011.

IDC also found that shortages in specialty skills areas, such as network security, wireless and voice are particularly troubling. More than 35 percent of the businesses surveyed identified an immediate need for voice specialists, while 19 percent indicated that they have a need for a wireless expert. IDC also estimates that 11 percent of security specialist positions will be unfilled in 2011 because of a lack of skilled professionals, representing a gap of nearly 35,000 positions.
"This white paper confirms what many managers in the workforce are already keenly aware of: There is an acute and growing need for more IT professionals," said Cushing Anderson, IDC analyst. "With more and more businesses moving critical operational functions over to the network, the IT department is assuming a much more strategic role in the organization and needs its infrastructure to be designed, implemented and maintained by highly skilled, highly trained individuals."

Other key findings of the IDC white paper include:

Employers of all sizes and in all industries surveyed indicated that they will expand their skilled networking personnel over the next four years.
The projected supply of skilled networking workers is not expected to keep pace with demand, resulting in an 8 percent gap, or 60,000 full-time skilled workers each year over the next three years.
The emphasis on more specialty skills also implies that the competencies required in networking professionals are evolving in order to support employers' increasing dependence on their networks.

"The IT workforce is changing," said Amy Christen, vice president of corporate affairs and the Cisco® Networking Academy®. "With networks becoming more ubiquitous in business and everyday life, it is essential to raise awareness of the need for IT professionals. Students of all backgrounds need access to the knowledge-based economy, so they can further their educational and occupational goals while keeping America competitive in the global economy."

IDC collected data from 500 telephone interviews with network managers across a wide swath of industries and business types and sizes and correlated that data with projections from a number of sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The report is available at: http://www.ciscolearning.org/learning_initiatives/evaluation.

Get an entry level IT position with these Certs

Information Technology Certification – entry level gives you the chance to either change or begin your career.

It’s a….

Starting point

It’s a…

Stepping stone

The certifications I’ve listed below are the most popular ways of getting into I.T. They don’t require you have any experience or any other certifications under your belt in order to be eligible to sit for the exam.

They will help your career as a starting point. We all need to start from somewhere and they are great stepping stones – they can lead you to higher level certifications which will land you the higher paying jobs.

These certifications by themselves have the weight of getting-your-foot-in-the-door. They don’t have the weight of this-will-land-me-a-great-paying-job. If you are a newbie reading this, I want to make this very clear to you because this is the most important step in your I.T career.
And the first step is the most crucial step.

A beginner, soon-to-be I.T professional has many, many years of study ahead of him or her. We constantly don’t stop learning. We are constantly striving for the next certification we need as we climb to where we want to go.

If you don’t absolutely love information technology, then an information technology certification may not be for you. So really think about it ok?

But if you are sure, these are the top entry information technology certifications you want to get under your belt. Read through each and select the one that excites you the most…


Comptia’s A+ Certification
You learn how to build and fix computers as well as load operating systems and troubleshoot. Learn why this information technology certification is one of the most popular…

Cisco CCNA Certification
Just as popular as the above, this certification concentrates on the networking side of computers. Because ultimately you will need to understand networks, this is a great certification to get. Learn more

Comptia Network+ Certification
Another great networking certification. Alot of people continue to this after obtaining the A+ Certification. Learn more.

Microsoft MCDST Certification
Because most entry IT jobs will be support jobs, this certification concentrates on teaching you how to support end users and troubleshoot desktop environments running on the Microsoft Windows operating system. Learn more.

The Microsoft MCP Certification
Most IT Professionals start with this certification. Learn why.

Certifications vs. Degrees?

Frankly, it would be easier to solve the age-old question “Which came first the chicken or the egg?” than to ever reach a consensus on the question of whether it’s better for an IT pro to have a technical degree or certifications.

It may be one of the oldest, yet most hotly debated, issues ever to post on TechRepublic.
It’s constantly debated because there are no clear-cut answers. So I’m not going to throw out any concrete facts and I can’t hope to change anyone’s mind on the matter, but here are a few things to consider when weighing the benefits of a degree vs. a cert.

First of all, keep in mind that the degree/certification matter is only a part of what you should concern yourself with when you’re marketing yourself for a new job or a better position. Degrees and certifications may comprise the bulk of your “calling card,” but you should not depend on either to be the overall marketing strategy for what you’re selling to potential employers — yourself.

Once you get into a job, above anything else, your employer will want to see you as a person who can get the job done and do it in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. No one is going to temper your good results because you lack credentials.

However, this is IT, one of the most constantly changing industries there is. Keeping up with technology is important, and certifications demonstrate that.

Who’s going to see your resume?
Another variable in this equation is whether an HR person or an IT manager is the one looking at your resume. Unless specifically instructed otherwise, the chances are that an HR person is going to respond to the presence of a degree before a jumble of Microsoft acronyms. In this way, “Bachelor’s degree” is a universal language. Is that a reason against certs? Not at all, just something to keep in mind.

The flip side is that if you have an HR person who does a lot of tech hiring, you might get someone who knows all of the certifications and simply uses that as a criterion to filter candidates. For example, if you are applying for a job as a Windows administrator, you must have an MCSE to be seriously considered for the job.

If a technical person, however, is vetting the resumes, it helps if you have some certifications. It’s a language a technical person speaks.

And another possibility to consider is that if the person doing the hiring is an “academic” sort, he may be of the mindset that if he suffered through getting a degree, it’s the very least he would expect from you.

Like I said, there are really no hard-core facts here, just things to consider.

The perception
There are lots of good reasons to get a degree, both personal and professional. In the eyes of some employers, a completed four-year degree shows that you can finish what you start. It gives them an idea of your dedication and work ethic. And, as an article from DataStronghold.com says, “Through the courses covered in a four-year degree, students are given the opportunity to learn a variety of skills in different portions of the major they have chosen. Technical as well as analytical talents are developed and tested.”

On the other hand, degrees can become dated. Certifications have to be renewed as technology evolves. You may have earned a computer science degree 10 years ago, but that doesn’t ensure that you’ve demonstrated proficiency recently. A certification does.

The timeline
The timeline is a very important factor in the degree/cert question. Let’s say you’ve been in a job for five years and you haven’t been promoted because of a company policy requiring managers to have degrees. Then, by all means, you might want to explore the option of going back to school. But if there is no formal policy and you haven’t been promoted, it may be because of something that neither a degree nor certification would have any influence over. In other words, don’t waste money on a four-year degree if the problem is you’re a general pain in the butt or don’t show any initiative in other ways.

A solution may be to pursue a goal that could be achieved in a shorter time span to show your desire to better yourself. And that could take form in a certification.

The power of specificity
We’ve all heard stories like the guy who has a Masters degree in Computer Science but can’t figure out a simple problem that anyone with an A+ cert could. That could be an issue of specificity. Some IT shops only have the budget for a “Tech of all Trades” so to speak. But some have the luxury of being able to hire those with specialties and that’s where a cert does some talking.

I asked Ramon Padilla, an experienced IT manager, what he looks for in a job candidate — a degree or certs, and he said it depends:
“If I am looking at a highly technical position (DBA, network engineer, etc.) then I lean more heavily toward certification. Someone with experience and a CCNA or CCIE for Cisco equipment or Oracle certifications for database admin goes further with me than someone with a generic IT degree. However, if I’m looking at a managerial, administrative, or analyst type position, the degree is more valuable.”

Renewable knowledge
As I said, degrees can become dated. Certifications have to be renewed as technology evolves. Degrees can prepare the foundation for dealing with technology, but you can’t generalize everything. Let’s use a car analogy: You may be a mechanical person who is used to taking apart muscle car engines with your eyes closed. But that may not help much if the electronic sensors fail in your new car.

The answer to the age-old question of degrees vs. certifications is “it depends.” Depends on the specifics of the job, on the person doing the hiring, and on your capabilities in general.

Toni Bowers, Blogger, Tech Republic

CompTIA Security Study Proves Value of Certification

The annual CompTIA security study, titled Trends in Information Security: A CompTIA Analysis of IT Security and the Workforce, shows that security training has saved U.S. companies $2.2 million in total, much of which is due to a reduction of server/network downtime and fewer impacts to employee productivity. Likewise, the provision of IT security certification has saved U.S. companies over $675,000 in total for similar reasons.

The study found that the most widespread threats in the U.S. today stem from spyware , the lack of user awareness, and virus and worm attacks. Canadian organizations indicate riskier browser-based attacks and wireless networking security while Chinese organizations indicate significant threats from spyware, viruses, worms, and browser-based attacks.

The percentage of their IT budget that companies dedicate to security is growing year after year. In the United States , companies earmarked 12 percent of their IT budget in 2007 for security purposes – up from only 7 percent in 2005. The bulk of these dollars are used to procure security-related technologies.

Companies spend substantial amounts on prevention because security breaches can be costly if they occur. In the past year, U.S. firms shelled out an average of more than $200,000 as a result of security breaches, a third of which was attributed to the loss of employee productivity. Moreover, in the last year in the United States, Canada and UK, IT staff members spent more than 10 percent of their time dealing with security breaches, and in China, almost 20 percent of their time.

Nearly 60 percent of U.S. companies require IT security training for IT staff and more than half make training available to non-IT staff. Companies are also increasingly requiring IT security certification. Nearly 33 percent of U.S. firms make certification required now compared to only 25 percent in 2006 and 14 percent in 2005. However, a full 78 percent of organizations in China require certification.

CompTIA Security+ is an ideal certification to prove you know IT security. CompTIA Security+ validates knowledge of communication security, infrastructure security, cryptography, operational security, and general security concepts. It is an international, vendor-neutral certification that is taught at colleges, universities and commercial training centers around the world.

Although not a prerequisite, it is recommended that CompTIA Security+ candidates have at least two years on-the-job networking experience, with an emphasis on security. Because human error is the number one cause for a network security breach, CompTIA Security+ is recognized by the technology community as a valuable credential that proves competency with information security.

For more information, visit certification.comptia.org/security+.