Information Systems Professionals for the New Millennium: What Employers Want
Carolyn McKinnell Jacobson, Ruth D. Armstrong
One of the greatest challenges facing information systems faculty is keeping pace with the rapidly changing developments in the field. In order to identify the knowledge and skills currently sought by employers in the midAtlantic region. employment ads from newspapers in four major cities were analyzed.
Results indicate a demand for organizational, project management and supervisory skills as well as knowledge of business functions. Knowledge and skills related to network operating systems, object oriented programming languages and relational databases were in demand. Newer skills sought include Java and web development. Curriculum implications of these and other findings are discussed and compared with earlier findings.
Carolyn McKinnell Jacobson is a professor of information management and chair of the Department of Information Management and Management Science at Marymount University in Arlington, VA. She is a past president of the International Academy for Information Management (lAIM) and a recipient of lAIM's Best Paper Award with her co-author, Ruth D. Armstrong. Her research interests include ethics and information systems, knowledge management, and information systems curriculum development. Dr. Jacobson's research has appeared in such journals as The Journal of Education for Business, Psychological Reports, Journal of Education for Management Information Systems, and Perceptual and Motor Skills as well as numerous conference proceedings. She received her Ph.D. from The Ohio University.
Ruth D. Armstrong is professor of business information systems at Shippensburg University. She has served as department chair for nine years and interim dean of business for 1 year. In addition to studying employer requirements, her other interests include curriculum development, the internship program, and placement of graduates. She has completedplacement surveys of Shippensburg business graduates for the last eight years.
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