Donald Sears

Defining a Resume-Worthy Accomplishment

In the past I’ve referred to the importance of sprucing up your resume to show how your tech work experience has had an impact on business results. Why do this? To create a narrative that says you understand your contribution to the bottom line–a bottom line that has become ever-increasingly important in tightly controlled company […]

IBM to Add About 800 Jobs in Missouri by 2012

Big Blue is opening another service delivery center in the United States and plans to hire 800 workers of varying levels by 2012, according to a news release. This time the facility is in Columbia, Mo. It’s the third such U.S.-based center to be opened in the Midwest–the other two are in Dubuque, Iowa, and […]

290K Jobs Added in April; Long-Term Unemployment Climbs

The addition of 290,000 jobs in one month is nothing to easily dismiss. April was evidently one of the best months for job gains in a very long time (the highest job gains in one month in four years). Professional and business services added 80,000 jobs, and computer systems and design added 7,000. The unemployment […]

Software Services Seeing Best Recovery in IT

The technology advocacy group TechAmerica Foundation recently released its 2010 state by state analysis of the industry. Members of the organization including Josh James, Director of Research and Olga Grkavac, executive vice president gave an interview about trends in tech hiring within the Federal government to Federalnewsradio.com. The key takeaway from the interview is on […]

Job Interview Advice for Techies from a Career Counselor

The following excellent interviewing advice comes from career consultant William Varnell via Dice. Darnell does a really nice job of explaining some things that might seem obvious, but are often taken for granted, including the awareness that hiring managers are busy people and if they are interviewing you, then they have evaluated your resume already […]

How ‘Meaningful Use’ in Healthcare Stimulus Means IT Jobs

If you are looking for a technology job and training, the government investment being put in to help the private sector become uniformly updated and practicing the use of electronic medical records and other key health IT programs is a real effort to help drive out long term costs, waste and administrative inefficiencies in healthcare […]

More Unemployed Workers Finding Work, Report Says

Every few months the job site CareerBuilder puts out its findings on the employment picture. It says it is getting better for those who have been unemployed in the last year. In its most recent survey of 900 individuals, 51 percent of those who lost a job in the last three months said they are […]

Terry Childs Guilty Verdict Sends Mixed Message to IT Workers

If there is anything to be learned by the Terry Childs guilty verdict in San Francisco it is that managerial incompetence–real or perceived–is not a defense for ignoring management requests and orders, especially when you work for a government agency. Refusing to do what management wants could be construed as unlawful and criminal–as does trying […]

North Carolina Sees Increase in IT Job Openings in March

The state of North Carolina is known for having several technology corridors in Charlotte and Raleigh, along with a large research-heavy set of companies and startups coming out of the large universities in those areas such as UNC and Duke. That area has been hit hard during the recession, but there are a few bright […]

LinkedIn Deepens Subscription Product Portfolio

Want to move to the top of the job candidate list on LinkedIn? Well, if you are willing to subscribe for a monthly fee, you can become what LinkedIn is calling a “featured applicant”–a way of helping to ensure that you are given preferential treatment. It’s a sort of pay-to-play in the search results of […]