InsideTech

Ever find out one of your friends hasn't read "Neuromancer" or doesn't know what a Babelfish is or why it's important to keep a towel handy at all times? Did you have that brief moment where you thought, "Man, it's like I don't even know you?" If you're gonna work in tech, write code, or just spend way too much time ...

Welcome to InsideTech, an online resource focused on helping both new and established IT professionals get the news they need, gain knowledge from peers, tap career resources for moving ahead and collaborate in forums where you can share valuable workday solutions and advice on issues to help you do your job better and make your day less stressful. Here’s a guide ...

SAP, network security, and business intelligence top this quarter's list of the IT job skills that companies are paying more for. While the overall value of IT certifications continues to decline, holders of several key certs and skills have made significant gains in salary over the past six months. Find out which areas of IT are hot in our analysis of ...

IT doesn't just mean the guy who comes to fix your PC when it breaks down. The technology industry has developed a diverse range of careers, including everything from tech support specialists to database administrators to specialized project managers. Whether you're just starting your IT career or looking to take the next step up the ladder, InsideTech is here to help. ...

Launching a new career, whether you’re just coming out of college or moving from another professional field, is daunting in itself. Combine that with moving into the technology industry, where everything seems to change every day, and the career aspiration can be viewed as both challenging and exciting. The key to career success is finding your niche and establishing career goals ...

The skills required for technology jobs vary widely from one position to another, but are some technical skills worth acquiring, no matter what your area of expertise? Absolutely. That’s clear from a review of Monster job ads for various technical positions. Listings for network engineers sometimes call for HTML skills. Help-desk jobs may require documentation skills. Programmers often need to know ...

Tech geeks, take note: Silicon Valley is still the center of the technology universe, but if you're thinking about a career in computing and want to avoid the Bay Area's sky-high cost of living, consider another locale—say, Durham, N.C., or even Huntsville, Ala. Flip through this slide show for a glimpse of the 30 cities boasting the most high-tech jobs per ...

The workplace is not what it was five years ago. Neither is the job hunt. The most successful candidates are those who are ready and willing to adapt to a changing landscape. But it doesn’t matter how ready you are for the modern workplace if your resumé’s straight out of 1994. And sometimes, it's the most minute details that make all ...

Less than 10 years ago, certification was a surefire way to enter the growing IT sector. But certification no longer guarantees that you will be able to find a high quality job in IT. It still has its place, but the IT certification industry has faced some systemic problems that no one has addressed since its emergence. Warren Wyrostek calls on ...

When asked for a recommendation on a current certification path for someone wanting to enter IT, Warren Wyrostek initially thought, "That is easy." But when he started to think about the most cost-effective certification, one that had merit, offered earning power, and provided career advancement, he had to pause and revisit the first steps one can take to begin a career ...

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 ...

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 ...

A job posting lists these skills: J2EE, EJB, JSP, XML, WebSphere, Oracle, UML, HTML, servlets and a minimum GPA of 3.0. You meet them all, aside from the one for UML. But does the company really expect to find a candidate with this laundry list of skills? Should you apply, or keep looking? Technology executives, hiring managers and human resource professionals ...

All interviews were not created equal. Depending on the role, the industry and the ruthlessness of your potential employer, you may encounter one – or a combination – of the common interview types. Each one is unique, and demands a tailored approach to its preparation. Lucky for you, we've identified the five most common interview methods. We'll give you the ...

Now more than ever, it’s important to get the best bang for your buck. And there’s no question about it — when it comes to value, not every U.S. city is created equally. Why chase a great salary if your rent swallows most of it, unemployment is skyrocketing and you spend two hours a day just to get to and from ...

When you are looking to make the Big Leap—the one that puts you closer to the power centers of a business or organization—the interview process will likely be different from what you've experienced before. The more senior the person or people you're interviewing with, the more definite their ideas are likely to be about what they're looking for. They know that ...

Sometimes, a person will lose their job through no fault of their own. The whims of a psychotic boss, an economy in shambles, or a simple misunderstanding can have an otherwise satisfactory employee packing up his or her cubicle. Other times, a person will lose their job because they have done something so incredibly foolish, you wonder how they ever ...

Techies often make information technology their career, because they love working with computers, whether cobbling together networks or building Web sites. But if your work is also your hobby, when do you have time for anything else? Is this situation simply a win-win for techies and their employers? Or does focusing too much attention on one part of your life pose ...

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 ...

All too often, work and what we really love doing are two very different things. If that's your situation, a layoff can be a blessing in disguise. The blessing might be disguised as a severance package or a chance to reorient towards a more fulfilling career path. It might be a time to reconnect with family and friends or just ...