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Computer
Careers On The Move
Employment
in the computer services industry will continue to increase in the metropolitan
area. Analysts are predicting a 1.5 percent job growth and 190,000 new
jobs are expected to be created this year alone. The demand for workers
in the ITfield comes from firms seeking to expand their business on the
Internet or upgrade their current computer systems and software. While
many dot com's have failed, other high-tech related firms are seeking
to hire ITworkers to revive projects that had been set aside because of
staffing shortages created by the tight labor market in 2000. New
media and financial companies are especially hot for IT professionals,
according to Computerworld magazine. The move to e-commerce and online
trading requires more developers and systems talent. In the new-media
markets, a variety of segments are appearing, including content-driven
Web sites, large firms with digital presences, and small start-ups with
unique business models. New
job opportunities are available specifically for professionals with Java,
Visual Basic, Sybase, Oracle, Unix and C++ skills, programmers/analysts
who have experience in the full project life-cycle, developers and systems
administrators. With an increase in hiring on the horizon, concern remains
that there won't be enough workers to fill the demand. IT
researcher Meta Group Inc., estimated that roughly 850,000 IT positions
were unfilled nationwide at the end of 2000, more than double the number
of vacancies just six months earlier. In addition, it is estimated that
the UShigh-tech industry will create more than five million jobs by 2008,
in part reflecting the Internet's arrival as a mainstream business vehicle. Although
10.4 million workers currently earn a living in the Information Technology
(IT) field in the US, the size of this workforce continues to fall short
of the demand. The ITAA estimated that employers will attempt to fill
more than 900,000 new jobs in 2001. The talent gap for ITworkers remains
large as well hiring managers report an anticipated shortfall of 425,000
ITworkers to fill their openings. ITcompanies
estimate that their greatest percentage number of openings will fall in
the area of programming and software engineering, followed by web development,
tech support and database development. Contact
The Chubb Institute at 1-800-CHUBB-37, for more information on this subject.
This school specializes in the ITfields of Web Development, Business Programming,
Networking, and Technical Support. Computer
Networking Technologies(CNT), with schools in East Brunswick and Mount
Laurel, NJ. has added two new certification training courses to stay on
the leading edge of the market demand. They are Certified Internet Web
Master (CIW) and Certified CISCO Network Associate (CCNA). CIW is for
those who want to learn the ins and outs of E-business, set up a website,
set up security, and the logistics of doing business on the internet. The
school also offers the popular course called A+ which teaches you basic
computer technology. "Many people take A+ for their own personal
benefit and life skills," says Vicki Wonderlin, Sales and Marketing
Manager for CNT. "This course can be completed in five weeks or four
months depending on whether you go days, evenings or weekends. We offer
several tracks. We also offer Network + and Microsoft Certified Systems
Engineer (MCSE) courses. 50% of our students are career changers, 50%
are career enhancers. Some students were nurses, some were truck drivers
and restaurant managers. " Wonderlin adds that all of the training
is instructor-led with small class sizes. Put enough time into studying, pass the certification tests and you can get a job in the Information Technology field starting at $40 thousand and up. "It will take years to fill the gap of IT professionals needed," says Wonderlin. All you need to start is a high school diploma and persistence.
"This
course is for anyone in any industry that has a web presence," said
Goldsmith. "It's for students seeking business-oriented technical
competencies geared around the internet." Information Architecture
is about getting the multiple programming languages (like java, html,
dhtml, xml etc) to co-exist and make a website run smoothly he said. "We've
moved so far, so fast, because of the development, the languages have
become extremely complex. Then, when you add multi-media, it requires
more knowledge. You can put these technologies together in such a way
that stimulates browsing or buying. On a website, what if a salesperson
is there (online) and can answer your questions live, along with twenty-five
other prospects around the world with the same question at the same time?
This allows an increase and integration to the company's core values.
This is just one aspect of what's possible with today's technology. It
puts small businesses on the same footing as large companies." The
MS degree is 30 credit hours. Also available, are two certificate programs,
which are 12 credit hours. Courses include client server and wireless
devices, fat and thin client computing, component technologies and online
collaboration. "Capitol
was the first in the country to offer live, online classes. We've had
courses online for three years. We include features like 'pass-the-mic'.
This feature allows students to 'raise their hand' by pressing a key.
The instructor would 'pass the mic' to them. The lingo is all built on
classroom metaphors. We asked 'how do teachers teach? How do students
learn?' We can synchronize live online classes with traditional classes." Dean
Goldsmith says they get feedback from students indicating Capitol's program
was "the best they had ever seen in online courses." And online
classes cost less than traditional classes. eBusiness/Webmasters
enjoy the fastest job growth in spite of slowing economy In this dynamic
and competitive job market, the hot skills that employers are looking
for are changing. What was hot two years before may be obsolete today.
As a prospective student in the Information Technologies (IT), it's essential
to understand the trend and not trust what was hot in the past. There
are ways to find out the current trend and extrapolate the future to identify
probable trend twelve to eighteen months from today. There are software
programs that use the Internet to pull information from employment sites
like Dice.com, Hotjobs.com, Monster.com, Jobcircle.com. The information
is pulled into a central database, an intelligent program eliminates all
duplicates, cleans the records and process them for interpretation. The
net result of all these is a dependable figure that shows the number of
jobs associated with each IT field. Demand
for IT skills also depend on the economy and the general employment outlook.
This is available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Dept of Labor.
website: http://stats.bls.gov/. The
data shows general unemployment rate has been edging up gradually from
month to month in 2001. The Quarterly Average Unemployment rate for April
2000 was 4.0%., for February 2001 it was 4.2%., March 2001 it was 4.3%,
and in the month of April 2001 it was 4.5%. Consequently, you should expect
the number of IT jobs for specific skill sets to drop also. The table
below shows how these numbers have changed for the last three months. What
is significant in the above table is that most IT jobs are demanding eBusiness
administration, programming and architecture skills and some advanced
Web development skills. Java programming jobs have lost a staggering 50%
of the total number as of the end of April. So did basic Web development
jobs. XML related jobs especially with Wireless Application protocol is
the only category that has gained in the number of jobs. The XML category
is the high end of Web Development skills. MCSE which topped the charts
two years back has only 724 new jobs all over US today. In the last few
months MCSE and Cisco related jobs have lost close to 50% demand and over
a year period, they have lost more 92% of the demand. What
happens in the future? What is significant is high end Web Development
(XML) with eBusiness skills like CRM(Customer Relationship Management),
eProcurement, Database Integration, Web programming using ASP/Java/XML
etc is edging up in spite of a lower overall employment market. ~
This information was provided from Sysoft,
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