Business Technology Consulting Graduate Blog

Getting a leading edge on the graduate recruitment process

While stumbling around the internet I found myself looking at an article from computerweekly about how you shouldn't ask about salary at IT job interviews. It goes on to say how this was given to them as a guide from itjobsforgraduates.com in one of their online videos which is the first in a series of online guides for graduates looking for a job in IT. It's worth a look and may well give you some useful hints and tips... then all you need to do is apply!

Let me know what you think of the video and I would be really interested to see if it will change how you prepare for your next application!

Digg this | Seed Newsvine | Permanent link | Posted by Ben Henderson on August 11, 2008 | Comments (0)

Microsoft’s Answer to Cloud Computing:

In a recent article on Bill Thompson’s blog, Closing the Gates after Bill, he made it quite clear that although Microsoft has shaped the computing industry as we know it over the past two decades, what the company does or doesn’t do in the future is now less central to the continued development of the networked world as companies like Google begin to set trends by churning out increasingly powerful cloud computing apps.

The notion of cloud computing, as dubbed the next ‘big thing’ by researcher Gartner, is that IT capabilities are provided as a service through the internet and are therefore readily available on any supporting device connected to the web, as opposed to being installed on and thus only accessible directly through ones own machine. Companies such as Google, with their online emails and calendars that can sync with locally supported software and other capabilities such as Docs, a virtual suite complete with word processor, spreadsheet and presentation application, and Talk, a voiceover IP and instant messaging combo, are superb examples of early success stories based on this radical new method of computing set to shape the industry.

The idea has been widely adopted and gratefully received by the IT community, but many people have voiced their fears of losing data when ‘stored in a cloud’ and not locally, and privacy has been a hot potato amongst the long list of concerns. Apple have not helped to quash concerns recently after admitting to losing 10% of emails over a 2 day period through its MobileMe facility, a service harnessing the power of cloud computing to store information on a remote server that can be linked to and pulled down from by the iPhone as and when required.

So why aren’t people viewing Microsoft as a central player in this new era? Well, the biggest problem is that Windows was designed to be a success in an environment where one user used a specific machine to complete work, meaning all required software is installed locally. Having data rely on locally installed software means that Windows will struggle to keep up in a much more mobile age where data is freely available to be accessed and modified remotely… the cloud age.

Microsoft’s answer to this is the development of Midori, a stripped down operating system that is comparatively leaner than Windows, so much so that it will be centred on the Internet and thus do away with the current dependencies that tie XP and Vista to a PC. Midori is still one of many projects in the incubation phase of its development, and because of this not much is yet known about it, but many believe that the idea is to create a lightweight portable operating system that can easily be mated to many different applications. Gartner, who believe cloud computing will be as influential as e-business following the announcement that 3 industry leaders (Intel, HP and Yahoo) will be investing heavily by each opening a data centre dedicated to its development, have commented that the idea behind Midori is a sensible step for Microsoft.

One thing's for sure - if this is the way the industry is moving at least I'll have a decent excuse for being caught with my head in the clouds...

Digg this | Seed Newsvine | Permanent link | Posted by Alastair Parry on August 6, 2008 | Comments (0)

My charity weekend

A month ago, if you were to ask me how I was feeling on the Thursday, I would probably have spluttered my words out in an overly excited rush to explain my plans for the weekend; if you were ask me the same question a week later, I would have grumbled something about not being able to move my arms, shoulders, or any other part of my body for that matter. Fortunately, there was a reason for this - the BTC had teamed up with Raleigh International, a charity focussed on developing local communities, to help with the regeneration of a public footpath and picnic area that had fallen victim to fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour rendering it unusable, and I had been lucky enough to secure a position on the event.

These charity weekends allow grads to put something back into the community, whilst providing the chance to hone team work and team leadership skills in a diverse environment. It was a strenuous three days of blood, sweat, and fortunately not so many tears, running from first thing Friday morning right through to Sunday afternoon, accompanied by two 7am wake-up calls and one very late evening; needless to say I was recovering in more than one way the following Thursday!

The project itself consisted of three assignments; clearing out an opening and installing a picnic area, laying out a 200m path through the centre of the woods, and digging a 1ft by 1ft trench running for 100m that would soon be a hedgerow to prevent motorbikes getting up into the woods. On the Friday morning, 23 keen workers, 19 of which were young graduates at the peak of physical fitness, descended on sunny Guildford to make a start on the generous amount of regeneration work that had been set. The weekend was physically exhausting but a great opportunity to catch up with fellow BTCers and exercise some project management skills as team leaders were assigned every half-day; needless to say we completed all three assignments.

The accommodation matched the weekend perfectly – a serene retreat surrounded by fields and woodland, complete with BBQ, fire pit and facilities to cater for 20+ residents. Evening activities were very much ad-hoc, and usually consisted of late night (glow-in-the-dark) Frisbee, cooking, barbequing, (lots of) washing up, fire-stoking and the odd trip to the local pub, all with a very relaxed atmosphere meaning you could do as much or as little as you wanted. Sleeping in dorms of up to 10, barbequing for 23 people and surrounding the fire to keep warm later in the evening, ‘rustic’, the word of the weekend, best summarises everything about the accommodation.

All in all, an incredibly satisfying, beneficial and enjoyable weekend – I would personally recommend joining the grad scheme just to get the chance to get involved in one of these events with such a great team!

Feel free to check out the photos by clicking here.

Until next time…

Digg this | Seed Newsvine | Permanent link | Posted by Alastair Parry on July 10, 2008 | Comments (1)

Road to Beijing

What a great weekend of sport! You really can’t beat the Final of the Wimbledon open and the British Grand Prix all over the same weekend... or can you, if you haven’t been watching the TV for the past few days then you may have forgotten that the Olympics is just around the corner!

Now I am not going to go on about how we are going to do... but my overall gut feeling is that if it involves water I think we will do well. We have good swimmers, skippers and even divers, so keep your fingers crossed (that doesn't include the steeplechase as the idea for that race is to keep out of the water!).

The thought of this huge event got me thinking, Capgemini had an involvement at the 2007 Rugby World Cup as lead technology partner - so what's going to be new in the technology world at the 2008 Olympics?

In Janie Davies Blog she mentioned some large numbers of IT experts saying that there are going to be over 4000 supporting the games.

That's a whole lot of people, and it's believable because of the media coverage that the games are going to have (take a look at the media coverage of the flame, then multiply by x).

What happens if it all goes wrong?

It shouldn't as there are going to be 200,000 hrs spent testing the system (you would think that that would be enough), but nothing can replicate the full force and pressure on the systems during the 100m sprint. “Insert witty comment about Terminal 5 here”

I will certainly be interested to see how the technology has changed since the last Olympics and see what benefits I see as a user, but something is telling me that I won't notice a change at all... which is a huge shame and I wait to be surprised.

I will update you on my thoughts throughout the build up and during the games to any new excitements and hick-ups (but hopefully not too many of them) and want to hear your thoughts on what you expect. It's been 4 years since the last Oympics and technology has come a long way in that time!

Some nice reading:
BBC article on the UK's 2012 technology
India Times article on how tech will change the Olympics

Digg this | Seed Newsvine | Permanent link | Posted by Ben Henderson on July 8, 2008 in Olympics :: Technology | Comments (0)

Dragons Spotted in London : The BTC Challenge

Last month most of the graduates in the BTC programme participated in a "Dragons Den" style competition. The board was made up from senior executives from Capgemini and was held in the London office of the British Computer Society (BCS).

Small teams had a few weeks to prepare a 10 minute presentation regarding an innovative idea from four predefined categories. This was in addition to their normal project work.

All the teams did a fantastic job at presenting new ideas to subject matter experts, and everyone agreed although it had been hard work, it was a fantastic opportunity and a lot of fun.

David Evan's from the BCS attended the event, you can read his opinion here: David Evan's BCS Blog

Digg this | Seed Newsvine | Permanent link | Posted by John Reynolds on July 8, 2008 in Innovation :: Technology | Comments (0)