James Maguire

Also see: IT Salary Survey, January 2009 (gives comparative numbers between ’08 and ’09.) The future of the IT job market looks bright, if government statistics are accurate. That’s a big “if,” of course, but still, here’s an encouraging fact: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, five of the top ten fastest growing […]

Informa, a technical publishing company with some 7,000 employees, straddles the worlds of Linux and Windows. The company uses Linux in all its applications that interface with customers. The London-based Informa has very active Linux development teams in its Dutch, German and UK offices. These developers create software for uses ranging from content distribution to […]

Reorganizing the help desk is a task that many companies would rather avoid. The problem is, the help desk performs a thankless task. Sure, it solves employees’ hardware and software snafus, and does a lot of handholding during technical difficulties. But the help desk isn’t a profit center. Just the opposite: many companies see it […]

A majority of IT professionals are restless and dissatisfied with their job, and a remarkably large number are actively seeking new positions. That’s the chief finding of a recent survey of 1,200 IT workers conducted by the Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). The survey finds that an eyebrow-raising 58% of tech staffers are actively looking […]

It’s something almost every IT professional worries about: will my job be outsourced? That’s a valid worry. Undoubtedly, outsourcing is here to stay. Year after year, jobs migrate offshore, forcing American IT workers to scramble for new positions. In the past, companies use to agonize over outsourcing, says Gartner analyst Diane Morello. But not anymore. […]

As the IT manager for Dynamix, a 60-person engineering firm in Columbus, Ohio, Matt Darby oversees a network that combines Windows and Linux. His servers all run Linux, the Slackware distribution, and his desktops all run Windows XP. Although he’s comfortable with both operating systems, Darby freely admits he prefers one over the other. “I […]

The job market for tech workers has rebounded considerably since the dark days of 2000 and 2001, according to a recent report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. John Challenger, the firm’s CEO, tells Datamation that he’s bullish on tech hiring. “It’s a strong job market for IT,” he says. “It’s picked up in […]

Ron Barrett has found his dream job. As director of information technology for ERE, a New York-based accounting firm, the 35-year-old Barrett has it all: a good salary, a company that pays for his continued training, a cutting edge technical environment. He’s so satisfied that he expects to work for ERE for decades –- probably […]

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act turned four years old on July 30, but don’t be surprised if you didn’t hear anyone singing “Happy Birthday.” To be sure, the four-year-old legislation has been a problem child for IT executives at public companies. Among other hurdles, they’ve been required to understand a slew of new acronyms: HIPAA, GLB, MFID, […]

A Web analytics program is a lot like an airplane pilot’s navigation system. As pilots rely on their dials and scopes to steer the plane, Web site owners monitor the data from their Web analytics software to help them keep their business on course. An analytics program — like those by WebTrends, ClickTracks, Omniture, Googleand […]