Career

In a recent ranking of the best jobs, several IT positions ended up in the top 10.

You work, you strive, you reach the top of your profession -- and then you leave? Sure, say these ex-CIOs. Read their take on life after IT. Insider (registration required)

LinkedIn's newest study reveals that Americans are the most anxious workers in the world when it comes to negotiating in the workplace. These seven expert tips will help you conquer that fear and get what you want.

Increased compensation and promotions have become more popular as motivators.

David Brown is worried. As managing director of the IT transformation group at Bank of New York Mellon, he is responsible for the health and welfare of 112,500 Cobol programs -- 343 million lines of code -- that run core banking and other operations. But many of the people who built that code base, some of which goes back to the early days of Cobol in the 1960s, will be retiring over the next several years.

Applicant tracking systems are the bane of legions of job seekers. These systems, which employers use to manage job openings across their enterprises and screen incoming resumes from job seekers, kill 75 percent of candidates' chances of landing an interview as soon as they submit their resumes, according to job search services provider Preptel.

To the world at large, computers are scary machines that are impossible to understand, and programmers are the mysterious geniuses who know how to manipulate them even if they are never able to fix yours for whatever reason.

Cole Hanson's career goal is to become an information security executive. Currently, he serves as a high-level information security professional with the U.S. Army. In February, Hanson, who is also a reservist with a rank of Lieutenant, will start a new job with the Marine Corps as the technology integration officer and deputy for its Communications Directorate. In this new position he will act as a project manager and oversee a major network infrastructure replacement.

Forecasts for IT hiring are almost universally predicting that project managers and business analysts will be in demand in 2012, but what about cloud transformation officers?

In 2011, the IT outsourcing industry was marked by smaller deals, leery customers, profit-squeezed IT service providers and a lot of cloud computing talk. Much of that could continue next year, but as our 12 predictions for 2012 indicate, you can expect some new IT outsourcing developments--maybe even a few firsts.

Four IT leaders talk about their current hiring needs and the "dream resumes" they envision of the perfect candidates for entry-level, midcareer and technology-careerist positions.