Most already know that I feel most Uni IT courses are sadly out of date and out of tune with the real world of IT.  As some have already said an IT degree in Twitter or Tweet-ing isn’t any good if we are going to be back on the top as world leaders in the IT race.  Also it seems that most “Silver surfers” are getting a better course at the local U3A!

A lot of the Uni grads I get to work alongside with can “Tag”, “Poke” and play “Halo” like it’s an Olympic sport but can’t tell you a Network fault from a lost Video Driver! Why is that? Has the course failed them? Were they playing Halo instead of going to class? Or are we not telling the Colleges and Universities what we what to come out of the courses and from our graduates?

It’s bad enough for these would be IT Gurus but the latest news of the Universities “Charge what you like” course fees will put many out of the race to get any sort of real qualifications, not matter how out of date the courses are.

I really feel that the UK academic system is getting worse. The Asian countries beat us hands down not only in the quality of their courses but also the students and their dedication to learning.  Many Asian students could teach here in the UK with what they already know and without the bonus of the certificate.  OK, I know their standards are higher and if they don’t keep an 83% pass rate going they are “Sacked” from the course, but it really works to keep the standards up.  Consider this thought, education is a gift not a right, that is what they say in Asia.  This drives the student to achieve more, and they are glad to study and to achieve the best they can.  The best students in Asia are not always the ones that can afford to pay the fees.  They are the ones on scholarships and sponsorships because they have earned it and want it more than our students living off the “Bank of Mum and Dad.”  The lecturers are better too, they are the best of the best and could easily command much higher salaries working for big world corporations.

So if the UK Universities and Colleges want to be considered “Businesses” and have the right to charge what they like, then the rating system we have for them is all wrong.  They have to deliver more than what they have in the past and fit in with what is current and future thinking in the work place. It’s not about the pass rate, it is about what is being taught and it’s RELEVANCE in the real world.  We, the employer, should grade the Universities, based on the intake of graduates abilities in the workplace.  Most companies cannot afford to retrain those fresh out of Uni, and we shouldn’t have to.  So why are the Universities and Colleges sending out IT Graduates with poor IT skills?

It shows the lecturers are not monitored  or held accountable nearly enough.  I want to see the lecturers graded like the students.  As they say, “Those who can do, those who can’t teach”.  Sadly that is so true of so many of the UK Lecturers today, and many can’t teach that well either!  So like the students, if they fail their targets and objectives, they should be penalised for it or even sacked.  If not the students are not getting anything for the higher fees and the standards go down yet again.

For all you would be students, it’s time for a real think about the Uni or college and the sort  IT course you will take.  Be aware, sadly many courses can only be deemed as “Blanket Courses”, they cover a little bit of everything but not enough to teach you anything long term useful.  Great if you want to be a “Jack of all trades”  and plan to learn “on the job” what you need. I know, “But you need that bit of paper to get your dream job” in the first place.

As a student you must…

1)      Choose your College or Uni well, make sure it fits with what you want. Remember they are a business, if the product is shoddy, don’t buy it!

2)      Check it is the right course for you. i.e. if you dream of being a programmer or a hardware engineer, check that this is the key element of the course, not just one small part of a bigger  ”Blanket Course”.

3)      Get a full syllabus of the course, and the timetable.  (Ensure that all the lecturers have been employed to fill the course time, often they are not!).

4)       Talk to those on the 2^nd and 3^rdyear of the course, get their views and find out what problems they have experienced. You will be surprised to hear what is wrong with the course. How many people bailed on the course ‘cos it was boring, not consistent, underfunded etc. You will be shocked as to how many have gone back to their old job because the course was a flop.

4a)    What is the pass/fail rate for the course? And what were the grades?

5)      Course fees are only a part of it. What is the local area like, housing cost, work chances (if any) and do a pretend shop, see what it’s going to cost you a week/month to live.

 6) Plan your week, work, rest and play. Make sure you have time for all that and also get your assignments in on time.

7)  If any of the above comes out badly, rethink your plans and go for the one that ticks ALL the boxes for YOU the student, THE CUSTOMER!

P.S Don’t live off the “Bank of Mum and Dad!”  Do it all yourself.

As an employer we all should be talking to the Universities and Colleges to ensure they are teaching what we need to fill the future market place.  I am on two panels for the Technical development of IT courses.  Even with my extreme views of some Windows and Apple products (Evil Grin), the realisation of practical training based on real world experience has made courses more fitting to the employers needs.

Of course this is not a definitive list, and I hope others will add to this.  Some of you out there already working in the world of IT may have sons or daughters who wish to follow in your footsteps.  What would you tell them?  Post it here too…

What would you want your new fresh out of Uni, IT guy to know when he starts work with you on Monday? Have you told the local Uni or College this?

Putting “being an IT Heretic aside”, computing is a fascinating world. It has done me well for over 30yrs, taking me all around the world, and I have seen somethings I can tell you (both good and bad).  Both my sons have joined my company until their own passions took them off to other areas of IT.  All I can say, with the course fees going up, and the salaries getting smaller, think long and hard about what you want out of your career, and what you are prepared to do to get the money.  Sadly you can earn more aboard as a good Techie or Lecturer than you can here in the UK, but if you plan to have a wife and kids.. This may not fit in with your family life or the places you would like to work (some are very grim places, believe me very grim).

I have seen many IT firms go to the wall.  So finally, as a student you can easily expect a 30-40k debt with these new fees, is it worth it? You could study to be a solicitor or an accountant instead and earn much, much more… Just a thought.

All the best

There’s a buzz in the office today – payday is approaching. Whether you work in IT Support, Testing or Web Design I bet you look forward to this time of the month as much as I do! ‘I can buy an Ipad now!’ with squeals of excitement and several big nights out being planned. It seems everyone is excited to spend their money on everything in reach, but what about the future?

We read in the papers all the time about how dire the state pension is. According to Interactive Investor it currently stands at just £4,139 a year for a single person and £6,617 a year for a couple, and even then only if you have paid NI for 30 years or more. That clearly doesn’t cover my retirement expectations of travelling the world with cocktail in hand.

It’s not just me…

I do have to admit pension savings isn’t exactly at the forefront of my mind, and it seems fair to say that I’m no exception. According to the Metro, people need to save £3000-£6000 a year more than they currently do. This shocks me for two reasons. The first of which is that £6000 a year sounds like an awful lot of money to me, and we need to save more than that? The second reason is because it seems no one wants to take responsibility.

And who should? Should it be the government? We all work hard for our money (or at least we work for it) and we all pay tax and national insurance. By retirement we’ve paid our dues and it’s time to sit back and take our share. It’s outrageous that the government doesn’t look after the elderly.

Looking out for number one

Quite right. But it’s also a question of looking after yourself. Say you’re a Java Developer in your twenties and earning £30,000 a year. You should start saving for your pension now. Apparently you should aim to retire on two thirds of your income, so £20,000 a year. That means you need to put aside £99.50 a month. Not too much really, but leave it till your thirties and you’d need to save £189 a month, and once you’re into you forties you’ll need £383 a month for the same retirement fund.

A quick survey of my colleagues reveals that only 2 in 7 currently have a pension’s scheme. So it seems I’m not alone in my procrastination. But perhaps relying on just getting rich and having enough money anyway isn’t the best pension plan. Even if your goal is to become CEO of the worlds biggest IT company, it might still be best to start putting aside a monthly sum. Just in case…

You know the situation: you arrive at the office on your first day back from holiday and your colleagues all ask you how your holiday was.

Many simply reply: too short.

This got us thinking. And as holiday season is now in full swing, our latest survey focussed on this topic.

Timing is everything

A recent article in The Evening Standard suggested that there are a number of tactical approaches to planning your holiday; the two key methods being as follows:

1) taking leave at the same time as your boss so as not to miss any crucial developments, or
2) taking leave when your boss does not so that they realise your value during the time you are away. In addition, when your boss is off you can sit back and relax.

From the 203 IT professionals that took part in the survey, none seemed to strategically plan their holidays, with nearly half stating family as their main motive for talking holiday at a particular time of year. A third stated workload was a key factor to consider followed by the price of airline tickets.

Under pressure

It seems a shame that the amount of work we have affects when we take our holiday. Surely we should be able to go whenever we like! Perhaps this is also the reason that 34% of those working in IT do not use all of their entitled holiday allowance. Of those, 28% still have two or three days left over and a further 29% have a shocking 4 – 6 days that they do not use.

When people return from holiday they should feel relaxed and ready to work, right?

56% of respondents revealed that they sometimes feel they work more efficiently when they return to work and 10% even felt that they never work more efficiently. Perhaps they are still in holiday mode.

All work and no play…

A quarter informed us that they need a day or so before they start to relax and another 27% said they need at least 3 days. So why don’t we just take longer holidays?

40% of our survey participants stated that they do not take longer holidays due to the fact that no one will cover their work while they are off. That could mean that you have to work doubly hard before you go, 31% of our survey base admitted to feeling extremely stressed in the run up to their holiday as they struggled to finish their work.

Alternatively, you go away with a feeling of dread at the mountain of work awaiting you on your return, 45% claimed work crosses their mind during the last few days of holiday but does not consume their thoughts, while 19% confessed that they start worrying and enjoy their holiday less.

Happy holidays

Fortunately the majority (44%) of IT professionals do not take their laptops or Blackberry’s in order to check in at work while on annual leave. Most (49%) carry on as normal before they go away without feeling added pressure and 34% feel they work more efficiently after their holiday.

So go, enjoy your holiday, relax, take it easy. Worrying won’t help and it certainly won’t change the situation you return to anyway. And if you are undervalued or feel you can’t take a holiday, why not look for new IT jobs.

A ‘Knowing’ style apocalypse is in order in 2013, predict NASA scientists. Apparently, the big ball of glowing gas that we lovingly call our sun is sleeping, despite the abnormally high solar activity over the past 50 years. Confused? I was.

Here’s what a little digging brought up:

If we approach this with the idea of the sun as being like the earth, with solar tremors and flares being equal to our mini-earthquakes and other lesser seismic activity. If this constant release of energy were to dissipate, eventually something would have to give and trigger one big earthquake, eruption or tsunami – hello massive solar storm.

So, what does this mean?

Although this does not mean that our world will overheat into a massive ball of molten rock, it will play havoc with the Earth’s electromagnetism. In 1859 Earth experienced the results of a “perfect space storm”. Telegraph wires shorted and fires spread over Europe and the US. But living in an age with no TV feeds, power grids, GPS or an almost crippling reliance on technology meant that life went on in 1859.

NASA’s Dr Richard Fisher, has said that the predicted storm will cause “major problems for the world”. Communication and satellite systems, air travel and everything else electronic – just think of everything we take for granted from the moment we wake up to our alarms, to the moment we use our electric toothbrushes before bed – will just stop working. For some, that may sound like paradise, getting back to our natural roots, or something like that. I do agree that we are way too reliant on technology, but that doesn’t mean that I want to do without electric showers, trains or microwave popcorn.

What’s being done to predict disaster?

The UK, in the form of the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and forecasters in the US are working together to improve perditions for upcoming storms. Computer models to investigate the effects of currents on our national grid system have been developed by researchers at Lancaster University.

That’s not all.

Organised teams from all over the UK, such as the Royal Observatory and Galaxy Zoo, have joined together to create “solar stormwatch”, an endeavour that allows the public to identify and track storms, thus assisting researchers.

Contingency plan anyone?

It turns out that despite the seriousness of the situation, it’s not all ‘disaster movie’ style drama, although the predicted economic damage will be severe. For years now, scientists have been working on contingency plans. Satellites can be taken offline, communication systems and power grids can be shielded, and emergency generators can be employed for institutions such as hospitals. (I’m not quite sure how that’s going to help air travel, but I’m assuming they’ve made plans for that as well.)

The aftermath may only cause problems for hours or days rather than weeks, months, years or forever. This is all providing we have warning, and in all likelihood we will, considering we know it’s coming already. So, maybe instead of thinking of this as an electrical apocalypse, maybe rather as the title scene from ‘Flash Forward’ without the flash forward, and with technology going into shut down rather than people… or something like that.

So, what can you do about this?

If you have any great ideas on how to prepare us for the inevitable, you may consider joining some of the top telecommunications or navigational companies and let your career turn you into a hero!

Last year IT Toolbox featured the story of a guy who wanted a job so desperately that he posted a fake job ad online in order to size up the competition. Having reviewed all applications and desired salary, he used their information to tailor his answers so that his application was perfect before finally submitting it.

While the author of this IT blog condemned his actions and clearly stated he would sack a candidate if he found out he had behaved in such a way, it makes you wonder how many others have come up with similarly ‘creative’ methods of getting ahead.

The IT Job Board decided to run an anonymous survey to uncover the deep, dark secrets of the fight for IT jobs. We asked IT professionals the burning question about landing IT jobs: how far would you go?

The naked truth

Over 62% of IT professionals admitted that they would not tell a friend about a job opening in order to reduce the competition. Some of the less extravagant methods of trying to land an interview were telephoning continuously (36%), visiting the company in question and refusing to leave until they got an interview (14%).

We did ask if anyone would consider posting a fictitious job ad like the guy from last year, however only 3.9% of candidates agreed they would.

The vast majority (nearly 80%) of candidates admitted that they would try to get inside secrets to help them at interview stage. But is this the norm or a by-product of a tough economy?

The most common forms of trying to influence management’s decision for promotion would be flattery (58%) and 33% even claimed that they would create a problem in order to fix it and ’save the day’, giving them extra kudos with their boss and direct colleagues.

When asked how they felt about using ‘out of the ordinary’ tactics to boost their chances of getting IT jobs, the results were interesting:

• Morally wrong – 37.6%
• Not a big deal as long as you’re not hurting anyone – 23.4%
• A creative way to get ahead – 17%
• Necessary – it’s a tough market out there – 15.6%
• Normal – how else do you get your foot in the door – 6.4%

Of those that felt it was necessary or even normal to go to extreme lengths to get IT jobs, I wonder how many would actually put their ideas into practise.

Honesty’s the best policy

In short, IT candidates have proved themselves to be honest, ethical and professional; with very few prepared to engage in malpractice or underhand tactics to get ahead in the rat race.

But it does make you think about the fact that there are some who are inventing and exploring new avenues in order to get noticed.

Dare to be different

Perhaps a little more creative, and certainly a lot more ethical, was the story of Alec Brownstein, who bought Google ads using the names he knew of the big cheeses in high profile advertising agencies. Although a little risky, relying on the fact these high profile professionals would actually Google their own names, not only did it get their attention, it also go him a job.

Let us know if you have heard of any stories about interesting ways of finding a job.

And don’t forget, if you’re looking for a new role, you can view all the latest IT jobs here.

As an IT professional you’re probably keen to keep up to date with the latest developments within your sector and network with your peers to share knowledge and ideas.

Attending trade fairs and events is a good way to do this so The IT Job Board did some research to find out what’s happening in the IT events calendar for 2010.

Below you will see a list of our findings, some of which are free and some you have to pay for, but keep the below dates in mind and you are guaranteed to stay one step ahead of the competition.

Unfortunately, The IT Job Board cannot attend all events but we are pleased to announce we will be seeing you at a few of them.

Cebit – 2nd – 6th March 2010, Hannover, Germany

This may be a bit far for you to travel but as one of the world’s largest IT events it’s one we couldn’t miss. If you are attending this event, come and say hello in Hall5, Stand B 50 in the jobs and careers section.

For more information visit the Cebit website.

UK IT events 2010

Oracle run a number of events throughout the year, the first of which is coming up next Tuesday.
Oracle Technology Day: High Return SOA Strategies, 2 March 2010, Hilton Paddington Hotel

This FREE event aims to unite thought leaders and your peers to discuss:
• Maximising the returns on SOA investments
• Extending the value of your packaged applications with the SOA platform
• Reducing the cost of application upgrades with SOA
• Best practices for SOA implementations

The next event will be Outperform with Application Server Best Practices, 14 April – London

UCISA – 3rd – 5th March 2010, Harrogate, London
The Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association hold this annual management conference in London, which we are looking forward to attending this year.

UC Expo – Unified Communications, 10-11 March 2010, Olympia, London

IT Showcase Live
Manchester 23 Feb 10
Derby 9 Mar 10
Belfast 30 Mar 10
Leeds 20 Apr 10
Edinburgh 11 May 10

Cloud Computing Congress, 15th – 16th March, Olympia, London
This event includes free workshops and many of the industry’s leading names.

Hosting & Managed Services, April 22, 2010, in London

Infosec – 27-29 April, Earls Court London
Arguably one of the largest security events in the world. Are you going?

IT Expo, June, Aintree nr Liverpool

The Future of the Data Centre 2010 – 17th June 2010
This will be an important issue for both saving money and the environment.

Forrester events
The leading analyst company hold many events throughout the year

• Forrester’s Enterprise Architecture Forum EMEA, March 02-03, 2010, London,
• Forrester’s Infrastructure & Operations Forum EMEA, March 11-12, 2010 London
• Forrester’s Security Forum EMEA 2010, March 11-12, 2010, London
• Forrester’s IT Forum EMEA 2010 June 09-11, 2010, Lisbon, Portugal
• Create Your EA Strategy For Influence And Impact March 1, 2010 London,
• Measuring The Effectiveness Of Your Security Organization March 10, 2010 London,

6th Data Centres Europe 2010 – Nice, France – April 22-23

360°IT – The IT Infrastructure Event 22nd – 23rd September 2010 at Earls Court, London

Healthcare IT Exchange – 3rd–5th October 2010 – complimentary for delegates

Green IT Expo, 9th – 10th November 2010, Barbican exhibition centre, London – free
A couple of weeks ago we posted a blog about Green IT and it was really encouraging to see how many of you are passionate about this issue. This event is free so if you’re in the area and have time, why not go along.

If there are any other events that you think are worth a mention, please let us know by leaving a comment below or write a review.