Don E. Sears

With less than one month before fiscal year 2011 begins in October, there are about 30,100 available visas for technology companies to apply for through the temporary work visa program known widely by its specific government designation, “H-1B visa.” The H-1B program is used by technology companies, universities and others in the United States to […]

The older you get in technology, the harder it is to maintain a salary that grows, discovered economists Clair Brown and Dr. Greg Linden of the University of California, Berkeley, who have been studying the subject in research about offshoring and the semiconductor industry since 2006. These academics have repeatedly discovered data that shows salaries […]

There are some unfortunate facts about the technology jobs picture right now, and while technology opportunities do exist, headcounts for IT in 2010 are not growing appreciably, according to research from technology analysts at Gartner. The Stamford, Conn.-based researchers found the rate of increase in headcount for the year is just over 6 percent, based […]

Hot Certified, Noncertified IT Skills: What You Need Now by Don E. Sears #10 Noncertified SkillPython Python is an open-source, object-oriented programming language and has gained steam over the years with the rise of Web applications. According to its authors, Python is “a flexible powerhouse that can handle practically any problem domain. Build your own […]

Three suspects accused of a scheme to illegally transfer government funds out of West Virginia, Massachusetts, Kansas and Ohio to fake accounts of legitimate technology companies were sentenced Aug. 19, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report. The well-known enterprise technology services vendors included Deloitte Consulting, Unisys, Accenture and Electronic Data Systems, which is […]

IT executives, along with finance and operations management, are more confident about investing and spending for the remainder of 2010, yet many business leaders believe growth and overall economic health is tenuous, according to a quarterly Conference Executive Board report of 440 executives. IT discretionary spending will rise in the third quarter, especially in software: […]

The measure to increase fees on H-1B visas that was attached to the $600 billion border security bill by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) passed both houses of Congress was signed in to law by the president on Aug. 13. What proponents and advocates on all sides of the debate have to ask themselves is whether […]

Spending on technology products and services is forecasted to reach $629.3 billion by 2014, according to London-based researchers Business Monitor International, which covers 22 vertical industries. In a July 26 report, BMI forecasted IT spending for 2010 to reach $511.4 billion and to grow at a compound rate of 6.5 percent in five years. This […]

Workers want more than connection with friends when it comes to social media. Thirty-five percent of nearly 4,500 workers want social media efforts by companies to include more useful information such as job listings, according to a second quarter survey from Careerbuilder published Aug. 18. Roughly one-quarter of those polled would like more facts and […]

Specialization can be a good thing in technology work, but it’s not necessarily the future, contends vendor-neutral, non-profit industry organization CompTIA, which has a major conference going on this week in San Antonio, Texas. Hybrid skills that combine on-the-job expertise along with training and industry-recognized certifications are necessary. With technology job growth expected to expand […]

Increases to project funding and investment in new technology initiatives are driving demand for technology skills this quarter, according to reports from IT staffing firms such as TEKsystems and analyses on IT spending from Forrester. An early August report from Hanover, Md.-based TEKsystems found that 59 percent of companies expect to have increasing project needs […]

With all the talk of double-dip recessions and global downturns spreading across European and American markets, there are still pockets of the world where business is expanding with plenty of assistance from IT service companies, namely in Latin America. Despite some slowdown in 2009 in specific countries, IT infrastructure outsourcing services in Latin America grew […]