Career Adviser

-- High Crime

Dear Crime:

Your three years of experience in the security area put you well ahead of the curve as security moves from a subject that's of interest only to the Department of Defense and becomes an area of mainstream concern and spending, says John Stubbs, vice president and national practice leader of the network integration practice at Ciber Inc. in Greenwood Village, Colo. You just need to decide where you want to put your experience to work.

The difference between security and forensics is the occurrence of a crime, notes Stubbs. Both areas are interrelated, since there are always new tools and new hacks happen every day although they often remain undiscovered for a while, so the detective work, and hence the forensics, could begin as much as six months after a crime is discovered. Nonetheless, the area you want to concentrate on goes beyond firewalls, virtual private networks and antivirus software to true security systems architecture that engages security at the root level of a company's applications and processes.

As a consultant, you would be quite valuable if you understood products from companies like Securant Technologies Inc. in San Francisco or Netegrity Inc. in Waltham, Mass., and knew how those tools integrate with directory or metadirectory services.

You also need to understand privilege management the process of granting people access to a system, public-key infrastructure and digital certificates. Assessment and penetration services are also hot areas, says Stubbs. For companies to understand what to fix, they need to understand where they are.

Dear Career Adviser:

I hold bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science and have five years of work experience, including three in the U.S., where I'm a permanent resident. I'm experienced in application development in C, C++, Java, XML and HTML.

I have worked on a variety of applications, including an order/product/billing tracking system, a client tracking system and an employee management system. I want to advance to a senior or team leader position. How do I do that?

-- Questioning How

Dear How:

A year ago, a person with three years of programming experience and a master's degree in computer science could find senior programmer or team leader positions, says Talia C. Rodriguez, a technical recruiter at Attract Professional Staffing Inc. in San Jose.

However, a strong academic background and just a few years of programming experience, or learning a slew of new languages, won't help you make the jump today because you're now competing with hundreds of other candidates who have similar backgrounds and similar software and systems expertise. If you sincerely want to upgrade your career, start thinking about the qualifications that make a person a strong leader, beyond simply writing code, says Rodriguez.

If you haven't done so already, start taking on more responsibilities in coordinating with other members of your team. Then be sure your r�sum� shows that you understand the general market and business environment surrounding your product. Demonstrating this kind of understanding indicates that you have the potential to communicate with the sales team and customers to make sure the product actually sells in the market for which it's intended.

Finally, Rodriguez points out that the job market is changing. Last year's demand for software developers has shifted to today's increasing demand for hardware designers. You may need to simply wait things out.

Dear Career Adviser:

I'm a technical recruiter who has done a number of staffing projects. Would learning software such as Microsoft Project increase my opportunities?

Project Staffer

Dear Staffer:

Not necessarily, since technical recruiters who have managed staffing projects aren't the same as project managers developing code, says Wayne Willis, a venture adviser in Los Altos, Calif.

Project management skills, however, may increase your ability to find work as a recruiter if you can create a task list that involves interrelated dependencies, such as assigning resources, tracking progress and creating control reports.

Also learn to delve into financial statements and read up on general and project management, particularly on Critical Path Method planning, Gantt charts and project tracking and reporting methodologies.