Job Responsibilities
1. Create new functionalities for and maintain client software 75%
apps.
2. Conference with client (face to face, written, and phone)12.5%
3. User support (documentation, troubleshoot)
12.5%
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Job Requirements
B.S. Business Administration, MIS major
1. Quality of classes/professors (ranged from poor, some read
directly from the text book and obviously hadn't prepared any
lesson plan to outstanding. Those who fell into the outstanding
category were far fewer than in the poor category.)
2. Popular classes were in direct propotion to the outstanding
professors so registering early was essential. Since I only
experienced one of the colleges at this particular university my
opinion can only reflect upon that college and not the entire
university.
3.Workload. Heavy. While this particular college was good at the
basics (i.e. management courses, math, accounting) it fell very
short at programming languages. For instance they taught Visual
Basics and I ended up working for a client that still used
Fortran. If the University had known more about what the
employers were using in the surrounding area for business tools
and what majors/disciplines the companys' recruiters were hiring
from, I might have been better prepared.
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Uppers
Flexible hours. Pay.
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Downers
Work environment. I work on site and the building is older. The
historical nature of the building prohibits severe modernization
thus we froze in the winter and baked in the summer.
Uncertainty. I'm on a six month contract and have been with the
same client but two different contracting companies. The
contract is up in approximately 2 months but my position has been
cut so I'll be going back to the company office to work on
something else. While it's good to be employed I could've just
have easily been laid off. Further I can hardly set up a 401k or
any other long term financial fund not knowing where I'm going to
be from one 1/2 year to the next. I also may never work long
enough with any one company to accrue enough vacation time.
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Lifestyle
Well the lifestyle is business casual for the most part. The client requires a
little bit of formality for the contractors. Males who are contractors typically
wear ties and dress shirts. Males who are permanent employees wear polo shirts
and chinos. Work hours are flexible. Since I work on site I don't normally
attend any of the client's functions. My company has some (functions) but I'm
not at that office enough to participate. Mine is a typical story of a live lead
as a contractor working on site.
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Compensation
Salary: Base $47k, no bonuses, or stock options
Benefits: Minimal with the copays and contributions being high. The benefits
are basic. For instance there are very few providers in the area that
participate in the eye exam program. Same with the dental program.
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Advice to Jobseekers
If you're going into IT try and get into the project management
or system architecture area. Most programming jobs are now
performed in other countries such as India and China.
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