The Profession of IT The Field of Programmers Myth

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1005817.1005836The persistent public image of computing as a field of programmers has become a costly myth. Reversing it is possible but not easy

Entrepreneurship as a career option: do temporary workers have the competencies, intention and willingness to become entrepreneurs?

This study analyses the entrepreneurial intentions and the willingness of temporary workers to consider entrepreneurship as a career option. Specifically, we analyse the self-perception of entrepreneurial competencies of a group of temporary workers. A total of 184 temporary workers participated in the study. We performed a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to identify profiles of entrepreneurial competencies according to temporary workers' entrepreneurial intention and willingness to consider entrepreneurship as a career option. We conclude that temporary workers do not always perceive themselves as having the necessary competencies to choose for entrepreneurship in their occupational paths. The self-perception of different levels of entrepreneurial competencies is also associated with different intentions and willingness to consider entrepreneurship as a career option. Finally, we provide insights for practice, which can be considered as a starting point for activities aiming to develop entrepreneurial competencies at the individual or organisational levels.info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

Knowledge Extraction and Summarization for Textual Case-Based Reasoning: A Probabilistic Task Content Modeling Approach

Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) technique that has been successfully used for building knowledge systems for tasks/domains where different knowledge sources are easily available, particularly in the form of problem solving situations, known as cases. Cases generally display a clear distinction between different components of problem solving, for instance, components of the problem description and of the problem solution. Thus, an existing and explicit structure of cases is presumed. However, when problem solving experiences are stored in the form of textual narratives (in natural language), there is no explicit case structure, so that CBR cannot be applied directly. This thesis presents a novel approach for authoring cases from episodic textual narratives and organizing these cases in a case base structure that permits a better support for user goals. The approach is based on the following fundamental ideas: - CBR as a problem solving technique is goal-oriented and goals are realized by means of task strategies. - Tasks have an internal structure that can be represented in terms of participating events and event components. - Episodic textual narratives are not random containers of domain concept terms. Rather, the text can be considered as generated by the underlying task structure whose content they describe. The presented case base authoring process combines task knowledge with Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to perform the needed knowledge extraction and summarization

Celtic Tiger, Hidden Tales: Living Stories of Career Success for Community Employment Scheme Participants: a Critical Interpretive Analysis

This dissertation explores how Community Employment scheme participants (former non-employed individuals on active labour market programmes) construct and interpret their career experiences in changing micro-individual and macro-social contexts.It finds that the former non-employed are largely excluded from career success research. My qualitative study argues that this omission has resulted in a gap in the career and career success literature and research, as there is a dearth of inquiries on the former non-employed. This in-depth analysis addresses this limitation. I contribute to the careers field by demonstrating the complexity and variability of an underrepresented group‟s career (re)constructions through providing a more holistic analysis than previous inquiries by integrating micro and macro positions to appreciate how the participants (re)construct their career identity in an ever-evolving environment.The study adopts a criticalist and constructivist ontology and a critical hermeneutic and critical interpretive epistemology. It employs a narrative research strategy (understands experience in a person‟s life through their stories), collecting the data through episodic interviews to explore the career success stories of 27 participants.Using the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space (an approach for restorying field texts) allows me to work through the narratives interpretivistically. It permits me to identify a critical moment in each of the participants‟ lives, a moment over which they had varying degrees of control, represented by a choice/fate continuum, e.g., bereavement, illness or altering family responsibilities. I chart their critical moments onto the cornerstones of the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space, and then plot their reactions to these moments, including their evaluation of the outcome of their career experiences (objective and/or subjective factors), and their perception of their agency, or otherwise, over these experiences (fateful or fatalistic responses). Four different strategies of career (re)construction are distinguished. I also describe the impact of one primary structural influence on their career (re)construction strategies, respectively. To understand the participants‟ change process, Giddens‟ fateful moment is operationalised by cross-referencing each person‟s critical moment, career (re)construction strategy and primary structural influence, with the eight principal elements of the fateful moment. The participants‟ interpretations of their career experiences during periods of discontinuity are also revealed.The research makes three contributions: (1) fusing career theory with narrative inquiry within a systems framework to develop the Three-Dimensional Career Success Inquiry Systems Framework; (2) proposing seven categories of career success for the sample; and (3) recommending that a career should be synonymous with life career development, entailing one‟s whole life, not just that which is occupationally orientated.The necessity to incorporate the multifaceted, micro-dynamics of career and identity to comprehend career (re)construction for individuals, in addition to the requirement to take account of structural influences in narrative inquiry in the field of career research, is underlined from the findings

Pengaruh tret personaliti lima faktor terhadap kegembiraan

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenalpasti sejauhmana lima tret personaliti daripada Model Personaliti Lima Faktor (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness to experience: McCrae & Costa, 1999) menentukan kegembiraan. Seramai 187 orang responden dalam linkungan umur 20 hingga 50 tahun terlibat dalam kajian ini. Kajian ini menggunakan Big Five Inventory (Goldberg, 1992) untuk mengukur tret personaliti responden. Tahap kegembiraan responden diukur menggunakan Oxford Happiness Inventory (Argyle, Martin, & Crossland, 1989). Data kajian dianalisis menggunakan kaedah regresi berganda. Keputusan kajian menunjukkan hanya tret personaliti agreeableness, conscientiousness dan neuroticism mempunyai pengaruh yang siknifikan terhadap kegembiraan secara kolektif

Wisdom of Ulū al-Albāb in sustaining human resource development in Muslim world

The wisdom of men that endowed with understanding (ulū al-albāb) sustains human resource development in Muslim world for many centuries despite the presence of colonization and dominance of super power from non-Muslim world. The essence of ulū al-albāb lies with the Tawhīdic paradigm, an Islamic monotheism that guides men and women to execute dual tasks as servant and vicegerent of Allah. This study argues that wisdom of ulū al-albāb provides comprehensive elements of sustainability in the human resource development. Based on interviews with selected Muslim business owners and managers from various nationalities operated their business in Klang Valley, most of the wisdom lies in the struggle to survive within the free market systems and reduces the wisdom of ulū al-albāb to certain routines and innovation instead of survival of the Muslim nation and civilization. The study provides contingency views on human resource development from the ulū al-albāb dimension. Public policy makers and business decision makers would develop ulū al-albāb HRD system to acquire, transfer and nurture wisdom to sustain organization. The future research suggest the study to use triangulation case study method for more rigorous and comprehensive results

JASON SCHNEIDER The Profession of IT

Most of us are concerned about our careers. We want a career that helps to avoid obsolescence, continually develops toward professional mastery, and retains our value to customers and clients. But the traditional notion of career—a single job at one firm held for most of one’s working life—is obsolete. How shall we attend to this concern? The good news: a better notion of career is emerging. Many professionals have already found it extremely helpful. The bad news: few of our traditional educational institutions are able to help. We must design our own ways to make our careers prosperous and satisfying. What is ‘Career’? Our traditional understandings of “career ” are captured well in standard dictionary definitions. They include one or more of the following notions: • The particular occupation for which one is trained; • A general course of conduct in life or a calling in life, visible to others in one’s community; • The general progression of one’s working or professional life; • Time in a profession after receiving one’s last formal degree (BS, MS, or Ph.D.); and • Doing the same thing over a long period of time (as in “She made her hobby into a career”). Most working lives do not fit these notions. Many of us have changed fields since receiving our college degrees, and many will change fields several times more. Many of us don’t want to make a long-term commitment to any one employer. Many of us do not even know if we have a calling. Is career a dead notion? Is all the college talk about preparation for career obsolete and misleading? Fernando Flores and John Gray think so. They say that two lifestyles are emerging in the wake of career’s death [3, 4]. Both styles are practical responses of people in a Peter J. Denning How can one design a career when career as an institution is dead? Entrepreneurs have an answer. working world where the traditional notion of career no longer exists. One style is primarily selfdirected and the other primarily community-directed. Flores and Gray use the term “wired life ” for the first, and “entrepreneurial life” for the second. Unfortunately, these two terms evoke negative connotations. For example, “wired” sounds like a shallow, self-centered fad to some people; “entrepreneur” suggests greedy, unscrupulous competitor to some. I will avoid these colorful terms because I do not want to obscure the important point made by Flore

The Profession of IT Career Redux

The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/567498.567516How can one design a career when career as an institution is dead? Entrepreneurs have an answer