IT Job Interview

Are you making these software development blunders? Here’s the top 10 list compiled by Borland.

1. building Infrequently

The solution to painful dentist visits isn’t going less often, it’s going more often! The same is true of painful software integration events. Building frequently – preferably continuously – allows you to discover problems early on and nip them in the bud before they grow into big expensive disasters. Plus, building software is a critical validation step – you don’t know if something’s broken until you try putting it together. Build frequently gives you greater confidence that you know what the state of your software development project really is. (more…)

Looking for six figure income in IT? plan your career toward the following positions:

1. CIO – Chief Information Officer is the head of IT within an organization. It’s highly competitive position since there is only one for each company. CIO’s annual salary is well above 100K.
2. CSO – Chief Security Officer is the executive responsible for the organization’s entire security posture, both physical and digital. In most companies the CSO’s main responsibility is in IT security. CSO is a relatively new, competitive, and highly paid position with salary above 100K. CSO Job Description.
3. Project Manager – Project manager leads and manages IT projects such as application development, systems implementation and upgrades, integration and consolidation, etc. Most project managers make 100K or more.
4. IT Security Specialist – IT Security Specialist is responsible for performing multiple security risk and vulnerability assessments, as well as operational projects and functions including monitoring of the network intrusion detection system. Many of them are paid over 100K.
5. Enterprise Architect – Enterprise architects design and architecture large scale enterprise information systems using state-of-art technologies such as web services, service oritented architecture (SOA), enterprise service bus (ESB), etc. Enterprise architects earn 100K or higher.
6. Enterprise Software Specialist – Enterprise software specialists configure, implement, and customize commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) systems such as ERP, CRM, PLM, etc. Many enterprise software specialists make around 100K.
7. IT Consultant – IT consultants provide consulting solutions for application development and systems integraton. Many consultants are hourly paid, that make them earn over 100K annually.
8. Database Administrator – DBA is a stable and high rpofile job in IT.  It plays impoprtant role within an organization.  The average salary of DBA is 80K-90K.  Many experienced DBAs who maintain very large database and data warehouses make 100K or more.
9. Systems/Network Administrator – Systems and network administrators manage an organization’s network system and server facilities.  They make 80K-90K in general.  Some can get more than 100K.
10. Software Engineer – Software engineers design and build complicated computer systems.  The average salary for software engineer is around 80K.  Highly experienced software engineers in special fields make above 100K.

Giant consulting companies providing IT outsourcing, enterprise integration, and technology services.

1. Accenture – Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, committed to delivering innovation.
2. Deloitte – Deloitte Consulting LLP provides Technology Integration practice to help IT organizations solve business challenges through the integration of technology—as discrete services and/or comprehensive solutions.
3. EDS – EDS provides a broad portfolio of business and technology solutions to help its clients worldwide improve their business performance.
4. BearingPoint – A global management and technology consulting company offering a range of solutions to address toughest enterprise challenges.
5. IBM Global Services – IBM is one of the world’s largest information technology services and consulting provider.
6. HP Technology Solutions – HP provides business solutions and IT services for data management, network security, CRM, call centers, software, and workplace productivity.
7. CGI Group – CGI provides IT Outsourcing, systems integration and consulting services.
8. Booz Allen Hamilton – A global Strategic management and technology consulting firm offering a full range of consulting services to senior management in industry and government.
9. Unisys – Unisys is a worldwide information technology consulting services and solutions company.
   
10. Capgemini – A Leader in Consulting, Technology & Outsourcing Services.

The most powerful database systems running today’s enterprise businesses around the world:

1. Oracle – Oracle Enterprise Server, designed for grid computing, is the best RDBMS, running on multiple platforms, with the latest version 11G.
2. DB2 – DB2 is the database management system that delivers a flexible and cost-effective database platform to build robust on demand business applications. The DB2 Universal Database (UDB) Enterprise Server Edition 7 (ESE) is one of the best RDBMS.
3. SQL Server – Microsoft SQL Server is a comprehensive database software platform providing enterprise-class data management and integrated business intelligence (BI) tools.
4. Sybase – Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) is a high-performance, mission-critical database management system that gives customers an operational advantage by lowering costs and risks.
5. Teradata – Teradata Database, currently on Version 2 Release 6.0, is the most powerful Very Large Database (VLDB) system. Many largge scale data warehousing and business intelligence systems are powered by Teradata.
6. ADABAS – Adabas made by Software AG, once was the most powerful mainframe database, now runs in multiple platforms, and provides superior reliability and performance.
7. MySQL – A open source database, mySQL is the most popular database for web-based business applications, and is moving to enterprise level.
8. FileMaker – FileMaker Pro 8.5 is the #1-selling easy-to-use database software for Windows and Mac OS. FileMaker Server 8 maximizes performance of shared databases while increasing security.
9. Access -Microsoft Access is the most used desktop database applicaiton in Windows.
10. Informix -Informix, now under IBM, once was the most promised object-oriented database.

What computer languages are playing the most important roles in IT world today? Look at the top 10:

1. Java – Java and Java EE (J2EE) platform, with many open source solutions, are the right choice for enterprise computing.
2. C# – Microsoft C# and the .NET framework compete with Java head to head. If it’s not Java, it got to be .NET.
3. C++ – The most powerful computer language, is still used widely for the most complicated computing tasks.
4. SQL – The Structured Query Language (SQL) is common database language for all RDBMS. Different varieties include PL/SQL from Oracle, Transact-SQL (T-SQL) by SQL Server, and the standard ANSI SQL.
5. JavaScript – The mostly used scripting language, now empowers AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML).
6. Perl – Perl is a dynamic programming language created by Larry Wall and first released in 1987. It is mostly used to build dynamic website via CGI.
7. PHP – The open source scripting language, working with MySQL, powers most of today’s e-commerce web systems today.
8. Rudy -Ruby is a pure object-oriented, dynamic, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity. It is becoming popular by the hot Ruby on Rails web framework.
9. Python – Python is a dynamic object-oriented programming language that can be used for many kinds of software development. Google is powered by Python.
10. Natural – Natural from Software AG is an easy-to-learn programming language trusted by enterprises around the world. Once a mainframe language, now is packaged with powerful tools that enable SOA and Web services with full support of open-source environments and rich Internet applications.

The most popular computer operating systems running on today’s enterprise business servers and personal computers:

1. Solaris – The free and open source Solaris Operating System by Sun Microsystems, available on hundreds of x64/x86 platforms and supported for thousands of open source and ISV applications—has the largest installed-base of any other commercial UNIX or Linux distribution on the planet.
2. Windows – Microsoft Windows, the successors to the very popular MS-DOS, was announced in 1983, and the first version, Windows 1.0, was finally released in 1985. The latest version, Windows Vista, was released in 2007.
3. Mac OS X – Made by Apple, the pioneering Mac OS was introduced with the first Macintosh computers in 1984, and it was the first commercial operating system to include a GUI. Mac OS X was developed as an entirely new, BSD-based operating system that runs on a more advanced processor (the PowerPC) but which maintains backward compatibility with the Mac OS (which runs on the Motorola m68k). The Mac OS X consists of Darwin and the Mach microkernel (an advanced kernel developed at Carnegie-Mellon University) together with Apple’s proprietary Aqua GUI (which is widely regarded as the best in the industry). Apple is currently completing a transition of its hardware and OS X from the PowerPC to x86 processors.
4. HP-UX – HP-UX is a proprietary flavor of UNIX developed by Hewlett-Packard for its HP 9000 series of business servers. HP-UX 1.0 was released in 1986.
5. AIX – IBM AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive) started as a proprietary flavor of UNIX launched by IBM in 1990 for use on its mainframe computers. Today AIX is an open, UNIX operating system that allows you to run applications on IBM UNIX servers. The latest version, AIX 5L, in combination with IBM’s Virtualization offerings, provides you with new levels of flexibility and performance. AIX 5L delivers high levels of security, integration, flexibility and reliability—essential for meeting the demands of today’s information technology environments.
6. BSD – BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) is a version of UNIX that was developed at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) in the 1970s. It is the ancestor of the modern BSDs (i.e., FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Darwin) and its technology was also incorporated into the other Unix-like operating systems as well as into other operating systems, including Microsoft Windows. The final version was 4.4BSD. FreeBSD is the most popular of the BSD operating systems, accounting for approximately 80 percent of BSD installations (at least until Darwin came onto the scene). FreeBSD was begun in early 1993 based on 4.3BSD, and the first version, 1.0, was released in December of that year.
7. Red Hat Linux – Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the most popular open source Linux platform.
8. SUSE Linux – Owned by Novell, SUSE is best-engineered, high performance Linux running on most x86, x64, PowerPC, Itanium 2, and z9 (IBM mainframe) servers.
9. Ubuntu – Ubuntu is a community developed, linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need – a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more.
10. Linspire – Formally Lindows, Linspire is a full-featured desktop Linux operating system like Microsoft Windows XP or Apple Mac OSX.

Follow the leader – That’s the golden rule for individual IT professionals to succeed. You got to know who lead the industry and who make crucial Impact on your career future. IT is highly competitive field; only leaders’ technologies last long. Successful IT professionals build their skills on winning technologies.

As an serious IT pro, you need to closely watch and follow the ten leading companies, evaluate their new technologies and products. You should find out how these companies’ new developments and directions could affect your career. You need to adopt new technologies quickly and adjust your career plan to achieve your goal.

1. Microsoft

Microsoft dominates everything on Windows – the most popular operating system in today’s business world. Its database product SQL Server is moving toward enterprise level. The .NET development framework competes with J2EE platform head to head. Currently, Microsoft Business Solutions unit is catching up the market on ERP, CRM, and business intelligence.

2. Oracle

Oracle is the database king. Oracle will continue make standards on future relational database technologies. Oracle has moved beyond database to enterprise computing and integration. In addition to its flagship Oracle11g, Oracle products also include Java development tool, application server, ERP, CRM, business intelligence, and more.

3. IBM

IBM makes computer hardware such as high end server machines. IBM DB2 is almost winning the database game over Oracle. IBM WebShere runs on top of the application server market. IBM’s other software products include Lotus, Tivoli, and Informix. IBM recently acquired Rational Software to further enhance its software business.

4. Sun Microsystems

Sun produces the most UNIX servers. The Solaris 9 operating system is the most popular UNIX platform. Skills and experience with Sun’s UNIX system make system administrators highly valuable. However, Sun’s most significant impact in IT is the Java EE (J2EE) technology. J2EE is the only powerful development platform that can fight with Microsoft and may win.

5. Cisco Systems

Cisco builds infrastructure of the IT world. Cisco’s switches and routers are network administrators daily toy to play. In addition, Cisco offers advanced technologies including wireless/mobility network and IP telephony. Cisco’s integrated security solution is a big deal for IT industry and IT professionals specified in networking area.

6. SAP

SAP AG, thes Germany based company is on the first position in ERP market. Its R/3 ERP suite is the most comprehensive ERP product. The core of the suite, mySAP ERP, offers a comprehensive solution for managing financials, human resources, operations, and corporate services.

7. BEA Systems

www.bea.com
BEA’s key product WebLogic leads the application server market. But that’s not all. BEA is making itself the industry’s leading provider of business integration software solutions. BEA’s new technologies set the standard of the Foundation for enterprise application infrastructure.

8. Software AG

Software AG provides Software Technology to increase the Value of Enterprise IT Systems. Its products Adabas, Crossvision, Natural, and Tamino help more than 3,000 customers uncover the full potential of their IT and add value to existing systems.

9 . Sybase

Sybase offers database software (Adaptive Server), application server (EAServer), and development tools (PowerBuilder). Sybase is strategically position itself as the enterprise business integration leader. New technologies from Sybase include e-business infrastructure, mobile/wireless server, and vertical solutions.

10. Adobe Systems

Adobe‘s technologies and software have redefined business, entertainment, and personal communicaiton. Its Rich Internet Application (RIA) development framework is setting new standards for web based software application development.