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By Jim Staats
| November 17, 2011
Professionals in the IT industry are traditionally more likely to put their faith in cold, hard facts.
When it comes to the not-quite-age-old, but-getting-there question of the industry certifications’ true value, numbers, more and more, back up the claims of proponents of accreditation.
In a new survey of 700 IT professionals, nearly three-quarters of the respondents credit their certifications for promotions, new jobs and other career benefits.
In addition, 40 percent of those queried i ...
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By Janet Pinkerton
| November 16, 2011
How securely are you using your smartphones or network-enabled tablets? CompTIA reached out to industry experts for their top personal best practices for mobile device security, and here’s the resulting checklist:
1) Password-protect your device. This was the starting rule for all experts CompTIA contacted. “Passwords matter a lot,” said Rebecca Lawson, director of WW Enterprise Security Solutions for HP Enterprise Business. “You need to use them.”
2) Lock your phone when it’s not in use. “ ...
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By JIm Staats
| November 14, 2011
IT Outsourcing: Economic Slide Could Produce Upside for Providers Despite a decline in the IT outsourcing market recently, a possible double dip economic downturn could spell good news for outsourcing providers in the near future.
So says findings from the latest quarterly report by outsourcing firm Everest Group, as reported in CIO this week.
For the first time in the past year, activity within the global outsourcing market, for both IT and business processes (BPO), dropped, according to t ...
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By JIm Staats
| November 11, 2011
Takeaway of the week is that more signs are pointing to IT jobs on the horizon. You just have to know where to look. Are you interested in healthcare IT? Have you considered spanning the globe right from your computer as an online-only contractor? If you’re already in an IT job, are you content? Other people say you are.
The Online-Only Worker Bee
Technological advances connect the global workforce like never before. One of the growing dynamics of this new reality is the growth of t ...
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By Janet Pinkerton
| November 10, 2011
When it comes to mobile device security, the smartphone chickens have long flown the IT security coop, and companies of all sizes are in the continual process of corralling device usage and reducing risk.
To assist with this effort, CompTIA asked IT security experts—including forensic specialists, enterprise security executives and academics—to list their top enterprise best practices for mobile device security.
Now that business intelligence flows through social networks, web apps and Clou ...
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By Jim Staats
| November 09, 2011
Despite the gloomy economy and a global shift in some traditional job functions, there are plenty of IT jobs to be had if one knows how and where to look.
So says Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of CompTIA, in a Computerworld Q&A this week.
Thibodeaux, a longtime leader within the technical fraternity, highlights mismatched skill sets as a prime reason so many unemployed IT technicians are being prevented from filling otherwise appealing job openings.
“An IT career requires a lifelo ...
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By Jim Staats
| November 04, 2011
More and more employers may be turning to virtual job fairs in an attempt to broaden their candidate pool while saving travel and expenses.
In these online forums - in which both companies and job seekers can log in from across the globe - participants can access a variety of “booths” of such big-name firms including Procter & Gamble Co., Citigroup or Boeing Co. to learn details about the company as well as open positions, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. These job ...
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By Todd Thibodeaux
| November 03, 2011
I did a radio interview last Saturday talking about the IT job market. We covered the standard message points: lots of open jobs in some regions but very few in others, not enough skilled people to fill them wherever they seem to be, and employers being very picky and specific about who they are hiring. But the point I kept coming back to in my own mind was when will the U.S. labor market hit a tipping point?
Unemployment is almost always a lagging indicator during post-recession periods of gr ...
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By Jim Staats
| November 02, 2011
Jimmy Hooh Chee Ming had considerable experience after 28 years in the IT field, but still sought a little extra insurance to bolster his transition into a full-time project management role.
His co-workers pointed him toward CompTIA Project+ and he’s been singing praises ever since.
“Having gone through Project+, I am confident I can manage a given project accordingly,” said Hooh, transition and transformation manager with HP Malaysia. “It really helps me a lot, especially (when it comes to) ...
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By Matthew Poyiadgi
| October 31, 2011
As a young man growing up, I followed many sports stars: Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalgish, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, but my sporting inspiration was Zinedine Zidane. He was so naturally gifted and so intelligent with the ball. This week, I found inspiration not with footballers, but at youngsters no more than 18 years old who won the apprentice of the year awards at the Zenos annual conference, where I also had the pleasure of presenting my view on the “Evolution of IT, Jobs and Learning”.
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