CIS News
Current News
Changes in the IS Field
As the business world and the IS area have changed, so have the roles and tasks of the IS professionals. They must act as dedicated specialists, internal consultants, and help the organizations to handle the entire interconnected network of suppliers, customers, competitors, communities, local or remote locations, and even virtual worlds.
The constant challenge is how to help more the organization to live, to survive, and to be successful in business in a highly competitive global environment.
Computer Information Systems has been accredited and re-accredited
More in-depth information about accreditation can be found at http://www.abet.org/the_basics.shtml
Bachelor's degree program in Computer Information Systems has been accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET, Inc., the recognized accreditor of college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology. ABET accreditation demonstrates a program's commitment to providing its students with a quality education.
Accreditation is a voluntary, peer-review process that requires programs to undergo comprehensive, periodic evaluations. The evaluations, conducted by teams of volunteer professionals working in industry, government, academe, and private practice within the ABET disciplines, focus on program curricula, faculty, facilities, institutional support, and other important areas.
One of the key elements of ABET accreditation is the requirement that programs continuously improve the quality of education provided. As part of this continuous improvement requirement, programs set specific, measurable goals for their students and graduates, assess their success at reaching those goals, and improve their programs based on the results of their assessment.
In addition to providing colleges and universities a structured mechanism to assess, evaluate, and improve their programs, accreditation also helps students and their parents choose quality programs, enables employers and graduate schools to recruit graduates they know are well-prepared, and is used by registration, licensure, and certification boards to screen applicants.
ABET is a not-for-profit organization, owned and operated by its more than 25 professional and technical member societies. An internationally respected organization with some 1,500 volunteers, ABET has set the higher-educational standards in its fields for nearly 75 years. More information about ABET, its member societies, and the evaluation criteria used to accredit programs can be found at www.abet.org.
Accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET,
111 Market Place, Suite 1050,
Baltimore, MD 21202-4012,
telephone: (410) 347-7700.
More in-depth information about accreditation can be found at http://www.abet.org/the_basics.shtml
Interesting Articles from the CIS Field
Trading Your Job for a Career
While the job market can't be called robust, employers say they plan to hire almost 20 percent more four-year college graduates than they did last year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Already, 41 percent of the current class who applied for a job has received at least one offer, compared with 38 percent of the Class of 2010 at this time last year.
Hiring has increased in almost every sector, except for government, professional services and retail. Engineering, computer-related and "money" degrees like accounting perennially comprise the most job openings, and this year is no different.
Read the story >>
(07/06/11)
Dice's Monthly Report
The Dice Report, issued by Dice.com, provides a current snapshot on the technology job market based on various factors including salaries, geography, skills and job demand.
Read the story >>
(06/08/11)
Job Related Sites (recruiters)
Job Related Sites
Part 1: COVER LETTER AND RESUMÉ
- How Do I Write a Cover Letter and Resumé?
- Note that "you should always include a cover letter...". The only exception to this would be if you hand your resume to a potential employer in person. This may not be the best reference for writing a resume, but it is worth while to review the cover letter tutorial.
- SoYouWanna Write an Impressive Resumé
- This site describes a great approach to getting a resume together. It is written based on the assumption that the reader is either still in college, or has just recently graduated. This is a must for creating an impressive resume.
- How to Write a Resumé
- A nice overview/summary of writing a resume; succinct and to the point. This is a page from the BGSU site: Bowling Green State University, at Bowling Green, Ohio. Also, check out their links on related topics like "Career Planning Process" and "Competencies Sought by Employers".
- Guide to Resume Writing
- Some simple, but important items to keep in mind when writing a resume. This resource could be used to advantage as a check list, after you have written your resume. By all means review this material: one wouldn't want to mess up on one of the really obvious gut-simple things like "grammar", "neat", "visually appealing", et. al.
- Writing a Scannable Resume
- If you think you may be sending your resume to a large organization which could be scanning your resume, you may want to keep these "do's" and "don'ts" in mind. This is the Universal Studio's site, so note that it is written to provide instructions to those applying for employment there - the principle of having a scannable resume, however, may be appropriate for applying to any company which has a large centralized Human Resources center and has automated the process of screening resumes.
- Information Technology Resumes
- When it comes to creating your own resume, It's not cheating to look at someone else's and, in fact, it is entirely appropriate. This site, sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society is a great place to review posted resumes. Incidentally, if you don't already know, the IEEE Computer Society is an old and highly respected organization, and their technical publications have always been a benchmark of excellence. There are advantages to membership in professional organizations like the IEEE.
Job Related Sites
Part 2: JOB SEARCH ENGINES
- Monster.com
- This is probably the best known job search engine. They claim to have 445,000 job listings. The site is not specifically tailored to either IT jobs, or college students but the search options are flexible enough to allow customization to most any criteria. You can establish an account, submit multiple resumes, and create an automatic search agent to look for available jobs which match a specified criteria.
- Job Track
- Job Track is tailored specifically to jobs and internships for college students. You can register and post your resume, and participate in other options like job talk message boards, look through job search tips, and so on.
- CareerPath
- Jobs are listed from help wanted adds in leading newspapers and from web sites of various companies. This could be a great time-saver, allowing job seekers to have the benefit of checking out jobs in newspapers without the tedium of actually going through each paper. It may also be of interest to check out their company profiles. Searches can be by industry categories and location.
- Recruiters On Line
- A network of 8,000 recruiters post their jobs here. This is an association of employment agencies and professionals which assists in posting and broadcasting jobs online. Job seekers can submit their resumes to be included in the database.
- Headhunter
- This is a large national site, and has recently grown through a merger with Career Mosaic in July, 2000. They claim 250,000 job listings, and offer geographical search capabilities. The downside is that the site has some obvious commercial promotions (e.g. banner advertising with doubleclick). As with any site, a potential user should check out their privacy policy before submitting personal information.
- Job Search Engine
- This search engine does a real-time search based on your key word entry. The data base includes both US and Canadian jobs, and they claim great time savings over looking through job boards and career fairs individually. They offer an advanced job search, and this is probably the most appropriate choice.
- 4 Anything's Employment section
- This list of job search engines wouldn't be complete without a reference to 4Anything. Check out their Resume Tips and 4Internships (4Internships... is on the side bar).
Job Related Sites
Part 3: RECRUITERS
- College Recruiter
- College Recruiter is specialized for students and graduates, and the postings are for entry-level, and recent graduates. Included are both part time jobs and internships as well as full time career jobs. It is not specifically for Information Technology, or for Colorado, but search options include Telecommunications, Graphics/Design, and Eng-Internet and searches can be limited to a specific state. Their search page provides additional choices which include Computer & Data Entry, Information Technology, and Telecommunications.
- Oya's Directory of Recruiters
- This page is specific to Colorado, and can be specialized even more to cover "Aurora, Colorado Springs, Delta, Denver, Englewood, Ft Collins, Greenwood Village, and Lakewood. It is a directory of recruiters, and consists of links, each with short sentence by the recruiter or recruiting service.
- Listings of Job-related sites (unappreciated.com)
- Another "mega-" site, which includes lists of Local sites, Corporate sites, College sites, and others. Follow the links; you may find a company or listing which matches your needs. The College sites lists a number of well-known companies as well as recruiters which specialize in college graduates.
- Tom Allen's Site
- A local Colorado recruiter based in Monument, Colorado. This site has job listings for virtually all of the IT skill sets and recruits for well known companies. Job openings include software developer/programmer/engineer, telecommunications, e-Business, etc..
- Metro Information Services
- A national company with a Denver office. You select a city from the drop-down list. The home page emphasizes that they are an "Information Technology Consulting Services Company", and it doesn't appear that they are specifically cover recent graduates, so this reference may be more for those who have had a previous IT job.
- Computer Jobs
- You can register and search their database. Their listings include a wide variety of computer-related jobs. The company is not local to Denver, but (as do many sites) they provide a geographic filter. Their list is updated hourly, and typically contains like 1500 job listings. As the title suggests, all the jobs listed are computer related. You can access pages which provide salary ranges for various positions; a nice bit of information to have when interviewing. They have an entry-level category which may be helpful for recent graduates.
- Career Marketing Associates
- Based in the Denver area, they have a contact phone number for each of three specialized areas, one of which is Information Technology. Visit this site and call the listed number if you would like person-to-person contact with a member of the staff. They have some sister companies, one of which is Technology Resource Solutions (also with a Greenwood Village address) which also lists computer related jobs.
- Staff Options
- The process of working with a job-seeking candidate appears to be more on a personal basis similar to Career Marketing Associates, above, although this is obviously a larger company with an office in Denver. This site itself appears well-designed, and the process of working with a candidate appears to be well documented and professional.
- Sterling Software Technologies, Inc.
- This is a Denver-based company specializing in IT and computer-related disciplines in the Denver metro area and vicinity. They mention permanent and consulting jobs and internships and part-time jobs are conspicuously not mentioned. One assumes that they may not be set up to handle entry-level candidates.
