Information Systems Majors Meeting

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Information SystemsMajors Meeting
December 1, 2005
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Agenda

• Internships
• Changes to the curriculum
• Laptops
• Job market outlook

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Internships

• Capstone experience in education
• Leads to job opportunities
• This is a class and has assignments

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Internship Guidelines

• After junior year completed
• 480 hours
• Must have an IT mentor
• Must incorporate two IT disciplines
• Web development, Database, Programming,
  Networking, Systems Administration, Systems
  Analysis, Security, Testing, Project Management,
  IT training
• Be a disciple

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The internship

• Find an internship
• Networking
• Internship expedition
• Direct contact
• Initial Internship Approval Form
• Get a copy of syllabus and complete assignments

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Laptops for all IS majors

• Advantages
• Lack of lab space
• More time on task
• Facilitates communication
• Controlled environment
• Hands on experience
• Asset after graduation
• Disadvantages
• Cost

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Laptops (cont.)

• Required for IS classes after freshman year (IS
  210 and above)
• Most of the computers will be pulled out of Smith
  422, 476 and 478 labs
• Wireless access in Smith 380, 422, 476 and 478
  labs
• Starts Fall 2006

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Laptops (cont.)

• Recommended PC specification
• 1.7 Gigahertz Centrino processor
• 1 Gigabytes of RAM
• 80 Gigabytes of hard drive
• Wireless card
• CD R/W
• Extra battery (optional)
• Software
• Windows XP Home Edition
• Microsoft Office or Sun Open Office
• Virus checker
• Other applications available for free or at
  discounted price

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Job outlook
Computer systems analysts, database
administrators, and computer scientists are
expected to be among the fastest growing
occupations through 2012. Employment of these
computer specialists is expected to grow grow
much faster than the average (U.S. Department
of Labor 11/2005)
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When asked about safe havens in tomorrows labor
force, she says, programmers who can turn into
business analysts are going to be very successful
because both their skill sets will play pivotal
roles moving forward. She adds, IT workers
today, particularly those working in the
programming space, need to develop
project-management skills, program-management
skills, and vendor-management skills."
(Forrester Research)
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Calling All Business Majors Success may soon
come wrapped in a dual computer science/business
degree. As IT departments are increasingly relied
upon to deliver a substantial part of the
business value of their organization, hiring
managers will be looking for business skills in
addition to core science, math, and engineering
skills. Its no coincidence that many of the
newfangled acronyms that dot the IT landscape --
BPO, BPM, and BAM (business activity monitoring)
-- start with B, for business. Technology
activities that are tightly connected to
corporate strategy and processes are becoming
highly prized, as are those central to
large-scale system integration projects.
(InfoWorld)
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A significant shift will occur to embrace
process-focused mind-sets toward managing the
business. There will be an explosion of interest
in business process management suites and their
integration with underlying software
infrastructure. A new business discipline will
emerge. "Business systems engineering" will
holistically link business strategy change to
infrastructure change in a framework of strategic
change management. And new IT jobs will emerge,
but will not offset those lost to automation. New
areas of IT skills will be needed around data and
logic architectures, business process management
and modeling, information flow, and relationship
management. (Gartner Group)
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IS Degree (2006-2007)
Select Emphasis
Choose One
BM Minor
IS 420 Database II IS 470 System Systems
II IS 440 Web Programming .NET
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Seven keys to job security

• Sharpen your business skills
• Get closer to the customer
• Diversify your management portfolio
• Align your job with the core
• Be a person of ideas
• Seek out complexity
• Go vertical