What Does an IT Project Manager Do?
Project management is a skill set of growing importance in a variety of modern workplaces, and the information technology (IT) industry has its own class of project manager. There are a variety of IT companies and organizations that teach project management skills and provide various levels of certification for both experienced and aspiring project mangers. Tech industry association CompTIA offers the Project+ certification, generally viewed as being a foundation-level credential to help workers enter the field who want to specialize in IT project management. For the benefit of those who find themselves on the outside of the IT project management sphere looking in, project management professional Kanika Tolver returns to the official CompTIA blog this week to outline what makes IT project management unique and walk through what aspiring IT project managers can expect to find as they grow into the role. For example, an IT project manager can expect to attend a a lot of different meetings, in addition to fulfilling other aspects of the position. There's a high degree of demand for project managers, so if you're interested in a career niche with strong growth potential, then this is a good place to get an elevator pitch about what to expect.
How to Succeed in Technology Without Really Getting Overwhelmed the Rapidity of Change
Ahoy, wimps! Stop whining about how hard it is to keep up with the pace of change in your IT job. The pace of change in the IT industry is a widely accepted and frequently discussed phenomenon: IT pros are often warned to not get too accustomed to whatever they're learning today, because there will different tools, processes, and rules in place in a couple of years anyway. This can be intimidating, particularly for those contemplating joining the IT workforce and worrying that they will have to spend hours upon of hours out of every work week merely staying abreast of the latest new wrinkles. Shannon Donahue, a vice president at cybersecurity and IT governance association ISACA, thinks that the volume and quantity of "much ado" hand-wringing tends to overstate the difficulty of keeping up in IT. Donahue relates some early-career challenges that familiarized her with the "I just got good at this thing and now it no longer applies" cycle of evolving technology. The way she sees it, however, not only is change exciting and invigorating, but the right level of certification can help IT professionals roll with the punches. Certification can help you get up to speed quickly on new challenges and help you become more adaptable to constantly shifting norms.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Is Clobbering Its Competition
Cloud computing is of increasingly central importance to nearly everything in the IT realm, and retail monolith Amazon has quickly become the dominant provider of cloud computing services. How dominant? Tech writer Aaron Axline (a frequent GoCertify contributor) makes the case in a new article at CertMag.com, the official website of Certification Magazine, that Amazon Web Services (AWS) may be so far ahead of the competition that there's no end in sight to its market leadership. In the same way that Microsoft formerly had a stranglehold on the market for computer operating systems – a position that has only somewhat been undermined by the rise of Linux and other, largely mobile-device-centered alternatives – AWS has become the 800-pound gorilla that is king of the cloud services jungle. Government antitrust regulation could put a crimp in the swagger of AWS, but even strong competition (including, ironically, from Microsoft) doesn't appear on track to dethrone the cloud colossus anytime soon.
IT Harassment Surging via E-Mail, Productivity Tools
Over the past pandemic-addled 18 months, almost everyone who works in IT has had to get comfortable with conducting business via e-mail, chat apps, productivity tools, and video-streamed meetings. Apparently a concerning number of people have gotten a little too comfortable in these environments. A report released in March by nonprofit advocacy foundation Project Include spotlights some alarming statistics about the frequency of harassment (largely against women) via apps intended to help work operations continue when coworkers are doing their jobs remotely. To some extent, the downloadable Project Include report almost certainly reflects a continuation of characteristically boorish and unacceptable workplace behavior by other means. The problem may be getting worse under the "new normal" working conditions, however, and that's something that should be of concern to us all.
That's all for this edition of Certification Watch. Please keep your certification news and tips coming to the GoCertify News Editor.
