Healthcare IT Infrastructure Director (in OH) Candidate Profile

IT Operations/Infrastructure Leader combines 15 years of network engineering with MBA/ITIL Certification:

• Designing innovative IT solutions using LEAN process improvement that better enable business operations
• Driving cost savings using technology
• Helping lead the business through strategic transformation
• Leading the integration of HIS, PACS, and other core technologies
• Coordinating the transition to a virtualized infrastructure environment

 

Want to know more?

For the full resume or in an introduction to the client highlighted here, contact Stephen at Stephen@ittechexec.com directly.

Top 3 Tech Talent Profiles

Here at ITtechExec, we are privileged to work with some of the best tech talent in the world. As our company has expanded more and more into a global marketplace, we've had a chance to appreciate the level of skill that is really out there. Today, we want to highlight 3 of our top technical professionals and share their profiles.

1. Software/Systems Engineering Manager (currently in IL) with 20 Years of Application Engineering & Solution Design Experience:

• Drives quality and expedites release at lower cost for solution development & delivery
• Hands-on Technical Team Leader
• International & Multi-Cultural Resource Management Background (U.S., Europe, Asia)
• Expertise in Project Management and Development Practices: MDE, Agile, RUP
• Specializing in Coding Practices: Expert in UML and Automated Code Generation
• MS Degree in Computer Science

2. Astronautical Systems Engineering Leader (currently in CA) with Composite Materials Solutions | Project Management | Research & Testing Background:

• PhD, Astronautical Engineering
• Master of Science (MS), Astronautical Engineering
• Aerospace engineer in charge of systems architecture and integration
• Champion of project management, research, and technical advisory activities related to the structural durability of composite materials exposed to extreme and severe conditions

3. Product Management Engineer (currently in WI) Serving as Developer Advocate with 20+ years of Product Design and Management Experience:

• Specialist in enterprise cloud/SaaS solutions and virtualization assessment projects.
• Recognized for creating intuitive and effective API demos and product learning systems.
• Authored award-winning articles and served as editor of a network computing publication.
• Served as technology marketing lead to produce content and strategy.
• Designed and implemented IT strategy and systems development for large-scale company with more than 30 subsidiaries.

 

Want to know more?

For the full resume or in an introduction to the talent highlighted here, contact Stephen at Stephen@ittechexec.com directly.

In Leadership, Actions Should Speak Louder Than Words

It's interesting. I spend a lot of time listening to and reading the latest on workplace trends. Some people might think that I only focus on job search issues, but in reality, my firms ITtechExec and NoddlePlace work with professionals at all stages in the career management life cycle; specifically, we also spend a lot of time helping people prepare for internal promotions and advancement at their current engagements.  

Therefore, to best do that, we look at the value companies place on their leadership and the expectations they have for them.

 (I have to admit that I also have an odd fascination with the number of HR and organization strategists out there that espouse leadership styles and even conduct management trainings when they have never been operational leaders themselves.)

For sure, there is a plethora of information out there on the concept of corporate leadership. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there is a cultural obsession over the word "leader". (I guess that tells us how desperate we are for good ones.) It is not uncommon to come across infographics like the one here from NEC.EDU that dissect leadership into its finer points.

And for the most part, the advice is sensible, albeit surface level. (For instance, we can easily all nod our heads that a good leader "cultivates strategic thinking and innovation" but it's the application that gets murky. Exactly what does that look like? And can it be turned into a formula to follow?)

 In my mind, having once served as a corporate "leader" with ~130 direct reports, companies rarely promote and cultivate true leaders (which is why there is so much analysis on organizational leadership out there; if they were good at it, they wouldn't need so much of it). One reason is because the way companies hire and promote rarely lines up with what they say they want. Politics, necessity, poor discernment, bad leaders promoting more bad leaders, etc. all come into play.  

Then, after poor decisions have been made, they backtrack to try to turn all of these bad/mediocre/worn-out leaders into good ones. And they do that by using a lot of words.

Seminars, seminars, seminars. Buzzwords, buzzwords, buzzwords. Culture, culture, culture. Soft skills, soft skills, soft skills. The poorly defined mantras are repeated over and over again by the true devotees until they become almost meaningless...if they even had much meaning to begin with.  

Why? Because actions speak louder than words.

And not just from the company as a whole but from the "leaders" themselves.

So the more you mass produce leadership-speak, often the less positive the results you get. I've yet to meet an effective leader who sits around talking much about leadership; instead he or she is thinking about ways to "operate" more effectively, i.e., to execute. In other words, less talk and more action!

Therefore, although we all like to talk about what makes a good leader; in reality, what we really want is to observe one. And my guess is when you finally do, he or she will be anything but formulaic or fit nicely into an HR training seminar.

Information Systems Architect (in NC) Candidate Profile

Information Systems Engineer with 30+ years of IT design and development experience:

• Lead teams of advanced systems engineers to research, develop, and support high-priority projects for several U.S. government agencies
• Advise the federal government on standards-based business process lifecycle
• M.S. degree from the University of Illinois
• Active DOD Secret clearance

 

Want to know more?

For the full resume or in an introduction to the client highlighted here, contact Stephen at Stephen@ittechexec.com directly.

Which Type of Tech Consultant or Contractor Are You?

It seems like everyone I speak with lately about the field of "IT" and "tech" seems to be talking about the rise in consulting/contracting. I hear stats that say up to half of our IT/tech workforce will have an independent contractor status within the next 10 years or sooner. Yes, half...Some say even higher.

Contracting is near and dear to me. My wife has been a contractor for the last 15 years in the publishing industry, and I have done consulting for various firms as part of my career services work. Whether you are brought in to consult or to participate in some portion of a project's development, if you have an independent contractor status, this is self-employment, and self-employment is fluid. And the fact that "contracting" is not a fixed thing is what can make it so attractive. But its very fluidity is what can also make it tough, especially if you lose sight of the entrepreneurial side.

If running your own business were easy, let's face it, most people would do it.  

But it's not, and the fact that some people are expecting half or more of our IT/tech workforce to become independent contractors is not necessarily a good thing in some cases.

For one thing, when I speak with working professionals who have taken on consulting/contract roles, there is a wide-ranging view of just what an IT or tech "contractor" is or should be (or why they became one in the first place). Let's take a look at the different types of I typically come across and some of the pros/cons their style of contracting brings:  

The Lone Ranger

Meet Jeff. Jeff has been successfully running an IT consulting business for the last 10 years. The business consists entirely of Jeff using his vast network of Silicon Valley contacts to keep him moving from one engagement to another. Although he has done well, he never expected the amount of business development he would have to be doing on a constant basis. He likes consulting, but after 10 years, he feels isolated and a little tired of always having to be one step ahead.  

Pros: Jeff has a lot of flexibility and has had a relatively easy time balancing work/life situations. He has amassed a sizable network in a hotspot tech area, thanks to all the people he meets across his engagements.  

Cons: Jeff misses out on working like a team. When he goes into a new contract, he has to bond quickly with the permanent staff, and he often does not get to see a project all the way through to the end. Sometimes contracts end abruptly for various reasons, like budget cuts, etc.  

Remedies: Jeff could grow his business to build his own team environment (like Grace did below) and spread his subcontractors across several contracts at once. This way when he loses one, he still has others to fall back on.  

The Full-Timer in Disguise

Then there's Gina. Gina is considered an independent contractor for a large engineering company in her area. She used to work for the company, but after some downsizing, they brought her and a few other people back on as contractors. That was 3 years ago. Gina has no other clients or contracts; she works 40 hours a week, in-house for this company.

Pros: Gina doesn't have to spend time on business development or put much into marketing her "business" like Jeff does because she has a steady client. She might not get the benefits she used to, but she does get a better hourly rate and she has a steady paycheck.  

Cons: Gina has placed all her eggs in one basket. This company has laid her off once as an employee; it would be even easier for her to be let go as a contractor, and Gina has not expanded her skill set in contracting beyond this one engagement. Gina doesn't really consider herself a contractor.  

Remedies: Gina could look into reducing her time with the company and into taking on some smaller contracts to help diversify her revenue stream. OR she could seek full-time employment elsewhere, if possible.  

The "Until Something Better Comes Along" Contractor

Now we have Joseph. Joseph had to leave his job 6 months ago because his wife's company relocated the family from Colorado to Arizona. After looking around for a bit and not landing anything permanent, he quickly decided to take on some short-term contracts. He doesn't really like it and would prefer to work in-house somewhere, but he needs the money.  

Pros: Joseph is keeping his skills marketable and getting a chance to showcase his abilities on a contract basis. He is avoiding the dreaded employment gap on the resume.  

Cons: Joseph has to choose between his commitment to contract work and conducting an effective job search. If he wants to be taken seriously as a contractor, then he needs to put his attention into it. But that can jeopardize his efforts to find full-time employment.  

Remedies: Joseph needs to be careful not to let his contract work take up too much of his time unless he plans to remain one for a while. At some point, he may need to embrace contracting as a more permanent option or quit it altogether.  

The Consultant Who Isn't Really a Contractor

So then there's George. George tells everyone he is an "IT contractor," but really George works for a company that does IT consulting. So he is contracted out but is still a full-time employee for XYZ company who sends him out to clients for various engagements.  

Pros: George is a consultant without being an independent contractor, working at a client site, while reaping the benefits of a full-time employee. George doesn't have to worry about self-employment tax or handling business development pressure.  

Cons: George is not actually a contractor. He still works for someone else, and his career sinks or swims with that of the firm.  

Remedies: In all fairness to George, if he's happy with his current arrangement, he doesn't need to do anything. But if he really wants to be a contractor, then he needs to be one. :-)  

The Contractor of Contractors

Last but not least we have Grace. Grace sees her company as a company. She started out on her own but has now expanded, hiring a few subcontractors to assist her with larger engagements as well as support staff. Grace is setting a strategic vision for her company and has a 5- and 10-year plan. Grace wants to add more staff and subcontractors as time goes by.  

Pros: Grace has put all the pieces in place of having an established business that can take the ups and downs that come with market fluctuations (a very important part of longevity in contracting!).

Cons: Grace isn't much of a consultant anymore; she's an executive. As her business grows, she gets further away from the consulting work itself.  

Remedies: If Grace wants to be CEO of a thriving business, then there isn't much to fix here. But if Grace is feeling like she is cut off from the work she loves, then she may have to look at hiring management to free herself up to get her hands dirty at least sometimes.

So What Does "Consulting" or "Contracting" Mean to You?

As we move forward into the age of increased IT/tech consulting/contracting, you may find yourself asking this question. And it is prudent to know how to answer it before you jump into the self-employment waters. How much risk are you willing to take? What do you know about business development? Do you need a team environment to thrive? Are you "too corporate" to take on the entrepreneurial vibe? (It's OK if you are, by the way.)

Job Search Mistakes 101

Whether we like it or not, a job search entails the selling of a product, which happens to be you. Now, I know that ruffles some feathers even among career strategists because they don't like the idea of "sales" and "pitch," so they come up with other terms. But at the end of the day, there's simply nothing wrong with sales and with marketing you as the product.

In fact, a true, successful salesperson understands one basic principle: What you are "selling" benefits the buyer more than you the seller. (If you don't believe that, then you probably won't last long in sales!)

In the case of a job search, yes, you need a job and it benefits you greatly, but for the company to be successful, it needs strong assets. You can go on to the next job, as frustrating as that may be; a company with poor assets, however, simply fails. So with that in mind, don't be afraid to sell "your product!" They need it!

However, as with any product, there is a fine line between a successful negotiation and an ineffective pitch. So it is wise to take a look at some of the top job search mistakes that job seekers make:

• Overselling/Underselling. It is probably just as bad to oversell your qualities as it is to undersell them. The reason that either one occurs is because job seekers place all the emphasis on the product (themselves) and forget about the buyer (the potential employer) and the buyer’s needs. Big mistake!!
• Misplaced Blame. When things don’t happen quickly during the job search process, the first thing most job seekers do is start to place blame. It’s the résumé. It’s the recruiter. It’s the job market. It’s the government. And so on. As mentioned, the job search process is a frustrating one. And it is a mistake to get caught up in the blame game. As soon as that starts, you will lose focus, become demotivated, and carry that attitude into interviews.
• Undiversified Approach. Many job seekers think that they can just try one or two opportunities for finding a job and dismiss many other options. Forgetting to diversify your job search can be a big mistake, particularly when it is a statistical fact that many traditional job hunting tactics are not that effective. So if you’re expecting those online posting sites to do all the work for you, you will likely be disappointed or, at the very least, waiting around for a while for something to happen.
• Unrealistic Expectations. Time and time again, job seekers will start off a job search with such high hopes. They can’t wait to start that new career. They just know they are worth more. They’ve bought that fancy résumé. The calls should just start rolling in…As we discuss a little later on, even with all the right conditions (good skills, great résumé), no one is guaranteed a 30-day or less job search. So many factors are involved that you need to understand how long it can truly take.
• Lack of Preparation. It is amazing how job seekers will put so much emphasis on the résumé but forget to (a) have a strategy in place for how to use the résumé, (b) fail to prepare for both phone and face-to-face interviews (they are not the same thing and, therefore, require different preparation), and (c) have a complete misunderstanding of the industry they are targeting. Don’t be fooled. Just because you’ve spent the last 10 years in your field doesn’t mean that you have a broad perspective on it. Chances are your scope has been narrow, specific to your employer, or industry-specific. Honestly, there is no excuse for lack of preparation, and no matter how much you have to offer, it will hinder your job search.

If you are not a natural sales person, don’t worry. Most people think they are bad at sales because they spend too much time obsessing over the end result and not enough time matching up their product with the prospect’s needs. If you think of your job search as a synergy between your experience and skills and the potential employer’s needs, it will help you stay focused on the "win-win" goal you are trying to achieve.

In Today's Job Market, Job Hoppers Have It the Hardest

In the job market world today, there seems to be an ongoing debate as to who has it the worst: the 50+ crowd, the unemployed, or the job hopper. According to this infographic from Bullhorn.com, job hopping trumps them all, although that hardly means things are easy for the 50+ crowd or the chronically unemployed.

One thing we have devised at ITtechExec in our career management services is an approach to dealing with past job hopping and to rebranding of these candidates. Although the term "job hopping" has a negative connotation, there are some ways you can turn that experience into a positive one.

Here are two options I've written pretty extensively on:

1. Problems-Solutions-Results page: This would be an opportunity for you to consolidate your diverse background by laying out a problem you faced, the solution you developed, and what the impact of that solution was on business operations. It shouldn't be more than a page and should highlight 2-3 projects. It will serve as an addendum to strengthen the existing resume.

2. Highlight soft skills: So often IT pros focus on tech stuff, which is important, but increasingly soft skills matter too. Showcase how you have leveraged your soft skills to maneuver through different types of environments.

The idea is to show that you can consolidate your varied work history into a positive for the next employer.

Career Management Doesn't Have to Hurt

 

In the world of work, there may be nothing more complicated and potentially as painful as career management today.

Things used to be more simple. Either you put your nose to the grind and worked your way up the corporate ladder with one employer (or certainly no more than a few) or you tossed your basic resume out into the warm waters of the job search world that picked candidates from a more local, less global, pool. And generally, it was more of a "when" and "which" opportunity panned out for you than an "if" situation. If you didn't burn too many bridges, built the right credentials, and earned a strong reputation, your career kind of managed itself.

You didn't have to keep up with hiring trends or compete with candidates halfway around the world. And you most certainly didn't have to "always be prepared" for a job search that was around, statistically speaking, every 3-4-year corner.  

Today, that is the market many professionals are facing...whether they know it or not...and the idea of constantly being in "job search mode" is, well, tiring, if not down right painful.

But it doesn't have to hurt!

When people ask me what's good about the job market today, I tell them that the market is ripe with opportunity for those who are prepared...all the time. These are people who understand that the market is not waiting for them or that the next job they land is going to be their last. They don't necessarily always want to be looking, but they do want to be ready.

My tech clients who are doing this are without a doubt having the most success. In fact, the market is welcoming them with open arms.

So, does this make them more ambitious than everyone else? No.

Are they more job market savvy? No.

Are they younger? No!  

They are just willing to accept the market for the way that it is.

The other piece these types of clients have is an understanding that career management is really a team effort in today's market. They look at their careers in much the same way an entrepreneur looks at his or her company. They recognize that they need to decide where their strengths are and then outsource the rest.

They understand that they need to focus on becoming better at their fields of industry and can't keep up with the latest in resumes, social media, personal branding, hiring practices, social recruiting, mobile recruiting, etc. So they build a team to help them do that, much in the same way you would look to retirement, accounting, or insurance advice.

Once they have this team in place, then it only requires basic maintenance throughout the year while their team members do the rest. Annual resume and regular LinkedIn profile updates, social media support, and personal branding assessments along with career coaching and basic trends summaries keep them at the ready without requiring major overhauls and painful realizations that they aren't ready to go for that promotion or walk away from that current engagement.

Sadly, though, too many professionals are stuck in the old market mindset...good things will just come their way if they work hard and think positively and career management is a solo effort largely guided by chance. They want to toss out all thoughts of the unpleasant job searches they've been through in the past, and they don't want to even think about the fact that they might have to go through it again.

Listen. All of these feelings are understandable, but unfortunately, they aren't wise in today's world of work.

It's becoming more and more expensive to conduct a search, and all signs indicate that the cost will only continue to rise, particularly for the unprepared, which will be a painful pill to swallow when the time comes.  

And pretty soon there will be an even larger gap between those who have kept themselves prepared and those who have tried to look the other way.

It won't be enough just to have the right credentials anymore. Now you will need to present the right package as well.

The Rise of the Machine and How It Is Going to Change the World

I am pleased to present an article today from a top consultant in today’s technology field, Fasih Sandhu. Fasih writes extensively on the Industrial Internet as well as on the Internet of Everything through his blogs at http://www.gghc.ca/. I asked Fasih if he would provide my tech readership with an overview of the current state of the Industrial Internet.  

The following text is what he submitted to me:

The Industrial Internet (aka Machine to Machine Communications or Internet of Things) is a term that was coined by General Electric. It brings together the advances of two transformative revolutions: 1) the myriad machines, facilities, fleets, and networks that arose from the Industrial Revolution and 2) the powerful advances in computing, information, and communication systems brought to the fore by the Internet Revolution. Together these developments combine three elements that embody the essence of the Industrial Internet: 1) Intelligent Machines, 2) Advanced Analytics, and 3) People at Work.

Watch GE CEO, Jeff Immelt, Keynote Speech at Minds + Machines 2013 – GE:


In 2013, GE formed partnerships with Amazon's Amazon Web Services (AWS), Accenture Plc, Pivotal (EMC and VMWare), AT&T, Cisco, and Intel for an “Industrial Internet” service that allows its customers to analyze data and predict outcomes. Watch the panel discussion of VP GE Software, Bill Ruh, with partners from AT&T, Cisco, and Intel.



GE's vision is that eventually all GE products will become intelligent with software and connectivity and that those products will become more reliable and productive because of that intelligence. By connecting advanced software to GE equipment and systems to deliver real-time performance analytics, GE’s customers will also have more insight into their own operations, including the ability to predict and proactively address performance issues before becoming a problem. GE projects that its annual commercial opportunity in the Industrial Internet will eventually be in the neighborhood of $5 billion from products and services associated with Industrial Internet systems and analytics.

Watch industry business leaders from the Energy (Apache Corporation, Statoil ASA), Utilities (Commonwealth Edison), Airline (United), and Healthcare (St. Luke's Campus Health Care Center) sectors convene with GE to discuss the challenges and opportunities as they deploy the Industrial Internet in their businesses.


 What Does It Mean for Vendors in the Tech Sector?

Cisco has estimated that 25 billion devices will permanently connect to the Internet by 2015, rising to 50 billion devices by 2020. At that rate, there will be nearly 7 times more devices permanently connected to the Internet than people in the world!

Gartner estimates that there will be more than 200 billion devices that intermittently connect to the Internet by 2020.

According to the IDC, the installed base for the Internet of Things will grow to approximately 212 billion devices by 2020, a number that includes 30 billion connected devices. All such devices will generate a tremendous amount of data that needs to be stored in databases and made available for operational & maintenance reporting and predictive analytics. Hence, vendors such as AT&T, Cisco, HP, IBM, and SAP could facilitate and/or interface with the conventional M2M Systems, and the industrial ecosystem incumbent players such as GE, Siemens, and Honeywell could foster partnerships with the leading players in the Internet World and play an instrumental role in developing and implementing use cases for different verticals for transactional, operational, maintenance, and analytical applications. It will be an evolution rather than a revolution, and as such, both vendors and clients will have to go through a lot of pain to achieve the target states.  

A Few Use Cases from Vendors  

Remote Maintenance and Service

Transform enterprise asset management and field service with industry solutions for Remote Maintenance and Service. Predict equipment malfunction, proactively provide service, and replace faulty parts before system breakdown. Lower service cost by performing remote maintenance.  

Connected Logistics

Solutions for Connected Logistics can reshape your supply chain by integrating real-time data from freight, containers, and shipped goods with distribution analytics to optimize your transportation operations. Identify and resolve with up-to-the-minute information.  

What About “Security,” “Privacy,” “Data Integrity,” and “Liability” of the M2M Communications?

One of the biggest challenges with the early adoption and proliferation of the Industrial Internet concerns information management and legal aspects that surround the storage, distribution, and sharing of the Industrial Data that are mostly proprietary in nature. A malfunction in the M2M systems could impact human life and communities at large. The National and Internet Regulators (Aviation, Railways, Shipping, Transportation, Utilities, Healthcare, Telecom, etc.) have to work in tandem with the National Security and Intelligence Agencies to develop policies, standards, guidelines, and best practices and to enforce compliance through some kind of rating system.  

What Does It Mean for Students and Professionals in the Science and Technology Sectors?

According to Laszlo Bock, the Sr. VP of people operations for Google, there are five hiring attributes Google has across the company: 1) General cognitive ability — and it’s not I.Q. It’s learning ability......It’s the ability to pull together disparate bits of information. 2) Leadership — in particular emergent leadership as opposed to traditional leadership. What we care about is, when faced with a problem and you’re a member of a team, do you, at the appropriate time, step in and lead? 3) Humility — the humility to step back and embrace the better ideas of others. 4) Ownership — it’s feeling the sense of responsibility, the sense of ownership, to step in. 5) Expertise — the least important attribute they look for is “expertise.” For more on that, see the article in the NY Times.

In my opinion, success in the age of the Industrial Internet will be a combination of science and art. Both students and professionals have to first learn the science and then be creative with the use cases of the myriad applications to improve the quality of human life and industrial productivity.  

Author Bio

Fasih Sandhu is the Director of Greater Golden Horseshoe Consultants in Ontario, Canada. He specializes in optimizing IT and telecom ecosystems to extend business capabilities, cut costs, and drive ROI. His background as an advisor, management consultant, project manager, and ICT leader has provided him with a unique look at how improved workflow, technology, robust project delivery, and optimized organizational structures can impact business growth, innovation, and productivity. Fasih holds the PMP certification and is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC). He also has a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer and Information Systems and is a senior member of the IEEE.

Fasih can be reached via info@gghc.ca or www.gghc.ca.

Are You Wedded to Your Job?

 
I'm really hoping that your answer to this question is "no."

I'm not sure there was a time when a "yes" answer would have ever been really good. But in today's market, professionals cannot afford that type of thinking.

Now, don't get me wrong. This has nothing to do with hard work or loyalty or ethics. Nor does it have to do with whether you like the company you currently work for. It also has nothing to do with your "career" as a whole. (In my mind, a job and a career are not the same things.)

I am talking about a specific employment engagement with a specific organization and the attitude today's job market forces us to take with our jobs.  

And that attitude is "always be prepared."

Millennials may struggle with this less, but for Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers, this is a nice sentiment but difficult to execute because we remember "back in the day" when a job search seemed more simple...when you didn't have to try as hard and the competition wasn't as stiff for promotions and contract work. If you liked the company you worked for, you most likely planned to stay there and move up the ranks. You wedded yourself to that train and you rode it as long as you could. And if you did decide to leave, you quickly tossed a basic resume together and went on the interview. You didn't need to think about LinkedIn profiles, social recruiting, applicant tracking systems, mobile recruiting apps, etc. And personal branding and networking were not the buzzwords they are today.

All in all, both the road to promotion and the job search were pretty simple to maneuver. It was really just a matter of which job you were going to get and when. If you didn't burn too many bridges, made a few good connections, and worked hard, you should be OK.

Today, getting a proper job search off the ground is a much bigger feat. So big in fact that I talk to many passive candidates who would like to leave but feel overwhelmed about the prospect of just getting a search started. But this is the beginning of a slippery slope of wedding yourself to a job that doesn't promise the same type of commitment in return.  

Listen. Today's job search process, be it for an internal promotion or an external move, doesn't have to be overwhelming, but it does require a bit of preparation and maintenance.

What that means is that once you have a resume, LI profile, portfolio, social recruiting strategy in place, you need to keep it in good shape...even when you're happy with your current job! It doesn't have to take a lot of time or energy or cost a fortune...an annual review would be a great place to start...but whatever the cost, you can't afford to ignore it or you will be wedded to your current job, so wedded that when something happens and it is time for you to act, it is much tougher for you to do.

I see it all the time. My clients who stay prepared actually do well in this market. They have an entrepreneurial mindset, which is that opportunity is around any corner.

I came across this infographic from Jobvite recently that showcases some statistics about today's working professional. The data are from 2012, but they still highlight the mindset of today's worker.  

Ask yourself: How prepared am I for that next job change?

Because it is coming...If you are in the market for another 3-4 years, statistically speaking, it is likely to happen. How long would it take you to get your social networks working for you? Are you up on the latest in recruiting trends? These are questions you may not have had to ask "back in the day," but today they are relevant and will most likely affect your next search.

Most In-Demand Programming Languages for 2014

eWeek recently released its top 10 list of most in-demand programming languages for 2014. No surprise...Java and JavaScript top the list.

1. Java
2. JavaScript
3. C/C++
4. C#
5. PHP
6. Python
7. Ruby
8. Objective C
9. HTML5
10. CSS

Several comments were made regarding HTML5 and CSS not being programming languages but markup and styling languages, respectively. Therefore, their inclusion on the list ruffled some feathers. However, their importance as development tools is important to note.

Other commenters were annoyed that COBOL is missing from the list, and a suggestion was made that it is wise to learn a mix of old and new languages to broaden the scope of your coding knowledge.

Perhaps the most interesting point made here by eWeek is in regard to the dichotomy between East Coast and West Coast employers. In New York, Python is most in demand, whereas in San Francisco it's Ruby. So it pays to know the territory.