bt250h

mini-road trip: IBM's scary-smart Watson prez this TH

2011-11-14T11:09:00.001-08:00

I have to say I was rooting for the humans last Feb when they went up against IBM"s Watson on the Jeopardy! show (just like I rooted unsuccessfully for Kaparov against Deep Blue, Watson's chess-playing predecessor). Even though I'm into technology, I kind of hate to see "the rise of the machines" over people, maybe due to growing up watching The Twilight Zone and The Terminator. But still I have to hand it to those guys at IBM - Deep Blue was a watershed moment of its own but the Watson victory really seems like a defining moment in history. What they got it to do was pretty jaw-dropping. I mean, I remembered seeing those guys who played against Watson back when they were on the show playing humans and they were awesome killer-champs that on one else could touch. But Watson blew them away like they were clueless. Stunning.

I've had a couple of chances to hear from the Watson team about how they put it together and made it work (and how the Watson technology is being applied to other "big data" problems the world needs solved) and it's all fascinating, so I highly recommend any chance you get to do the same. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View which in and of itself is a must-visit for everyone, seriously, is hosting a program on Watson tomorrow night but it now says it's fully booked & there's a waiting list. But it turns out there is another opp to see them up at the Berkeley campus this Thursday. Details below.

Then, after the show, stop by The Cheeseboard on Shattuck Ave to get a hot slice of the pizza of the day. I used to live there and I tell you it's fabulous stuff. Ack! Now I'm dying for a slice myself. Dang.

Smarter Planet & IBM Watson Jeopardy! Presentation
Bernie Meyerson, IBM VP of Innovation & University Programs
LOCATION: Banatao Auditorium, 5rd floor, Sutardja Dai Hall,
UC Berkeley
Date: Thursday November 17, 2011
Time: 10:00 – 11:00 am

Dept Chair's chair: I'm out. Burkhard's in 4 now

2011-09-25T23:07:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't noticed, I've been hard to find on the 2nd floor of BT these lately. Last summer, our Associate Dean for the Lucas Graduate School of Business left for a deanship at Hawaii Pacific University (can't blame her) and I was asked to step in as a temporary replacement for this year while a search is conducted.

Hence, I'm out as MIS department chair for now but not to worry because Professor Burkhard has graciously agreed to take occupy the chair's chair in my absence. He's terrific, as everyone knows, and will keep things going better and better in the MIS program while I'm away on the 3rd floor. Additionally, he'll be co-authoring this blog to help keep everyone up to date on the goings-on around here.

I do expect to be back as department chair sometime during the summer but will also try to maintain a presence here as much as I can. But you see now why I've been running so far behind so far this year.

In any case, stay tuned. There will be some important announcements coming up here very soon regarding at least one and probably two of the top employers that everyone is dying to work for (including me but I'm too old). More soon...

MISA's prez is the best (proof)

2011-09-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

So again, I'm just now catching up with the big news from last spring but this item is still totally relevant because the current president of the MIS Association, Richard Bartmess, is the same one we had last spring when we/he won President of the Year for the College of Business.

The pic shows a bunch of us at the Business Students Awards banquet held at Flames last April where he received the plaque. (That' him holding it, of course.) Robert Fisher (immediately right of Richard) was nominated for Leader of the Year and totally deserved it too but we didn't snag that one. Still it was really fun and we were super proud of both of them. And if you're not in MISA now you obviously should be for a number of reasons but especially because we still have Richard around, continuing his awesome presidentialness for another year and it really shows in the activities and success of the club itself.

MIS students go global. Your chance coming in Jan

2011-09-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

So here's the story - we have this alum (not the guy in the picture) who graduated back in the 60's who then started his own shipping company in Asia with $1000 and which is now called Crown Worldwide Group with revenues of over half a billion dollars. Yeah, I know!

His name is Jim Thompson and besides being a super successful businessman, he's also a nice guy. So among other nice things he's done, he created the Thompson Global Internship Program by which SJSU business students get to travel (all expenses paid) to do a 3-week internship (paid) at one of his corporate offices somewhere around the globe. Yeah, I know!

So far some of our students got to go to Hong Kong, others to Kuala Lumpur and the picture is our own MIS Association president, Richard Bartmess, presenting his team's project at the London office. Yeah, I know! After the internship, he ran around Europe for a few weeks having fun as you can see in the other pic. (In fact, we almost overlapped in Italy. Crazy!)

So what have we learned? A) Work hard in your classes so you can get good grades and apply to the program and travel the world. Next opp is coming in January during winter break. Check the TGIP web page for details on applying. B) Jim Thompson is a great role model for you, not just in terms of success but also giving back to later generations. Don't forget! C) Richard Bartmess had way too much fun last summer. Yeah, I know!

MIS has the best faculty. Here's proof!

2011-09-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

(Really sorry I'm just catching up with this but better late than never.) Just wanted to make sure everybody knows that, last April, one of our MIS faculty family was selected as the SJSU Outstanding Lecturer for the 2010/11 school year–Jeff Gaines. That's right, this award recognizes the best one on the entire campus and he got it! (Sorry the pic is a vid cap so kind of fuzzy but this is him giving his acceptance address. Here's an SJSU PR article about his award and it's got a better pic.)

Not that we're surprised. Those of us who know him always thought he should get it and it was just a matter of time. Finally the rest of the campus figured out what a smart, talented and dedicated teacher he is and made it official. Yay!

For those of you who haven't had a chance to be in class with him, let me tell you he's always working like crazy trying to make the student experience the best it can be. He has amazing Silicon Valley contacts that he brings into the classroom, he takes students up to the Web 2.0 conference in SF every years and gets them special admission to presentations, he works with the student club leadership council and takes them on camping retreats in the redwoods–he's a real asset to the campus and the university and we're lucky to have him.

Stop by his office sometime or send him a congrats email if you get a chance. Oh and try to get into his MIS elective (or his 188 sections if you're not an MIS student), but good luck. They tend to be packed, of course. Wish he had a twin we could hire, too.

you mean summer's actually...over? (oops!!!)

2011-08-31T09:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the long hiatus from posting. Been a crazy summer and got a much needed, totally disconnected break in Italy for awhile. This pic is in a piazza (former Roman amphitheater) where gladiators (like me) once fought to the death (hmm...not so like me?) So I was totally in vacation zone but back now with a bunch of postings to catch up on. Lots of good stuff that went on and is going on in Il MIS Departmentino so more to come soon. CFN. (Ciao for now)

fall registration update: surge in demand for MIS courses!

2011-07-01T11:48:00.000-07:00

We've got a buzz going! MIS is hot (as it should be) and showing an unexpected surge in enrollments already for Fall with some sections full or near full already. We are tracking the numbers and will do our best to make accommodations but please go ahead and get on waiting lists so we know how much demand we really have.

Note: Bus 92 (or equivalent) is a PRE-requisite for 110A and this WILL be enforced by the instructor, even though the system allows you to register for both concurrently. There are many programming courses at the local community colleges that qualify as a 92 equivalent. (at least 3 units, hands-on computer programming assignments, any standard programming language) and it may be possible to take one yet this summer. (Check w/BSAC or MIS professors Albert or Aggarwal to be sure.)

two internship opps at local high tech SVTC

2011-06-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

This just in–seems like a good opportunity. The company, SVTC, is a high tech here in SJ that provides semiconductor fab facilities where companies can prototype & test their new chip designs and processes if they don't have their own facilities.

Remember, I always recommend you try for an internship, even if you think you haven't had enough courses or don't know enough about the field yet. Employers looking for interns don't expect you to know it all yet (and they're not planning to pay you that much), so don't eliminate yourself. Give them a try and let them decide whether you are qualified enough or not. Don't you pre-determine that for them. Note that they don't even mention qualifications in the announcement. See? If you're not gainfully employed this summer (or are flipping burgers, etc.), do check this out.

Our company is based at 3833 North First Street in San Jose, CA. We are on the Cypress Semiconductor site.

About the positions:

We are based on the border of San Jose and Milpitas.

These are 2 paid internships supporting our IT department. Salaries will an hourly rate and will be determined based on experience of the final candidates selected.
Each role requires 20 hours per week.
Depending on the strength of the candidates, we are looking to potentially convert one to a regular hire role (possible full-time at 40 hours per week).
This position will most likely go about 3 months, but may be extended depending on need.
For any interested candidates, please inform them to apply using this link:

http://www.source4talent.com/s4tjobssvtc/

choice adobe opps from MIS alum

2011-06-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

Adobe is obviously a choice spot to get your foot in the door and this comes from one of our alums looking to help out the current students & recent grads. And remember, don't let yourself fall into the trap of feeling intimidated or unqualified - these are entry level and they're not expecting a highly experienced master/wizard. You have the foundation skills & knowledge they need to build on, so apply and let them decide if you're right for the job or not.

Get in touch with him directly. His contact info is at the bottom of his message below:

Subject: Adobe - Supply Chain Operations - Contract Positions

In my department, there are three contract positions that are interviewing right now:

Product Definition Project Manager
Junior Programmer
Business Process and Systems Analyst

These positions will rely pretty on data analysis and are well suited for a student or recent graduate of MIS. Any recommendations that you might be able to offer would be appreciated!

Brian

Brian Chong
Business Process & Systems Analyst
Supply Chain Operations

408.536.4151 (tel)

bchong@adobe.com

345 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
www.adobe.com

another internship (short fuse!)

2011-06-09T06:29:00.000-07:00

This just in from an SJSU business alum. Note: they ask you to email them directly at: nhuanh@singularityu.org

Our start-up, Singularity University, is looking for an IT Intern for our summer program. I am an SJSU alumni and have recruited a few Hospitality students who are currently interning for us.

The IT Intern would support the IT/AV Manager:

Candidate will be responsible for assisting with all in-house IT, AV, and web support. Individual must be self-motivated, well-organized, customer-service oriented, and able to work in a demanding, fast- paced environment. It would help to have a strong interest and passion for the amazing content we are developing and events we are putting on.

Internship runs from June 13-August 31 with a monthly stipend.

What is the best way to get this internship opportunity out to your MIS students? If you have students in mind, please have them email me their resumes as soon as they can.

MIS Grad convocation is ON - buy tickets now

2011-05-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

Just confirming that the MIS graduation convocation is definitely happening (May 28, 2:30pm, Barrett Ballroom) and if you're graduating, this is the one you don't want to miss, for sure. We were a bit delayed this year, trying to bring up a new electronic ticketing system, but it's working now so get your tickets ASAP.

As an MIS grad you can go to any or all of three ceremonies. The "Commencement," in the stadium, is for the whole campus that same morning. It's grand but huge & long and your only recognition is to stand with your group for applause and then sit down (no "walking"). The CoB ceremony in the Event Center, the day before ours, is nice but still long (2+ hours). You have to sit through a few hundred people processing across the stage (1% "walking"; 99% watching).

The MIS ceremony, in the ballroom, has all the same music, flowers & decorations, etc. but is shorter (1hr), focused and smaller, so each grad gets more attention. When you're called up, you get a minute at the mic to say a few words to your family & friends (optional). We take a nice picture as you're congratulated by the dean and all your MIS professors and they present you with a certificate (suitable for framing) and a special gift to remember us by. Oh, and afterward, we have the best punch & cookies west of the eastern seaboard.

Most departments don't do this (it's a lot of work to put together) but we're proud of our grads and want to cap off their experience with a really memorable event, so do consider being part of it if you can.

another great MIS internship for this summer

2011-05-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

This just came in today and seems like a choice opportunity to get some experience with IT support in a large company. The hiring manager who sent it says "any decent student in MIS would definitely benefit from learning this successful Enterprise Software, how we support our global customers, and making connections into Rockwell Automation." He was asking for sophomores and juniors but I think they would consider anyone who isn't yet graduating. (The qualifications say "enrolled full time".) If you don't have something else lined up for this summer, give it a try.

See the description and how to apply below:

Internship job description:

Position Summary
The intern's role will be as a Junior Technical Support Engineer. The primary responsibility will be in the identification, vetting, creation and publishing of knowledgebase articles on our customer Knowledgebase. The intern will receive training in FactoryTalk ProductionCentre as well as various Technical Support Tools and utilities, specifically RightNow CX.
Minimum Qualifications
Must be currently enrolled full time at an accredited college or university majoring in IT, Computer Engineering or Software Engineering. Candidates need to have very good writing/typing skills as well as possess a solid technical background (e.g. Computer Science or Computer Information Systems), with an interest in learning how Enterprise Software support is done. They should be able to handle minimal supervision, be a self starter and have good organization skills.
Work Duration:  Internship - Summer
Work Location: Downtown San Jose Rockwell Automation office - 111 North Market Street, Suite 200
Interview Location: Same
Hiring Manager Name: Stephen LaRoche

How to apply?
Submit application on Rockwell careers site below, but ALSO email a name or resume to hiring manager at slaroche@ra.rockwell.com:

1. http://www.rockwellautomation.com/careers/searchjobs.html
2. Click Search Openings
3. Paste 32552BR into the keywords field and click Search

Cisco Confirms SJSU Can Compete Among Top Tier Schools

2011-04-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

Cisco has just issued this awesome statement regarding their annual case competition in which our MIS team performed so admirably last Friday (see recent previous post here).

“I was truly inspired by the enthusiasm and preparation that San Jose State students put into the business models and strategic plans for the case study competition, said Thomas Barnett, Senior Manager with Cisco’s Service Provider Marketing group. Barnett’s team is responsible for Cisco’s IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) messaging and thought leadership initiatives such as the Visual Networking Index (VNI) and the Connected Life User Experience (CLUE) Index. For the past five years, Cisco has co-authored a telecom industry case with Deloitte Consulting for the case competition. With respect to San Jose State’s participation in the 2011 case study competition, Barnett shared the following assessment. “SJSU demonstrates the well-balanced education that today’s students are receiving. These young men and women can clearly compete in this business development and problem-solving program with other top-tier universities. Cisco will continue to engage and challenge the best and brightest students with ‘real world’ case studies to help identify and shape the future leaders of our industry.”

Is that terrific? Not that we didn't already believe we could run with the best but it's just really gratifying to hear this from a trusted and unbiased voice, especially being an industry leader and visionary who knows what he's talking about.

Thank you, Thomas. Thank you, Cisco. And congrats again to our team and the supporting students too, who have made us so proud.

MIS graduation convocation is on and not to be missed

2011-04-26T04:00:00.000-07:00

If you're planning to go through graduation this spring, you'll want to participate in the MIS Graduation Convocation, for sure. You can also do the University-wide ceremony ("Commencement") and the CoB one too. But the MIS convocation is not to be missed. Why?

Since it's only for MIS, it's smaller and you get more personal attention. You get to walk across the stage when your name is called, shaking hands with the MIS faculty and the dean, and you even get to say a few words over the mic to your friends & family. There's time for this because it's small enough. (At commencement you stand up with everyone else for 5 seconds of applause - no names. At the CoB ceremony, you get to walk but not talk - there are several hundred grads to get through in only 2.5 hours!)

The MIS event runs on Saturday, May 28th, in the afternoon after Commencement in the morning. It's held in the Barret Ballroom in the Student Union. Reception starts at 2:30. Ceremony at 3:30. If you graduated in Fall 2010, or have applied to graduate this spring or this summer or fall and will have 6 or fewer units left to complete after May, you are eligible and it's not too late to sign up but you need to email me ASAP. (Timothy.Hill@sjsu.edu)

Note: We're still ironing out a new electronic ticket system for this. Stay tuned for details on that part.

sign-up for this Friday's Project Management Refresher & more

2011-04-26T03:46:00.000-07:00

These Friday afternoon sessions are now open to all students, not just graduating seniors, and I strongly urge you to take advantage of them as a great way to enhance your "employability" for internships as well as career jobs.

This Friday's session on project management, the content of 119a, is an excellent opportunity especially because this area of skills and knowledge has been much sought after by those hiring our students. For example, an opportunity that has just come up from a top employer you all know includes this qualification spec: "Proven ability to successfully manage multiple projects from concept to delivery while meeting schedule timeframes." That's 119a and that's what you'll get in a 3-hour nutshell this Friday, April 29, 1-4pm, in BBC304 with award-winning professor, Larry Gee.

But you have to register by emailing me...now! (Timothy.Hill@sjsu.edu)

And don't forget to register for the other remaining sessions:

Friday, May 6: Linux/php/mySQL/apache 101 by resident Google guru, Robert Fischer
Friday, May 13: NetApp Team Presents Cutting Edge IT, Virtualization, Cloud & Storage 101

These are special opportunities you're lucky to have and that shouldn't be missed.

fascinating radio show about a movie about SV VC's

2011-04-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, as I was driving to campus, I tuned in KQED's Forum show on the radio and was totally captivated. They were talking to a couple of filmakers about an indie documentary called "Something Ventured" that explores the history of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. They told amazing stories of Steve Jobs, etc. that they got from interviewing the insiders, a couple of whom were also live in the studio as part of the radio show. Fascinating stuff. After I parked, I had to stream the show onto my iPhone so I could hear the end as I walked to the building–I didn't want to miss a single minute.

I really want to see the movie, which is part of the SF International Film Festival but there's only one more screening, this weekend up in SF and I can't make it. I'm going to look into buying the DVD though, with rights to show it in the classrooms.

In the meantime, I urge you to listen to the recording of the radio show I heard which you can find here at KQED's site. If you have any interest whatsoever in how this singular phenomenon of Silicon Valley came to be, you'll be captivated as I was.

Tech-related Job Market Surge Reminiscent of the Boom Days

2011-04-25T00:15:00.000-07:00

On the first night of my career at SJSU, back in 1998, I found a crowd in the hall, clustered around the doorway to my classroom. At first I thought there must be some kind of incident going on–a fight or someone had collapsed or something inside. Turned out it was the overflow of students begging to add the class. The seats were all taken, the floor space was used up and the rest had to watch the 3 hour session by straining to see in from the hallway. 45 student were registered and something like another 90 were pleading for an add code! The boom was bringing us students (1600 MIS majors at the peak!) and taking away faculty at the same time so it was impossible to staff enough classes to meet demand. I recall students getting an extra $5k from employers for every friend they could bring along to hire!

That was crazy and I don't even want to go back to it. But it's great to see that my intuition was right - the tech sector is picking up and the jobs are coming back with it. Everyone heard about Google hiring big time this spring. Then I started getting more and more intern requests from all kinds of companies - way more than I was used to in the past. I suspected this was a leading indicator for permanent jobs and it looks like I was right.

Here's an article from the San Francisco Chronicle's website, SFGate, reporting on a survey of Silicon Valley CEO's and concluding that a hiring surge is underway and expected to continue. The polling numbers were the highest since this annual survey started eight years ago. Here's another from USAToday entitled "Tech jobs boom like it's 1999". It says the number of tech jobs in San Francisco is back near the peak it hit in 2000, the height of the tech bubble. A spokesman for Monster.com is quoted as saying that for the first time in years, the power is with the job seeker and not the company.

This is quite a turnaround from the last several years and good to see but that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep striving to build yourself up to get the best job you can, ie. put the effort into your classes and also take advantage of the tutorial/refresher sessions and other enrichment opportunities that we are striving to make available to you! (See other posts) Employers still aren't desperate enough to hire someone who doesn't impress them with their knowledge, skills and passion for technology & making a positive contribution. So gear up and get an amazingly great job.

MIS team gives Berkeley, UCLA a run at Cisco

2011-04-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is so utterly cool - it's a pic I took at Cisco (Building 29) last Friday, showing our MIS student team competing in the annual Cisco/Deloitte Case Competition. That's them (James Morrissey, Damaris Sarenbergand David Nettemeyer) on the left and middle screen segments of the telepresence display, presenting to the judges (Cisco execs and Deloitte consultants). (On the far right panel you see one of the Berkeley team students and the Cisco staffer running the telepresence system.)

This was the first year they used the telepresence system - it enabled a team from UCLA to compete, from a telepresence system on their campus down there. The Berkeley and SJSU teams were actually in the same building with us, but had to present through the system to keep the playing field even for all teams. The room was filled with SJSU students rooting for our team, plus Professor Larry Gee who had been working closely to help coach our students, analyzing the Cisco business case and preparing the presentation. Another faculty coach, Professor Gaines, was plugged in via Webex.

Our team was awesome! They were poised and professional and they presented the most substantive, realistic recommendations among the teams, something we've come to be known for over the 5 years we've been participating. The judges noted this in their summary, and also said we had the best-prepared slides and many other qualities that rivaled or bested the other two prestigious schools. But in the end we were barely edged out by the Berkeley team due to a super-slick style, a clever catch-phrase and a lucky break - a slide that perfectly anticipated one of the judges questions. Nevertheless, our team blew us all away and we are immensely proud. They should be proud of themselves too and they got a phenomenal experience, not only making the presentation but also getting feedback and advice, something one almost never gets when making pitches like this in the real world.

Thanks to all the other students who supported the team and the faculty who poured their time and energy into coaching: Professors Gee, Burkhard, Sessions, Roldan, Gaines, and Venkatsubramanyan, all above and beyond the duties we pay them for, purely out of their dedication to the students and the program. And big thanks to our Cisco friend and adjunct faculty, Usha Andra for the massive job of coordinating and orchestrating the entire show, from the telepresence set up down to the cookies and fruit.

Well done, everyone. Another unforgettable event.

recruiters: "better comm!" - us: "comm workshop this Fri!"

2011-04-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

We try to get a lot of feedback from employers/recruiters about our students and overall, they're quite pleased but the one thing they all agree we need to improve is communication skills. Not programming, or database or networking. Communication skills, over and over.

Ok, here's your chance. This Friday, the 22nd, 1-4pm, BBC121 (note room change for this event only), the MIS CareerEdge series is bringing in a professional communications consultant, Anjali Rao, from Charis Intercultural Training. She's designing a special, interactive workshop customized to our students with strategies and tips for job interviews, etc. and accent reduction for those who need help with that. RSVP to me now (Timothy.Hill@sjsu.edu) to hold a space.

NOTE: We are now opening up these CareerEdge sessions to all MIS students, not just graduating seniors, though the latter do get first priority.

The CommUnication Workshop: Highlighting the You

This interactive and informative workshop focuses on communication and presentation skills needed in today's business environment. You will learn the key U.S American communication styles and gain an introduction to public speaking and rapport building strategies. You can apply these recommendations in interviewing, making a positive impression and building strong networks. This workshop will also give you a few linguistic tips and a preview to additional resources to help reduce accent so you can communicate effectively. Come and learn how to get your voice heard!

Don't miss this opportunity to improve on what employers say is the #1 thing they look for!

MIS CareerEdge Spring Slate Finalized: 3 Awesome Events Added!

2011-04-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

Big news. 3 new events added to the 2 we recently announced will take us through the end of the semester. I know it's super-busy for all but these are "can't-miss" events that might just make the difference in that dream job interview.

Here's the finalized calendar with the new events included in red:

April 15: Systems Analysis & Design (110b) Refresher w/Professor Burkhard
April 22: The CommUnication Workshop: Highlighting the You w/Anjali Rao, Charis
April 29: Project Management Refresher (119a) w/Larry Gee
May 6: Linux 101 Hands-on (inc php, mysql, apache) w/Robert Fischer, Google/SJSU
May 13: Cutting Edge IT 101--Storage/Cloud/Virtualization w/Cesar Orosco, NetApp

All sessions run 1-4pm in BBC 304 except The Communication Workshop (location: tdb) and you must register by emailing me at Timothy.Hill@sjsu.edu. (Clearly specify which sessions you're requesting.) Space is limited so register ASAP. (More details on these speakers/events to follow soon here on bt250h.)

These are all golden opportunities and worth making sacrifices to be there in person to interact with the speakers and other students. But we expect to capture them on video to make available to those who can't join us live.

MIS CareerEdge Networking Refresher Video Released Today

2011-04-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

The video recorded at Professor Dhar's Networking Refresher is now available at YouTube in three parts at the links below. Again, we are asking that these links be shared only among our trusted audience - the SJSU community (alumni are ok) , so please respect that.

Thanks again to Professor Dhar for volunteering his time to help our students be the best they can be. And thanks to the CoB Mediated Learning staff, San Saefong and Prabha Chandrasekar, for their efforts in recording and editing these recordings so more students can benefit from the CareerEdge program.

(Again, please keep these links within our SJSU community. Sundance and Cannes are ok, too.)

Networking 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GbSJ3NIBnc

Networking 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBnpUR-OiPk

Networking 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PGwxJ8Gfew

path to a smarter planet starts with w/$400, dessert, more from IBM

2011-04-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, April 26, IBM's "Smarter Planet Comes to You" university tour lands at SJSU. Looks like a pretty slick event designed to help students gear up on what it takes to compete in today's job market and have productive careers that contribute to making the world a better place. Of course it comes with lots of goodies (food, t-shirts) and they're planning a cell-phone-enabled scavenger hunt across campus ($400 prize for top team) that sounds fun & could be pretty lucrative. (I'm hoping faculty are eligible!)

Check out their info page with registration, etc. or download their flyer (pdf) specific to the SJSU event.

real-time update on the job fair

2011-04-12T13:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I just got back from the job fair, talking to those six employers that I thought were good targets even though they hadn't listed MIS specifically among the majors they were seeking. (see preceding post). As I'd expected, after hearing what the MIS program was about, 100% of them said YES, they were interested in MIS students. G2, SAP and Kemet were even super-enthusiastic. If you're heading over there yet today (closes at 3pm), be sure to talk to them, including Jim or Janine at the SAP booth.

Below is the text from the flyer I've been using to give them the 1-minute overview. You may may want to check out these points and hit them when you chat with the reps:

--------------------------------------

A concentration in the College of Business at SJSU, MIS is the only program on campus that combines both business and technology, giving students a unique ability to work at this intersection that defines Silicon Valley.

MIS students:

· take at least one and often two semesters of web programming

· take at least one and often two semesters of database

· take at least one and often two semesters of networking

· take at least one and sometimes two semesters (honors) of project management practicum – a real systems project (team)

· take one semester of systems analysis and design

· take one semester on strategic use of information systems

MIS students also take all the same business core courses as other business students: marketing, finance, accounting, management, etc. so they:

· “get it” about customer service and bottom lines

· have a team perspective and team experience

· develop communication skills and professional habits

· understand the functional business units to enable interfacing with technology

Because they know both sides (business and technology), MIS students get an extremely broad variety of jobs at the major players in Silicon Valley and non-techs as well, eg. Google, Safeway, Apple, Kaiser-Permanente, NASA-Ames, Apple, Alaska Airlines, etc.

For more information, see the MIS Department website at:

http://www.sjsu.edu/isystems

or contact department chair Tim Hill at:

Timothy.Hill@sjsu.edu

(408) 924-3512

MIS sought by 21% of employers at SJSU Spring Job & Internship Fair

2011-04-11T23:10:00.000-07:00

I just looked through the listings for tomorrow's Spring Job & Internship Fair and I found 15 of the 72 employers said they wanted to interview students from MIS, specifically. That's 21%! Pretty sweet. I think we're seeing the local job market picking up and also the awareness of the value of MIS picking up among employers.

Again, a few employers (6) didn't list MIS specifically but I think they probably should have and I'm planning to go early tomorrow to see if I can convince them. In case you're going, here's my list of these:

Abaca Technology (Software Development Intern)
Aruba Networks (Various Technical & Business Careers)
G2 Technology (Product Marketing Manager)
Kemet Technologies (Sales Rep)
Minerva Networks (Web developer, IT administrator)
SAP (Quality Specialist, Software Developer)

If you go to the Fair, consider hitting these six, in addition to the other fifteen. I think MIS students may have a good shot at these as well.

get SAD with Prof Burkhard this Fri at 1 to boost your interview-ability

2011-04-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

The economy may be picking up but employers still want to make sure you didn't just get through your courses but actually learned something. If you're interviewing then, you want to be able to tell them what you know and can do. You want to have that at your fingertips, ready to go, and you want to be convincing.

Try this. Tell me what you know about these Systems Analysis & Design (SAD) topics:

Enterprise analysis and modeling
The UML 2.0 standard concepts, models and diagrams
Structured modeling techniques, Object-oriented modeling techniques, and agile approaches
Modeling and prototyping tools
User interface design, including technical and user documentation
Implementation planning and project management

Uh...you took 110B a year ago and sold the book, right? No problem - you just need a refresher to make what you learned before...fresh. This Friday. 4/15. 1-4pm. BBC304. Professor Burkhard. 3 units of material boiled down to 3 hours. A semester in an afternoon. Like riding a bike.

Free. But you have to RSVP to me at Timothy.Hill@sjsu.edu

Note: 4/29, same time & location: Professor Gee refreshes you on Project Management (119a). RSVP for that too now.

next MIS CareerEdge Refreshers set for April

2011-04-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

Continuing our series of CareerEdge Refreshers and Tutorials, we're happy to announce two more eagerly anticipated sessions in April:

the 110b - Systems Analysis & Design Refresher with Professor Burkhard is set for Friday, 4/15, 1-4pm in BBC304 and
the 119a: Project Management Refresher with Professor Gee is set for Friday, 4/29, 1-4pm in BBC304.

Note: These sessions are not limited to graduating seniors–all MIS students are welcome. They are free but you have to RSVP (name and session date(s) for each session you will attend) to me (Timothy.Hill@sjsu.edu) and receive a confirmation that you've got a seat. First-come/First served. If you RSVP and are a no-show, you'll be dropped from all future sessions. (Space is limited and we can't afford to have you block someone else from a seat and then waste it.)

Two more terrific tutorial sessions are in the works and expected to be announced soon for early May. Stay tuned...

it would be an honor...and more

2011-04-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

One of the things I am most proud of about MIS at SJSU is our honors program. As far as I know, it is the only one in the country that runs as a two-semester sequence, spanning an entire school year, allowing time to do a full-scale practicum project that has the depth and breadth of what is found in the real world. We took a risk when we designed this–it's more challenging for students to fit into their schedules, etc. but I'm convinced it was the right thing to do and this has been confirmed in the successes we've had including an exhibits project for the Tech Museum of Innovation and a commendation from the San Jose City Council, presented by Major Chuck Reed to an honors team that developed a particularly impressive portion of the city's main web site (see pic). It's plain and simple - if you're one of our top students, you ought to be in our honors program.

The MIS Honors program simply replaces 119a and one MIS elective with the two-semester Honors course sequence, so no extra units are required. Honors students get to work with other top students and do projects that are beyond the scope of 119a. And since the class size is so small (12 students), they get a much more personalized learning experience. The Honors designation impresses the heck out of employers, instantly, and opens up opportunities for special overseas trips for honors students only, etc. When the faculty are asking each other "who should we recommend for this job or special award, etc.?" we often hear "how about this student - she's in honors."

Are you really one of our top students? Well, it's not all about GPA, though you need a 3.0 or close to it to apply. (A bit lower can might under exceptional circumstances.) And you need to be motivated to learn and work with a team.

The deadline for next year's class is near - April 25 and you need recommendations from your professors to get in which means get started now so you can give them at least a week's notice to write to you a letter. There's an optional informational session for anyone interested on April 11, 5-6pm, in BBC032. And all the details are found on this Honors web page.

This is a golden opportunity to really enrich your experience while you're with us at SJSU. Don't let it go by without a serious look, at least.

tonight and next Wed: free opps to learn from Google & Salesforce on campus

2011-04-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

Never pass up a chance to access people from the industry leaders coming to campus to teach you about their world. It's a chance to hear what's really going on out there from the people who are actually doing it and it gives you a glimpse inside the company so you get a sense of their corporate culture - maybe you even get a role model with qualities you can emulate. In both of these cases, you'll learn some cutting edge "how-to" knowledge too and acquire something to bring up in job interviews to show your "passion for technology and the industry" which is a critical factor employers all look for. (See previous post here.)

These two opportunities are particularly choice as they come from high-profile giants in the industry. Thanks to Professor Gaines who leverages his industry contacts to get these people into his class and then opens it up to all MIS students, too. Here are the details:

Google Mobile team will be in tonight (W 4/6 at 6:00PM in BBC204) to talk about the App Inventor product that allows you to build Android application easily and has an emulator for you to view a project even without an Android device.

Next week (W 4/13 at 6:00PM in BBC204) Salesfoce.com is coming in to talk about Force.com and then will take students to the lab to develop a couple of easy applications using their tools.

All MIS students welcome and encouraged. If you are interested in attending either one of these please RSVP at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PDCCJ88.

See you there!

Professors Schooled at NetApp on IT Industry Shift & More

2011-03-31T23:32:00.000-07:00

Yeah, even Professors have to go to school sometimes, especially in MIS since it's always evolving with the technology. Professor Dhar and I had a chance to visit NetApp last Friday to hear about their latest technologies and what they see happening in the IT industry.

Fortunately there was no quiz but we did learn a lot, got to tour their state-of-the-art data center, and heard from Cesar Orosco, IT architect for NetApp's own internal IT, who said after 20 years in the field, he is finally seeing a fundamental industry shift from IT as a cost center to IT as a value center. Reinforcing that is this fantastic brand new video brief that NetApp produced featuring SunCorp CEO Jeff Smith explaining how "There has been a shift in focus from IT being required but expensive, to it being our absolute strategic asset." This is music to our ears.

While we were there, we heard about NetApp's Academic Alliance which makes lots of educational materials available to faculty and students. They got us in touch with the Program Leader, Mark Conway, who took a look at our department website and had this to say:

"I loved the 'Why MIS' link as it captures and aligns with a lot of our thinking around flexible and efficient IT. Students in MIS may not need to know how to architect a data center, build a disaster recovery site or design a new cloud storage infrastructure, but they should understand the basic technologies AND the business issues and economics that are driving the adoption of virtualization, software-as-a-service and public-private clouds, etc… (in our humble opinion anyway)."

More music to our ears...and yours hopefully, as this reinforces that MIS is rising to new heights now & in the coming times and that our program's perspective is on target with industry trends.

We hope to be able to incorporate some of those NetApp learning materials soon - Mark "gets it" about focusing on the educational aspect rather than the marketing message, so I expect they will be really valuable.

In the meantime, one of the presenters last Friday very highly recommended a book by Michael H. Hugos and Derek Hulitzky titled "Business in the Cloud: What Every Business Needs to Know About Cloud Computing". I haven't read it yet - just downloaded the free sample, the first chapter, to the Kindle app on my iPad but the presenter was describing it as essential reading for today's IT professional so I expect its a good bet. Here's the Amazon page for the book.

Final point of interest: NetApp was recently ranked by Fortune Magazine as #5 among the top 100 best places to work. I can tell you this was reflected in the lunch they served us which was better than the restaurants I frequent. Hope the academic alliance includes more lunches for the professors.

more CareerEdge resources here

2011-03-31T10:50:00.000-07:00

There are tons of things we faculty wish we could squeeze into the MIS courses but just can't–we'd have to take out something else and what's in there now is all critical. So we've decided to build a repository of extra-curricular online resources - a 'menu' of brain-nutritional options you can choose from to enhance your knowledge & skills....your 'career fitness'. The resources will be accompanied by career 'parings', suggestions as to the career paths that the resource is best for.

We'll be building this over the coming months but for now, I've created the page behind the blog roll here at bt250h and added some highly recommended resources for digging deeper into Python. Here's the link to the new CareerEdge page here:

http://bt250h.blogspot.com/p/mis-careeredge.html

And it's now a tab at near the top of this page, under the header/intro so you can find it easily when you come back.

I'll always write a blog posting here when I update this new page with additional materials.

Hope you're 'hungry.'

Bon Appetite

First MIS CareerEdge Tutorial/Refresher Video Release Today

2011-03-31T10:39:00.000-07:00

Professor Venkatsubramanyan's Python tutorial is now showing at a computer screen near you. As of today, the much anticipated recording, in three parts, is available in online streaming video at the unlisted links below. We are asking that these links be shared only among our trusted audience - the SJSU community (alumni are ok) , so please respect that.

These are high quality, professionally edited recordings with the slides integrated, etc. thanks to San Saefong and Prabha Chandrasekar, our CoB Mediated Learning staff.

And of course, thanks to Professor V for putting the tutorial together and taking a Friday afternoon out of her life to put it on in the first place. (We have no funding to support the Career Edge series - the professors are contributing their time & effort purely on behalf of the students.)

The remaining videos are being edited and I'll post them up here too as soon as they're ready. In the meantime, grab some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the show the NY Times is calling "...a triumph of educational cinema."

(Again, please keep these links within our SJSU community. Sundance and Cannes are ok, too.)

Python Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcCCKyXwqxM

Python Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B8yC0D0kPc

Python Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWDlGCifMaw

fin

If Project Mgmt (119a/h) is Your Thing, Get in on This

2011-03-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

In recent years, we've had lots of our MIS students getting hired especially for the project management skills & knowledge they pick up in 119a/h. If you're into it and looking to pursue that kind of job, you have a terrific opportunity to network with professional project managers every month over dinner with the Silicon Valley chapter of the PMI (Proejct Management Institute). This is the professional society for project managers–a "club", like MISA but for working professionals to get together, network, and learn about new things going on in their industry. Most of these folks have the PMP (Project Management Professional) certification and years of experience.

One thing they love to do is bring in "young people" like our MIS students to meet them and hear about what they do. Professor Sridar brought a group of his students (and me) along to one of their monthly dinner meetings awhile back and I was totally impressed with this group. They were extremely welcoming and encouraging to our students (and me) and I learned a lot from the excellent after-dinner speaker.

It's not too formal, they use a banquet room at Michael's on Shoreline. There were around 40-50 people there. They have cocktails first and chat. Then dinner - they seated one student at each table so there were five or six professionals there to chat with each student. Dinner was excellent and followed by dessert & a presentation on some new development in the field, which was excellent. This is normally $30 for non-members but they give students a break for $20. Well worth the price to get to know these folks and their field, especially if you're looking for a job opp.

The next dinner is 4/25, 5:30-8:30pm and you can get details & register online before 4/22 (10pm) at:

http://www.pmisv.org/cde.cfm?event=341365

Note that there is a Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification that students can get from the PMI. Here's the certifications web page from the SV Chapter. Scroll down to find the CAPM info.

An "In" for Internships at Kaiser (Urgent!)

2011-03-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

So one of our recent MIS alums, Brian Chan, who did a series of internships at Kaiser Permanente and then got hired into a permanent job there, got in touch recently to help current MIS students follow in his footsteps but you need to act quickly if your interested in getting his help - like this week, yes, even though it's Spring Break. (Businesses have their own schedules and they don't take spring break.)

Brian invited our MIS juniors and seniors, not yet graduating, to apply online (see link below) AND send him a resume (contact info below) so he can help make the connection. He listed three internships he could help with: IT Governance (066567), IT Communications (066577) and IT Network and Wireless (066461) and he gave this URL where you can easily look up the job descriptions yourself:

http://kaiserpermanentejobs.org/jobs.aspx

But he said they are filling up fast so you need to get in touch this week! Note: When you use this link, you can set the search filter to specify "Area of Interest" as "Information Technology" and then enter two keywords "internship" and "undergrad" (NOT "undergraduate"). I just did this and there are quite a few opportunities that show up, including two of the three that Brian said he could help with (the communications one may be gone already), plus like around 15 others spread across Oakland, Walnut Creek and Pleasanton locations that you might apply for even without Brian's help.

KP is known to be a "gold standard" IT operation, especially among the health providers. They have a reputation as being a leader on the forefront of using new technologies in new ways and I once heard their CIO interviewed on the radio, maybe it was Charlie Rose's show, and I was totally impressed with his description of what they do. So I highly recommend this opportunity, especially given Brian's help. Here's his contact info:

Business Consultant

Data Center Track, Infrastructure Program

Kaiser Permanente Information Technology

Email:briankyawchan@gmail.com

Don't hold yourself back with self-doubt about what you know or don't know already. This is an internship - they're not looking for lots of knowledge and skills, just passion for the technology and eagerness to learn and contribute. At least apply and let them decide - don't make the decision for them by not following up.

Good luck and remember to give back someday like Brian when you're set!

Intuit Sr VP to Deliver Entertaining Career Advice & Recruit

2011-03-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

Nora Denzel, Sr VP, Intuit

When I first moved to California in the early 90's, I had a chance to hear a presentation by Tom Proulx, the co-founder of Intuit. I remember him talking about how the Microsoft monolith had tried and tried to exterminate them, as they had with so many other companies, but little Intuit hung in there like David against Goliath and it must have driven Microsoft crazy. I liked that.

I liked it too when he talked about resisting the new trend at the time, to start charging customers for tech support calls. He felt that if their designers were doing their job right, then people shouldn't need tech support - if they did, it was Intuit's fault and the customer shouldn't have to pay for that. Though they wound up charging in the end, I admired that philosophy.

Ever since then, I've held the company in high regard and so I was excited to hear that one of their senior VP's, Nora Denzel, would be coming to campus next Wednesday (3/16) to give a talk (6pm in Morris Daily) about how not to screw up your career. Yes, it's billed as being humorous and entertaining but also packed with really good advice for students transitioning into working professionals. I'm sure there will be some valuable ideas that you'll remember years later just like I do from hearing Tom Proulx. And the bonus is that she's bringing along recruiters so you might even get a job if you show up! That's like the door prize of the century.

Here are the details from Jeff Gaines and the ELC which is sponsoring the event:

The Executive Leadership Council (ELC-all CoB clubs) is sponsoring a career talk titled

"10 WAYS YOU SHOOT YOURSELF IN THE FOOT IN THE WORKPLACE" given by

Nora Denzel
Senior Vice President and General Manager
Employee Management Solutions
Intuit
www.tinyurl.com/denzel-sjsu-flyer

When: Wed, March 16th, 6:00PM - 7:15PM (doors open at 5:30)
Where: Morris Dailey Auditorium
Who: All students, faculty, staff and the general public that would like key insights from a senior executive
RSVP: www.tinyurl.com/denzel-sjsu

INTUIT RECRUITERS WILL BE PRESENT SO DRESS FOR SUCCESS

Please pass this along to your friends where you see value. As someone who attended the career fair last week, this talk will contain good reminders for those graduating, performing internships or looking for a job.

MIS Alum offers Internship at SutiSoft (Enterprise/Web)

2011-03-11T07:32:00.000-08:00

One of our former MIS students now working at SutiSoft (Software Utilities) has let us know about an internship opportunity that could lead to a full time position. He's coming to BBC304 today (3/11) at 1pm to kick off Professor Kwan's Web Programming session in the MIS Career Edge series. There should be plenty of seats so feel free to stop by even if you hadn't registered for the session yet.

I'm not familiar with the company myself but from their website it looks like they're doing really cool stuff - on their homepage there's a little animation of an iphone with a signature being written across the screen. Guess this is an app that is part of their suite. They seem big into security. Their tagline is "Simple, Seamless, Secure and Scalable" and they highlight their "best-in-class security" and "tailored solutions" as the two defining bullet points in "About Us".

I'm sure you can apply even if you can't make it today. The details they provided are below with the contact info for our alum at the bottom:

SutiSoft is looking for smart individuals to work as a paid internship performing Marketing, Operations and MIS related tasks in a fast paced Cloud Computing environment. This could lead to a full time position.

Person must be:
energetic
Interested in cutting-edge technologies
Willing to learn about Marketing, Operations, and IT activities?

Exposure would include:
Understand latest business applications and technologies
Provide product presentations to customers
Hands -On Customer Interaction
Evaluate real customer feedback
Marketing/Advertising/Lead Generation Techniques

Minimum Requirement: Currently enrolled Juniors or Seniors

David Roe
droe@sutisoft.com
(650)969-7884 x421
www.sutisoft.com

Internships (7!) at Nominum (smarter, safer Internet)

2011-03-10T23:59:00.000-08:00

Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have to admit I wasn't really aware of this place, Nominum, until I got an email from them this week. One of our students is interning there and must be doing a great job because they got in touch to get some more...like 7+ more!

And it seems like a pretty cool place to work. According to their website, they make "intelligent DNS software solutions to help make the Internet smarter and safer." (The inventor of DNS is their chairman and chief scientist!)

So they're gearing up to launch a new service and looking for a bunch of interns to help with two areas: Network Operations Center and Customer & Technical Support. Seems like a great opportunity - looks like cutting edge technology and their web page on working there says it's "an inspirational place to craft your career." Definitely worth a try. Email them at jobs@nominum.com and be sure to say you're interested in the internship and which of the two areas listed above.

Here are the details they sent:

Who is Nominum?

Nominum makes the Internet better by making it smarter, faster, safer and more useful. Our DNS software is the bedrock for more than half of the world's broadband Internet and our combined solutions provide a better Internet experience to millions of households.

Our Intelligent DNS software solutions, the world's most advanced DNS systems, function as stand alone elements in many networks and are also combined with our hosted network services and consumer applications to deliver better network resiliency and performance, improved end user security and rich navigation assistance to every end user.

You will find more information about us at www.nominum.com.

What are we looking for?

We are looking students who would like the opportunity to join a fast paced start up and interested in how to make use of the Internet in different ways.

We have internship positions in two very key areas in Nominum; specifically the Nominum Global Network Operations Center and  Nominum Customer and Technical Support.

NETWORK OPERATIONS ---------------------

Job Skills

* Experience with Linux, DNS, DHCP, Basic Networking
* Proven ability to troubleshoot in a timely manner  
* 1-3 years Experience in a Network Operations Center (Not Mandatory)

Job Duties

* Monitor Nominum Global Network
* Define Severity for Alerted issues
* Intelligent Escalation
* Incident Communication
* Determine SLA Impact
* Support Change Management Activities

Career Path
* Engineering
* Operations
* IT

SUPPORT STAFF -----------------------

Customer Support Interns will work closely with Nominum Support Engineers in support of a brand new Nominum service offering!

Requirements:

We are interested in people who are excited about the Internet, along
with:
  willingness to learn new things and work in a team environment

  ability to explain complex concepts clearly to customers who may have less technical expertise.

  excellent written and oral communiations skills

  willingness to work off hours and some weekends


Desirable:

Familiarity with a variety of OSes and browers applications

Some operations experience with TCP/IP and DNS

Some experience working with the public/customer service.


Timing:

We are looking to hire 7+ students to help support the launch of a new
product.  We would like to begin interviewing students as soon as
possible with the intention of having them start in early April

MIS Internship Opps (2) at Symantec

2011-03-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As mentioned in my previous post, I went to the Job Expo last week and had a chance to meet with the rep from Symantec, a great guy named Robert Jaime, who said they had a couple of internships just opening up that MIS students could apply for. Well, they've opened! And below you'll find the descriptions he sent me. He said if you're interested to email him directly at robert_jaime@symantec.com.

Obviously this is a great company, a leader in the hot, hot field of InfoSec and they've hired our students before. So you've got a terrific opportunity here to gain some valuable job experience and at the same time fight the good fight against the hackers & other bad guys out there. Check them out:

Both positions are in the Information Security Department at Symantec, one in the Security Management function and one in Risk & Compliance. The responsibilities and eligible graduation dates of each are listed below.

Security Management (Graduating between May 2012 – December 2012)

Supporting security reviews of applications and network/security infrastructure platforms
Supporting regulatory and technology risk assessments of new business initiatives
Assisting with defining, updating, and enforcing Information Security Policies and Standards
Supporting external/internal regulatory and/or technology audits across the enterprise
Assisting in the management of security management services including: ad hoc security risk assessments, change and project security assessments, policy and standard exception processing, privacy risk assessments, data protection assessments and planning, 3rd party/vendor risk assessments.

Risk and Compliance (Graduating between December 2011 – May 2012)
The main functions of this role are to reduce financial and operational risks by:

Assisting with the planning and execution of recurring regulatory assessments such as SOX, PCI, and security related reviews.
Participate in security reviews to ensure that Security is integrated in each stage of the lifecycle.
Providing assistance with the management of third party certifications/attestations
Learning and providing security or compliance subject matter expertise through business projects

Qualifications (same for both positions):

Excellent written and verbal communication, time management, and leadership skills,
presentation experience a plus
General understanding of application/infrastructure security concepts, techniques, technologies,
and tools
Must be able to participate in a team based working model

Requirements (same for both positions):

Management Information Systems Major, Business Administration Major, Computer Science
3.0 or higher GPA Major & Overall

Company Overview
Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help our customers – from consumers and small businesses to the largest global organizations – secure and manage their information-driven world against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently. Our software and services protect completely, in ways that can be easily managed and with controls that can be enforced automatically – enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored.

Department Overview
Information Security at Symantec is responsible for all aspects of InfoSec and is centralized to meet that goal. With a broad range of requirements, Information Security is broken down into five main functions, Risk and Compliance, Threat Response, Strategy and Planning, Special Security and Security Management. Symantec's Information Security group consists of experts in many fields to ensure that Symantec's data and technical resources are protected.

iOpportunity: Internships for MIS Juniors at Apple!

2011-03-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A ripe & juicy opportunity for juniors just crossed my desk.

A representative from Apple's University Relations team got in touch to learn more about our program and let me know how our students could fit with their needs. It turns out they have a growing opportunity for MIS juniors to intern in their Information Systems & Technology Department the summer before their senior year! That's awesome in and of itself but wait...there's more.

Interns that work out really well will be eligible to enter Apple's prized IT Development Program (ITDP) upon graduation. This rotational program gives you 1-2 years of exposure to a variety of technologies & settings through a series of short term assignments and when you're done, you're well-positioned to go after "advanced roles within Apple IT" (see below).

The rep sent me a position description and more information about the ITDP and said interested juniors could send resumes to her at studentjobs@apple.com. We're hoping to get them to campus next fall but for now, they're definitely interested in hearing from good prospects, so get in touch ASAP! I wish I could apply - I'm not only a big fan of their stuff, I also love the food they serve at the cafeteria. If you get hired, you have to invite me over for lunch....and dinner...weekly....at least.

Here's what they sent:

Apple’s Information Systems & Technology Department has openings throughout our team for enthusiastic and self-motivated interns who are ready to contribute in a cutting edge, IT department.

Internships could be in any of the following areas: Database administration,B2B, Business Analysis, Reporting, IT Development potentially including Java,Objective-C and Oracle PL/SQL, Networking, Telecom, SAP/PeopleSoft,Application Test and Integration, System Engineering, Application Programming, iPhone Programming, web development, UI Design and Administration.

Qualifications are dependent on the specific internship position, but having some
of the following skills would be extremely helpful:
Excellent communication skills
Flexible
Team player
Leadership skills
Some direct knowledge of SAP/PeopleSoft (for SAP/PeopleSoft-related
internships)
C, C++, and/or Objective-C, Java and XML programming
UNIX skills
PL/SQL scripting with Oracle 9i/10g
SQL and relational database development knowledge
SOA skills
Exposure to business systems
Understanding of basic testing procedures
Project management skills
Desired Majors include: IS, IT, MIS, MS&E, CS, CE

High performing Information Systems & Technology interns will be eligible for offers into Apple’s world-class IT department as well as the highly desirable IT Development Program (ITDP). The ITDP is a 1-2 year rotational training program that offers a series of short-term assignments ranging from special projects to daily operations in a rapidly growing, dynamic setting. Participants in the ITDP can get experience in both IT and other Apple business groups. Upon successful completion of the ITDP, participants leverage their training in advanced roles within Apple IT. An internship in Apple IT is your first step to a successful careeron a great team.

Another Career Edge Opportunity

2011-03-08T08:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't played the real game of "musical chairs" in a long, long time (several decades?!) but I remember I was really good at it as a kid. Why? Because while the music was playing, the other kids were just wandering along, waiting until the music stopped to figure out what to do. But I. I was always planning my next move, targeting this chair, then that one, striding slowly down the rows, quickly around the corners where there was no place to sit, etc. It worked for me over and over and paid off with some great candy, prizes, etc.

By now I'm sure you get my point - if you're on the job market right now, you're in the game and you don't want to be the one left standing when the music stops. You need to be going after every competitive edge you can get and there's another opportunity coming up this Thursday, March 10, 1:30-3:30 in BBC 202.

It's a presentation by Oracle, not focused on the company itself, but about things MIS students should know & can do to get good jobs with today's top employers like Oracle. From what I can tell in the description, it will be useful practical tips - they list things like what tech leaders are looking for in terms of resumes & cover letters and how to put together an impressive portfolio of the projects you've worked on in class, etc. (That's a tip I forgot to put in my earlier post on job-seeking tips–show off your class projects: employers love to see that you've actually done something in your classes, not just been sitting there watching...and Facebooking...at the time.)

Oh, and don't bother challenging me to musical chairs at this point. I still haven't revealed all my secrets to winning and I still love candy & prizes.

Job Fair Flash: Many employers want MIS but didn't say so

2011-03-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

So I just got back from the Job Fair. As I mentioned in the last post, I wanted to get in ahead of the students and talk to the employers that I thought should be interviewing our students, even though they didn't list MIS. I took them a one-page description of the MIS program and described how our students have both the technology and business, etc. Well, as I had suspected, nearly all of them said yes, they wanted to talk to MIS students, too. So I hope you guys are taking the advice I gave in the last posting to go ahead and approach these other places. Here's a list of the ones I just spoke with just now that welcome MIS even though they didn't say so:

Applied Materials (interested)
Axcient (very interested)
Cisco (totally knows they hire our students and welcome more)
CTB/McGraw-Hill (had some good ideas about slots that would be just right for MIS)
EMC (knows our former grad, Chris Asing, now a high level manager there)
Hitachi GST (handed me an intern position description on the spot - needed in 30 days!)
Proofpoint (I ran into them by accident and they were totally interested)
Sysbase (realized they hired MIS in the past and promised to list it next time)
Symantec (met the guy who has emailed me for MIS student in the past - said 2 MIS internships just opened yesterday)
VMware (totally interested)
Yahoo (very welcoming, said "send them up")

There are probably many more that I just didn't get to so definitely don't let it stop you if they didn't say MIS!

SJSU Job/Intern Fair: Asserting MIS Broadly & Other Stuff No One Told You

2011-02-27T11:41:00.000-08:00

So if you're an MIS student, hopefully you know by now you need to be going after every edge you can get for a good career launch (including internships now if you're not graduating yet) so you need to be at the SJSU Job and Internship Fair this Wednesday, looking sharp and with lots of well-tuned resumes in hand.

All the usual advice applies but I have my own additional suggestions you may not have heard elsewhere:

First and most importantly, there are several employers there that didn't list MIS among the majors/concentrations they are seeking but that still look like good targets to me SO give them a shot, too. Sometimes they aren't aware that we have an MIS program or they don't know what it is and don't realize MIS students would have what they need. For example, there are some that list technology majors, like CS or CompEngr and other business concentrations like AIS, Finance or even MBA's but not MIS. They're looking for tech+business so most likely, MIS would be an ideal fit for them (especially if they are a tech company) but they just don't know about it so you have to make the case...convincingly. You can do that in talking to the reps but also in your cover letter - you know business+technology so you are in a unique position to bridge gaps between the two sides and that's ideal for all kinds of positions, especially in tech's, like marketing, communications, etc. And even if they only list CS and CompEngr-type majors (nothing about business), if the job position isn't limited to "engineer" only, or even if it is, you could try it anyway - they may realize they have some other position where "tech+business" fits perfectly. The point is: don't let yourself be limited by what they listed–assert MIS broadly as uniquely valuable in almost any organization in today's digital economy. It is but many people just don't know it...yet. (I'm going to the fair before they open to try to explain this to as many of those employers as I can get to but you need to cover from your end, too.)

Other advice that often surprises students:

If you're not graduating, seek internships aggressively - they're huge to future career success - but here's the piece often missed: don't feel like you don't know enough to apply. That's a common misconception and totally unnecessarily limiting. Despite whatever they describe as the position duties/requirements, the employers realize you are in the middle of your program and don't really have a lot of skills yet - they're offering to help you get some. Besides, even if you're early in the program, you already know a lot more than you realize just form the classes you've had and what you've picked up by osmosis from your friends, the club (MISA), and blogs, etc. Students almost always undersell themselves and shy away from applying - don't make that mistake. At least apply and let them decide if you know enough or not. If not, you haven't lost anything but a few minutes of time. If so, you'll get great experience and a strong line item on your resume for your graduation-time search. Do it!

Whether seeking careers or internships, don't be put off by the long list of "qualifications" that you might not completely fill. That is their ideal list but probably no one will have all of that and even if they do, they might not interview as well as you. Go ahead and apply. Let them decide whether you have enough of what they want or not. If they ask about things you're missing, tell them you're interested and motivated to learn them and explain how you've picked up and learned other things on your own before. (If you haven't, do that. Target some useful stuff, get the "Dummies" books and learn them.)

Don't be too picky about the job descriptions. If there's any slight chance at all that you could conceivably be interested, go ahead and apply. If it moves forward, you'll get the chance to learn more about what the job would really be like and if it turns out to be unattractive you can always turn down any offer you get. No problem. But often jobs are not what they seem from the description (maybe better; maybe worse) and the job titles themselves can be very misleading. And remember, with jobs it's just like with boy/girlfriends, it's way easier to get a new one when you already have one–doesn't matter if the current one isn't that great. I urge you to consider all options (...job-wise).

Lastly, write a job objective that isn't all about you - what you want them to give you. They're not about doing you favors. Not in this market. You need to be about what you can do for them. What you can contribute, what skills and energy you bring to the table to help them excel the way they want to. Your objective should strike them as "hey, here's a kid who wants to come in and do something for us...bring some energy and drive and spirit and pitch in to solve our problems and help us beat those nasty competitor people we hate."

Oh yeah, one more thing. If you really are going to search broadly, as I have urged, then you'll need different versions of your resume, each tuned to different types of employers, highlighting the things that that type would want most. Do your homework and get the right type of resume to the right potential employers.

Ok, one more thing for real this time: never overstate your abilities. If you have only introductory exposure to Linux or whatever, say so. Not knowing enough about something will only occasionally cost you a job - they'll usually be happy you know something at all about it and expect you can learn from there. Thinking or saying you know more than you do is easy to expose and will cost you the job every time. It indicates you're lying or at least that you don't know what you don't know and therefore won't be good at learning and that is all bad. Your attitude and ethic is almost always more important than the extent of your actual current knowledge.

Ok. Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead!

Spring Break: Cabo or Web 2.0 Expo? (not a trick question)

2011-02-26T19:55:00.000-08:00

If you're an MIS student (or alum or faculty, even), but especially if you're a graduating senior, you might want to think about taking Spring Break at the Moscone Center in SF this year. (!) Hopefully you're developing your passion for technology and this would be a way better place to feed that than Cabo San Lucas or Squaw Valley (both lame, technology-wise). Plus way cheaper...like free.

All you need is a registration promo code for a free Expo Hall pass to the Web 2.0 Expo, the big trade show "for the builders of the next-generation web: designers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, and business strategists." Professor Gaines takes students there every year to check out all the cool new technologies and startups that set up fancy booths with demos, lots of SWAG to give away, etc.

Check out this page at couponfollow.com to get the promo code and then register here.

The pass gets you access to

All keynotes (Tuesday-Thursday)
All sessions in the sponsored sessions track (Tuesday-Wednesday)
Expo Hall and all events held there (Tuesday-Wednesday)
Web 2.0 Solutions Theater (in Expo Hall)

It's a lot of fun and you could learn a lot there, too. You can see who's who in the Web 2.0 "space" and the reps give lots of tutorials & demos about their products/services. Of course, don't believe everything you hear. (And talk to the reps but please be considerate–don't divert them from giving their spiel to real potential customers.)

Remember, as discussed in my previous posting here, employers look for that passion for technology during an interview, so take advantage of this opportunity if you can. Your interviewers will not be so impressed to see your tan or hear about your snowboarding adventures, so make a wise spring break plan given this tough job market.

You can go on your own but if you want to hang out with Professor Gaines and his students, fill out this online form and he'll be in touch. (Note: he says that Tuesday is the best day in terms of free conference sessions you may want to attend but he'll be there every day.)

After you go, post comments here about what you learned, liked, didn't like, etc. Hope to see you there.

NEW! - MIS Career Edge Refresher/Tutorial Series

2011-02-16T12:30:00.000-08:00

If you're an MIS student that is graduating and on the job market this semester, and you want to get the best career launch possible, then you need do be doing everything you can right now to gain an edge in the job market. Resume lines themselves are not enough–you have to be able to convince interviewers you know your stuff and have a passion for the technology.

If you took 111 or 112 three semesters ago, for example, you may be "rusty" so....

MIS faculty to the rescue! They want to help you succeed and they volunteered to run a series of interactive refreshers and tutorials to review and add to what you learned in the program, just in time for interviewing season. These are free sessions but you have to RSVP (name and session date(s) for each session you will attend) to me (Timothy.Hill@sjsu.edu) and receive a confirmation that you've got a seat. First-come/First served. If you RSVP and are a no-show, you'll be dropped from all future sessions. (Space is limited and we can't afford to have you block someone else from a seat and then waste it.)

All sessions run on Fridays, 1-4pm in BBC304. The dates and topics are below. We recommend that you attend all of them you can to maximize your job potential.

2/25 - Professor Venkatsubramanyan: Intro to Python programming
3/4 - Professor Dhar: Networking Essentials & Review
3/11 - Professor Kwan: Web programming (HTML5 & Ajax)
3/18 - Professor Shirani: Database Essentials & Review

After spring break (specific dates TBA):

Systems Analysis and Design Essentials & Review (Professor Burkhard)
Intro to Linux (CompEngr graduate student Jay Mehta)

Also see my previous posting here on developing a passion for the technology. It includes action items you can do now!

NOTE: Please remember to thank your instructor. They are not being paid for this. They're taking time from the rest of their lives to be there because they want to help you succeed!

free party on campus: watch Jeopardy! computer vs. human champs!

2011-02-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

So this looks like fun - IBM has created a machine (named "Watson") they claim is capable of playing Jeopardy!, the actual TV quiz show, including understanding natural language and the show's "here's the answer now what's the question" format. In fact, they say it's more than capable of playing, it can beat the all time top human champions at the game! Check out these vids on the Jeopardy! site.

So it's on TV, during the regular Jeopardy! slot, with the final championship this Wednesday (2/16) and the MIS club (MISA) and IBM are sponsoring a free party on campus for everyone who wants to watch together in the Engineering auditorium (189), 6:30pm to 7:45. They're providing food, etc. and raffles for IBM swag plus you can meet IBM people. (Though they're not really recruiting it never hurts to expand your professional network.)

Should be interesting...similar to when they created "Deep Blue," the computer that beat the world chess champion Kasparov in 1997. But of course, playing Jeopardy! is much harder, much less structured and requiring all kinds of knowledge & understanding. Kind of another historic moment in the co-evolution of man & machine. Worth catching if you can. I gotta root for the humans (projecting ahead based on the Terminator movies).

If you want to go to the party, you need to email the MISA president so they'll have the right amount of food: president@sjsumis.org.

MIS grad grabs choice entry-level job@cisco (u can 2!)

2011-02-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

We keep saying our grads can compete with the best out there and they keep proving us right. Recent grad, Louis Ceaser IV has just landed a job in Cisco's highly competitive Sales Associate Program. Cisco recruits top candidates from all the best schools in the country for this program that includes a full year of training. Their presentation (below) says they screened 1423 registered applicants to get down to 23 offers made (100% were accepted) and Louis got one of them. Congratulations, guy! This says a lot about our program and we're proud of you. Best of luck. Go get 'em! (Note: as we point out on the MIS website, technical sales is a great place for MIS grads because you have the technology underpinning combined with business understanding and communication skills so you can make the business case to customers for buying the technology products.)

Here's Cisco's PDF presentation about the program which includes some valuable advice for recruiting not just at Cisco but anywhere and gives you a sense of what top companies are looking for. Even if you're not on job market now, I highly recommend you check it out and see what companies are looking for and expecting so you can start pursing growth opportunities in that direction.

In fact, the MIS department is currently planning to launch a series of job market tune-up opportunities in the next few weeks to help near-graduates refresh what they learned in the program and add a some supplemental skills & knowledge as well. Stay tuned!

Key Jobs Driver: Passion for Tech

2011-01-26T10:58:00.000-08:00

Soon after I started teaching here, near the height of the dot-com bubble, Mike Rose, the CIO of eBay at the time, spoke at an MIS club meeting and was asked "What does it takes to get hired there?" His answer was pretty eye-opening and I've heard it again and again since then from other execs and hiring managers all around Silicon Valley:

"You have to have a passion for the technology."

He said he can tell in the first sixty seconds of an interview whether you have that or not and if he's not seeing it...well, interview's over. Thanks for coming.

Now if you're an MIS student, you must have had some of that coming in, but you can't stop there. That passion is something you need to cultivate and develop. It needs to surface and emanate out of you when you talk to people about the industry, especially interviewers. And, of course, you have to keep it fresh with the latest developments in tech and the tech business, especially those happening around here.

How do you do that? Hang with people that have it. Read about tech. Talk about tech. Text about tech. This MISA (club) is a good start.

Another super-effective way to develop that passion? Read the blogs of others who have it. The good ones do all the hard part for you - they talk to their contacts, read up on all the news and they break it down into the best, most important stuff to know, and put it into perspective. Find those best ones and follow them with all the eagerness and enthusiasm you have for checking your Facebook. More. Yes. More. Way.

Here's a little assignment for you. No extra credit. This is for you:

First - go to this web page about John Gallaugher, an MIS professor at Boston College (see previous post). Check out his resource links and subscribe to his blog (right up at the top left, under the header). Read it fervently every time it comes out. Look forward to every next one. John is an expert in Silicon Valley (despite his Boston location) and he digests the goings-on around here concisely, effectively and with just the right MIS, business/tech perspective. Follow the links. Explore the ideas. Get into it.

And here's a fun way to get your feet wet right now - get familiar with HTML5 capabilities & surrounding issues/controversies. Try out this amazing HTML5 video showcase called The Wilderness Downtown that makes an interactive music video around your old neighborhood. (Works best in Chrome and if the house you grew up in is viewable in Google's Street View.) Then try out "The Body Browser (Google Earth for the human body)", another HTML5 application. (You'll need a browser that supports WebGL - download links are at the site). Both are fun & mind-boggling. But then see this blog posting about the unresolved video problems/issues holding back HTML5 adoption.

After that? Talk about it...to your professors, your friends, your mom...anybody. Write your own blog about it. Develop your passion for the new world being created and your role in helping create it. And that will show though when you walk into interviews, naturally, because it will be part of you and your way of thinking. Do this now.

Well-known MIS Professor/Silicon Valley Expert visits SJSU

2011-01-26T10:46:00.000-08:00

Last month we snagged a true MIS VIP/visionary to come visit - John Gallaugher is an MIS professor at Boston College. He's well-known throughout the MIS world, both in academic and professional arenas, having been featured in Business Week, for example, and also writing the textbook we use here our 118S elective (eWorld), Information Systems: A Manager's Guide to Harnessing Technology. Despite his East Coast location, he's an expert on Silicon Valley and has built a program at BC around week-long "field trips" where his students fly here and meet with high-level executives at no less than 20 different SV companies.

John's a great guy and after a long flight out here, was happy to run straight from the airport to catch the end of 118S to chat with our students who had been studying from his book all semester long. They all found him entertaining and inspiring. Totally. He even stayed around to sign students' books before I took him to a late dinner at his hotel (at something like 1:00 am his time).

Next day he was up bright and early and spent the day meeting with various groups around the college, especially the MIS faculty, to help us think about ways to better leverage our location and contacts around Silicon Valley and integrate it all into the curriculum and student experience. A beer & a bite to eat at Flames and then we dropped him back at the airport less than 24 hours after he'd arrived, exhausted I'm sure, but leaving us with tons of great ideas and enthusiam about what we have been doing and what we can do, going forward.

Great thanks to John for taking time away from the rest of his life and making the long-haul trip to spend some time with us and help us brainstorm some terrific ideas for enriching our programs. We hope this is the start of something big, both in terms of our initiatives and our relationship with John so hopefully he'll be back soon and often. In the meantime, John keeps up a terrific set of resources on the Web, including his excellent blog, The Week in Geek, which I highly recommend.

business analyst job opp (immediate!, full-time, contract)

2011-01-24T09:51:00.000-08:00

Here's a position description being recruited by a third party recruiter, Canvas Info Tech, that would be ideal of MIS seniors or recent grads. They contacted the SJSU Career Center looking for someone to fill this full-time, contract position immediately ("ASAP"). Note: the version they gave to the Career Center for placing on the SpartaJobs website is not as demanding as what you see at this link to the company website, eg. they gave the career center "0-2 years experience" so don't be discouraged - look it up on SpartaJobs.

You'll see the list of desired skills aligns almost perfectly with the MIS program: "Knowledge of Rational Rose, Dreamweaver, SQL, UML Design, Entity-relationship Diagram, Microsoft Project, Word, Excel, Visio, PowerPoint". (We've been hoping to teach Dreamweaver in 118W, but Adobe refuses to give universities an affordable educational discount license. But you could download a trial version, pick up a book and in a few days teach yourself enough to get by.)

And the job duties description aligns with us as well: "Operate as a spokesperson for the business departments and interact with IT to determine appropriate solutions to business problems. Provide analysis, definition and direction to development and maintenance activities. Ensure business functionality, requirements, and operational excellence standards are met."

Not sure if this is multiple positions and whether it's for placement at other companies or not but if you're an MIS student, you should be ideally qualified for this and crazy not to check it out, at least. And if you do, let me know what happens via email for by commenting on this post, ok? Good luck!

Hot Off the Presses: InfoSec Mgmt (118c) on Demand...finally!

2011-01-02T14:10:00.000-08:00

Well, this took longer than I'd hoped, and there is still some tweaking to be done here and there, but for now, you can find the best of what I teach in 118c on a multi-page blog site I'm calling "ProfsrHillzInfoSecMgmtBlog". There are articles, tutorial movies, even infoSec-related comic strips, etc. and links to class recordings from the last time I taught the course. Of course there's the blog roll of news & whatever catches my eye as useful and interesting on the topic. And on the "Keep Learning" page, I've opened up comments as a way readers can add their own favorite resources to share.

When the budget improves, I hope we can run 118C again as a real class but in the meantime, the many who have been asking (repeatedly), and waiting patiently (thank you) will have a way to get up to speed on this important subject.

A Lost Boy of Sudan Found Among the MIS Grads

2010-12-28T11:10:00.000-08:00

Last week’s CoB graduation ceremony was an especially proud moment for one MIS student who beat incredible odds to get there. Joseph Liah was one of the Sudanese refugee children whose heart-rending plight was depicted in the award-winning documentary, The Lost Boys of Sudan. Innocent victims of a brutal civil war spanning over two decades, these boys were the most badly war-traumatized children ever, according to the film, forced to face thirst, starvation, wild animals, insects, and disease. Joseph was conscripted into the rebel army at age ten before escaping to a refugee camp in Kenya where he spent ten years dreaming of an education he could use to help make the world a better place. Then Joseph was among the many “lost boys” resettled to various US cities by the International Rescue Committee and he found himself in San Jose, drawn to the wonders technology could achieve. Last week, Monday morning, we celebrated Joseph realizing the American dream as his own, the culmination of an amazing journey few could have imagined possible. We’re proud of you, Joseph, and looking forward to the better world you’ll be helping build now that you’re on your way. Congratulations and best of luck…

WSJ: MIS ties for #1 in career satisfaction!

2010-10-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal online cites a Payscale.com survey showing MIS tied for first place (with chemical engineering) in career path satisfaction. They say "about 54% of...management information systems majors were satisfied or very satisfied...making them the happiest with their careers." Well, dictionary.reference.com defines happiness as "good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy" so yeah, that makes sense to me. Just didn't realize so many others thought so, too. (Maybe I'm not that weird after all?)

great infoSec internship opp at Symantec

2010-10-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

Just heard from Symantec about this internship opportunity in their infoSec department. Can't be a better place to get experience in that area than there - that's their bread & butter, of course.

InfoSec is hot and getting hotter for the foreseeable future, I think. Check out the position description & application instructions on their website.

Note that they don't require infoSec knowledge. It is an internship, after all. But they do want good communication skills and good teamwork - two things we keep stressing as critical success factors. Looks like we have that right.

Spartan Daily headline: Google recruits MIS!

2010-10-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it wasn't front page but we got half of page 2!

http://www.news.sjsu.edu/24381/google-recruits-sjsu-business-graduates

There's a great quote highlighted in the print version: "The grads that were chosen are obviously some of the best at what they do or Google wouldn't have hired them." - Annie Phuong, junior business management major.

Definitely a coup for the program and will hopefully get us some more students.

MIS alum on Forbes.com!

2010-10-05T12:48:00.001-07:00

Jeremy King, class of 1992, is one of our most illustrious and accomplished alumni. At eBay, he was the leader of the Architecture and Engineering teams responsible for the eBay Trading platform. Now he's an Executive VP at LiveOps and just appeared on Forbes.com with an article he's written explaining the various flavors of cloud computing and how to choose the right one for your organizational needs. Check it out at:

http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/04/software-security-enterprise-technology-cloud-computing.html

Way to go, Jeremy. We're super-proud of you.

GOOGLE returns to SJSU for more MIS students in October!

2010-09-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

After a summer hiatus, I'm reviving the blog for this school year with a big announcement -

Google has just finalized the date for their fall recruiting event for MIS students: October 14, 12-1:30, in BBC 032. All MIS students (only MIS students) are welcome and encouraged to attend, though for now, they are only interviewing/hiring MIS seniors graduating by this coming May. (For younger students, Google is expanding their hiring program and planning to come back again next fall.) Online applications are due no later than October 15th.

Note: Doug Evans of the SJSU Career Center is putting on a prep event October 8, 10:30-12, in Module A (near Aquatic Center) focused on this Google hiring program. This is highly recommended as Doug helped get our 4 MIS students hired by Google last spring and has gathered good intel to use this round.

http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/hill_t/googleannouncementf2010.htm

This is a golden opportunity for our top seniors! Wish I could apply but...

boy from brazil

2010-05-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

so this is an article in Valor, the Brazilian equivalent to our Wall Street Journal. as noted in a previous post, a couple of our faculty (Steve Kwan and Jeff Gaines) are working on a research project for TOTVS, a big Brazilian ERP company, and the company wanted to fly me down there to work with them for a few days. a fabulous experience. unfortunately, the article is in Portuguese so i have no idea what they said about me. hopefully it doesn't mention how i bashed into the glass door on my way into the interview. oops.

job opp thru MIS alum @ Foxit

2010-04-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a great opportunity sent to me by one of my former students, Erik Bryant, an MIS alumni, class of 05, now an assistant VP at Foxit Software. If you're interested, email him at erik@foxitsoftware.com or his colleague Lumi (lumi_sonuga@foxitsoftware.com).

Foxit Corporation
Phone: (510) 438-9090

Job Description

Serves customers by providing product and service information; resolving product and service problems. Also, will handle incoming calls and e-mails for basic sales. Possible management opportunity.

Duties:

Attracts potential customers by answering product and service questions; suggesting information about other products and services.
Enter orders into sales system.
Handle customer phone calls and e-mails about basic sales and support questions.
Resolves product or service problems by clarifying the customer's complaint; determining the cause of the problem; selecting and explaining the best solution to solve the problem; expediting correction or adjustment; following up to ensure resolution.
Recommends potential products or services to management by collecting customer information and analyzing customer needs.
Prepares product or service reports by collecting and analyzing customer information.
Contributes to team effort by accomplishing related results as needed.
Communicate well and quickly through Instant Messaging, e-mails, support tickets, and phone conversations.

Skills/Qualifications:
Customer Service, Management, Product Knowledge, Quality Focus, Problem Solving, Market Knowledge, Documentation Skills, Listening, Phone Skills, e-mail skills, Resolving Conflict, Analyzing Information , Multi-tasking

taking SJSU MIS to the southern hemisphere

2010-04-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

i'm guessing you don't know that TOTVS is is Latin America's largest developer of application software and the world's 9th biggest ERP developer. i didn't either...until last summer. now, in five days, they're flying me down to Sao Paulo, Brazil to talk to them about collaborating on a research project!

this semester, two of our faculty, Jeff Gaines and Steve Kwan have been helping TOTVS analyze the market for some of their emerging products and next week we'll be meeting with their execs do a presentation - me on site with Jeff & Steve teleconferencing from SJSU. should be very cool.

can't wait tho it's a longer trip than i expected. hadn't been down there before. it's way, seriously down there - a 10 hour flight from Dallas. (driving is definitely not an option)

anyway, we're excited to be extending our reach into South America and we hope to build on this project toward a long-term relationship with our new colleagues south of the equator. Tchau!

survey says: "MIS wins battle of the CoB starting salaries...again"

2010-03-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

It's official. The SJSU Career Center's annual survey of starting salaries offered to new graduates last year (2008/9) has just been released and, as usual, MIS rules the CoB again this year!

The MIS average came in at $58,555, down about 3% from last year, presumably due to the recession. But this is still about 9% above the 2nd place finisher AIS (and still about 17% above the national average for MIS).

Coming in 3rd was Finance, followed by Management, International Business, Accounting and the rest.

We don't want to brag but...well, actually we do - we're proud of our graduates.

"The invisible hand of the free market keeps pointing to MIS as the winning choice for business in Silicon Valley and beyond." - unnamed professor and department chair in the CoB

caught this (nearly) full rainbow...emanting (?)...from the CoB...

2010-03-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

...a couple of weeks ago with 2 snaps on my iphone. just got around to photoshopping them together today. not sure which direction they go–looks like the pot of gold was either around 10th & San Fernando or in...Asbjorn Osland's office (?). definitely not mine, i'm sorry to report.

SJSU 'wins' Cisco/Deloitte Case Competition

2010-03-20T10:15:00.001-07:00

so the team was terrific and even thought the judges no longer declare a winner, it was pretty clear from their remarks that they thought our team's solution was the best - the Cisco people said it was pretty much the strategy they were thinking of pursuing themselves! congrats to the team and the faculty who helped coach them, especially shai venkatsubramanyan who spent countless hours in the frenzied run-up to the finals.

from the cisco ebc

2010-03-20T09:31:00.000-07:00

this is our own student team from this year's Cisco case competition, standing in front of a ginormous video phone at their (Cisco's) executive briefing center (ebc). this was our tour, just before the presentation to the judges, so everyone was kind of tense, and thus nobody fully appreciated the absurdity of the moment, unfortunately. you know the phone actually works?! (jk).

anyway, besides the 'mega-phone', the rest of the center was full of very cool stuff - lots of those huge 'floating' glass panels showing videos & stuff you can touch and interact with, etc. John Chambers' office was upstairs but he was too 'busy' to see me according to the security guards who escorted me out.

augmented reality (?) demo

2010-03-08T16:59:00.000-08:00

so this other blog i've been following lately, on e-learning, had a recent posting on augmented reality, including a street racing game that uses your webcam to let you steer. this youtube vid shows the basic idea - you can see the user on camera in the upper left corner steering with the "marker" you print out on paper. try it out at this page (assuming you have a cam).

it's kind of nifty and i guess i can see how it might be useful in learning but only kind of. post a comment if you have an idea.

this spring's MIS grad convocation is on

2010-03-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

yes, we ARE holding the MIS department spring graduation convocation again this year (see the convocation web page for more info) on Saturday, May 29, after the university commencement. we start with a reception at 12noon and ceremony at 1pm. so you can go to both if you like and even the college ceremony too (friday, the 28th).

but ours is focused on MIS only, so shorter, more personalized, etc., very elegant (in the ballroom) and memorable. and this year, we're going back to something we did once years ago - every graduate gets to say a few words (optional) at the mic as they 'walk' across the stage. this really made the event special last time we tried it and as long as everyone holds to about half a minute, we'll still be done in about an hour. if you're eligible, don't miss it.

yes, we have to charge everyone, including the grads themselves for the tickets. why? because we get zero funding to put this on and it's expensive! as it is, the department budget takes a hit but at least the ticket income covers a chunk. we're sharing the pain. thanks for understading.

revamped MIS department website

2010-03-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

ok, so there was a big gap in entries until today - partly because i was revamping the MIS department website. a major pain but it was worth it. i think the information architecture is much better–easier to find what you need, accommodates current students, prospective students, alumni and guests all differently. and, though there are (very) strict university and college rules about what has to go where, etc., that were hard to stay within, the aesthetic is better too with much more of a human element than before.

also worked in this blog feed ("more...about the department) and a live tech news feed under "News & Events" so at least there is some dynamic element, some life to the site. check it out and let me know what you think.

google follow up

2010-03-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

ok, so the google event was awesome. they described the new-hire program they were recruiting for: 3 months of "boot-camp" and 24 months of on-the-job training, including something like 2 months at a google site overseas. then lots of avenues for moving into different areas of support within google - a golden opportunity for our students, for sure.

we had a full house of around 45 graduating seniors (& last december grads) which was exactly what they had asked for. everyone was dressed spiffy with polished resumes and had great questions that showed they did their homework on google. (like about the famous 80/20 rule)

the google folks were totally impressed. (remember this was the first time they had ever recruiting at SJSU and they were only interested in MIS students so there was a lot at stake for the whole campus). here's the feedback the google reps gave Doug Evans of the Career Center:

"Awesome Event! Best Campus we've done. Great students, well prepared. Thanks for the great set-up and support."
Strongly agreed the candidates' academic preparation was adequate for their standards.
Strongly agreed they saw the type of applicants they were seeking.
Strongly agreed the candidates presented their education, work experience and skill well and targeted their background effectively toward my organization.

so a total victory for MIS and for SJSU! and i've heard from a few students who are in the middle of the interviewing process with them so hopefully we'll score several hires there.

BTW, one of the google people said that they had just had a similar event the night before at one of our prestigious local competitor campuses (unnamed) and only a handful of students showed up - most weren't graduating and weren't even MIS! they said they won't be going back there again, but WILL be coming back to SJSU again, for sure. sweet!

live from the google session

2010-02-09T12:44:00.001-08:00

these guys are so cool. one was a music major. (?) one a comm major.
they say they have a massive mac user base inside google. (yea!)

google on campus tomorrow seeking MIS students ONLY!

2010-02-08T16:36:00.001-08:00

the career center has been trying to get them to recruit here for years but with no luck - until now! and they said they are interested strictly in MIS students only (and only those graduating this may and last december). i'm eager to talk to them tomorrow to find out how this all came about. will post what i find out.

just so you know - new blog from the MIS dept chair

2010-02-06T22:54:00.000-08:00

The MIS department chair blog, bt250h, is hereby christened and underway. Stay tuned for various and sundry announcements of job opportunities, events, curriculum news, and whatever nifty biz/tech headlines that strike me as something worth my time to write about and your time to read about. Overall goal: help students, alumni, and faculty stay connected and up-to-date on the department, the program and the field. We shall see...