Mary Brandel

Mobile devices: Too much of a good thing?

Most of us have apparently decided we can't live without our favorite mobile device. Whether on public transportation, shopping or just walking down the street, you're more likely than not to be surrounded by people swiping screens, adjusting their earbuds or typing on a virtual screen.

So you want to be a data scientist?

After months of high unemployment and a still-wobbly economy, any good news from the jobs market is going to get some traction. But even that doesn't seem to fully explain the attention surrounding a suddenly very "in" job title: data scientist.

IT gets its groove back

The 2013 Computerworld Salary Survey finds tech professionals feeling pretty good about their compensation and career prospects, though workloads remain high.

6 must-read books to ignite your IT career

With companies running lean and mean, professional development has increasingly become an individual sport. IT workers have learned to fend for themselves to develop needed skills and gain new mindsets for managing more effectively and adding more value to the workplace.

Career advice that will change your life

These days, free advice can be found everywhere, from your various social networks to your favorite advice column. But truly valuable advice typically comes from your peers or people who've made it to a career or life position that you'd like to get to someday.

IT pros reveal the best career advice they ever received

In today's culture, advice on nearly any topic - relationships, health, career - is just a mouse click, touchscreen tap or Siri query away. There's even a Web site called shouldidoit.com that promises to help you make decisions in your daily life. But while you can get some good insights on the many expert and general discussion forums that pop up on the Web, there's often a sense that something is missing from that experience. Call it the human touch.

Fave-reads: 5 must-read books for IT career growth

Let's face it -- when it comes to IT professional development, books might be the last place people turn. With webinars, online forums, blogs, Web sites, bootcamps and social media, books would seem like a last resort.

BYOD: Where the costs are

Few technology trends have inspired as many misgivings -- and as much misinformation - as BYOD, or "bring your own device." Is the idea of allowing employees to purchase and use their own laptops and mobile devices a security nightmare? A productivity boon? A drain on the service desk? And perhaps the biggest question of all, a cost-savings nirvana?

Seven BYOD policy essentials

Like it or not, the "bring your own device" (BYOD) trend is in full swing. According to Juniper Research, the number of employee-owned smartphones and tablets used in businesses will more than double by 2014, reaching 350 million compared with almost 150 million this year.

Forecast 2013: Building a better IT budget

As IT budgets bounce back, the fiscal picture is looking rosier in many IT shops. But lessons learned from the recession are not easily forgotten, and smart IT executives are carefully constructing their budgets for 2013 with big-payback projects in mind.

5 career-boosting soft skills

Soft skills are not a new concept for IT. But time has run out for IT professionals who have been avoiding developing them. Now that technology is an integral part of business strategy, very few employers would settle for a candidate who could not function beyond the computer screen. And with teamwork and collaboration a mainstay of many work environments, personal interactions count, even within IT itself.

Applying technology to boost customer loyalty

Guesswork no longer cuts it for companies trying to secure customer loyalty. Read how three businesses use analytics software to understand, respond to and even predict buyer behavior.

6 hottest IT certifications

IT professionals have always sought out certifications to give them a leg up in their career advancement efforts. But anecdotal evidence suggests that in today's job market, having a broad array of certifications is even more important for giving job-seekers a needed edge.

Forecast for systems administrators: Cloudy

Cloud computing and virtualization are redefining the role of the systems administrator. Here's how smart sysadmins are staying ahead out of the wave.

IT Picks Up the Pace

A long-awaited resurgence in the IT industry holds both promise and peril for the tech workforce.

How to fight check fraud

Thanks to increasingly sophisticated technology and ongoing economic uncertainty, all types of fraud are flourishing today, including check fraud. The prevalence of mobile and wireless technologies and the increasing ease of access to high-quality printing and duplication technology are making it easier for criminals to steal credentials, alter check numbers and create counterfeit checks.

APT in action: The Heartland breach

Heartland Payment Systems CTO Kris Herrin talks about the attack that changed his views on data security

In Search of an Energy Yardstick

We take a comprehensive look at the new green-IT metrics for measuring data center efficiency and productivity from The Green Grid and other industry groups. Insider, registration required.

CIOs describe their ideal job candidates

Thanks to rapid-fire industry change, it's hard for IT workers to plan their careers. We asked four IT leaders about their current hiring needs and the "dream" resumes of candidates who could fill those positions. (Insider, registration required.)

IT workers' top 4 dream employers

Computerworld asked 431 IT workers where they dream of working someday. Here's a look at the work environments of the four companies that came out on top.