ACM CareerNews for Tuesday, October 22, 2024
ACM CareerNews is intended as an objective career news digest for busy IT professionals. Views expressed are not necessarily those of ACM. To send comments, please write to [email protected]
Volume 20, Issue 20, October 22, 2024
IT Hiring Roars Back After Months-Long Slump
CIO Dive, October 4
After months of negative signals, the IT employment market appears to be recovering. The IT unemployment rate fell to 2.5% in September, a decline from 3.4% the previous month. This marks the largest single-month decrease in four years. Technology employment across the economy grew by 118,000 new positions, and the tech sector added more than 8,500 net new roles. Job postings rose for the second consecutive month, with employers looking to fill 516,000 positions.
The first three quarters of 2024 have seen technology unemployment tick up to an average of around 3%, up from an average of 2% in the previous two years. The September jobs report delivered welcome signs of recovery for the tech sector. A broad mix of companies viewed recent economic developments as the green light to move forward in addressing their tech talent needs. In addition to signs of economic stability, another key driver of technology hiring is the enterprise push to deploy AI at scale. Talent categories associated with enabling the technology remain in high demand. As a result, AI innovation is now a key driver of technology job growth.
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Want to Find an AI Job? Check Out These Tech Hubs
Dice Insights, October 15
According to recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the best place to find a new AI job is Northern California. Nearly 13 percent of tech job postings in the San Jose area are dedicated to AI roles. In addition, 6 percent of the job postings in San Francisco are AI-related. Other major tech hubs also hiring for AI include New York, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Like Silicon Valley, these metro areas host enormous tech companies and aggressive startups with plenty of money to spend on AI talent.
Northern California and Silicon Valley are home to some of the largest tech companies, such as Google and Apple, that are collectively investing billions of dollars in advancing artificial intelligence. So it is perhaps no surprise that Northern California is leading the way in terms of new AI-related hiring as well. It stands to reason that these companies are anxious to hire top specialists in everything from AI model training to prompt engineering.
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More Companies Planning to Crack Down on Remote Work Next Year
Tech.co, October 15
With some of the biggest tech companies in the world recently issuing full return to office (RTO) mandates, it looks as though 2025 will see even more firms making a greater effort to entice workers back. But that may cause difficulties. In fact, 3 in 4 of business leaders recently surveyed confirmed that they were having issues with staff not complying with RTO policies, with over half saying that they will be stricter about enforcing them next year. The big question facing employers is how to ensure compliance with new RTO mandates without resorting to threats of firing or reductions in bonus and salary.
The problem with RTO mandates, according to tech workers, is that they are not necessarily beneficial to their career progression. And that is leading to a problem of non-compliance with RTO mandates. A massive 77% of respondents said that non-compliance was at least a minor problem for the business, with 8% reporting that it is a major issue. Almost half (47%) said that their employees simply do not turn up on designated office days. Moreover, 2 in 5 said that workers come in but do not stay the whole day. This is a practice known as coffee badging, in which an individual comes to the office, swipes their badge to register their presence, and then heads for home. The result is that a total of 52% of respondents said that they are likely to be more strict in enforcing RTO policies in the new year. Moreover, nearly 40% said that they would definitely be stricter.
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Tech Talent Say They Are Job Hunting Amid Concerns About Layoffs
HR Dive, October 18
More than one-third of tech workers say they are concerned about layoffs over the next year, and 40 percent said they will likely be affected if their company implements layoffs. In addition, 34 percent of tech workers said they are actively looking for work now, and 70 percent said they are likely to start looking for work if layoffs occur at their current company, even if they are not directly impacted. This should be a wake-up call for tech employers, who continue to face challenges in recruiting technology employees, especially as tech job priorities have shifted post-pandemic. In a survey of 1,100 workers in high-demand tech roles, the total number of tech pros looking for jobs has increased by 86 percent since January 2020.
Tech talent seems to be taking more control of the hiring journey, with 61% finding new roles on their own in 2024, as compared to 55% in 2023. Workers appear to be relying on their personal networks more than recruiters. When researching job opportunities, 69% of tech workers named benefits as the top priority, especially work-from-home flexibility. Other benefits that job seekers said they find valuable but companies are less likely to offer included sign-on bonuses, four-day workweeks, unlimited paid time off, a la carte benefits and tuition reimbursement. Well-being incentives are also a big differentiator for tech talent.
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Working in an Early Stage Startup Versus Big Company
Hackernoon, October 10
If you are thinking about moving from a large company to an early-stage startup, or vice versa, you will likely need to change your overall mindset. This may require a revision of your resume and other documents you use for finding a new job. For example, the level of urgency is often much higher at a startup than a large company, so you will need to demonstrate your ability to work under tight deadlines. Being aware of this change in mindset will help you streamline your job search and help you focus on the important aspects of building your career at a different type of company.
The feedback cycle in the workplace can vary considerably, depending on whether you are working at a startup or a larger company. In a startup, the speed at which you give and receive feedback is crucial to your ability to improve. Delaying feedback to your engineering or design team will impact your ability to receive feedback from users. And delaying listening to users will influence your ability to learn and achieve the right product-market fit. Thus, you may need a mindset shift when it comes to feedback cycles. When it comes to your resume, you may need to emphasize your ability to rapidly iterate, distinguish between perfect and good enough, and pivot based on user feedback.
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How to Translate Your Executive IT Resume For a New Industry
CIO.com, October 15
For IT leaders working in one sector or industry, tailoring a resume for opportunities in another sector or industry can be challenging. Even if you have significant experience in technology and leadership roles, your skills and experiences may not transfer as well as you might think. That is particularly the case, for example, if you are moving between the private and public sectors. You may need to shift from using a function-based resume to an industry-driven resume with key metrics and highlights in order to accurately represent your experience and expertise.
If you are looking for a way for your resume to resonate with hiring managers in different industries, you may need to take certain steps that you might not have considered previously. For example, you could create a separate executive biography document to highlight your accomplishments as a leader. For older workers, one key is condensing decades of experience for maximum resume impact. As an IT executive working on a resume, length can be one of the biggest challenges. Early in your career you might struggle to stretch your experience to a full page, but as you gain more experience, it can be difficult to keep the document under two pages. If your resume is too long, it could make it difficult for hiring executives to identify your key attributes as a leader and a functional expert.
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Should I DM the CEO of a Company to Get a Job?
Fast Company, October 16
Some career counselors are advising that, in order to get past crowded recruiter inboxes, job candidates should direct message (DM) the CEO or others in the C-suite directly. Their advice often comes with a lot of caveats. For example, the message should be carefully crafted and should be used primarily at small companies. If you have been looking for a long time, you might want to latch on to this unconventional advice. However, it is a risky move that has a higher chance of making a bad impression than a good one.
Going the official route through a job board, HR, or even a recruiter can feel like sending your well-crafted resume and cover letter into a black hole. However, you still need to follow the directions and do what the job posting asks of you. It is your first test in following directions and reading carefully. Thus, if the post asks you to upload your resume to the corporate site, do it. Even though it may feel pointless, it is often an HR-required formality. Speaking of reading the job posting carefully, there might be elements in the post that most candidates overlook. Overall, it is always important to pay attention to details. It can help differentiate you from all the other candidates who are applying.
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Generation Z and the Rise of Conscious Unbossing
Silicon Republic, October 14
In what represents a transformational change in how people think about careers, young employees are often passing up middle management positions to focus on personal growth and skills. In a recent survey, more than half of Generation Z respondents stated that they have no desire to hold middle management roles, with 69 percent believing that the role comes with a great deal of stress and yields low reward. In contrast, earlier generations believed that middle management roles were the key to overall career growth.The term being used to describe this change in mindset is “conscious unbossing.”
Generation Z employees are often characterized as having an inherent entrepreneurial mindset. This means they are natural brand builders, who work independently to cultivate their own approach, rather than spend time managing others and their projects. It also helps to explain why they are not fans of middle management positions. Little reward, high levels of stress, reduced personal growth and limited decision-making powers are often cited as some of the reasons Generation Z survey respondents would elect to avoid middle management positions in their careers. Overall, 16 percent of Generation Z workers remain adamant that middle management is not an option for them.
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The Software Sins of Bloat and Debt
Blog@CACM, October 15
Attempting to isolate the unique ethical issues facing the computing profession can be complex. Many issues are shared with engineering and business and are not unique only to computing. And still others spill over into broader societal issues. For software industry professionals, the most important ethical issues are primarily related to public safety. A conscientious computer scientist must be willing to take certain precautionary measures when it comes to writing code, even though they may go uncredited.
Computer scientists have certain ethical responsibilities in the workplace. First is accuracy. Computer programs perform computations, so any incorrect result that appears from time to time is the greatest failure. The goal should be to minimize these incorrect results as often as possible. In addition, coders should keep in mind the concept of technical debt. Code built on expedient short-term techniques instead of the best long-term approach holds technical debt. This includes ad hoc conditionals that are badly nested, confusing variable identifiers, and tortuous execution paths. Technical debt is unlike other ethical violations: it is fully detectable, but unreasonably difficult to fix by humans. Entire conferences are devoted to this problem. Materials and structures in other engineering products may be suboptimal, but that circumstance will violate known standards.
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What Is Theoretical Computer Science?
Communications of the ACM, October 7
Theoretical computer science is currently thought of as a subfield of computer science and mathematics that focuses on the abstract mathematical foundations of computation. However, there is growing reason to think that it may be time to expand this definition. Nearly 40 years ago, there was a very broad conception of theoretical computer science that focused on the formal foundations of computer science and technology. However, that conception has steadily narrowed in scope over the years. Many people now refer to theoretical computer science as just another subfield of mathematics, but that may be too limiting.
Any objection to theoretical computer science (TCS) as a branch of mathematics is deeper than just a sociological argument. Thinking of TCS as a branch of mathematics is harmful to the discipline. The centrality of computing stems from the fact that it is a technology that has been changing the world for the past 80 years, ever since the British used early computing to change the tide of war in World War II. As computer scientists, we should look for inspiration from physics rather than from mathematics. Theoretical physics is highly mathematical, but it aims to explain and predict the real world. Theories that fail at this explain-predict task will ultimately be discarded. Analogously, the role of TCS is to explain and predict real-life computing. Not every TCS paper should be held to this standard, but the standard should be applied to branches of TCS.
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