Computerworld - January 9, 2012

Career Watch

ASK A PREMIER 100 IT LEADER

Dennis Hodges

The CIO at Inteva

Products answers questions about his hiring criteria, the skills needed in a cloud-based world and more.

What qualities do you look for when
hiring for your team? The ability to
work with others is a key requirement
in today’s team-oriented environment.
Another is the ability to look at IT as a
service and understand how we sup-
port the business, even if a person is
an infrastructure specialist. Everything
and everyone supports the business,
not just functional
analysts.

lenging and rewarding area, and I feel
that opportunity abounds. On-the-job
training is a great way to get the basics
and get in on the ground floor. There
is a groundswell of projects that were
delayed over the past couple of years
with the recession that are now start-
ing to come back to life. While there
are no guarantees, I would say that
this would be a good
career move.

If you have a question
for one of our Premier
100 I T Leaders, send
it to askaleader@
computerworld.com,
and watch for this
column each month.

I’ve been in law
enforcement for
over 10 years, and
my opportunities
to advance have
been slim. My posi-
tion is secure, with
good benefits. Unfortunately, it
doesn’t provide me with any chal-
lenges. A company that is hiring
in my area will accept applicants
with only a bachelor’s degree and
will train you on the job. I have a
good background in IT, especially
hardware. Should I give up a sure
thing to pursue an IT or project
manager position in this economy?
The IT market has certainly picked up
in the past year. IT can be a very chal-

In an increasingly
cloud-based world,
what skills will be
most in demand in
years to come? We
have to look at the
two cloud environ-
ments. Public clouds alleviate the need
for server support, but you still need
strong security and firewall expertise.
With a private cloud, you will actually
require stronger support skills in the
advanced technical systems that make
up that environment. This includes
experience in virtual-machine support
from the server side, storage exper-
tise, networking skills, and security and
firewall expertise. You also have to be a
good architect.

H-1B FEES TO BOOST U.S. TRAINING Using money generated by the H-1B visa program, the U. S. government will start providing grants for training unemployed U. S. job seekers. The $160 million program is being implemented by the Labor Department, which will provide grants to 36 private-public partnerships serving 20 states and the District of Columbia.

Network Pros See Value in Certs

Half of I T workers said in a recent survey that a certification led to higher pay. Of the 700 people who responded to the survey, which was conducted by Net work World and I T management software vendor Solar Winds, three quarters had at least one certification. Respondents, who predominantly work in networking, said certification led to one or more of the following:

A new job 61%

An increase in salary or a bonus 56%

A promotion 29%

Other 11%

The Hottest
Scripting
Languages

If you want to pump up your résumé with mastery of a hot scripting language, take a peek at the roundup that

Info World ’s Peter Wayner compiled.

Besides sorting eight languages into “Hot” and “Not Hot” categories, he offers evidence to support his rankings and shares interesting tidbits, such as the fact that Python started to ascend as a direct result of the housing market crash. To find out more about this and other trends in scripting languages, go to Info World.com. Meanwhile, here’s a recap of Wayner’s assessments: