Adrian Gardiner

Second thoughts about a career in IT

At a time of numerous reports of American IT jobs being outsourced overseas, and the immediate employment prospects for many IT graduates uncertain, it remains unclear whether these developments are causing American IT students to reconsider their earlier decision to undertake a career in IT. Addressing this issue, this exploratory study reports the general level of IT career commitment of senior IT students enrolled at a medium-sized State University in the southern United States. In addition, links between the level of a students IT career commitment and a number of factors are investigated, including knowledge about the IT job market, perceived job uncertainty, IT self-efficacy, attitudes towards IT study, and the type of IT program a student was undertaking.

Skill Requirements in Big Data: A Content Analysis of Job Advertisements

ABSTRACT The technology behind big data, although still in its nascent stages, is inspiring many companies to hire data scientists and explore the potential of big data to support strategic initiatives, including developing new products and services. To better understand the skills and knowledge that are highly valued by industry for jobs within big data, this study reports on an analysis of 1216 job advertisements that contained “big data” in the job title. Our results are presented within a conceptual framework of big data skills categories and confirm the multi-faceted nature of big data job skills. Our research also found that many big data job advertisements emphasize developing analytical information systems and that soft skills remain highly valued, in addition to the value placed on emerging hard technological skills.