CompTIA Blog

The trending workplace story last week originated with an internal memo sent to Yahoo employees by Marissa Mayer. In her message, the CEO basically eliminated her company’s remote workforce policy and questioned the value of letting employees work from home. The outcry from those inside and outside the high-tech community has been quite animated, with many suggesting that increased face-to-face interaction will not be the magic bullet that solves Yahoo’s problems. The telecommuting ...

It’s another beautiful day here in San Francisco and the RSA Conference – an annual information security event held by security solutions provider RSA – is underway with its usual buzz and excitement. So far, it has been a productive few days for CompTIA.We started the week meeting with the Cybersecurity Credentials Collaborative (C3) – a group that we co-founded along with other certifying bodies such as (ISC)2 and GIAC. CompTIA was voted vice chair of the C3 and will be playing an active role ...

Fifteen years ago, Pete Caro had trouble breaking into the IT field, despite the fact he had multiple, college-level computer courses under his belt. So he joined the Army in 1998. There he steadily gained IT experience and expertise that enabled him to establish a successful civilian career in IT security. Working IT in the Army, Caro, now 36, started out in mid-1999 as a systems administrator, doing Ti ...

CompTIA believes that the looming budget cuts known as sequestration expected on March 1 will be a huge issue for all Americans, particularly tech entrepreneurs. We believe the largest impact will be on those small businesses who sell goods and services to the federal government.Furthermore, the fall-out from sequestration will cause major trauma for our economy and our tech entrepreneurs.So, as Congress and the Administration move to grapple with budget cuts, we call upon policymakers to contin ...

For just about everyone on the outside looking in, the healthcare sector can be a strange and puzzling place. It raises big picture questions, such as how can the U.S. spend twice as much as other countries on healthcare and yet do worse on key metrics such as average life expectancy? There are also practical questions, such as why are so many paper forms still in use? Then there are head-scratchers, such as why do some hospitals that treat heart disease have a McDonald’s in lieu of a cafe ...

It took nearly 20 years, but Larry Romero is on his ideal career path with the help of CompTIA certifications.

St. Louis is one city that IT staffing firms see consistently adding more IT jobs. San Francisco, Silicon Valley and New York City may be the nation's largest job markets for IT, but industry staffing firms report that faster growth rates can be found in smaller, less traditional markets as well. Secondary and tertiary markets can provide high-quality, lower-cost standards of living and strong educational systems, and companies find that a very attractive environment for efficient growth. ...

"The closer you are to the application, the stronger the demand," says Dice.com Vice President Jennifer Bewley. That seems to be the trend for IT skill demand in 2013, as reported recently by IT staffing companies Dice, Robert Half Technology and TEKsystems. Skill sets seeing strongest demand this year include: Data Analytics/Business Analytics — "The term 'Big Data' has become so trite, but the demand for data analytics skills is off the chart," says Bewley. "Companies are willing to invest ...

Last week, the president issued a long-awaited executive order that seeks to protect critical infrastructure – an action he promised soon after Congress didn’t reach agreement on cyber-security legislation last year. This week, the New York Times reported that a link has been established between cyber-attacks against U.S. companies and firms that provide a variety of services, including those that provide services to critical infrastructure owners and operators. This is an alarming development t ...

A new version of Startup 2.0 was introduced in both the House and Senate last week. Startup 3.0 is co-sponsored by Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Representatives Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.). Startup 3.0 continues the mission of its predecessor legislation, intending to boost our economic recovery by providing greater support for high-paying, high-skilled jobs in science, technology, engineering and math ...

To business owners, the companies that help design, implement and support their technology needs may not seem that different. Most of those organizations employ a variety of talented engineers, sales people and other operational team members who ensure their systems are properly assembled and running effectively at all times. To the user, it doesn’t matter if those individuals are supporting their company’s servers, workstations, printers or communication infrastructure; as long as e ...

Last week, I was in our nation’s capital, along with 60 or so other CompTIA staff, members and TECNA partners, taking part in CompTIA’s second annual TechVoice D.C. Fly-In. While I would not consider myself politically savvy, I am politically curious. I have tremendous appreciation and respect for this country’s history and government. I never imagined I would have the opportunity to walk the halls of the Senate and Congressional offices, let alone sit down with policy makers to represent the IT ...

A computer enthusiast and Japanese Anime buff as a teen, George Kalfas debated whether to pursue business or web graphics design in college. But a summer job working as an assistant to his high school's IT director piqued his interest in IT itself as a career.

This morning we kicked off day two of the TechVoice D.C. Fly-In with a Tech Summit that included exceptional panel members from the private sector and federal government diving into IT workforce, Internet governance and other important issues for the tech entrepreneur.Ernest McDuffe, lead of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, started the morning with discussion of an initiative called NICE, which defines a framework to improve online behavior skills to enable a safer cyberspace ...

We heard from some great folks on a panel talk this morning at the TechVoice Fly-In in Washington, D.C., including Rep. Richard Hanna (R-NY) who discussed the importance of education and STEM including the introduction of bill called the STEM Education Opportunity Act.We also heard from Brian Forde, senior advisor to the Chief Technology Officer for The White House, who talked about the White House tech summit with the mission to broaden the STEM talent pool.Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO) talked about c ...