InsideTech

If you are taking a break from actively managing your IT career, just remember one word: Cobol. While this '50s-era programming language is still used today, it symbolizes the way a seemingly omnipresent technology can be in demand one moment and out of fashion the next. Technology professionals understand that they work in an industry characterized by rapid-fire change, but techies ...

You've gotten the same advice again and again: If you're out of work, you've got to network. Techies, like everyone else, often land jobs through colleagues, friends and other acquaintances. But how do you cultivate connections if you believe what you know -- rather than whom you know -- should determine whether you're hired? For starters, you have to acknowledge just ...

Too many job seekers stumble through interviews as if the questions are coming out of left field. But many interview questions are to be expected. Study this list and plan your answers ahead of time so you’ll be ready to deliver them with confidence. What Are Your Weaknesses? This is the most dreaded question of all. Handle it by minimizing your ...

If you want to start developing leadership skills in your first job, here’s Lindsey Pollak’s advice: Begin with your eyes and ears. That’s what she did in her first role as a program coordinator for the American Woman’s Economic Development Corp. in Stamford, Connecticut. “My pay was very low, so my terrific boss - the executive director of the organization - ...

When you’ve worked so hard to get that first job after college, the last thing you want is to screw it up. Sadly, new grads do it all the time. The problem rarely stems from lack of knowledge or poor technical skills. It often goes back to something simpler: Your persona in the workplace, particularly during your first few weeks on ...

Today I’m kicking off our series on video resumes. Let’s start with the most important ground rule: we aren’t going to use a professional. This is all DIY baby. If you are actively in the job market, do you have a lot of extra funds hanging around to go pay someone to shoot your video resume professionally? If you did, you ...

Your first day of work will help define you in the eyes of your new coworkers. Make a good first impression, and you'll soon be viewed as a capable, respected colleague. But a bad first impression could mean months or years of trying to undo the damage. Here's what you can do - both before and during your start date - ...

You've just hung up the phone after accepting a job offer, putting an end to a nerve-racking search. Since your start date is six weeks away, you can just kick back and enjoy yourself until then, right? Wrong. OK, you can take a few days off to decompress and put your head back on straight. But there are still several things ...

In the last decade, computers have become an integral part of everyday life, used for a variety of reasons at home, in the workplace, and at schools. Of course, almost every computer user encounters a problem occasionally, whether it is the disaster of a crashing hard drive or the annoyance of a forgotten password. The explosive use of computers has created ...

If you're considering becoming a computer programmer, or just want an idea of how programmers interface with IT, the first step is to understand the job definition: Computer programmers convert project specifications and statements of problems and procedures to detailed logical flow charts for coding into computer language. They develop and write computer programs to store, locate, and retrieve specific documents, ...

Thinking of heading into IT consulting? Then you don’t want to miss the insight and advice from Doug Berg who started two companies, techies.com, an online job board and training center for tech professionals, and also HotGigs , a company that brings consultants together with the staffing firms that recruit them and the companies that hire them. He’s worked with job ...

Thinking of heading into IT consulting? Then you don’t want to miss the insight and advice from Doug Berg who started two companies, techies.com, an online job board and training center for tech professionals, and also HotGigs , a company that brings consultants together with the staffing firms that recruit them and the companies that hire them. He’s worked with job ...

Thinking of heading into IT consulting? Then you don’t want to miss the insight and advice from Doug Berg who started two companies, techies.com, an online job board and training center for tech professionals, and also HotGigs , a company that brings consultants together with the staffing firms that recruit them and the companies that hire them. He’s worked with job ...

How much does it cost your company every time your network or your website goes down? Probably not as much as the millions per minute Amazon has on the table if it's down for any real chunk of time. Global enterprises like Google and Amazon are the overclocked gaming PCs of the IT world--very few people need a machine on that ...

Computing research may not top your list of concerns when searching for a junior programmer or multimedia specialist post. But the Computing Research Association (CRA), a group devoted to research in computing, has a mission - and the resources - to help just about anyone working in technology. Best known among IT professionals for its Taulbee Survey of PhD-granting computer science ...

The internet has made stalkers out of all of us. You know exactly what I'm talking about. But instead of stalking your ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend, consider using your newfound detective skills for more productive (i.e. less emotionally jarring) purposes, like snagging the job of your dreams. Interested in a company and need to find a person to contact? Google away. Trying ...

Today's managers are charged with getting the most out of workers no matter what. But the reality is that many managers must coax top performances from their employees while working with a minimal budget that may require salary freezes; cuts in benefits, bonuses or perks; reductions in hours; or even layoffs. If you're faced with a less-than-optimal budget situation, follow these ...

All savvy product managers are quick to master the art of making trade-offs. But when the product you manage is part of integrated solution, balancing the needs of colleagues and customers is not just good business, says Avid Technology's Karin Monsler. "It's a survival skill." The product she manages, Avid Unity Media Services, is just one of more than a dozen ...

*Name:* Anna Fincher *Age:* 25 *Title:* Technology Analyst *Company:* Accenture *Location:* Atlanta *Monster:* How did you get to your current position? *Anna Fincher:* Accenture actively recruits at Georgia Institute of Technology, where I received a BS in mechanical engineering. I went through the interview process during my last undergrad semester, participating in two on-campus interviews and a final third-round office visit ...

Nearly every day, someone sends me a bit of astounding job-search advice from a blog or a newsletter. Some of this advice seems to come directly from the planet X-19, and some of it seems to have been made up on the spot. Here are 10 of my favorite pieces of atrocious job-search advice, for you to read and ignore at ...