Get the Low Down on Prospective Employers

From DICE News, January 6, 2009...

Want to get the inside scoop about a company’s work environment? Then go directly to the source - current and former employees - to find out their opinions. Hearing a realistic description of a company’s work environment will help you limit your search activities to companies where you stand the best chance of fitting into the culture.

Glassdoor.com is one of several Web sites that collects anonymous employee opinions about work environment, compensation, and management team, and then posts the unfiltered information online. On Dec. 15 the company released its first annual Employees’ Choice Award winners, naming the top 50 employers according to survey feedback collected during 2008. The criteria included:

• A minimum of 25 reviews from U.S.-based employees
• An overall rating of satisfied from employees across all categories
• The CEO must have received an approval rating of at least 50 percent

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Jobless Ask: Take First Offer Or Wait For Better?

From NPR, January 5, 2009...

Unemployed workers face a tough decision: Should they settle for a lower salary, and get work now, or hold out for a job commensurate with their skills? Employment counselors say some folks are still too proud to take a pay cut, but as weeks drag into months, they may have to settle for less.

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Land on Your Feet After a Downsizing

From Kiplinger, January 5, 2009...

Richard Phillips worked for Hewlett-Packard for 17 years before he lost his job as a marketing manager in May 2007 during a corporate reorganization. Phillips, who is 64 and lives in Atlanta, wanted to continue working in the information-technology field.

As part of Phillips's separation package, HP sent him to an outplacement service. "When I went on job interviews, I expected but did not face age discrimination," he says. "One 28-year-old interviewer asked me whether I had the stamina to keep up with the job."

The outplacement service, he says, had "briefed me on ways to reply to that type of question. Instead I talked about what skills I could bring to the table." It took Phillips six months to land a new job, as a corporate marketer in Atlanta for Sage Software, a subsidiary of a British company.

Layoffs and voluntary buyouts are more likely during turbulent economic times. And if you're 55-plus, losing a job can be especially traumatic. Despite equal opportunity laws, companies often don't want to hire someone with a few gray hairs.

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Stimulus could create thousands of IT jobs

From Computerworld, January 5, 2009...

A federal economic stimulus package expected early this year from the administration of President-elect Barack Obama should boost the job prospects of IT professionals.

Katherine McGuire, vice president of government relations at the Business Software Alliance, said Obama's "pro-tech agenda" could increase the number of technology jobs in the U.S. by 10%, adding about 300,000 high-paying IT positions, she said.

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Can the Government Stimulate Your Career?

From DICE News, January 5, 2009...

With the government prepping to pump a few trillion dollars into the economy, it’s only natural to wonder if any of the cash is going to end up in your pocket. Perhaps. Computerworld talked to a couple of analysts who believe that even if the overall job market is soft in 2009, the federal economic stimulus package may actually add IT positions.

David Foote of Foote Partners, which analyzes IT wages and hiring data, says: “IT jobs are relatively safe in the aftermath of the economic meltdown compared to jobs in general.” While 853,000 U.S. jobs in all industries were lost in October and November, he points out, 9,000 were gained in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics categories of “Computer Systems Design and Related Services” and “Management and Technical Consulting Services.”

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New venture firm is aiming at game developers

From statesman, January 5, 2009...

Austinite Alan Kane is doing what very few investment firms have attempted: He's starting a venture firm just for game development startups.

Kane, who used to help run Midway Games Inc.'s studio in Austin, is in the midst of raising a $12 million to $15 million fund for Archangel Ventures, a venture capital fund that will exclusively fund game developers.

"We are looking for companies that are going to take advantage of digital distribution," said Kane, who expects to close the fund in the middle of the year.

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Essential Sites and Services for 2009

From DICE News, January 4, 2009...

Time to sweep away the past and focus squarely on what’s going to matter in 2009. Network World helps out with a New Year’s list of nine sites and services that will help you stay on top of the IT learning curve as the new year begins. To give you a taste, here are the four that seem most interesting to me at the moment. How many have you played with already?

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OtherInbox ready for revenue

From Austin Business Journal, January 2, 2009...

An Austin-based software company plans to release this month its email management tool and begin generating revenue for the first time since it was founded a year ago.

OtherInbox Inc., founded last January by Joshua Baer, sends email such as marketing material and social networking notifications to an alternate location, freeing a user’s working in box for more urgent messages. It also organizes emails into subject folders to help users prioritize messages.

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New Research: Are IT Jobs Sailing Away?

From DICE News, December 31, 2008...

Could it be true that one in four IT jobs will be done overseas by 2010? That’s the rather ominous finding of new research from The Hackett Group, as reported by Allen Bernard of CIO Update.

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Time for Tech Workers to Get a Suit

From DICE News, December 31, 2008...

Fashion sense. It has become such a big deal these days, especially since we have become such an appearance-driven culture. That means how you dress for a job interview can sometimes give you an edge — or not. So I can sympathize with IT workers who may struggle with this area. Most techies spend most of their time behind a computer and they don’t view spiffy attire as relevant to their jobs. After all, it was the tech world that made it OK to be informal in the office (IBM excluded).

But IT workers should take some thought in what they wear to a job interview, particularly in this competitive market. CIO Magazine’s Meridith Levinson says many CIOs suggest tech workers wear a suit to a job interview.

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