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<td>ACM CareerNews Alert for Tuesday, February 7, 2012</td>
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<td colspan="2" height="95"> <a
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style="border:none" title="ACM CareerNews
provides summaries of articles on career-related
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<div class="regtextTitle">February 7, 2012<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://careernews.acm.org" title="Read
current and past issues.">ACM CareerNews</a></div>
<br>
<hr>
<p>Welcome to the February 7, 2012 edition of <em>ACM
CareerNews</em>, providing twice monthly
summaries of articles on career-related topics
of interest to students and professionals in the
computing field.
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="#unsubscribe">For
instructions on how to unsubscribe from this
service, please see below.</a><br>
<br>
<em>ACM CareerNews</em> is intended as an
objective career news digest for busy IT
professionals. Views expressed are not
necessarily those of ACM. To send comments,
please write to <a moz-do-not-send="true"
name="CareerNews" id="CareerNews"
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target="_blank">careernews@hq.acm.org</a>.</p>
<!-- Put headlines here -->
<!-- Put headlines here -->
<!-- Put headlines here -->
<!-- Put headlines here -->
<h3><b>HEADLINES AT A GLANCE:</b></h3>
<ul type="square">
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="#1">U.S.
Tech Firms Add Jobs Despite Automation</a><br>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="#2">Average
Silicon Valley Tech Salary Passes $100,000</a><br>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="#3">How to
Avoid Hiring the Wrong Person For Your
Startup</a><br>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="#4">Congressman
Proposes STEM Education Office</a><br>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="#5">Simple
Changes That Can Propel Your Career</a><br>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="#6">No More
Resumes, Say Some Firms</a><br>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="#7">Happiness
Is The New Success: Why Millennials Are
Reprioritizing</a><br>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="#8">Old
Techies Never Die: They Just Can't Get Hired</a><br>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="#9">Peer
Instruction: A Teaching Method to Foster
Deep Understanding</a><br>
</li>
<li><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="#10">A
Curator's Tools: Building a Culture of Open
Conversation</a><br>
</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<!-- The article excerpts go here --><!-- Article
excerpt 1 -->
<span class="bodytext">
<b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" name="1">U.S.
Tech Firms Add Jobs Despite Automation</a><br>
Computerworld, January 23
<br>
</b>
<p>
While U.S. technology companies are automating
faster than ever before, tech hiring is
nonetheless rising, according to a new report
by Forrester and the National Science
Foundation (NSF). Thanks in part to automation
and overseas production, high-tech
manufacturing employment has declined by 28%
since 2000, or about 687,000 jobs, according
to the NSF. Telecommunications is also
shedding jobs as the industry moves to
wireless. However, software and IT services
are on the rise as more of the economy moves
online. The article takes a closer look at the
trends driving the structural change in tech
employment, with a focus on new opportunities
for IT workers. </p>
<p>
According to Forrester, the U.S. tech industry
employed 3.2 million people at the end of
2011. That represented a net gain of 42,000
workers compared to 2010, even despite job
losses in the telecommunications sector. The
U.S. tech sector added 131,000 jobs last year
in services and software development,
according to Forrester. Although the tech
sector provides only 2% of U.S. jobs, these IT
jobs represent 6% of the total new private
sector jobs created since the first quarter of
2010. Holding back job growth are businesses
that are investing in machines instead of
people. For example, there was a 7% increase
in business IT investment last year, but only
a 1% increase in jobs compared with 2010. IT
outsourcing also declined last year by 5,000
jobs, and is down 31,000 jobs from the
recession.</p>
<p>
Forrester's overall count of 3.2 million jobs
in tech is lower than the estimates used by
others because it excludes semiconductor
manufacturing and value-added resellers from
its tech employment estimates. Forrester
expects a continuing rise in software and
services employment through this year, and
sees IT purchases growing 6%. Foote Partners,
which researches employment data, said that
U.S. data showed that 127,000 jobs were added
last year in the government categories of
management technical consulting services and
computer systems design and related services.
Foote notes that the government is having
trouble tracking IT growth because of the
creation of hybrid IT-business professionals
who don't match government labor categories. </p>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223608/U.S._tech_firms_add_jobs_despite_automation"
target="_blank">Click Here to View Full
Article</a> <br>
<font size="1"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="#top_of_page">to the top</a></font>
<hr>
<p>
<b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" name="2">Average
Silicon Valley Tech Salary Passes $100,000</a><br>
Wall Street Journal, January 24
</b> </p>
<p>
Average annual salaries for Silicon Valley
technology workers surpassed the $100,000 mark
last year for the first time ever, pushed
higher by the strength of the region's latest
boom. According to IT jobs site Dice.com,
salaries for software and other engineering
professionals in Silicon Valley rose 5.2% to
an average $104,195 last year, outstripping
the average 2% increase, to $81,327, in
tech-workers' salaries nationwide. It was the
first time since Dice began the salary survey
in 2001 that the region's average salary mark
broke the $100,000 barrier.
</p>
<p>
The steady march upward in Silicon Valley tech
salaries comes amid a Web boom that has fueled
companies such as Facebook, Zynga and Twitter.
Last year, several of the best-known Internet
went public, with a Facebook IPO on deck for
2012. This success has sparked the creation of
numerous new startups, which in turn has
spurred a hiring war for software engineers
and others. In contrast, job growth elsewhere
in the nation has remained relatively slow.
U.S. employers added 200,000 jobs in December,
and the unemployment rate ticked down to 8.5%,
its lowest level since early 2009. </p>
<p>
There is now a bidding war for talent in
Silicon Valley. Overall, tech-related job
postings in Silicon Valley on Dice rose to
5,026 earlier this month, up 26% from 3,974 a
year ago, even as tech-jobs postings
nationwide only rose 11% over the same period.
With many job candidates receiving multiple
offers, the limiting factor is the ability to
find the right people. Silicon Valley's job
market strength has also had a halo effect on
bonuses. Silicon Valley tech-worker bonuses
jumped 13% last year to an average $12,450,
versus an 8% increase to $8,769 nationwide,
according to Dice. Meanwhile, hourly
contractor rates in Silicon Valley rose 11%
last year to an average $74 an hour, compared
with $63 an hour nationally. </p>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970204624204577179193752435590-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwMzEyNDMyWj.html"
target="_blank">Click Here to View Full
Article</a> <br>
<font size="1"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="#top_of_page">to the top</a></font>
<hr>
<p>
<b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" name="3">How to
Avoid Hiring the Wrong Person For Your
Startup</a><br>
Mashable, January 29
</b> </p>
<p>
Recognizing that hiring a new employee can
have a significant impact on the future
success of a startup, the article outlines
five steps that a startup can take to avoid
hiring the wrong person. The smaller the
organization, the more impact each employee
has on its ultimate success. Startup owners
rarely have dedicated HR staff, software tools
or a hiring process that will take some of the
risk out of hiring. In contrast, larger
organizations have the ability to orient and
train new employees to an extent that startups
can't offer. Unlike a startup, if a new
employee fails, the work can be redistributed
and absorbed by other employees. </p>
<p>
For startups, writing lengthy job descriptions
loaded with job requirements may keep
unqualified candidates from wasting your time,
but you've also just given every candidate a
cheat sheet. Job seekers are taught to break
down your job description and weave it into
their resume, which will make everyone look
equally qualified. Startups move fast, and
every position is a skilled position. Job
candidates can often blur the line between a
previous experience and a skill, which is a
trap you need to avoid. Don't assume that
candidates have certain skills just because
it's a keyword on a resume, a previous job
title or experience at a similar business. </p>
<p>
Just like good timing can lead to the
successful exit in a startup, good timing can
also apply to job candidates. Focus on where
the candidate is in his or her career,
especially if he or she is capable of taking a
big risk at this point in life. A top
candidate should have experience facing
adversity in previous jobs and not appear too
anxious to hit a home run. To find out, skip
the initial telephone interview and instead
find a new way to communicate with candidates,
because that's when you learn the most about
them. Finally, when you're hiring for a key
position, make sure to ask yourself if you
need someone who "can do the job" or someone
who "can get the job done." The "can do" is
the candidate with the hands-on skills who can
accomplish the task without any help. </p>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://mashable.com/2012/01/29/avoid-hiring-the-wrong-person/"
target="_blank">Click Here to View Full
Article</a> <br>
<font size="1"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="#top_of_page">to the top</a></font>
<hr>
<p>
<b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" name="4">Congressman
Proposes STEM Education Office</a><br>
USNews.com, January 20
</b> </p>
<p>
U.S. Congressman Michael Honda and Peter
Cleveland, vice president of Global Public
Policy at Intel, are pushing for the creation
of a STEM Education Office that will help to
address a future crisis in the size and
quality of the nation's science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce.
Currently, American students rank 17th out of
34 in science literacy, and 25th out of 34 in
math literacy, among students from developed
countries. The STEM Education Innovation Act
of 2011 will create an Office of STEM
Education in the Department of Education
headed by an assistant secretary of STEM
education, who will coordinate the
department's K-12 and higher education STEM
efforts. The bill will also support a state
consortia on STEM education to shape STEM best
practices, in addition to developing
strategies to increase participation of
underrepresented communities in STEM
disciplines. </p>
<p>
Currently, STEM workers are among the
highest-paid and fastest-growing segment in
the nation. According to a new report from the
Georgetown University Center on Education and
the Workforce, 5% of all jobs in America will
be STEM jobs by the year 2018. The demand for
STEM talent is growing even faster outside
traditional STEM jobs. High-tech companies
understand this need for a well-educated
workforce. If we do not produce an adequate
number of Americans with significant STEM
skills, the long-term competitiveness of the
American economy is at risk. Now is the time
for an innovative, collaborative approach to
protect and expand our nation's economic
future that involves both industry and
government.</p>
<p>
The final component of the bill is the
Education Innovation Project, which will
provide grant funding to outside entities -
including for-profit companies, foundations,
nonprofits, and institutions of higher
learning - to develop educational technology
innovations that will unleash the power of
STEM education. Such partnerships have already
proven to be successful. By coordinating
efforts and placing STEM education at the top
of the priority list, educational institutions
have seen staggering growth in students'
science scores and participation in STEM
internships and opportunities. </p>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/stem-education/2012/01/20/congressman-proposes-stem-education-office"
target="_blank">Click Here to View Full
Article</a> <br>
<font size="1"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="#top_of_page">to the top</a></font>
<hr>
<p>
<b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" name="5">Simple
Changes That Can Propel Your Career</a><br>
Forbes, January 31
</b> </p>
<p>
Rick Smith, co-author of the national
bestseller The Five Patterns of Extraordinary
Careers, weighs in on how senior executives
can make simple but effective changes to
accelerate their career trajectory. Smith
explains how employees can sustain value,
suggests ways to make a career leap, and
offers tip on how to become indispensable
within any organization. As Smith notes, tough
times make it easier to stand out: show that
you can solve problems that are top of mind
for senior executives and go after these with
the mindset of a problem solver. </p>
In order to propel your career forward,
determine your greatest strengths and passions,
and focus on a role where these challenges
persist. Second, frame your solutions in order
to reveal the intersection of your greatest
strengths and passions. There are many benefits
from focusing on your strengths, as it is the
easiest place to differentiate your performance.
But you also need to be passionate about the
challenges you are tackling. <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2012/01/31/simple-changes-that-can-propel-your-career/"
target="_blank">Click Here to View Full
Article</a> <br>
<font size="1"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="#top_of_page">to the top</a></font>
<hr>
<p>
<b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" name="6">No
More Resumes, Say Some Firms</a><br>
Wall Street Journal, January 24
</b> </p>
<p>
Companies are increasingly relying on social
networks such as LinkedIn, video profiles,
social media content and online surveys to
gauge candidates' suitability for a job. While
most still request a resume as part of the
application package, some are bypassing the
time-tested requirement altogether. They claim
that this process nets better-quality
candidates, especially for positions based
heavily in the Internet and social media. A
resume, which doesn't provide much depth about
a candidate, may not indicate what people are
like to work with and how they think. Most
importantly, recruiters note that a resume
isn't the best way to determine whether a
potential employee will be a good social fit
for the company. </p>
<p>
In times of high unemployment, bypassing
resumes can help companies winnow out
candidates from a broader labor pool. Specific
questions are tailored to the position, aiding
in the filtering process. Applicants have the
option to attach a resume, but it isn't
required. Postings for Internet-related
positions might have applicants rate their
marketing and social-media skills on a scale
of one to 10 and select from a list of words
how friends or co-workers would describe them.
</p>
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<p>
<b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" name="7">Happiness
Is The New Success: Why Millennials Are
Reprioritizing</a><br>
Forbes, January 23
</b> </p>
<p>
As the notion of the traditional career ladder
disappears, millenials are reconsidering their
work and life priorities. In fact, the
millennial generation is growing up largely
without any ladder at all. For example, the
first rung on the ladder, college, is no
longer a guarantee of future employment
success. Graduates no longer expect to spend
their entire career with the same
organization, and no longer expect steady
annual increases in salary and responsibility.
The article takes a big picture look at the
new priorities of the millennial generation,
focusing on changes that have occurred over
the past decade. </p>
<p>
While the economy will certainly improve,
experts estimate that current IT workers could
end up earning 10% less on average than
somebody who left school a few years before or
after the recession due to the loss of
critical entry-level work experience. A crisis
that started in the housing market could wind
up having the most lasting negative impact on
the one generation that didn't own any homes
before the bust. As a result, marriage is in
decline with many young people choosing to
wait or simply throwing marriage out as an
outdated concept. People are also changing
their plans around major life goals, such as
owning a home. As for retirement benefits,
people are coming to the realization that
social security could run out sooner than they
retire. </p>
<p>
What does "success" mean in the 21st century
and how do we achieve it? Recently, economists
and national leaders have begun pushing for a
something radically simple: measure success by
happiness. According to a recent article in
the Harvard Business Review, not only is
measuring happiness possible, valuing it can
greatly increase company profits. Success for
the current generation will be a shift away
from business as usual, marking a transition
from climbing the ladder of unfulfilling
societal expectations and consumerism to
leading a life guided by a holistic focus on
well-being, community and sustainability. </p>
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<p>
<b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" name="8">Old
Techies Never Die: They Just Can't Get
Hired</a><br>
New York Times, January 28
</b> </p>
<p>
Silicon Valley may be booming again, but times
are still tough for older out-of-work
professionals within the tech sector. Most of
these older workers hold advanced degrees in
engineering and sometimes have more than a
decade of experience in the technology sector.
While Internet companies are scouring the
world for new talent to hire, older technology
workers often find that their skills are no
longer valued. Part of the problem is that
many of the companies shedding jobs are
technology manufacturers, while most of the
companies that are hiring are Internet-based.
The issue has become an increasingly
contentious one, given the perception that
some Silicon Valley companies are willing to
replace experienced older workers with
lower-paid younger workers.</p>
<p>
In some tech hubs, the unemployment rate
remains higher than the national average when
tech jobs have been lost to a new breed of job
that is not just filing and coding. There are
opportunities, but they are different. Hiring
managers at the Bay Area's fastest-growing
technology companies say they are looking for
candidates who are "passionate" and "truly
have a desire to change the world." Other
companies emphasize that they want every new
hire to be entrepreneurial. Other companies
are looking for the "college student who built
a company on the side, or an iPhone app over
the weekend." They tend to hire
more-experienced workers, but only if they are
results-focused and can deliver again.</p>
<p>
The concern is that this new-found emphasis on
passion and entrepreneurialism is just a
pretext for age discrimination. According to
researchers, workers over 35 regularly face
discrimination by technology companies.
According to a recent survey, candidates began
to be screened out once they reached 40.
Especially in social media, cloud computing
and mobile apps, if you're over 40 you're
perceived to be over the hill. Getting hired
is especially difficult for unemployed workers
who have been laid off after many years at a
single company, because highly sought-after
engineers often change firms regularly in an
effort to stay on the cutting edge. The issue
of discrimination against laid-off workers has
even caught the eye of lawmakers, who would
like to make it illegal for an employer to
"intentionally refuse to offer employment to
an individual because of the individual's
status as unemployed." To counteract potential
bias, older workers should emphasize their
achievements rather than their experience, not
only in interviews but also on their resumes
and LinkedIn profiles. </p>
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<p>
<b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" name="9">Peer
Instruction: A Teaching Method to Foster
Deep Understanding</a><br>
Communications of the ACM, Vol. 55 No. 2,
February 2012
</b> </p>
<p>
The peer instruction method, which emphasizes
problem solving, has application for educators
within computer science. The most engaged part
of many computing courses is when students
develop programs embodying the concepts of the
course. Many instructors strongly value code
writing including out-of-class programming,
laboratory assignments, and program writing on
exams as an assessment of deep understanding
of computing concepts. The article suggests
that the need exists for computing instructors
to design assessments more directly targeting
understanding, not just doing, computing. </p>
<p>
The goal of Peer Instruction is to foster deep
understanding in a standard educational
environment. The method, used in numerous
science and mathematics courses, involves
students attempting to explain to each other
how they understand core physics concepts via
a series of deceptively simple-looking
problems. The emphasis is not on getting to a
right answer via a mechanical process;
instead, the right answer is apparent once the
students use the appropriate core concepts in
their attempts to articulate their
understanding of the problem and their
solution to it. In a variety of studies, this
approach has been shown to improve learning
twofold over the standard lecture format. </p>
<p>
Peer Instruction has been used successfully
across CS subjects, from lower level classes
through to advanced level computer
architecture and theory of computation.
Computing students say they find Peer
Instruction valuable for their learning. Peer
Instruction is an active-learning teaching
method that can be employed to increase
student learning. It is an especially
important method for the computing education
community to embrace because of its emphasis
on development of deep understanding of the
subject, because of its relative ease of
adoption within the standard educational
framework, and because of its applicability
across a wide spectrum of courses. </p>
<br>
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<p>
<b> <a moz-do-not-send="true" name="10">A
Curator's Tools: Building a Culture of
Open Conversation</a><br>
eLearn Magazine, January 2012
</b> </p>
<p>
As the amount of data and information
explodes, there is a greater role for the
curator who can find the content that matters
and assemble objects, ideas, and media into an
experience that is meaningful. In the
enterprise context, large, complex
organizations need curators to capture
institutional knowledge and experience that
resides within individual employees. The
content organizer creates architectures and
tools that everyone in the organization can
use to share, record, discover and discuss
information, ideas, and skills. The article
takes a closer look at the technology tools
and approaches used by today's top information
curators. </p>
<p>
The first step to bringing order to the
information in your organization is to create
a culture of sharing and recording information
in sharable places. This means individuals
taking information out of their own post-it
notes and clipboards and putting it in a place
where others can find it. Sharing information
also means creating digital content that
captures the traditional water-cooler
conversations. The second step is building a
network of information streams to consume from
extended networks of colleagues, peers, and
experts. Start by developing your own networks
since you need to become comfortable as a
curator yourself before you can model this
behavior for others. Reach through social
networks, professional organizations, and
simple searches to start finding the content
that is the anchor of knowledge sharing
networks. Start small, with targeted examples,
and build from there. </p>
<p>
Now that you have ways to create, collect, and
consume information, you need a process for
editing, selecting, and distributing
information back into your networks. After
all, information needs context to become
broadly useful, and context means a
collaborative conversation. Connections are
made when conversations occur in a public
forum and are available for anyone to
contribute. Instead of a one-way
infrastructure, where only one voice collects
and directs information in outbound manner, a
collaborative network infrastructure makes it
possible for everyone to contribute and weave
information and ideas together. Ultimately,
the content that you create, collect, and
share is only as useful as the network and
conversation that grows up around it. Inviting
targeted voices into specific conversations,
tidying content architectures, and ensuring
folks know how to use tools and feel welcomed
to participate are all essential roles that
someone must fill within complex and large
organizations. </p>
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