Sharon Florentine

Author Archives: Sharon Florentine

When it comes to IT certifications, trust but verify

Trust, but verify, the old adage goes. But in a tight IT talent market, it seems hiring companies are doing a heck of a lot of the former and not enough of the latter. New research shows that organizations are trusting employees when they say they've attained certifications, but aren't investing the time or energy to verify whether or not those credentials have actually been earned."We'd heard this anecdotally, but to see it in the hard data was very concerning, and it made us cringe. The value in the certifications themselves isn't in question, but the lack of action by hiring managers and the fact that some candidates are fudging the truth makes everyone look bad. This has the potential to seriously impede the credibility of certifications to qualify and benchmark candidates," says Jason Hayman, market research manager at TEKSystems, which conducted the research.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tips for keeping Gen-Z and millennial workers happy

Forget everything you think you know about millennials and their successors, Generation Z, because your notions are probably false. What do these generations really want at work? Flexibility, in-person communication, a stable "home base" corporate office and the ability to travel, according to new research from Future Workplace, an HR executive network and research firm, and HR services and staffing company Randstad U.S.A.The research, the Gen Z & Millennials Collide @ Work report, was conducted by Morar Consulting across 10 global markets (U.S., UK, Germany, Mexico, Poland, Argentina, India, China, Canada and South Africa) between June 22 and July 11, 2016, and asked 4,066 respondents in two separate age groups (1,965 Gen Z members; 22 years of age and 2,101 millennials; aged 23 to 34) about their preparation for work, as well as expectations and experiences of their workplaces.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Making a career in DevOps

Variety is the spice of life, and it's also what makes a DevOps career endlessly fascinating and intriguing. But while DevOps requires an intimate knowledge of a myriad of technologies -- software, infrastructure, middleware, as well as business processes and operational best practices -- the most important skills to have for a successful DevOps career aren't technical at all: They're interpersonal, says Eric Sigler, head of DevOps at incident resolution software platform company PagerDuty."Critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and collaboration are the foundation for what makes DevOps work. Empathy in particular is a must-have for those building a career around DevOps. True DevOps engineers have a high degree of compassion and will use it to enable those around them. By being open to alternative points of view, you can pick and choose the best practices and skill sets available to solve the problem at hand," Sigler says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

4 tips to get around resume filtering

You've got all the right skills. Your resume shows a clear progression of advancement through your career, with a long list of accolades and accomplishments. You work well with others, but can excel independently. You've solved problems and increased revenue for your last few employers. You interview well -- or at least you would if you could get an interview.So what's the problem? You might be at the mercy of an applicant tracking system (ATS) and resume-filtering module -- technology that scans incoming resumes for job-specific keywords and "grades" them on a scale of 0 to 100. If your resume isn't scoring high enough, you could be excluded before your application ever makes it before human eyes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

7 tips for making a good impression at your new job

The first month in a new job is arguably one of the most critical, as it can set the tone for your entire tenure with the company. Your actions and reactions can make or break your reputation at your new company and can impact your entire career, says Todd Dean, co-founder and CMO of mobile employment app Wirkn. Here are Dean's six tips for making your first month at a new role one of your best.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

5 apps to help you get more done in less time

Do you ever feel like there aren't enough hours in a day? If you're looking to get more out of your work day, here are five apps -- recommended by Chris Battles, vice president and general manager, communications cloud division at Citrix, that he uses to improve his own productivity.Plan your days ahead of time According to best-selling time management author Brian Tracy, "The more time you take to make a list of everything you have to do, in advance, the more effective and efficient you will be." Battles suggests trying Wunderlist to help you stay organized during the week. You can create, organize and share your lists before you start your day -- from your daily to-do list to managing multiple, ongoing projects and goals -- ultimately helping you to stay on track and focused.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why liberal arts degrees are valuable in tech

In a technology-driven, increasingly digital world, you might think you need a computer science, engineering, technology, mathematics or other degree to succeed. Turns out that's far from the truth.Arijit Sengupta, CEO of advanced analytics firm BeyondCore, holds a bachelor of science in computer science and a bachelor of arts in economics and fell one class short of having a minor in dance. He brings elements of all three to his daily work with BeyondCore, and some of the most valuable lessons he's learned have come from his liberal arts education and his dance training, he says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How underemployment contributes to the STEM skills gap

While unemployment remains low, underemployment is a severely underrated problem in today's economy, and it's contributing to the IT skills gap across the board, according to a new report from cloud compensation and benchmarking services provider PayScale.The report, The War on the American Worker: The Underemployed, surveyed 962,956 U.S. workers between March 26, 2014 and March 26, 2016, and found that almost half, 46 percent, of workers feel they are underemployed, which PayScale defines as working part-time when you'd rather be working full-time, or not using your education and training in your current role.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 tips to master the art of the career humblebrag

In today's hyper-connected social media-centric culture, there aren't many topics that are off-limits. People seem comfortable sharing the most intimate details about meals, travel, kids, pets and personal drama, not to mention their feelings and opinions on politics, current events and religion. But there's one subject that seems to render even the most outspoken people mute: their professional success. And that's a big problem.Social stigma "People are so comfortable sharing their personal lives with a broad swath of people, but when it comes to work, that's when they get shy -- and that's exactly when they shouldn't be. Whether you're an active or a passive job seeker, it's important to have a strong sense of who you are, what you've accomplished and where you want to go next in your career and be able to broadcast those facts to your network," says Catherine Fisher, senior director, member marketing and communications at LinkedIn.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 types of toxic team members and how to handle them

How to handle toxic coworkersImage by ThinkstockThey slow you down, irritate you and sometimes they're just plain useless. You know who they are -- those toxic team members who never seem to actually contribute anything to projects or to your work environment but who have an uncanny ability to stay employed and come out of every situation smelling like the proverbial rose. "While 75 percent of employers rate team work and collaboration as "very important," most employees hate working together in teams because there's inevitably at least one person who make the experience horrible. It may not be deliberate; it may be that these folks are brilliant but just lack social skills. Whatever the case, it's detrimental to the rest of the team and the company," according to Alexander Maasik, communications specialist with workplace productivity solutions company Weekdone. Here, Maasik offers the five most common enemies of teamwork, and the best way to handle them as a leader or as a co-worker. 1. False promises Image by ThinkstockTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

3 ways annoying coworkers kill productivity

"She constantly snaps her chewing gum while talking on the phone all day to her friends.""He eats yogurt every day, and even when the cup is empty, he continues to scrape the bottom with a plastic spoon.""She wipes her nose on her sleeve.""He has a bizarre style of laughing, and seems to laugh at everything."These are real complaints about real people's coworkers sent to career coach, author and speaker Ford R. Myers -- and boy, do they sound annoying."This is definitely a hot-button issue. I get more emails about annoying co-workers than I do about any other topic -- people have a lot of pent-up frustration and anger about these behaviors, but they don't feel they have any outlet. What can they do? They want to vent and be heard, even if it's not necessarily a firing offense," Myers says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IT career roadmap: The journey to certified scrum trainer

Angela Johnson's career began at a call center where she performed technical and customer support and end-user training for legal clients having trouble with the online legal research and database service WestLaw. But after a few years, during which time parent company West was acquired by Thomson Reuters, Johnson moved to Rockwell Automation, a manufacturing automation company whose products gathered and analyzed data about specific parts being machined on factory and plant floors."I am one of a rare breed whose brain seems to intuitively understand the linear nature and thinking required to work with relational databases, I guess, and Rockwell recognized that. We had so many clients on so many different databases, but I was able to help with the technical aspects of extracting that data from Oracle, SQL, Sybase, all these different databases and analyzing it," Johnson says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How ‘citizen developers’ are closing the skills gap

Everyone's learning to code nowadays, but the rise of low-code development platforms are putting application and solution creation capabilities in the hands of even the least programming-savvy employees to help close the IT skills gap, drive efficiency and greater productivity. Welcome to the world of the "citizen developers."Power to the people In September 2015, QuickBase, an organization that has developed a low-code platform to allow for citizen development of enterprisurveyed 140 IT companiesse software, at its annual user conference and found that they were tapping into the expertise of "citizen developers," business pros who create apps and technology solutions for their organization, without any prior traditional coding skills. These professionals work together with IT to design apps tailored to their unique set of business and job role requirements to enable digital transformation and help reduce IT's growing application backlog.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

5 innovative ways to solve unimportant problems

5 innovative ways to solve unimportant problemsImage by Envoy/Pacific ContentAll work and no play not only makes Jack a dull boy, it makes for a pretty disengaged workplace. In Silicon Valley, especially, the competition for talent is cutthroat, and offering fun and innovative projects is a great way to attract and retain elite talent. Digital guest management and visitor sign-in solutions company Envoy's CEO Larry Gadea and his team wanted a way to publicly recognize the efforts of employees. Technology provided the answer: an automated 'sales gong' that would reverberate throughout the office whenever a new subscriber signs up. The solution's built using a Raspberry Pi connected to a series of relays, and the mechanism to ring the gong is written into the main codebase. Any time there's a new subscriber, the system springs into action and rings the gong. The overall effect is more than just to recognize the efforts of salespeople, marketers and developers within the company, Gadea says. It's to remind Envoy's teams of the "bigger picture" and to build on the culture of innovation and teamwork at the company. "We wanted to remind everyone that all the hard work we're doing is making an Continue reading

5 tips to avoid summer’s plummeting productivity

Avoid summer's plummeting productivityImage by Thinkstock Investment in employee education and learning increases engagement and makes employees more productive. If you find your workload is a bit light during the summer months, consider sitting down with your manager to identify existing professional development programs or courses to add to your skill set, Battles says. If you can't physically attend courses, take advantage of virtual training tools and online massive open online courses. 1. The more you knowImage by Thinkstock To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to build a strong employee referral culture

A strong referral culture not only helps streamline the recruiting and hiring process, but also delivers benefits such as increased engagement, collaboration and job satisfaction -- not to mention improving retention and loyalty. The recent Active Job Seeker Dilemma survey from Future Workplace, a research firm and workforce management consultancy, and Beyond.com, a career and hiring marketplace, polled 4,347 U.S. job seekers and 129 HR professionals and found that 71 percent of those surveyed say referrals from existing employees were the source of their best hires. Culture club What makes a great employee want to refer their friends, family and former colleagues? Culture, benefits, flexibility and a sense of mission and purpose, says Dan Schawbel, partner and research director at Future Workplace. "Culture is your most important competitive advantage. As long as you're paying people fairly, of course, then they are going to look for factors aside from that as positives or negatives -- they want meaningful work, solid benefits, flexibility, and those are the things they'll talk about with friends, former colleagues, family," Schawbel says. If you already have those things, you're well on your way to building a referral culture. [ Related story: 4 Continue reading

4 signs it’s time to look for a new job

Everyone has a bad day at work now and then, but when those bad days start to outnumber the good ones, it’s time to consider looking for a new job. As the economy continues to improve, there’s no reason to stay with a company that’s struggling to survive, or to settle for a role in which you’re not happy, says Howard Seidel, Partner at executive leadership and career consulting firm Essex Partners.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

9 best technology jobs in the U.S.

The best tech jobs in 2016Image by ThinkstockComputers, smartphones, tablets, e-readers -- technology touches every aspect of our daily lives. It facilitates business, communication, travel, entertainment and healthcare, just to name a few, and the industry boasts high salaries and low unemployment rates. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that technology jobs will grow at a rate of 12 percent this decade, almost twice the growth rate of jobs growth overall. Here, based on the number of projected jobs from 2014 to 2024, the median salary and the unemployment rate are the nine best technology jobs as ranked by US News & World Report. 1. Computer systems analystImage by ThinkstockTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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