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IT Productivity, ITSM, IT Job Descriptions, Sarbanes Oxley, IT Salary Survey, and Disaster Planning News Portal

In an Associated Press story it was stated that job cuts announced by U.S. employers last month jumped 12 percent over a year ago to cap the busiest summer of downsizing in six years. The monthly job reductions slowed somewhat from July but still exceeded the year-ago figure for a seventh time in 2008.  Employers announced plans to reduce their work forces by 88,736 jobs in August — 14 percent fewer than the 103,312 job cuts announced in July but 12 percent more than the 79,459 recorded in August 2007.

This in agrees with the data that Janco has collected.

When you hear that your company may be outsourcing, laying people off, or you feel you may be losing your job there are some things that you can do to get ready before that happens and others that you can do once it happens to ease your pain.

• Document what is happening and what your benefits should be
• Relax and get yourself in a good frame of mind
• Review all of your employment records including job offer and performance reviews to know your rights
• Update your resume
• Expand your skill set via any training that is available to you
• Review your professional networks contract information and keep a copy at home
• Review your spending and saving situation and know what the impact of losing your job would be
• Utilize your existing insurance programs and do medical / dental work quickly and know what insurance options such as COBRA you will have if you lose your job
• Put out feelers to see what other opportunities you have, use internet job boards to measure market conditions
• Know you strengths and weaknesses and begin to prepare for the interview
• Re-establish your contacts with recruiters
• Keep good records on all efforts you place in the “potential” job hunt
• Be proactive

Janco Associates has just completed an analysis of over 75 companies within the US that have outsourced their IT functions to see what the impact was on the IT Job Market.  The major finding was that just under 20% of the IT professionals remained with the company in some capacity and in some cases at a lower salary.

The actual percentages were 71.63% - Laid off; 8,65% - Quit within 90 days of the outsourcing; and 19.72% - Remained with the company at least 90 days after outsourcing.

(cNet) - The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a state law ruling that employers cannot restrict employees from working for a competitor or soliciting former clients when they leave the company.

That may be good news for California-based tech employees who want to take their skills to another company, or head a start-up that may directly compete with their former employer. "Noncompete" contracts, in place largely to protect an employer's intellectual property, began being used by companies during the dot-com boom to prevent losing valuable workers in a competitive technology labor market.

The California law has been in existence since 1872, forbidding "noncompete clauses" that restrict management employees' options in their next job or business. But the law has been interpreted differently throughout the state, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has ruled in favor of allowing a company to limit their employees' future job choices, as long as it doesn't prevent them from working in the same field.

Thursday's ruling was a response to the Edwards vs. Arthur Andersen case, stating clearly that Edwards, a tax manager, signed an invalid noncompete clause. The court said in its final disposition (see PDF) that "Non-competition agreements are invalid...in California even if narrowly drawn."

There is no documentation on the application (code)  - When a program fails at a critical point in time and the error is investigated you find there is no documentation of what the code does, how it impacts other applications, and the programmer who wrote the code cannot be identified or is no longer with your enterprise.

No application relationship diagram is available – When it is time to upgrade or change and you find that there is no application interface definition nor is there any documentation which tells you how the application interfaces with all of the other applications within the enterprise.

Key employee is actively seeking a new job or looking to retire – Out of 100 IT employees 22 change jobs within each 12 months.  Add to that the fact that between 20 to 30% of "legacy" system experts are going to retire within the next 5 years and you have another issue the CIO needs to address.

Users and the CIO want an application and you cannot document the ROI – Pressure is placed on you to build the business case for a new application or an enhancement to an existing one and you cannot prove that it meets the enterprise’s ROI threshold.

You do not know what the CIO’s vision is – You are in a meeting with users and the CIO and say something that shows that you are not on the same page as the CIO.

A bundle of Job Descriptions have been created for Enterprise Architecture. In addition several other job descriptions have been updated to reflect the Enterprise Architecture function.  The twelve (12) job descriptions are:

• Manager Enterprise Architecture
• Project Manager Enterprise Architecture
• Enterprise Architect
• CIO
• CIO - Small Enterprise
• Chief Compliance Officer - CCO
• Chief Security Officer - CSO
• Manager Database
• Manager SOX Compliance
• Capacity Planning Supervisor
• Change Control Supervisor
• Database Administrator

The Internet and IT Job Description WORD files have also been updated to include these changes.

Scientists at the University of Leipzig have taken a close look what your e-mail address says about you.  They found that people really do judge others based on the e-mail addresses they choose. What's more interesting, however, is that these judgments tend to be right.

In a research published recently in the Journal of Research in Personality, the scientists took a look at just e-mail addresses and had the people who created them fill out a brief personality questionnaire. Then, they asked other students to rate these same addresses to find out if the e-mail names seemed to be neurotic, open, agreeable, conscientious, narcissistic or extroverted.

They discovered is that the students tended to judge people based on their addresses. The researchers say it's astonishing that the sliver of information that you pass on in your e-mail address can be enough for people to get a valid read on your personality.

Their advice is simple: Choose an address you like. After all, is it really such a bad thing for others to see you the way you are?

Just five months ago, it seemed as if demand for IT jobs was holding firm, even as other sectors halted hiring and/or cut jobs. But it didn't take long, about a quarter, for the slowing economy to hit the IT industry. According to numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, the information industry lost 13,000 jobs in July and 44,000 jobs over the past 12 months. This report contrasts sharply with earlier surveys from two industry trade groups, the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses and AeA, both of which found the economy added more than than 90,000 IT jobs over the past year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers mesh more closely with two just-released surveys, one from Goldman Sachs & Co. that found a growing number of managers considering IT staff cuts, and another from Janco Associates that put demand for IT jobs at its lowest point since 2004.

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In speaking with a large number of CTOs, CIOs, and IT decision makers about IT culture, and signs Janco has drawn some conclusions. We have found that there are many who advise CTOs, CIOs, and IT decision makers on how to go about making big changes to their IT culture, but less is said about what changes could mean for the staffers within the department.

A culture change from decisions being made from a large to a small group of people might force an employee to quickly adjust the way they get things done. A change from a U.S focused IT organization to a global one might put pressure on a worker to adjust their schedule, and their way of communicating with customers to fit the culture.

However, the message is that the onus is on the IT professionals to adapt to the changes being made within their departments. Yet most employees have from time to time felt that the culture of their group was changing and perhaps leaving them behind. Is the only option to quietly focus on getting another job?

As the culture changes the IT professional needs to be aware of the way decisions are made, who makes the decisions, and how that impacts them?  If that is not understood and dealt with frustration and poor performance follows.

Many IT professionals ask, “How can I increase what I am paid?”  Janco has defined 5 proven actions that any IT professional can take.  They are:

• Obtain a university or technical degree – A BA or BS will have value long past that of a certification that will be out of date in a few years.
• Build your network of peers and potential employers - You need others who will vouch for you, whether you are transitioning outside your current company or aiming for an internal promotion, so it is important to build trust and respect with your peers, bosses and associates. As a part of this effort, focus on improving your communication skills.
• Increase Your hardware, software, and application experience -  If you are  going to have to use IT hardware, software, and applications, maintain them for other users or convince customers to include those products in solution, you need to be able to discuss your own experiences with those products.
• Attend training and seminars of the latest IT solutions – Expand your knowledge and experience base by every means possible.  There are many training and seminar programs that are available from vendors – attend them and then quickly apply what you have learned.
• Expand your on-the-job experience  - Whenever opportunity arises, throw your hat in the ring for that new project, whether or not it is outside your areas of expertise.  Pursuing projects outside the normal scope of your job responsibilities not only expands your marketable knowledge and experience, but can put you in the position to meet, network with and impress new people.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics – US Department of Labor in July employment for the information industry declined by 13,000 jobs and by 44,000 over the past 12 months.  Telecommunications lost 5,000 jobs in July.

Roles of CIO as he becomes the CTO for enterprises expand to include:

• Becomes a player in creation of the business plan and strategy processes
• Improving the Infrastructure of IT and focusing on improved service levels
• Adding value to and improving the business operational process
• Providing accurate and timely data which complies with needs of all users – both internal and external
• Driving innovation with both technological and systemic advancements

Great places to work are not just those that pay the most.  Criteria that employees look for are:

• Benefits such as 401k's and extensive health and dental insurance which are employer paid
• Work environment that allows for a personal life
• Organizational structure that lets everyone contribute to the success of the enterprise
• Ability to talk with management freely and openly
• Place where everyone has the ability to be seen by management

Utah is a great place to work because of the number of things that you can do there in your time off.

If we are all working hard on our careers, plus doing our jobs well, is there time for anything else? There is if you work in Utah because of the number of outdoor activities you can participate in without having to fight crowds. To succeed in our careers means not only doing well in our jobs, but making sure that our jobs support the lifestyle that we desire. Unfortunately, when people complain about balance, often the problem isn't too much work, but too little life. Solving this problem can be as simple as scheduling non-work activities or as complex as seeking flexible work arrangements. But what "life" activities should be scheduled?

Two clear facts: No one but you knows what your perfect balance should be, and no one but you can know which activities hold interest.

In the case of Utah in the winter there is skiing, and the rest of the year there is golf, mountain and road biking, fishing, hiking, and boating. 

With the prospects not all that great in the IT Job Market, IT professionals need to take care when they leave one company and start a job search.  IT Professionals should do before and after an job interview.

Before the Interview and while you are employed

• Keep track of your accomplishments and keep your resume up-to-date
• Focus your resume to the job you want to get
• Leave your existing job on a good note
• Keep your professional network alive and working
• Extend your search beyond the Internet
• Extend your search to every possible job not just the perfect job
• Have a generic cover letter ready to go
• Focus on your accomplishments in your resume and cover letter – use positive statements
• Eliminate all typos and grammatical errors
• Include your personal cell phone number as the best place to contact you

• Show up on time for appointments and respond to phone and email messages promptly
• Dress for the job you want
• Remember that first impressions last
• Asking meaningful questions
• Speak positively about former boss employers
• Focus and listen to interviewers
• Researching the position and the potential employer
• Be polite and do not discuss politics or religion
• Salary should be one of the last things discussed
• After the interview send a thank you note
• Follow-up but do not be over-aggressive
• Learn from each interview – What did you do right and what did you wrong?
• Keep track of where you have applied – add to your
• Assume you will not get a response from an interview – continue your search

Based on the Janco 2008 Mid Year Salary Survey, there is increased demand for seven positions in large enterprises and six positions in mid-sized businness. 

In large business the positions in high demand are:

• VP - Information Service
• Director Systems & Programming
• Manager Data Warehouse
• Computer Operations - Shift Manager
• Voice Wireless Communications Manager
• Manager Wireless Communications
• Data Center Facility Administrator

In mid-sized business the positions in high demand are:

• VP - Security (CSO)
• Director Systems & Programming
• Director IT Planning
• Computer Operations - Shift Manager
• Computer Operations - Shift Supervisor
• Change Control Analyst

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