career advice

Cisco certification product giveaway

In light of Cisco’s Unified Computing announcement — and to coincide with the wrap-up of IT career and training expert Ed Tittel’s Cisco Press giveaway, we thought now would be the perfect time to run yet another Cisco certification contest. In the event you missed Ed’s contest, there is still time (until April 1) to redeem yourself.

As it is the first day of spring, SearchNetworking.com would love to spring for your certification training material to help you in these tough economic times.

What type of material, you ask?

Six CCENT 640-822 Network Simulators

Two CCNA Security 640-553 Cert Flash Cards Online

Since these network simulators and flashcards are online, this means we can finally open up our contest to SearchNetworking.com members outside of the United States!

As IT Career JumpStart blogger, Ed Tittel, writes In today’s job market, prospective employers want it all:

An abundance of candidates to choose from means that employers can become extremely selective about whom they’ll bring on board to fill open positions…That means advanced degrees, serious certifications, and lots of direct relevant experience are what it takes to get through the door and on board these days.

If you find yourself lacking in any of these areas, now’s the time to go to school, keep working (or volunteering if you don’t have work), and start adding certifications to your resume. And we would like to do everything in our power to aid you with the certification process.

If you can follow these two steps, you can qualify to win the Cisco certification product of your choosing.

First: Post to our blog (by clicking on the “comment” link at the bottom of this post) with responses to the following 5 questions:

1. What is your job title (if you are a student or not working just write “full-time student” or “unemployed”)?
2. If applicable, what type of business do you work for?
3. What TechTarget websites do you use?
4. What do you use that site for?
5. What are your biggest work-related challenges?

Second: After you post your entry, send us an email so that we can contact you if you win. Make sure to include:

1. Your blog comment username
2. Your exam of interest (either the 640-822 or 640-553, but not both, please)

We’re giving you until midnight of April 1 to respond. Contest winners will be chosen by Ed Tittel who will guest post for us on April 2 with the contest results.

Good luck to all, and thanks for participating!

Networking jobs market is lukewarm while overall job market is lousy

Hey, do you notice a trend here?

Every quarter staffing firm Robert Half Technology surveys 1,400 CIOs about their hiring plans. As you can see, the percentage of CIOs who are increasing staff has been relatively steady for nearly two years. In the third quarter of 2007, 17 % of CIOs said they were adding new staff. Then it held steady at between 13% and 14% for about a year. Then it started to dip a little in 2008 before plunging to 8% in the first quarter of 2009.

Meanwhile, the percentage of CIOs who are cutting jobs is creeping upward.  For quite awhile just 2% of CIOs were cutting jobs. That’s a remarkably low ratio, and given the way things are right now those days seem so far away. Now job-cutting CIOs are at 6% and no doubt still climbing.

The silver lining is that 83% of CIOs will maintain the status quo on IT jobs. Those with good jobs can take heart, but job seekers must be feeling pretty discouraged. (For some tips on how to prepare for a networking job interview, see Michael Morisy’s story).

At least networking jobs remain relatively hot in these dismal days. When asked which kinds of jobs are experiencing the most growth in their IT organizations, 15% of CIOs identified networking jobs, tied with help desk/technical support as the biggest IT growth area.

Also, network-centric skills continue to be resume gold. When asked which skills were most in demand, 65% of CIOs identified network administration, 47% identified telecommunications support and 46% tagged wireless network management.

Microsoft offers free certification exam retake

Can’t afford to get certified? Well, these days, with an even more competitive job market, you can’t afford not to be.

The good news is that Microsoft is giving you two incentives to certify for their exams. Through Second Shot, you get to retake your Microsoft certification exam for free if you don’t pass on your first try.

If you’ve mastered the test on your first try, then you get 25% off your next exam that you decide to take.

All you have to do is register for Microsoft’s Second Shot offer by December 31, 2008. Details can be found on their website (in cased you missed the link above): http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/secondshot/default.mspx

If you need that little extra nudge, think of it this way: Those who have higher credentials, especially of the expert levels, get higher pay. If you want to be Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certified, for example, you need to pass about seven exams altogether. Each one costs $125 through Prometric, so if this seems steep now, think of the payoff later down the line with your new starting salary!

If MCSE isn’t the exam for you, take a look at this newtorking certification guide from our career and training expert, Ed Tittel, to get a taste of the certification landscape. If you need some certification or career training advice, feel free to check out Ed Tittel’s expert section or ask Ed your own career question to guide you in your work ahead.

A good network engineer is hard to find

If you are a network engineer or network architect, you’re a wanted man or woman. At least for now.

Gartner has published some selected findings from its annual IT market compensation study. In it’s new publication, “CIO Alert: Jobs and Skills Topping the Difficult-to-Recruit-For List in the U.S.”, Gartner identified network engineer and network architect as thefourth and fifth most difficult positions to fill. And it’s only getting harder for them to find you.

The percentage of CIOs who said network engineers are very difficult to extremely difficult to find rose from 14.1% in 2006 abd 16.6% in 2007 to 20.3% in 2008.

The demand for network architects has fluctuated a little more. About 18.2% of CIOs said they had a very to extremely difficult time finding engineers in 2006. That number sank to 15.2% in 2007 and then shot back up to 19.8% in 2008.

The only jobs which are harder to fill are enterprise architect, database administrator and ERP programmer/analyst.

Now I know what many of you are thinking. With the economy hurtling towards some sort of apocalypse, will any company be in a position to hire anyone in 2008 or 2009? Gartner does mention in its research note that IT recruitment continues to be a top challenge for IT organizations even in current economic conditions. Of course, this survey data was collected in February, before people starting use the term “the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression” on a daily basis. At least network engineers and architects have a little bit of an advantage over security analysts and bsuiness analysts and… COBOL programmers.

Networking skills are in demand

If you’re looking for a new job and you have networking skills, you are in luck. Even in this weak economy CIOs are looking for you.

Seventy percent of CIOs in a new survey listed network administration as a technical skill most in demand in their IT departments. This stat comes from IT staffing firm Robert Half Technology, which just published its quarterly survey of the hiring plans for 1,400 CIOs from companies with more than 100 employees. The firm asked CIOs to list the technical skills most in demand within their companies. They were allowed to give multiple responses. At 70% network administration was the top skill in demand, followed by Windows administration and desktop support (both at 69%). Wireless network management skills (47%) and telecommunications support (44%) are also in demand.

CIOs also identified which job areas areexperiencing the most growth in their IT departments. Networking placed second at 14%, behind help desk and end user support (18%). Robert Half said in its press release that networking had been the biggest growth area in IT departments for the past year, but had slipped to second this quarter. Still, second isn’t so bad.

This should come as good news to networking pros since new IT jobs are scarce overall. The survey found that just 11% of CIOs are adding new staff this quarter, a two-year low, down from a high of 17% in the third quarter of last year. Three percent of CIOs plan to cut staff. So while server administrators and Web developers are scrounging for new jobs, networking pros shouldn’t have too much trouble.

Gen X to Gen Y: Grow up!

From my perspective, there aren’t many differences between Generation X and Generation Y — except that people born in the 80s aren’t as likely to remember Spider Man and his Amazing Friends. (If you subscribe to the typical generational classifications, I was born toward the end of Generation X.) As far as their touted technological prowess, Generation Y, a.k.a. the “Millennial Generation,” doesn’t seem that different, either, except maybe when it comes to text messaging while driving a car. (I have friends who do this, mostly without incident. Now, that’s amazing!)

Yet, to listen to the media, you’d think that the children of the 80s were born with USB ports built into their nostrils and, like the iPods they commonly carry, are preciously fragile pieces of high-performance machinery — capable of amazing achievements, but oh-so-sensitive. Recently, 60 Minutes reported how the Millennials are revolutionizing the workplace. Millennials demand, according to the report, the right to work when and where they want. They also need lots of mentoring because they’ve always been told “you’re special, you deserve the best,” not “life’s tough and you have to work to get what you want.”

Shortly after I saw the 60 Minutes report, TechRepublic blogger Toni Bowers wrote about how IT managers must prepare for the Millennials. Again, the focus was on how our culture must make way for the under-30 workforce; supposedly everybody has to kowtow to the Millennials because they think their elders aren’t supposed to intimidate them.

Hello? Am I the only one who thinks this is just wrong?

I’m not that much older than these people, but I am old enough to remember that Generation X entered the workforce to the tune of “you’re a slacker,” “you need to be more motivated,” “get a job,” and “you’re a loser if you still live with your parents.” Now, slacking is considered a “market condition,” and living at home is considered a wise economic decision. How come we had to adjust to the world, and now we’re adjusting the world for them?

As a representative of Gen X, I have to say that at the first mention of “step aside, old lady,” I will whap that Millennial whippersnapper upside the head with my soon-to-be-non functioning iPod.

That being said, I work with quite a few Generation Y colleagues, and they are lovely people — hard workers, for the most part — smart, and motivated in the way of ambitious young people, not at all the special snowflakes or idiot savants 60 Minutes made them out to be.

There are, admittedly, a few generational differences. But in my mind, these center around the idea that technology is taken for granted among people who have spent most of their lives around it.

For instance, not that long ago when I was in college (and I’m certainly dating myself here), I was told that to pursue a future in graphic design, I would need to learn the appropriate computer skills on my own because the school lacked those resources. Also, our “social networking” was done via Telnet, in green text on a black screen, with only our imaginations and vocabularies enabling us to throw sheep at each other. Nowadays, both those cases would be unthinkable.

Similarly, fellow Network Hubster Tessa Parmenter recently blogged about how shocking it can be when someone lacks email in this day and age. The same day, Michael Morisy reported on the fact that Generation Y wireless customers are more fickle and likely to jump ship if their carriers don’t deliver.

Both those examples show an insistence on connectivity — on technology that does what people want it to do — but (in my mind, at least) they don’t scream “hold my hand or I won’t work for you!”

So maybe it’s not Generation Y, but the media hype machine, that needs to grow up.

Is there a gap between those who are tech savvy and those who are not?

When I finished up my taxes online some months ago I laughed a little when I saw a button that said “If you do not have an email address, click here to get your tax receipt mailed to you.” I found it ironic because someone tech savvy enough to complete their taxes online would almost have to have something as basic as an email address.

I tried imagining the type of person who would have to click on that link. “Who in this day and age does not have an email address who uses the Internet?” I thought.

Although I’m embarrassed to admit, I couldn’t help but think of someone of an older generation. A thought persists that those who have not grown up around technology are somehow out of touch with the modern world. It seems everyone has a great aunt or uncle who refuses to go online, has been taken in by a phishing scam, or at least is still stuck using dial-up.

From my own experience I know plenty of recent retirees who have not only used computers during their careers but are more tech savvy than myself. So who would have to click on that link?

Not long after I asked this question did I receive a phone call from a long lost pal. We met up and reconnected, and despite the differences between gender, geography and race, the only time I felt disconnected from him was when he told me he could count on one hand how many times he had ever even been on the Internet.

Needless to say he did not have an email account. He was not over the age of retirement. He was not Amish. He had nothing against computers or technology. This person was 24. It blew my mind how someone my age had barely even surfed the Web, let alone been without an email address. Come to think of it, I think he was one of the last few in Generation Y who had a land line and no cell phone.

So I found examples of those close to me who had overthrown the statistics and stereotypes. When it came down to it age didn’t tie directly to one’s amount of tech-savviness or lack thereof, but I wondered whether being technological made someone more connected not just with society but with other people.

Be a MacGyver — not a MacGruber

Network pros must feel like they carry the world on their backs. One of my big takeaways from Interop was that with the tide of new applications being delivered across the network, network pros have to work across organizational and technological silos in order to keep things running; that they must stop pointing fingers and saying, “it’s not the network,” and fix the problems to prove their worth. By proving their worth, the network staff gains better access to coveted resources.

Network pros also have to be able to speak the language of business if they want to communicate with company bigwigs. Dr. Jim Metzler, evangelizing this message at Interop, said: “You don’t want to go to the vice president of sales and say, ‘I have MPLS.’ It sounds like a disease. You would not get a second meeting with that person; you have just screamed ‘I am a techie nerd.’”

Maybe this isn’t new or earth-shattering wisdom, but the frequency I heard it repeated got me thinking: Why is it all up to the network pro? Isn’t expecting the network guy to troubleshoot application performance sort of like expecting the highway department to fix your car?

Before you start to complain too much, though, think about MacGruber. If you haven’t seen the recurring sketch on Saturday Night Live, Will Forte plays an alcoholic, neurotic spoof on MacGyver. In the most recent MacGruber sketch with Jonah Hill, MacGruber confronts his assistants about criticizing his abilities and questioning his job performance. He’s so busy worrying about this that he fails to defuse the ticking time bomb, and — boom!

Imagine you’re MacGruber, the ticking timebomb is an application performance problem, and Jonah Hill is an application manager blaming your network for his flawed application. You could get defensive and argue with him over whose fault the bomb is. But look what happens.

Sometimes, if you don’t fix the problem, nobody will.

I asked Craig Hulbert, a senior network engineer at a major health care company in Ohio, why so much responsibility falls on the shoulders of network staff. He answered, “Lowest common denominator,” and explained that calling him is almost always the first step taken when there’s a problem to solve.

I’m not sure whether the network is the lowest common denominator. I would like to think that the smartest people with the most technical know-how are running the network, and when people have a problem that’s where they turn.

As far as I know, they’re not turning to the security team to fix application problems or asking the CEO to bone up on his geek-speak.

> Does your network take the blame for poor application performance? Tell us your story in an email.

Outsourced and automated network skills: Is it the end of the keyboard cowboy?

Aside from Angelina Jolie, the movie Hackers just didn’t have a whole lot of redeeming factors if you took it too seriously: overwrought dialog, an improbable eco-terrorism plot, and CGI “hacking” visualizations to make the most neophyte CCNA blush. It definitely has its cult appeal, though, because it captured the romance of tinkering with complex systems that normal people just don’t understand, whether that’s Zero Cool taking over a television station programming or the local networking guru keeping the server humming along against all odds.

True networking admins just aren’t like other people: They understand how to coax every bit of juice out of hardware, how to manually configure every last detail through the command line, and how, almost magically, to fix problems they don’t even quite understand. And that kind of knowledge didn’t come overnight, but after years of training and just plain practical experience.

Those skills, long prerequisite to successful IT, might soon be obsolete.

So says Rob Whiteley of Forrester. Command-line mastery is on its way out in the near future. “It’s pretty much being outsourced,” he said. “If you don’t outsource it, you can probably find a tool to automate it for you.” Instead, Rob said, IT shops need professionals who can digest higher-level views of security, network management and network architecture. Unfortunately, Rob said, the colleges and certification programs are still living in a command-line world and are only slowly catching up.

Don’t trust an analyst’s word? I also spoke with Steven Ostrowski, spokesperson for the Computing Technology Industry Association. In our interview, which I’ll write about more next week on SearchNetworking, he said technical skills alone were no longer cutting it.

“There are jobs out there for the people who have a combination of technical skills, business skills and communication skills,” he said. “But the tech guys have to understand what the considerations are.”

That being said, just because things are changing doesn’t mean everyone agrees IT is dead. As 5- and 10-year-old technologies are now being standardized, outsourced, or automated, the creation of new IT demands hasn’t ceased: VoIP, video, and NAC are just the beginning, and the pace of innovation isn’t about to dry up. IT professionals will always have to be there to determine which technology can deliver real enterprise benefit, and how it can best achieve that benefit. As long as there is technological innovation, there will be IT … even if they’re not the roguish keyboard cowboys they used to be.

Cisco to add a job-matching service

Cisco certifications recently reached 1 million but long-time rumors of the program starting an official job matching service may be actualized this summer.

In an interview conducted by news writer Michael Morisy, Fred Weiller, director of switching product and solutions marketing at Cisco intimated that “they were working on an official Cisco career marketplace to match certified professionals with jobs.”

With all the talk of having to survive a recession in the IT industry (whether or not we’re actually in one is entirely debatable), extra job-support programs may be the perfect answer.

If you look at some of Cisco’s existing sites, however, it seems they’ve already provided quite the gamut of career-excelling resources: Take, for example, Cisco’s career resources page or their Career Connection center which “seeks to link Networking Academy students and graduates with employers who are looking for job-ready IT and Networking candidates.” Cisco’s Digital Divide Best Practices Web page features job search strategies for entry-level students and more.

What might separate these resources from Cisco’s “official” job matching service? Should we expect to see a Dice or Monster-like site from Cisco? And what should people do in the interim (besides visit the previously mentioned sites)?

We see the questions in our SearchNetworking.com editor’s inbox every other day: Is it better to get a certification or to get experience? Should I get educated or certified? Even though certification, education and experience all work toward the same goals — doing one seems to prevent you from performing the other; When future IT pros make their way through a higher education program, the requirements of the learning institution can supersede certification goals — and when current IT pros aspire to earn certifications or degrees, many times their employment obligations sap valuable time and energy away from pursuing further education.

To combine all three facets in your job-seeking path, IT training and certification expert Ed Tittel mentions this: “The best thing you can do for yourself … is to get into a degree plan where you also earn certifications on your way to an AA or BA in an IT discipline of some kind. Many programs include such options or requirements nowadays, and will give you the best of both worlds.”

Now if those certifications you decide to go into are of the Cisco persuasion, you can kill three birds with one stone, as they might help you find the job opportunity you’ve been waiting for.