To Successfully Complete the Second Assignment in CSCI102 You Need to Be Able To

Assessment 2

.

To successfully complete the second assignment in CSCI102 you need to be able to:

1. Identify main ideas and supporting details in two reading

1. Compare and contrast the information provided in the readings.

1. Write your comparison and contrast of the two readings

1. Use good paragraph and sentence structure

1. Use accurate referencing in your writing

Reading to identify main ideas

Here is a brief summary of the reading strategies you will have already practised in assignment one:

• First, read the heading or title
• Next, read the introduction
• Next, read the conclusion
• Next, read any sub headings
• Next, read the topic sentences from each paragraph
• Finally, read the whole text through from beginning to end

These strategies have been applied to two articles dealing with the down turn in the IT industry. Identifying the main ideas in both articles is an important first step in analysing and then comparing and contrasting the ideas presented in two or more articles.

The topic sentences in each paragraph have been highlighted in blue to aid you in skimming the article.

Actively Seeking Work

Whether the communications sector has hit rock bottom is debatable, all we know is that the news hasn't started getting any better, and there's a lot of ex-comms workers on the job market.

David Masters has a look at what's happening to IT & T employment

opportunities.

With all the doom and gloom surrounding the IT&Tindustry, the number of lay-offs has hit such catastrophic levels that to hear of staff cuts in the tens of thousands raises neither shock nor surprise.
The situation has gotten so bad in the US that Forbes.com (the online presence of Forbes magazine) has been running the Body Count Update since January- which currently stands at over 630,000 jobs lost from Forbes 500 companies (with most pink slips flying out of the IT &T sector). Other estimates have placed the total job losses in the US this year at more than a million - and are forecasting a recession.
The initial word from most multinationals was that
their Australian operations were reasonably safe and wouldn't experience the level of bloodshed seen in the US. But the negative impact of globalisation is that, despite regional differences, many corporations have undertaken across-the board restructuring, which meant a sea of pink soon washed up onto our shore.
Of course it came in waves, with the contract workers the first to feel it when Telstra subsidiary NDC cut 400 jobs in November last year, and then shed another 250 through voluntary redundancies in January 2001. Then Lucent suffered the failed AAPT CDMA network and the grand-daddy of all crashes, One.Tel, and now has half the local presence it had 12 months ago.
Others, like JDS Uniphase, had said that the business in Australia was still going strong despite the parent's woes. In April's CommsWorld, JDSU told us that the initial cuts of approximately 3,000 wouldn't impact the local operations, as they work mainly in the more complex active optical components, which were still seeing
some strong demand. However JDSU has since fared much worse and worldwide job cuts have climbed above10,000 - so it's hard to imagine that the previously 300-strong Australian workforce has got out unscathed
Locally, it's hard to pinpoint the exact numbers of job losses, especially from local subsidiaries of multinationals (who rarely divide the figures into regions). However, if you count the
1,400 former workers of One.Tel and the estimated culls at other companies including Primus Telecom(120), Vodafone (400-odd), Cisco (150), Alcatel (145), and Ericsson and Nortel, who have laid off a couple of hundred between them, the total job losses could be over the 10,000 mark.
Add to this the failure of a number of smaller carriers this year, including QALA, Pulsat and WorldxChange, and Telstra's ongoing
restructure, and the industry's neither a pretty site nor a fruitful market for employment.
When Lucent or Ericsson or Nortel says it will lay off 10, 15 or 20 thousand employees worldwide, there's a human element there that can often be overlooked. What happens to these employees? Where are their opportunities as the market approaches rock bottom?

Where lt's At

Well, according to Cliff Hill, the national manager of IT for recruitment firm Drake International, the opportunities are still there - it's just a matter of what it is you do. The skills shortage that was so
widely-publicised at the height of the boom is still there - it's just become confined to some specificareas.
"I wouldn't say it's as much a skills shortage as a shortage of skills in demand," Hill stated.
While administrative positions and contract workers are being rapidly let go, the demand is still high across the ICT sector for skilled sales and marketing staff. It was Hill's opinion that research and
development has also slowed: "They're pushing the products they already have, so you have a real demand for good salespeople and marketing expertise," Hill said. Organisations are becoming a lot more brutal with their salesforce and second chances are few. "Loyalty's gone out the window, sales representatives are being given less and less time to find their feet . . . every dollar counts now,"
Hill said.
Next part of text deleted
Still, it's hard to paint an optimistic picture in a market which could see many more thousands close their jobs in the wake of mergers and consolidation such as HP's swallowing of Compaq; and how many
of Cisco's 11 technology divisions survive is anyone's guess.

The Long, Humbling Quest for a Job in Technology

By SUSAN STELLIN

March 17, 2002

New York Times Web site:

Three years ago, anyone with a computer science degree anda pulse could practically name his price in the job marketas companies scrambled to dodge doomsday Y2K possibilities.That atmosphere was later buoyed by demand from Internetcompanies, which offered not just high salaries but alsostock options, beer bashes on Friday afternoons and aweekly massage.
By now, the end of that era has become an almost forgottencliché. But what might surprise some people is thebleakness of the job outlook for a sector once thoughtimpervious to the downturn: software programmers, withexperience in code names like SQL, Unix, Java and C++.
Despite recent predictions of a nationwide shortage ofcomputer programmers, those who follow the industry saythere are lots of qualified information technology workersin New York and the rest of the country who cannot findemployment. Although their long-term prospects remainbright, those looking for work right now - and therecruiters whose livelihood depends on finding them jobs -say the market is the worst they have seen, though it isshowing signs of picking up.
EvaMariePlaza, a database and Web developer who lives inManhattan, has been looking since she was laid off fromThe Globe.com last April. She said she mostly looks at jobpostings on employment Web sites like Monster.com,HotJobs.com (news/quote) and JobCircle.com, sending out 25to 35 responses to classified ads each week.
That effort has generated about five responses a month,resulting in an average of one interview a month and stillno offers. Even when recruiters call her about an opening,she said: "What I'm finding is a lot of times, they'll tellme, “Oh, I have this great job. I'll send your résumé.'” Andthen I never hear from them again."
That is a big contrast to the aggressive tactics recruitersused a couple of years ago to lure technology workers fromtheir employers, in some cases obtaining copies of companyphone lists to give prized tech workers the hard sell. Allalong a line of cubicles, Ms. Plaza said, "You'd hearpeople say, `No, thanks, not interested.' And then the nextphone in the next cubicle would ring."
Recruiters are not relishing the fact that the tables haveturned. After all, their own commissions are on the line.
"I hope and I believe it's at its final stages right now,"said Paul Krug, a recruiter with Today's Technology Inc. inNew York, referring to the job bust. Like most of hiscolleagues, Mr. Krug attributed the dearth of technologyjobs to the implosion of the Internet industry andsubsequent belt-tightening at companies that overspent inthe late 1990's to keep up with the dot-coms.
But he also echoed a general consensus that the market isstarting to turn around, with a slight increase in jobpostings and new hires over the past couple of months.
Scot Melland, chief executive of Dice Inc. (news/quote), anonline recruiting service for technology professionals,said that at the end of February, the site had about 4,600job openings listed for the New York metro area. Althoughthat is a significant decrease from the 10,000 positionslisted a year ago, it is still a 15 percent increase fromthe end of December.
We see things stabilizing," Mr. Melland said. "And thefurther we get into 2002, we'll see more demand." Companiesare looking for more traditional "back office, big- systemstypes of skill sets," he said, like databaseadministrators, applications programmers, project managersand business analysts. "Those are the people who takebusiness requirements and translate them into technicalrequirements," he said. "Usually that indicates furtherhiring."
Employers are also looking for technology workers who havemultiple skills, recruiters said: Java programmers who alsoknow C++, or project managers who have developmentexperience as well. And companies that are hiring thesedays tend to be looking for specific experience,immediately weeding out candidates who do not meet all thecriteria.
"If they have an opening in the equities area, they'regoing to be looking for someone with programming experiencein the equities division," Mr. Krug said.
But with so many candidates chasing so few jobs, Mr. Krugsaid, you have to be almost perfect if you hope to takeadvantage of the uptick. For example, if an open positionlists 15 requirements, hiring managers expect candidates tohave 14, if not 15, of those skills, he said.
Some job hunters think such rigidity is short-sighted."I've been told that the only thing I don't have on a listof requirements is a simple backup program," said JessicaBlank, a systems administrator from Parsippany, N.J. Eventhough that program might take just an hour to learn, shesaid, "They'll say, `I'm sorry, you're not qualified.' "
Another irritating aspect of the job search, she said, ishiring managers' and recruiters' tendency to prefer résumésthat have what she called computer industry buzzwords. "Ifyou have 65 buzzwords, it's better than someone who has 45buzzwords," she said.
Ms. Blank recently landed a job at a culinary Web companyin Manhattan, a huge relief even though it pays half whatshe used to earn.
Another frustration for job seekers is encountering deadends in the hiring process. "A lot of the jobs on the Netare posted, and then when you track it down you find outthe budget has been re-evaluated or the company is hiringinternally," said Lawrence Saltzman, an out-of-workManhattan programmer.
Of course, not all in the information-technology sector isdoom and gloom. Rob Francis, a network design consultantwho lives in Brooklyn, said he has held onto his consultingclients for the last two years despite the downturn. Heattributes his relative longevity to having skills that arestill in demand, and being at a more senior level. In hisview, mid- level employees are bearing the brunt of thebudget cuts.
But even for them, the long-term prognosis is upbeat.According to data released in December by the Department ofLabor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 of the 10 fastest-growing occupations projected through 2010 are ininformation technology, including software engineers,support specialists, systems administrators, databaseadministrators, desktop publishers and other jobs.
And despite individual accounts of steep pay cuts, datacollected by Dice indicates that salaries for technologyworkers only dropped in the fourth quarter of 2001, afterrising through the first three quarters. According toDice's 2001 survey of 61,000 technology workers, nationwidesalaries averaged $68,400 last year. They weresignificantly higher in New York City, at $80,800, and werehighest in Silicon Valley at $87,700, in 2001.
"The good news is it's still a pretty hefty salary at$81,000," Mr. Melland said. "These are still great jobs."

Compare and contrast the information provided in the readings

To compare and contrast ideas in two articles means to look for similarities and differences. One way to do this is to set out the main ideas from each article side by side so that you can see where the writers’ ideas are:

• similar
• contrasting

• focusing on different aspects of the topic.

The table below lists the main ideas taken from the excerpt of the article “Actively seeking work” and the article “The Long, Humbling Quest for a Job in Technology:

In the left hand column the entries have been grouped into colours to reflect common themes (see assessment 1 resources).

Masters (2001). “Actively seeking work” / Stellin (2002). “The long, humbling quest for a job in technology”
Large scale employment drops in IT.
Details of job cuts in the USA.
Australia seems safe but there is some doubt.
Details of job cuts in Australia.
Conflicting signals about the strength of Australia’s IT industry.
Difficulty in finding exact data re job losses but losses appear high.
Additional examples of industry downturn and job cuts.
The human element.
It is a matter of having the right skills.
Not a shortage of skills but a shortage of the right skills.
Demand for skilled sales and marketing staff replaces demand for admin and contract staff.
Despite some employment opportunities in marketing and sales, the market place is still unstable. / Demand for qualified IT experts has dropped over the last three years
Detailed example of an unemployed IT worker who has been reaching the interview stage but not securing the job.
Comparison with the situation a few years ago when recruiters for the IT industry were aggressively seeking employees.
As a consequence, recruiters are also suffering.
There is a general consensus that the situation is changing.
An example of a change for the better. Companies are looking for different skills eg database administrators, applications programmers, project managers and business analysts.
Employment is also available for technology workers with multiple skills.
However there is still an oversupply ofemployees.
Example of a job hunter’s experience.
You have to know the buzz words.
Employees might have to accept lower wages.
The hiring process is frustrating.
The situation is changing.
Salaries are rising more than dropping.

Compare the entries in both columns and identify similar colour groupings in the right hand column.

Contrast the entries in both columns and identify any differences.

Identify any different focus in any information in the two columns.

Comparison Of both Texts

“Actively seeking work” / “The long, humbling quest for a job in technology”
Large scale employment drops in IT.
Details of job cuts in the USA.
Australia seems safe but there is some doubt.
Details of job cuts in Australia.
Conflicting signals about the strength of Australia’s IT industry.
Difficulty in finding exact data re job losses but losses appear high.
Additional examples of industry downturn and job cuts.
The human element.
It is a matter of having the right skills.
Not a shortage of skills but a shortage of the right skills.
Demand for skilled sales and marketing staff replaces demand for admin and contract staff.
Despite some employment opportunities in marketing and sales, the market place is still unstable. / Demand for qualified IT experts has dropped over the last three years
Detailed example of an unemployed IT worker who has been reaching the interview stage but not securing the job.
Comparison with the situation a few years ago when recruiters for the IT industry were aggressively seeking employees.
As a consequence, recruiters are also suffering.
There is a general consensus that the situation is changing.
An example of a change for the better. Companies are looking for different skills eg database administrators, applications programmers, project managers and business analysts.
Employment is also available for technology workers with multiple skills.
However there is still an oversupply ofemployees
Example of a job hunter’s experience
You have to know the buzz words
Employees might have to accept lower wages
The hiring process is frustrating
The situation is changing
Salaries are rising more than dropping

The themes of the similar groups are:

• Instability and job losses

• Examples of job cuts in USA and Australia and case studies of personal experiences

• The human factor: having the ‘right’ skills

You may have chosen slightly different groupings, for example you may not have grouped the yellow information together. You may instead have kept this as two separate groupings: one grouping for examples of job cuts in the USA and Australia, and the other grouping as examples of personal experiences of job loss.

Contrast Answer

“Actively seeking work” / “The long, humbling quest for a job in technology”
Australia seems safe but there is some doubt.
Conflicting signals about the strength of Australia’s IT industry. / There is a general consensus that the situation is changing.
The situation is changing
Salaries are rising more than dropping

The writers’ main area of disagreement concerns the future of the IT industry. On the one hand, Masters (2001) is suggesting that the future of IT especially in Australia is uncertain. Stellan (2002), on the other hand, is arguing that the situation is improving.