InsideTech

Today, in effort to maintain the tranparency and accountability promised during the Presidential campaign, the Obama Adminstation launched Recovery.gov. The site is a searchable database of how and where tax dollars are spent as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. From the site's About Us section: * "Education: Explain the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; * Transparency: Show ...

Sooner or later, you're going to call a recruiter or -- if you've got in-demand expertise -- find yourself on the receiving end of such a call. Techies often find it fruitful to work with a recruiter during a job search, but they don't always know what to expect from the relationship. Before you decide you want a recruiter on your ...

How much time do you spend on your cover letter? If the answer is “not much,” you could be missing out on quality interviews. Technology career experts say that a hastily written letter -- or worse -- no letter at all, could stall your job search. Follow these tips to write a winning letter. 1. Always Send a Letter The ease ...

With resume gaps now the norm, workers should pay attention to how they use spent time between jobs. The reason is simple: Employers want to know how job candidates spent their time when they were out of work. Learning? Traveling? Moping? Unless you project the image of a can-do job seeker, you're likely to have a tough time bouncing back from ...

WASHINGTON — Looking for a job or fear losing your own? President Obama says he can help 3 million to 4 million of you. That could be optimistic, however. The Congressional Budget Office says Obama's economic stimulus package of spending programs and tax cuts would create 1.2 million to 3.6 million jobs. The economic consulting firm IHS Global Insight puts the ...

A conversation with the authors of 'The Virtual Handshake' From finding jobs to sealing deals, The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online explains blogs, social networking sites and other online tools for building relationships. Authors Scott Allen, a strategic marketing consultant and former information technology executive, and David Teten, a serial entrepreneur and currently CEO of Nitron Advisors, offer ...

With the US economy tanking, the question for IT professionals is this: Is my niche relatively safe? According to many observers, there is good news for IT folks in a number of sectors, whether they’re veterans with decades of experience or recent graduates whose skills are untested in the marketplace: If you’ve got the right tech skills and can think like ...

It's never easy to get a job when every job posting you see requires some experience. That’s the chicken and egg problem you face when training for a new career, and it's especially prominent in the IT industry. So where are the entry-level IT careers? And how should can you start building experience without getting a job or before you finish ...

Fame, fortune and endless job offers. Such is the life of the Facebook developer. Well, not quite. If you’re a software developer seeking to break into the business through Facebook development - or an experienced codesmith out to make a bundle - you should probably view any forays into the Facebook realm as a learning experience, not a sure thing. “Even ...

In the post-boom era, college graduates have found out just how tough a job search can be. They've also learned something else: An internship is a virtual necessity when seeking a position as a technology professional. "I've seen an increase in the emphasis on internships," says Tom Tarantelli, director of the Career Development Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "Employers now want ...

Entrepreneurial projects can consume your life. No wonder so many people with limited time and funds defer their dreams of starting a business. But with the help of online technologies, millions of people are keeping their day jobs while trying entrepreneurship as minipreneurs. As defined by trendwatching.com, a firm that tracks and analyzes consumer trends, minipreneurs are a "vast army" of ...

A supposedly hot certification or a few months of technology training isn't always enough to propel you into the market for tech jobs. Employers almost always prefer to hire people with real-world experience. To aspiring techies, it's a catch-22: You can't get a job without experience, and you can't get experience without a job. One solution: Volunteer work. This story is ...

The business world may be looking for technology pros, but you're not a pro (yet) if you have a new certification and no experience. How do you gain that experience? One way is to take temporary assignments. Working as a temp may not be your ultimate goal, but when you're launching a career, you want to get experience any way possible. ...

Managing people isn't easy. It's especially tough if you've never done it before. And it's harder still if you're a first-time IT manager. That's the opinion of psychologist Richard Hagberg, president of the Hagberg Consulting Group, a Foster City, California-based company that develops training programs for the high tech industry. Hagberg doesn't mince words when talking about the shortcomings of newly ...

When a woman we'll call Mary was offered a high-level student-services position at a prestigious college, she was thrilled to accept. But two years later, Mary was fired despite strong performance reviews and a reputation as a rising star at the college. The reason? She lied on her resume - and got caught. An HR initiative requiring employees to furnish college ...

During the boom, techies with in-demand skills might have been offered a job after a perfunctory interview. Now employers are increasingly selective, so technology professionals - even those with years of experience - must face facts. To get hired you need to become a pro not just at coding Unix or C++, but at selling yourself to companies besieged with resumes. ...

Name: Alan McConnell Title: Software Development Engineer Company: Amazon.com Location: Seattle Monster: What led you to choose a career in your field? Alan McConnell: I've always wanted to be an engineer. My grandfather was an engineer in the aeronautical industry; his intelligence and ability to solve problems was a great inspiration. As a child I was naturally attracted to electronics and ...

Name: Niniane Wang Title: Software Engineer Company: Google Monster: What led you to choose a career in engineering? Is it something you always wanted to do? Niniane Wang: I excelled at math as a kid - skipped three grades, started college math courses at 11. I figured I would go into science or engineering. One of my dad's friends taught me ...

The Information Technology (IT) and tech industries may lend themselves to a few key misconceptions. You may have some false hopes or reservations about the type of work and environment you'll find in the IT world. This week, I'm going to do a little myth-busting and reveal the reality behind the three top tech misconceptions. 1. Tech is exciting. I've been ...

You’ve heard that your base salary is largely determined by your education level – but did you ever wonder exactly how much education matters? If you’ve got enough smarts, it shouldn’t matter whether or not you have formal training – right? Wrong. Or at least, it's not always that simple. As job scarcity continues to drive more competition to each open ...