Synopsis

Across all areas of modern business and industry there is a shortage of people with computing skills. Recent surveys have shown that the IT sector is one of the most buoyant in the graduate job market with increasing employment growth and rising salaries. Every sector of business, administration and industry relies on their computer systems and there is a growing need for specialist professional skills in software specification, development and maintenance.

The term IT professional encompasses hundreds of specialisms, from the design and programming of computer systems, through testing, maintenance and support; training of users; and software or hardware sales. You might choose to work exclusively with software, hardware, or applications development.

The type of company you could be employed by is as varied as business itself, but the majority of positions are with blue chip companies in the financial services, hi-tech, telecommunication and retail sectors.

Workshop outline

1. Introduction

2. Starting Out
• Qualifications
• Relevant work experience
• Choice of degree subject
• Postgraduate Courses
• Preparing a CV

• When to apply

3. Type of roles offered:
• Project Lifecycle
• Business Analysis/Consultancy Business—IT roles
• Development/Programming
• Testing Implementation

• Project Management

4. Types of employer
• IT Consultancy
• Software House
• Hardware Manufacturer
• Banking Retail Manufacturing

• Companies with current vacancies

5. Skills Needed
• Technical Skills
• Business skills
• People skills
• Communication Skills

6. Opportunities within the Internet Economy

7. Case Studies
   • ABN Amro
   • Logica
   • PwC
   • Nik

    

Profile of facilitators

Shahjahan Pramanik (Chair)

Shahjahan graduated in Economics from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. He started working as a financial analyst for various blue chip companies. At the same time, he completed a masters degree in IT, which landed him a consultancy role with ABN Amro, the Dutch investment bank. He has worked on several projects within the bank, and is currently working on a global systems project based in Amsterdam.

Sipar Ahmed

Sipar, a former student of Queen Mary and Westfield College, completed his Computer Science degree at the college and then went on to study for his masters at City University. After graduation, he worked for a variety of IT consultancies, eventually settling down with the American energy corporation Amerada Hess as a contractor. He is currently responsible for Oracle database development within the company.

Jusna Begum

Jusna graduated from Brunel University in 1997 with a degree in Computer Science. After having worked on two previous work assignments during her sandwich year at university, Jusna was offered a job with Logica UK Ltd as a technical consultant. She has so far worked on two projects with the company.

Tunu Miah

Tunu is currently employed as a Project Manager with Logica UK Ltd. He has a PhD in Computer Science and a Masters in Electronics Systems Engineering. Prior to joining Logica in 1998, he spent 4 years at Loughborough University, Computer Science Department employed as a Research Associate working on a number of DTI/EPSRC research funded projects and studied for a part time PhD. These projects were in collaboration with BT, ICI and QMW. During his time at Loughborough Tunu also lectured on number of the modules, supervised student projects and published numerous papers in the areas of HCI, AI and CSCW.

Jega Sutharsan

After graduating in Economics from Queen Mary and Westfield University, Jega was offered a consultancy role within Cap Gemini. After working on several telecoms based projects, Jega moved to the Telecoms division of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he is currently working on a call centre project for Vodafone.

Obaidul Haque

Obaidul is 35 yrs old and has been working in IT and Electronics for 14 years. He is self -employed and runs a small company specialising in Network Projects and Project Management.

He graduated in 1987 from Nottingham University with a BEng degree in Electronics. He also has an MSc in Business Systems from City University (London). Obaidul is now an IT Project Manager and has progressed from being an Electronics Engineer, Programmer, Business Systems Analyst.

Obaidul's main role is that of managing teams, budgets and resources in order to deliver IT projects to clients needs and expectations. His clients have included British Aerospace, Nike, NatWest Bank, and Cisco Systems. He is currently working on projects for Cisco and Admiral Computing.