Careers & Education

Despite a denial by American Express Co., sources familiar with the company's IT planning insist that it has an internally stated goal to shift a major portion of its software development to offshore locations.

Xansa PLC, a Reading, U.K.-based IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing (BPO) company, is to increase its staff in India by 400 by April this year, taking the total number of staff in the country to about 2,000, according to an executive of the company. The company is also building new services delivery capacity in the country.

A new employment study of 21,000 IT workers concludes that after several years in the doldrums, high-tech salaries went up by two per cent in 2003 and that things may be finally improving in the tech job marketplace.

Diminished staff. Nonexistent budgets. Overblown expectations. But here's how to outwit and outlast in business.

"Take This Job and Shove It," Johnny Paycheck sang in 1977. He was expressing the frustration of being trapped in a really bad job and offering a rather caustic solution to the situation.

No too long ago I attended a schmooze fest (sponsored in part by this publication) and put on by a networking group in Toronto called BitePro. While this event had a bit more of a schmoozing vibe to it then most peer to peer gatherings I've attended, it was the speakers that made it stand out.

Feb. 6 marked the first Stop Commuting Day in Barrie, Ont. A bedroom community about 100 kilometres north of Toronto, Barrie was chosen by SuiteWorks Inc. as the site of its first telework centre, a 2,200 square-foot, 120-seat facility that will offer Barrie's 31,500 commuters a local workplace alternative.

Magpies are fascinating birds. In addition to beautiful plumage, they possess an instinctual behaviour pattern common to most self respecting technologists: they are fascinated by shiny things. They scavenge bright objects from the landscape and pile them in a heap to gather dust in the dark corners of their nests. Sound familiar?