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An innovation agenda to help people win the race against the machines

If the country is going to have a serious conversation about innovation, unemployment and job creation, we must talk about our race against the machines. For centuries, we’ve been automating people out of jobs. Today’s combination of big data, automation …

Overfocus on tech skills could exclude the best candidates for jobs

The requirement that candidates must have worked with a corporate API might seem logical to an unseasoned executive or non-technical HR person but it's as wrong as you can get.

On Employers, Portfolios, Commitment, and Cake

Commitment is hard, whether it involves choosing a cake for your wedding or choosing which IT candidate to hire. Josh explains why tasting cake is better than reading about it and how OST can help you bring your metaphorical IT cake - your portfolio - to job interviews and show your stuff!

QOW: How long have you worked at your current job?

One of the things that is unique to myself in the industry in which I work is that I have been with the same company for over 8 years now. Most of my friends in the industry tend to move...

Corporations and Cloud Sourcing

The news out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (the BLS) was grim this weak - the unemployment rate had reached 8.1%, climbing two whole percentage points in the last quarter. This rise is even more stunning given that unemployment had reportedly been stable for the past several years at around 5%, though this may also be simply a reflection that the numbers haven't been cooked quite so vigorously.

Needed: A New IT Employment Model

It's Christmas Eve as I write this, but after having put the children to bed and turning off the tree lights, I find that my thoughts are not on Santa Claus tonight ... at least not in a very positive way.

Surviving the Pink Slip

Everyone's been nervous for months, watching the market numbers, the stock prices, the declining sales figures. In the IT department, it's not been uncommon to see programmers with one window open on code, the second on the app the code's supposed to generate ... and the third on a steady stream of plummeting financial indexes and bad news about the economy. Then, about two in the afternoon, your project manager taps you on the shoulder - special meeting in ten minutes. When you stand up from your cubicle and look around, you notice that there are several security types idling in the hallway ... and you know, instinctively, what that meeting's going to be about.

Black Monday, 2008

At one point, the stock market fall was so rapid that several financial sites web service update servers were overwhelmed and crashed as people refreshed their browsers second by second to watch the carnage. At the end of the day, the damage was significant - the Dow down 672 points (6.2%), the S&P down 94 points (7.8%) and the NASDAQ down a staggering 200 points (more than 9.1%). In Canada, the TSX closed down 750 points, and it's likely that the selloff in Asia and Europe will be just as brutal.

Bad Finance 101 - A Programmer's Guide

O'Reilly's focus has long been on programming issues (or programmer issues) and that focus remains very much in place. However, it is worth understanding how the grief playing out on Wall Street will have a very significant impact upon the IT industry within the next four to six months, even despite the fact that up until now the contagion seems largely to have remained contained in the financial sector.