10 hot IT skills for 2013

Wonder what are the IT skills that will help IT professionals sail through the current tough job market? Skills that will help IT pros stay relevant as the business needs of their organization change.

Computerworld recently released a list of 10 IT skills that companies will seek in 2013. The skills that companies see helping them compete in the dynamic business environment.

So, here's over to 10 hottest IT skills as per the survey.

1) Programming and Application Development
According to the survey, 60% of the respondents wanted to hire employees with programming and application development skills by next year. Those who have experience in Java, J2EE and .Net are at an advantage as these skills will be heavily demanded by companies in the coming time.

2) Project Management
Project management will be in huge demand next year as 40% of the companies questioned in the survey said that they will recruit project managers in the next 12 months. The rising demand for candidates with this profile is due to the jump in the number of as well as increase in the complexity of such projects as applications are now more connected.

3) Help Desk/Technical Support
35% of IT recruiters surveyed by Computerworld said that they will hire IT help desk professionals within the next one year. Such companies' focus is to not only develop modern systems and solutions but also to help end users to access them easily, hence the emphasis on the technical support skills.

4) Security
IT security also seems to be high on IT companies' agenda as 27% responded that they were on the lookout for professionals with skills for safeguarding systems and data. Therefore, it's time that candidates in IT security industry brush up their knowledge on deploying firewalls, threat detection tools, encryption technology and other security systems.

5) Business Intelligence/Analytics
Big data is a major concern for IT firms, which is why many companies are looking for business analytics professionals. In the Computerworld survey, 26% of the respondents stated that they will hire business intelligence/analytics professionals in 2013.

Recruiters will keep in mind technical know-how, business knowledge and strong statistical and mathematical backgrounds while hiring personnel for this domain.

6) Cloud/SaaS
25% of the IT companies interviewed by Computerworld said that they will hire employees who are proficient with cloud computing capabilities. cloud services/Software-as-a-Service are set to become the next big thing in the IT world according to research firms like Gartner, and professionals who have the requisite skills will be high in demand next year.

7) Virtualization
24% IT companies that Computerworld surveyed plan to hire professionals with virtualisation skills in 2013. However, their biggest issue was that they usually find inexperienced candidates with half-baked virtualisation skills.

8) Networking
19% of the IT recruiters will look for experienced professionals with networking capabilities. Though the demand for networking personnel has declined by 50% over the past three years, the prospects for such professionals are still good for coming times.

9) Mobile Applications and Device Management
This is a fairly new job title, but will grow at a rapid pace with the increase in the penetration of mobile devices in the life of consumers. 19% IT companies are looking such professionals, who will be responsible for handling the increase growth in mobile apps on various consumer devices.

10) Data Centre
Data centre professionals are still in demand as their skills are essential to server management. 16% of the companies surveyed by Computerworld will hire personnel with data centre management and data back-up capabilities.

Source : TOI

GATE-2013 to get tougher

The increasing interest in higher education among the technical graduates in the country is a direct reflection of the growing number of aspirants for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). The aspirants have grown from a mere 1.8 lakh in 2008 to 7.7 lakh in 2012.

The GATE-2013 will see more numbers and certainly be tougher for two reasons. Due to sluggish recruitment in the IT industry more students are likely to appear while on other hand Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) are recruiting in large numbers and GATE qualification is mandatory for most of those jobs.

Moreover, nearly 90 per cent of the applicants take the test unlike the Civil Services where about 50 per cent of applicants actually appear.

The GATE-2013 to be conducted by the IIT Bombay will also see several changes. Out of 21 papers in GATE 15 papers will be conducted in online mode this year. Last year only six papers were online while the previous year only four papers were in the online mode. However, this may not be a concern as GATE aspirants are used to online test like AIEEE or BITSAT.

Another change brought in for the exam includes exemption of application fee for female candidates to attract more number of girl students. The fee will be Rs. 1,200 for general and OBC candidates and Rs. 600 for SC, ST and Physically Challenged boys.

Till last year GATE score calculation used method of average and standard deviation of marks scored by all students. In the new formula to be applicable from this year, the average and standard deviation terms do not refer to the entire population, but to specific ability levels (qualification marks and top 0.1% of students). The score will be valid for two years.

The three-hour exam with 65 questions (30 one-mark questions and 35 two-mark questions) summing up to 100 marks will have questions from core subjects, engineering maths and general aptitude. “Questions from the core engineering subjects far outweigh the other two areas with 70 per cent weightage. But, General Aptitude and engineering maths with 15 marks each, play a vital role in maximising the score,” says Prudhvi Reddy, Course Director of GATE at TIME institute.

Mr. Reddy feels good performance in aptitude and Maths ensure the minimum qualification marks. “Offline mode will have only multiple choice questions. But, online mode exams will also have numerical answer type questions accounting for 15 marks.” Questions are likely to test the applicants’ grip on basic concepts and the ability to apply them in problems. The GATE notification issued gives an overview of the areas where applicants will be tested. These can be broadly categorised in to four types - recall, comprehension, application and Analysis and Synthesis. “Most of the recall based questions will be in the one mark category. Thorough knowledge of fundamentals and extensive practice are the only two factors that can bring success here,” Mr. Reddy says. The GATE trainers advice that candidates should plan their preparation strategically. Attempting previous papers and analysing the weightage given for various topics are crucial elements.

However, aspirants will face tough competition for six papers - CSE, ECE, EEE, ME, PI and IN that account for 90 per cent of the applicants. All these will be in the offline mode on second Sunday of February 2013.

Source : Hindu

Another IT firm shuts down

The future of around 750 employees of a software firm appears grim as the company is seemingly on the verge of closure, as indicated by it not being able to pay salaries for the past two months.

According to a complaint filed with the Jubilee Hills police by some employees of Serene Solutions, located on Road No. 2, Banjara Hills, the IT firm has about 750 employees on its payrolls, but it has failed to pay their salaries.

Jubilee Hills inspector K. Narsingh Rao said, “We have registered a cheating case against the company’s managing director Mani Kumar who is absconding. We have seized computer systems and documents from the company.”

The employees alleged that the company recruited around 750 persons by taking huge amounts as security deposits.

Following the inability of the company to pay the salaries, the employees demanded their security deposits back. However, the company refused to return the money.

“I paid `1 lakh when I joined the company. Now the company is facing losses and that’s the reason we have not been paid our salaries. We demanded our money back but they are not ready to return it,” said an employee who didn’t want to be named.

Cases of sham IT companies duping their employees have made headlines time and again, but there is no effective mechanism to ensure that such firms are shut down before they defraud the employees. There have been at least five to six such cases in the last one year, indicate officials.

Heading the list of fraudulent IT companies is Teleonto Technologies Pvt. Ltd., the firm that duped employees of around Rs 18 crore.

Shortly after this, firms like Task Informatics Pvt. Ltd and ‘Tamcos Technol-ogies’ shut shop, leaving the employees in the lurch.

Source : DC
Source : Eenadu News Paper

JNTU-HYD : Late Fee Structure For Registration of University Examinations

1) The time deadlines for without fine, with Rs.100/- fine and with Rs.1000/- find shall be specified in the main notification. The existinf practice for identification of time deadlines shall continue.

2) The candidates may be permitted with Rs.2000/- fine for each semester, upto two days before the issue of Examination stationary. This enables to combine the booklets of Rs.2000/- fine cases also in the main lot of booklets. The money transfer shall also be carried out along with other Examination fees money transfer.

3) A late fee of Rs.5000/- per semerster may be collected from candidates upto two days before commencement of that series of Examinations in the semester for which he/she applies.

4) A late fee of Rs.10,000/- per semerster may be levied from the candidates from one day before the commencement of that series of Examination till one day before the commencement of that particular examination for which candidate appears. However such permission is possible after getting confirmation of the availability of the question papers with ACE (EDEP) section. If the Examinations paper is not available, the Examination request for such cases shall not be accepted.

5) Items listed (2) to (4) above will not be included in main notification instead, they will be communicate in a seperate notification/communication from the office of Director of Evaluation.

JNTU-HYD : Procedure to check the status of your Exams Registrations (Regular/Supple)

Note : Type the "CollegeCode" & "HallTicket No" in Captial Letters so has to check the subjects registered for examination with out any error.

Step-1
Follow the below links for respective courses

B.Tech (Try to check all the 3 below url's as ur college registration will work in any one of the below url)
1) http://registrations1.jntuh.ac.in
2) http://registrations2.jntuh.ac.in/olrbtech/
3) http://registrations3.jntuh.ac.in

B.Pharmacy
http://registrations.jntuh.ac.in

M.Tech
http://registrations.jntuh.ac.in/olrmtech/

Step-2

• Enter Your CollegeCode. (College Code is 2nd & 3rd characters/no's in your hallticket number. Example : 09H61A1234 . Here H6 is college code.)
• Select the "Registration" Radio Button.
• Click on "Submit".

Note : u will get the College name above the Hallticket number field after u click on submit button.


Step-3

• "Enter Your HTNO (Halticket Number)" : i.e For Example 09H61A0512 is your Halticket Number
• Click on "Sign In" button

Step-4
Then U will be re-directed to the Page where u can find all the details.
Now Click on "Reports" Tab. As shown in the below image

• If you find the subjects after clicking the "Report" tab then you are Registered for the displayed subjects
• If you didnt find any subjects after clicking on "Report" then you are not Registered for any Subjects

Last edited by shanth; 10-02-2011 at 06:05 PM.

JNTU-HYD : Change in the Evaluation Procedure of the internal marks of both UG and PG courses for students who got admitted from academic year 2012-13

From the academic year 2012-13 onwards, the procedure for the evaluation of internal marks has been changed. This change is applicable for the students of all UG and PG courses who are admitted in the academic year (2012-13) onwards.

The internal marks evaluation procedure is summarized as follows:

UG (B.Tech & B.Pharmacy)
i) In case of I year of study, the average of the performances of all the three mid-term examination shall be considered and
ii) In case of II, III and IV years of study, in each semester, the average of the performances in both the mid-term examinations shall be considered.

PG (M.Tech, M.Pharm, MBA & MCA)
1) In each semester, the average of the performances in both the mid-term Examinations shall be considered.

The Principals are informed to communicate the same to the students, faculty members and the officers of examination branch in their respective colleges. The cooperation of the Principals is highly solicited for the smooth and successful conduct of academic work in their respective colleges.

Wait untill the below images loads.

Notices issued to 35 tech colleges

Nearly 70 engineering colleges have violated rules pertaining to management quota admissions this year. The department of higher education has started issuing show-cause notices to managements of these colleges asking them to explain why action should not be taken against them. The department may not ratify those admissions that were made in deviation of the norms. Parents who bought seats for their wards in these colleges by paying huge amounts of money are worried about this development. The AP State Council of Higher Education had constituted inspection teams to verify whether management quota admissions were made according to the rules in GO No.74 issued by the state government last year.

The rules stipulate that colleges should release admissions notification in three leading newspapers and issue applications to all the students who approach them. They should display the list of all the applicants on their website and prepare the merit list from among those applicants, which should be displayed on college notice boards and their websites. However, it was found that several colleges flouted rules and sold seats to students of their choice. In some cases, the number of applications issued by the colleges were equal to the number of seats available in them, proving beyond doubt that the seats were allotted to only those students who agreed to pay the ‘donations’ demanded by the colleges.

“We have issued show-cause notices to about 35 engineering colleges so far. Show-cause notices will be issued to another 15 colleges in a couple of days. Based on their reply, we will decide on the future course of action. The government has all the powers to cancel such admissions which were made in deviation of norms by not following merit and transparency,” said Prof Jayaprakash Rao, chairman, APSCHE. The college managements, of course, are trying to use their political clout to ensure that they are let off this year. While the government-prescribed fees in most of these colleges for management quota is only Rs 35,000, many of the errant colleges collected between Rs 50,000 and Rs 85,000.

Source : DC

IT companies hiring youngsters to lead emerging technologies areas like social media, analytics, cloud computing

BANGALORE: IT companies looking at emerging technologies like social media, mobility, analytics and cloud computing (SMAC) are turning to younger people to lead these areas.

The younger professionals tend to be more tuned to these technologies and more easily adapt to them.

"The candidates we find for these positions are in their mid to late thirties and come with 11-12 years of industry experience," says Prasad Medhury, partner at executive search firm Amrop India.

Naresh Nagarajan, senior VP and head of ecosystem business incubation in HCL Technologies, says the company's mobility team is headed by a 30-year-old and its advanced analytics is headed by someone who is 32.

HCL Technologies is planning to make SMAC a $1 billion business in the next five years.

Procuring talent for these new technologies is tough. The turnaround time is slower as the technologies themselves are relatively new, and the talent pool is limited.

For this reason, many of those who are hired for these positions do not come with a background in these areas, notes Medhury.

"Cloud capability doesn't exist as yet," says Deepak Jain, global head of work force planning and development in Wipro Technologies. Wipro, he says, is hiring domain consultants and architects who understand the virtualisation engine and demonstrate integration capabilities. "You need professionals who have launched web solutions to understand what it means to design cloud solutions. Unlike mobile solutions, where it's easier to find a Windows or iOS programmer, people who design cloud solutions come with a combination of storage or platform skills; the rest is imparted through hands-on lab experience," he says.

Infosys Technologies is focussing on a mix of incubation and focussed talent sourcing for cloud, mobility and product development. "These are futuristic technologies therefore this initiative. We also look at start-ups as one of the hiring grounds. This is important as new hires from such organisations bring in a keen sense to explore and create new things," says Nandita Gurjar, group HR head at Infosys.

Venkat Shastry, office managing director in executive search firm KornFerry Bangalore, however feels that in some cases you may need leaders who are fairly senior. "Though you need people with web-scale kind of skills, services companies are hiring talent to create IP-based offerings and therefore need core technology experts or those with a digital legacy. Such people needn't be very young," he says.

Source : TOI