An interesting blog post by Eric Knorr discussing the merits of advising students whether or not pursuing an IT career is a good choice and some possible paths within the field that might be better than others.

The Soft Skills Count .... say Hiring Managers

York College of Pennsylvania surveyed 520 HR professionals and other hiring managers to find out what they're looking for in the college graduates they hire. While a level of technical prowess is assumed, it's the intangible qualities that can influence a hiring manager's decision.

Download a PowerPoint presentation to learn what's important to hiring managers.

Or read more on CIO Insight online.

As indicated in this article by John White and Robert “Bobby” Schnabel, computing is one of the top 10 fastest growing major occupational areas, with a 22% annual growth.  In 2011 the annual salary for computing professionals was also 75% higher than the national average.

With the anticipated 1.5 million computing jobs through 2020, it is important to ensure that students are receiving the education and training they need to be able to fill this demand and drive economic growth.

The authors also include an excellent PowerPoint presentation that looks at the Workforce through 2020 and the very bright future that Computing holds.

Codecademy is a web-based tutorial that offers weekly lessons (for free!) that allow participants to use the interactive tools to learn how to code.  It’s easy to sign up and they send you weekly emails with links to the featured lessons.

In his article ‘Learn to Code, Get a Job’, Douglas Rushkoff compares the need to acquire coding skills to learning math and that learning code is beneficial for all to help understand the computers that have become an inescapable aspect of our daily lives.  He also references Blake Ellis at CNN Money whose article ‘Class of 2011 Scores Higher Paying Jobs’ addresses the point that having these skills will lead to securing jobs with higher salaries.