A survey last year by Manpower indicated 84% of those currently employed (at the time) were interested in pursuing opportunities with a new employer.  This showed a few things: a climb in confidence among the general public, a clear interest in personal improvement, and a desire to make a move even if only for the sake of some motion.

It also showed a lot of us are either on the move or wanting to be.  Where it comes to IT professionals, there are some positions where that kind of motion is difficult to do without causing a lot of interruption and consternation with one’s former employer.  Many companies are tied around a handful or even one IT resource who “knows where everything is” and whose knowledge are so unique that nobody can really take it over.

Here are a few tips for IT professionals who know they are in a unique position but want to leave without leaving the old business hanging.

Do an assessment meeting.  Get your boss and a few people who make sense in the company or department into a room and get honest.  Enumerate all the areas that will need to be handled on a daily, weekly, monthly and ad hoc basis.  For that list, indicate what sort of skills, knowledge and tools are necessary and give an idea of how much time investment to expect for doing said tasks by someone of average knowledge.  Start the conversation that needs to happen, the one where the company starts making decisions on who will take over what, how that will happen, and when.

 This does a few great things for you.  First, it covers your rear end by showing you are up front.  Second, it lets you get everything out in the open so everyone learns and understands all the moving pieces involved; people like that and it will reflect positively on you.  Third, in doing this you are being proactive about making a graceful handoff.  This is something that will NOT go unnoticed by your current employer and will also enhance your image.

Document what you know. After the meeting, write everything down and email it out to everyone after the meeting.  Following on that, spend some time thinking about each of the major points and start documenting what you know.  What should you write down?  Exactly what you wish you could be told or handed if you just arrived and were responsible for handling that piece.  Don’t try to write technical documentation or else you’ll get bogged down in devilish details that serve nobody.  Allow yourself some creative license.  If it really is important to say “That server needs to be rebooted every once in a while until we replace it,” then write it down.  That 4-second sentence could save your company tons of time and money.

When you are finished documenting, make sure it is all in an orderly fashion.  Form it as a report that can be handed from to the new person or persons.  Give it to your boss in hardcopy and put a soft copy on your primary machine and the company network as well.  Then it can be easily found.

Brush up what you need to. Through the course of having that assessment meeting and then documenting all sorts of things, you will come up with a short list of things that you basically should take care of before you leave.  Open ends, loose strings and other things that needed addressing but didn’t have the time for during the normal course of things.  This is the time to do those things.  You don’t have to tell anyone what those things are if you are worried about looking less than fastidious, but just get them done and when someone asks what you’re working on just tell them you’re getting everything in shape for the next person to take over.  That’s all they need to know and they will like hearing it.

Leave your info and be available.  Leave it with your boss and also that person you sit next to or speak with the most that you know will need to ask you questions after you’re gone.  Be sure to answer those questions, even if it costs you lunch hours at your new job and dinner time at home.  The questions will only last for a week or two then tail off.  If they don’t, after a few weeks tell your old employer perhaps it would be better to hire a contractor (or offer your own services at a reasonable rate if your schedule will allow it).  Either way, making yourself available during this time is critical in preserving all the good will you’ve built up during your time with the old employer.  That kind of thing can be obliterated by a few unanswered phone calls and emails after you leave even if you were an outstanding employee for five or more years before you left.

Transitioning from one job to another is difficult enough for people in non-technical jobs.  As an IT professional, you hold keys to kingdoms that are critical to the company and your very reputation and job reference from them will depend on how gracefully you bow out.

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Want some quick and easy IT training to sharpen your skills or add a new one?  Check out the GogoTraining IT training course catalog.  Get courses taught by real industry experts in an online, self-paced and VERY affordable format.

Last week’s Linux Collaboration Summit yielded some interesting recent developments that are sure to help continue moving the platform toward even more usefulness for businesses.

One such innovation is something called the Yocto Project.  As they describe it on the website, Yocto is “an open source collaboration project that provides templates, tools and methods to help you create custom Linux-based systems for embedded products regardless of the hardware architecture.”  Sounds good enough but there’s more to it than that.

Yocto project starts with an ultra bare-bones Linux platform designed for ARM or x86 chips, allowing people to develop a Linux platform for a device with only what is needed and in a more efficient manner (starting bare and building up, versus the other way around).  Millions have been spent by other corporations developing device platforms on Linux by pulling out what is not needed from an existing Linux kernel until they’ve engineered it down to the essentials for that particular device.  Now developers can use Yocto to avoid all of that mess and expense to get to what they need for their device development project. 

This represents a considerable competitive advantage as it opens up use of the Linux platform in device development to a much larger crowd rather than only those who have the deep pockets and existing sales to weather extensive development cycles.  This is very likely to result in the emergence of more device development shops meeting various markets using Linux.

To get involved with Linux development, GogoTraining has the following expert courses:

• Linux Essentials
• Introduction to Embedded Linux
• Linux Device Drivers: Programming at the Kernel Level
• Red Hat Linux System Administration Part 1
• Red Hat Linux System Administration Part 2
• Red Hat Linux Network Administration

Multiple surveys continue to support a rise in IT spending for 2011.  Another recent report is the Capgemini 2010-2011 World Quality Report.  We’re already seeing the effects with large and medium employers filling up job seeker sites with thousands of new open positions.  The following three skill sets emerged as clear targets of IT spending priority in the future.

Mobile developers.  It seems like the drumbeat of a new era.  If people aren’t buying new smartphones and tablets they are developing apps for them.  The only people left seem to be those figuring out how to get in on the action.  Face it, the emergence of the mobile device as an integrated part of our work and home lifestyle is an industry with lasting staying power.  Investing in skills for this environment has tons of long-term potential in terms of career and employability.  Of particular note are training opportunities like GogoTraining’s Android Development Training Program.  iOS was the first fashionable one to show up, with emerging players being HP’s new version of webOS due in the summer of 2011 and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 already at market.

Cloud computing.  What does that mean anyway, in terms of skills?  So far we’ve determined two important areas.  First is hardware and network management.  Hosting providers are finding they have to ramp up on this sort of thing since things like virtualization, serving power, redundancy and storage are going to continue a robust growth curve with the emergence of the cloud.  Next is IT service management, specifically those best practices one can acquire through ITIL certification training.  In-house IT staff at corporations of all sizes are going to have to beef up their IT service management abilities in order to understand how to better serve the greater business and also because they will increasingly be working with vendors providing cloud services.

QA and Test.  Of particular note, 72% of IT professionals indicated in the HP/Capgemini survey that QA/test people with a development background perform better than those without.  This only makes sense; nobody know better how to break something than someone who knows how to build it in the first place.  For software developers looking for a transition point, QA/test is the name of the game.  If you are a developer, getting training in Software QA and Test would be a good direction.

For training on these and other business-critical technologies, check out the GogoTraining IT training course catalog.

The emphasis on combining technology with business sense continues where it comes to the desires of CIOs.  The main problem they are facing is the need for IT to transition more into being focused on the business rather than the technical infrastructure of the business.

According to DiceTV, CIOs are seeking “innovative developers who can weave social, mobile and collaborative technology features into their designs.”  In order to survive and thrive in the new era of IT one needs to have technical and business skills.

We’ve talked before about how those in networking positions in IT departments will need to evolve negotiation and management skills in order to deal with an increasingly cloud-bound infrastructure environment.  New skills will include security and analytics as protecting and working with data will be major undertakings going forward.

Getting credible training in critical areas is easy to do with GogoTraining.  Taught by industry experts, GogoTraining course are actual classroom training courses brought into an online, self-paced and affordable format (thanks to GogoTraining’s unique business model).

Check out the online IT training course catalog or take a look at these specific areas:

• Build technical management skills using ITIL training courses and certification.
• Develop security skills using GogoTraining IT security training courses.
• Gain widely-used development skill sets with Java training courses and Oracle database administration training courses.

Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics continue to grow as a strong point of interest with medium and large businesses.  This is translating into more IT jobs as 2011 progresses.  According to Boris Evelson, Forrester vice president and principal analyst, here are five reasons why beefing up the BI skills would likely pay off.

1. More budget.  IT companies are increasing their investment in this space.
2. In-House Friendly. Rather than be prone to outsourcing, BI is a function best kept inside the building.
3. Collaboration. Face-to-face collaboration needs to occur between managers, regular users, analysts and the IT department.  Evelson forsees the never several years being about collaboration between IT and other teams/disciplines.
4. Regular revisits.  BI projects are modified on an ongoing basis.
5. BI hiring on the rise.  With rise of value in BI comes the rise in employment for BI positions.  Evelson notes IBM alone is growing their BI services segment from 4,000 to 8,000 people in the next couple of years.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

GogoTraining is a trusted provider of IT training courses, including business intelligence training.  Check out our online IT training course catalog today to find the courses that will put you ahead.

Just because you’re out of action does not mean you don’t have opportunities to stay sharp and keep your skills updated.   If you are on a job search, there are four great ways to stay at the top of your field.

Participate in forums. It doesn’t matter what your subject is – there is an online forum for like-minded people who congregate and discuss it regularly.  Read the posts frequently, respond and join the conversation, contribute your own ideas, start threads that ask questions.  If you’re concerned about expressing genuine or controversial opinions only to have future employers find them, just use a made-up name and be vague about your personal details.  So hit Google and look for discussion boards, forums and so on in your field and get started today.

Take a college class.  You can make the time to attend a course.  If you don’t want to be graded, ask to audit the course at registration.  Community colleges are widespread and inexpensive, and auditing is sometimes even less.  Doing this can expand your horizons and introduce you to new thinking in addition to whatever skill you may be learning.  Never underestimate the value of that sort of exposure.  Search for community colleges in your area for more information.

Volunteer your time. Just because nobody is hiring you to do what you do does not mean you have to stop doing it.  Find a place where you can do 15 or 20 hours per week in your field of expertise.  You get to stay sharp, it helps pass the time, will likely improve your mood, gives you some regular interaction, you may learn something new, and it may even lead to a full-time job.  Websites like VolunteerMatch.com and Serve.gov are good places to start, or simply identify organizations and businesses in your area that you would like to be involved with and contact them with your offer to volunteer time.

Leverage online learning. The Internet is overflowing with spectacular education resources that are very inexpensive or even free.  The problem? When we’re working it is very difficult to carve out the time to consume online learning.  One thing the Internet does great is port a traditional class into a video format which allows you to “attend” from your own home and on your own time.  For IT and management professionals, GogoTraining is an excellent provider of IT training courses taught by industry experts at rates that are a fraction of what most in-person instruction costs (and even beats the price of online competitors for the quality).

Unemployment can be a challenging time.  Take advantage of these ways to stay up on your skills.  Your career (and mind) will thank you!

In a recent survey regarding technology investment priorities, cloud computing hit the top.  Other highlighted areas include mobile, hardware, and business-process innovation.

Sixty-one percent of responding heads of IT focused on cloud computing which was a 10% lift from 2010.  Cloud computing continues to command increased attention from IT leadership as a catalyst for cutting costs, increasing efficiency and more.  The pursuit of the cloud is also transforming the role of key IT personnel in their organization, shifting emphasis toward resource management, business process and business intelligence and away from the more operational aspects of technology.

Mobile continues to appear on the scope of IT leaders.  Finding ways to apply the fruits of a recent explosion of mobile device innovation is the focus here.  IT departments are receiving or generating their own mandates to employ tablets and smartphones in ways that push beyond simple interaction.  In particular, the advent of tablets has inspired fresh thinking of how to empower human resources in the field of a variety of industries.  Intense effort being poured into mobile platform development for iOS, Android, webOS and Windows Phone 7 provide a strong backbone for this emerging field.

Newcomers to the IT field and experienced personnel looking to maintain their edge (and employability!) are increasingly seeking training in key fields.  Virtualization is a key aspect of cloud computing and is seeing expanded training opportunities.  Acquiring mobile development skills is another area of focus with Android programming the latest to emerge as a viable platform.

Expensive training options and “$99” courses that claim to equip one with a new skill set continue to populate the market.  GogoTraining, leading provider of IT and management training, continues to put forth effective and affordable training for the latest areas of pursuit.  VMware training and the Android Development Training Program are but two of a wide range of training opportunities that exist in the GogoTraining IT training course catalog.

Find what will benefit you the most and pursue it today!  These job markets are only beginning to open up and early adopters will – as usual – be positioned the best.

In the recently announced partnership between Microsoft and Nokia, the mobile device manufacturer will be adopting Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform as the foundation for new smartphones and mobile devices.  The result of the partnership will be to put Windows Phone 7 on a solid footing to take share from the mobile device platform market, with Android and iOS currently commanding leads and HP having recently announced their upcoming entry riding on webOS.

The main news for developers is to look for Windows Phone 7 being a fourth and new important market.  Both Windows Phone 7 and the re-entry of webOS (after its days with Palm) constitute fresh development territory where it comes to applications.  Windows Phone 7 was only released late Fall of 2010 and according to NPD Group the platform obtained 2% of the smartphone market in the U.S. two months after release.

The Windows Phone Marketplace (Microsoft’s app store) offers 10 million songs sold in several ways, but only boasts around 11,000 apps so far (compared to hundreds of thousands for Android and iOS).  This is similar to the early-stage number of apps available for webOS.

Windows Phone 7 applications are based on XNA or a particular WP7 version of Microsoft’s Silverlight platform.  Microsoft makes Visual Studio 2010 Express and Expression Blend for Windows Phone for  phone app development.

Android and iOS will both have to work harder now with HP announcing their enterprise-wide effort to lean into the mobile platform market with webOS.  Microsoft’s Windows 7 was a moderate threat due to their history with Zune, first assuring the community they were very much behind it and then subsequently dropping the project altogether.  The partnership with Nokia puts Microsoft firmly in the arena with a highly-motivated partner and a lot of added global sales and marketing teeth. 

Microsoft mentioned in their press release regarding the partnership announcement that the mobile market is now a “three-horse race,” however that was before HP made their intentions publicly clear with webOS. Make that four horses, Microsoft.  We already predict the winners will be mobile developers and mobile device consumers.

For developers, a great way to enter mobile device app development is through IT training courses with GogoTraining.  In particular, the Android Developer Training Program is cost-effective and highly effective.

Most businesses do not appreciate network uptime until it is down.  Few people realize how much loss can occur when the network or servers are not operating correctly until they see entire departments of people idle and searching for something to fill their time while repairs are put into effect.

CDW took a look at the problem in a survey run last year and released recently.  In their 2010 CDW Business Continuity Straw Poll, CDW asked 7,099 IT managers about uptime and 1,794 reported they had experienced a network disruption of more than four hours since July 2009.  The survey was closed after obtaining 200 completed responses from SMB’s with over 100 employees.

Two major take-away points from the report:

• From the 25% of the initial set that suffered significant outage and the average number of days business was closed due to such circumstances, CDW estimated these cost roughly $1.7 billion in lost profits last year.
• 82% of the most significant outages could have been avoided by enacting measures found in any comprehensive business continuity/disaster recovery plan.

Enter ITIL, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library.  ITIL is concerned with best practices surrounding the management of information technology.  As a certification path, it starts out with the Foundations level which establishes, well, a foundation of BP understanding and an important overview of the landscape.

From there, important information technology service management (ITSM) issues are covered at the Intermediate level.  One of them is the ITIL Planning, Protection and Optimization course which covers such mission-critical subjects as capacity management, availability management, IT service continuity management, information security management and demand management.  Sound familiar?  Probably because these are the things that would have saved those 1,794 IT manager’s.

More to the point, these are the things that would have saved $1.7 billion of loss last year.  Considering the cost of obtaining ITIL certification in order to implement these management best practices, the business case is more than established.

On top of it, ITIL training doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming.  Travel and in-person expenses are easily saved through providers like GogoTraining, an APMG ITIL authorized training organization (ATO), who delivers online, self-paced ITIL v3 certification training courses.  Due to a unique business model and the savings afforded with online delivery, GogoTraining courses are among the most affordable on the market (online courses are in the low hundreds!).  For ITIL, you can get the ITIL v3 Foundation for $448 (two courses on a buy-one-get-one package) and then enough Intermediate courses to fulfill the credit requirement to sit for Intermediate certification, all for mere hundreds of dollars.  To save hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars?  There isn’t much to argue on that point. 

If your business has not considered the potential of downtime and the impact to the bottom line, a great way to start would be to obtain ITIL certification in order to put in place IT management best practices to avoid them in the first place.

The Oracle Certification blog ran a poll to find out what certifications people “intend to pursue in 2011” and the results held a few items of interest.

The results:

• 58% plan to pursue database certification.
• 35% plan to pursue Java certification.
• 29% plan to pursue PL/SQL.
• Almost 7% intend to pursue Solaris certification.

That Oracle DBA certifications were on top is no surprise as that has always been Oracle’s big deal.  While nobody expected Solaris to rank high it does seem to be somewhat lower.  Java certification certainly looks strong and shows a good addition to Oracle’s suite of professional IT certifications.  So the top three truly most sought-after certifications are for database, Java and PL/SQL (really a subset of the DBA certification list).

Learn more about training for Oracle database certifications.  GogoTraining also offers outstanding Java training courses along with a host of other technologies in the online IT training course catalog.

• Oracle Database Certification training
• Java training courses
• Oracle 11g PL/SQL Programming Part 1
• Oracle 11g PL/SQL Programming Part 2