Minneapolis / St. Paul Technology Survey – Part 2

By: Nicole Hitch

As I explained in part 1, I will be sharing more of the survey I sent out about what new technologies the people who responded are seeing being implemented within the next year and next 5 years within the companies they work at. As always, I hope you find this information useful and if you still want to add your input, please feel free to click and complete the survey. As long as I get new information, I will update these two blog posts. Click here to take the survey

Below you will find a graph depicting the answers to the question: Do you see the types of technology you are using currently, changing within the next year?  Yes, No or Unsure.

Of those who answered yes to the previous question, what technologies do you see coming down the pipe in the next year that your company will be implementing?

Again, sorted by industry, here are the responses.

Business services, software, predictive analytics – Just typical upgrades to newer versions.

Engineering – virtualized encrypted persistent storage devices, specifically networks storage devices, multi-level security software separation.

Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Investments & Mortgages – Customized technology and newer versions of current software.

Health Care – In this area we will always be changing as new technologies come to life.

Information Technology – Oracle appliances, mobile device integration with cloud and standard services, eLearning technologies, HTML5, 10/40/100 GbE Networks, 8GB Fibre Channel Networks, FCoE Storage Networks, and Converged Networks

One trend I noticed in many of the answers to this question within the Information Technology industry was the addition of technologies that had to do with mobile devices.

“In the next 5 years, what new technologies do you see being implemented within your company?”

Aerospace and Defense – Arcsight is a security monitoring application that we need onsite skills to script the IT “connectors” into the IT systems to collect the logs and feed this tool. We will be on-boarding it beginning in the next 3 months over the next two years.

Business services, software, predictive analytics – Our company has fairly well defined Microsoft and Java camps. Anything latest and greatest geared towards either camp will likely be adopted. Additionally, virtual machines have been adopted in a big way. Persons with heavy VMWare experience might find themselves in high demand

Education – Probably ERP

Engineering – Sound engineering practices, agile development

Health Care – IBM

Information Technology – Moblie development;  5 years in the IT industry is a lifetime. In the next couple years we will have delivered a cloud solution and be looking to the generation. ; Converged Networking, FCoE Storage Networks, 10/40/100 GbE Networking, Virtualization (Server & Desktop)

Medical Device – We foresee moving entirely to VoiP audio and video internally throughout our entire network.

I hope you have found the results of this survey informational and useful.  As always I would love to hear from you about your thoughts, any topics you would like to read about and feedback on anything I have posted.

Posted in Blue Wave Way at June 21st, 2010. 3 Comments.

Minneapolis / St. Paul Technology Survey – Part 1

By: Nicole Hitch

When I asked what readers may be interested in reading, the questions of what new technologies are currently being implemented locally within the Twin Cities came up. So in response, I put together a survey and I will share in a two part blog (Due to the amount of information.) the results of that survey. I hope this helps those of you in the technical community help keep your finger on the pulse of what types of technologies others locally are using. If you haven’t and would like to still take the survey, please don’t hesitate to, I would love to hear your feedback and will gladly share any new findings in another blog post. Click here to take the survey. Also, a huge thanks to all who participated in the survey!

Part 1 will include the industries represented and what new technologies are currently being implemented in local companies. Part 2 will look a year and five years down the road at what new technologies are expected to be added. Enjoy!

Of those that completed the survey, the following industries were represented:

Advertising, Branding & Marketing
Aerospace and Defense
Business services, software, predictive analytics
E-Commerce
Education
Engineering
Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Investments & Mortgages
Health Care
Information Technology
Medical Device

What types of new technologies are your company currently implementing?

Here is a list of the responses sorted by industry.

Advertising, Branding & Marketing – CSS, Flash, PHP, .Net
Aerospace and Defense – High Speed Computing Clusters
Business services, software & predictive analytics - VMWare, Microsoft .Net 3.5, IBM Websphere
E-Commerce - ATG, VMWare, Hibiscus, Websphere, .Net
Education - .Net Frame Work 4.0, Load Test, VMWare, 10G Infrastructure Encryption Technologies
Engineering - Virtualization, Service-oriented architectures, message-oriented architectures, user-centered designs, autonomous tracking
Financial Services, Banking, Insurance,Investments & Mortgages – InRule, ATG, Windows Workflow, .Net 3.5, VS2010, SQL 2008, VM Servers, TFS2010, BizTalk, and Hibiscus.
Health Care - .Net 4.0, transporting of HIPPA data
Information Technology – Oracle Middleware solutions, SharePoint 2010, Office 2010, Netbook/Redfly devices for mobile integration, HTML5, Data Center Design, Server Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, Storage Virtualization, iSCSI/FCoE Storage Networks, MS Server 2008 R2, MS Exchange 2010, MS SQL 2008, VMware vSphere 4.0, VMware View, Citrix XenApp, Citrix XenDesktop, Citrix XenServer, Brocade Fibre Channel and Ethernet Network Equipment, 10 GbE Networks, 40 GbE Networks, 100 GbE Networks, 8GB Fibre Channel
Medical Device – Microsoft Office Communicator Server 2007 R2/2010, Microsoft Exchange 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

I hope you have enjoyed Part 1 of this survey information and look for part 2 next week.  As always if you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to leave one below.

Posted in Blue Wave Way, Companies, Job Seekers at June 18th, 2010. No Comments.

Company Career Sites and Other Resources – Sales Jobs

Dear Reader,

As you read the title, you may be thinking, “I thought Blue Wave Professionals does IT and Engineering placements/staffing,” and yes, you are right we do.  However, from time to time, we run across great sales people looking for new opportunities and thought that this blog from Career Alley might be helpful to those folks as well. I hope you enjoy this post and find it helpful.

Sincerely,

Nicole Hitch
President
Blue Wave Professionals

Author Byline: CareerAlley

Author Website: http://Careeralley.com

“A sale is not something you pursue, it’s what happens to you while you are immersed in serving your customer.” – Anonymous

You know the old saying, a good salesperson can sell anything. I’m sure there is some truth to it, but to be a successful salesperson takes a certain personality and skill-set that (in my opinion) can’t be easily taught. It is one of the few careers where you know fairly quickly how you are doing (and if you are not doing well you will not last long). It is also one of the few careers where there are (generally) plenty of jobs (more than most) but they are the most difficult to find. “Where” you may ask are these jobs that are so difficult to find – read on.

Retail:

  • Home Depot – Home Depot is know as the Do It Yourself store. They have an established business model. Their careers page is clean and crisp. There are links at the top left hand side of the page for 5 different functional areas of employment, plus one for new store openings (where they will obviously need help). Below this on the left hand side is a search function, followed by a number of additional links to related information. Click the job search box and you will have a number of choices. Of course, you are looking for Sales Associates, but there are also click boxes for Store Managers, Customer Service and Supply Chain. Also, at the bottom of the page they have a link for their career fair calendar. Unfortunately, you must register on the site and check each job type individually.
  • Nordstom – What? Hardware is not your thing? What about the soft side, upscale department stores. They have a great careers page. Center page there are three choices: Store openings (they will need salespeople), Career paths (look for sales) and create a profile (sales!). Create your search using the key words “Retail Sales”. There were over 1,000 Retail Sales opportunities when I checked the site.

Other Sales:

  • Google – No, you did not read this wrong. Google has an amazing number of sales jobs. Rather than go through their main careers page, the link to the left leads directly to their sales jobs. Center page is the long list of jobs, left hand side are links to Life at Google, locations, student jobs and more. The right hand side of the page has related links.

Resources and Leads:

  • Sales, Advertising, & Marketing – This is a listing of leads and resources that will keep you busy for a very long time. Riley Guide’s list of Sales related jobs is an amazing collection of job search sites, executive recruiters, trade shows and the list goes on.
  • Salesjobs.com – This is the “World’s largest Sales Employment Site” according their tag line. And, according to the stats on their main page, there are over 200,000 job opportunities on their site. The main page has tabs at the top, but Candidates seems to be the only one that would be of interest. Below this (middle of the page) is a quick search box (using industry and area code). Bottom left hand side is the candidates section where you can upload your resume, login or get advice. Clicking the Candidates tab at the top leads to a page with dedicated resources such as Search, post resume, advice, sales links and more.
  • National Association of Sales Professionals – This is an example of a professional organization (this one focusing on sales). In addition to other services, this association also has a career center (one of the tabs at the top of the page). Click on career center and the left hand side of the page is dedicated to Job Seekers where you can post a resume, View jobs, create personal alerts and more. When I clicked on the view jobs link, there were over 2,900 opportunities.

Good luck in your search.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Posted in Job Seekers at June 15th, 2010. No Comments.