MIS Career News
No cats allowed: How to use social media to advance your career
Posted May 2, 2013 by Alaina G. Levine, physicstoday.com
"Every week through Facebook, I receive at least 10 pictures of cats wearing glasses and holding test tubes. Cats are cute, and cats wearing spectacles are even more wonderful. But we should all know better: When it comes to using social media platforms for networking and career advancement, cats are just not welcome.
We know networking is a necessity for career advancement in science. And social media networking is no different. Your online presence—via websites, your blog, and personal profiles on channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter—serves as a way for interested parties to get to know you and your brand, or promise of value. And it is becoming more and more critical for you to maintain a presence on social media in order to amplify your reputation and reach decision makers in your field.
When you apply for a job or fellowship, or send a cold email to someone, one of the first actions that the other party takes is to google you. And the second action they take is increasingly becoming the norm—they will check your LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have one, the perception might be that you are not a contributing member of your community. In fact, some recruiters have told me that they envision that the LinkedIn profile will soon supplant the resumé as the standard for identifying qualified applicants for job openings.
Developing a social media networking strategy involves planning and preparation, execution, and monitoring and maintenance. You can’t simply send one tweet and expect to reap the rewards. You have to consistently engage and interact with others, and you have to develop a plan that optimizes your time while you seek to achieve your career goals."
Gender Gap in Tech Salaries is All Gone, Dice Reports
Posted March 20, 2013 by Katherine Noyes, PC World and InfoWorld
Since 2009, pay has been equal for men and women with equivalent levels of experience, education, and job titles, the careers site says.
The field of IT is notorious for being persistently male-dominated, but that doesn't mean women still suffer from a gender gap when it comes to pay.
In fact, the compensation gender gap has disappeared for tech workers, according to the latest salary survey from IT careers site Dice. Specifically, ever since 2009, average salaries have been equivalent for male and female tech professionals, the company reported on Tuesday -- as long as you're comparing equal levels of experience and education and parallel job titles.
Men actually did outearn women overall in the 2013-2012 Dice Salary Survey, earning an average annual income of $95,929 compared with women's $87,527. However, that difference is driven by the fact that the two groups tend to hold different positions, Dice says. Whether that's the result of personal choice or institutional bias is unclear, it added.
Summer Internship Gone Bad - What Can You Do About It?
Posted August 26, 2012, MIS Department
Sometimes summer internships end up not being what you hoped them to be. Nidhi Arora (Spring 2013 MIS undergraduate) had these insights to share about summer internships that have gone bad.
“Acquiring an internship is an exciting moment for any aspiring business student however, that is only the first step in having an overall successful internship experience. For most interns, their internship will expose, challenge, and prepare them for a career within the organization and provide them with valuable connections. For others, the internship experience may prove to be less than what they expect of the organization and may even go on to disenchant students from their planned career paths." Read the rest of Nidhi's advice here.
Big Data Jobs Will be Plentiful
Posted on IEEE Computer Society, June 19, 2012 by Peggy Albright
Everybody, it seems, recognizes the opportunity to harness and exploit big data for the benefit of business and society. And everybody, it seems, is concerned about the lack of enough computing professionals in the market who have the particular skills considered essential to this new field.
The market conditions are great for those who want to pursue a career in big data. While many will seek out extra training or academic coursework to gain new expertise needed for these new job opportunities, they might want to make sure they specialize in a particular vertical market, too.
As more and more businesses begin looking for experts to perform their big data functions, they will be using job titles that are new to many organizations.
Jeff Hammerbacher, cofounder and chief scientist at Cloudera, said one up-and-coming role is that of the "data steward"—someone who can define the structure of the new data used in a company, ensure that it's delivered and made available to the enterprise for analysis, communicate that to people in the enterprise, and make sure people employ best practices when accessing data.
"That sort of role, which is more data-management-focused than data-analysis-focused, is very promising," he said.
He noted that the data steward role could be added to an existing systems administrator or database administrator position, or it could be a separate position.
"Data scientists" are also expected to be very valuable in organizations. David Bayless, a data scientist at LexisNexis, said people who work in this role are often distinguished from data analysts or processing experts by their focus on "trying to find new ways to combine data to discover new things." The data scientist, for example, will perform cutting-edge work to develop algorithms that people in the data department will then use to understand business data.
Hottest IT Skill? Cybersecurity
Posted on Network World, May 03, 2012 by Carolyn Duffy Marsan
Under a barrage of cyberattacks, U.S. companies are hiring more security engineers, analysts than ever before
Embattled by hactivists, cybercriminals and foreign rivals seeking to steal proprietary information, U.S. corporations are ramping up their hiring of cybersecurity experts, with open jobs reaching an all-time high in April.
The need for cybersecurity experts spans all industries, from financial services, manufacturing and utilities to healthcare and retail. Among the major U.S. companies trying to fill cybersecurity-related positions are Boeing, Baylor Health Care System, Verisign and Office Depot.
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Dice Tech Salary Survey Results
Posted February 17, 2012
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| Photo and survey results courtesy of Dice. |
Dice (a career hub for tech jobs) recently completed a Tech Salary Survey. Their big takeaways? Tech salaries saw their biggest jump since 2008 and bonus levels are growing.
This year's survey of 18,000 tech professionals includes:
- Top cities for wage growth
- Pay trends for in-demand tech skills
- Salary data by job title, industry, skills, education level, experience and more
Technology professionals enjoyed their largest annual salary growth since 2008, according to
the latest Dice Tech Salary Survey. After two straight years of wages remaining nearly flat, tech
professionals on average garnered salary increases of more than 2%, boosting their average annual
wage to $81,327 from $79,384 in 2010.
"Finally! Compensation has mustered some momentum, as more and more top tech markets are notching increases in pay. Silicon Valley's compensation moved first and wrote the playbook for highly qualified tech professionals to ask for more – whether that be in Seattle, Houston or Raleigh," said Tom Silver, SVP, North America at Dice. "The increasing popularity of bonuses
shows companies are rewarding their top performers. While everyone loves a bonus, anyone who
has been through a cycle knows that bonuses both reward and punish. In fast-changing markets, it's imperative for highly skilled tech professionals to capitalize on their career and compensation options." Full survey report here.
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5 Things I Look for in a Great Job Interview
Posted on INC. January 16, 2012, by Matthew Swyers, @TrademarkCo
"Here is what separates a good candidate from a great one.
In my career I have reviewed thousands of resumes and conducted hundreds of employment interviews for both The Trademark Company and other businesses for which I have worked. In doing so, I got to see the good, the bad, and the downright ugly in terms of resumes, interviewing skills, and the like. For other CEOs looking to hire, here's what I think makes a great candidate stand out from the good ones.
- Attention to detail
- Proofread
- Preparedness
- Phone and email-correspondence
- Honesty is overrated"
Read the full article for explanations of Matthew's top five items here.
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Think Your Online Social Media Presence WON’T Affect Your Job/Internship Opportunities? Think again.
An online reputation is the publicly held social evaluation of a person based on his or her behavior, what he or she posts, and what others (such as individuals, groups, and Web services) share about the person on the Internet.
The Internet constitutes a worldwide database, where information is archived and not easily deleted. People, companies, and governments are increasingly using technologies such as social networking and video sharing, blogs, and search engines to create and share content with others around the world.
This report summarizes online reputation research commissioned by Microsoft. It was conducted by Cross-Tab between December 10 and 23, 2009, in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Approximately 275 recruiters, human resources (HR) professionals, and hiring managers, and about 330 consumers interviewed in each country.
This study explores the attitudes of consumers, HR professionals, and recruiters on the subject of online reputation. In particular, it examines the impact of online reputation on hiring and how people manage their online reputation.
Highlights of the study’s findings include:
The recruiters and HR professionals surveyed are not only checking online sources to learn about potential candidates, but they also report that their companies have made online screening a formal requirement of the hiring process.
Of U.S. recruiters and HR professionals surveyed, 70% say they have rejected candidates based on information they found online. Though not as frequently, respondents from the U.K. and Germany report the same trend.
Read the full report below.
Online Reputation For Job Seekers Report
For additional information, please contact us.
