"The number of sexually explicit photos and videos [that people post of themselves online] is staggering," says Max Drucker, CEO of Social Intelligence, citing the shocking things his company has uncovered. Social Intelligence conducts social media background checks for employers that either want to monitor their employees' online activities or screen job seekers' Web-based pursuits.

Working life is looking up for CIOs in 2011, according to findings from the latest Harvey Nash Global CIO survey, which the executive search firm released yesterday.

After two years of pay cuts and stagnating wages, IT salaries are once again on the rise, driven by demand for contract and permanent IT staff, according to IT staffing industry executives.

Talk to many IT professionals over 40 and they'll tell you age discrimination is rampant in the field. They'll share stories of being passed up for jobs because they're too old and about the subtle and not-so-subtle ways hiring managers and HR personnel ask them about their age (e.g., Do you have any kids? When did you graduate from high school?).

Social networking websites are fast becoming a staple of corporate recruiting. Depending on which studies you read, anywhere from 39 to 65 percent of companies use social networking websites to identify and screen potential candidates for open positions.

As companies begin to re-invest in capital projects, project management offices (PMOs) need to gear up to facilitate these new plans. But that doesn't mean they need to adopt more methodology, documentation and process. In fact, many PMOs would be better served by taking a leaner approach to project management, according to a recent report from Forrester Research.

When you're involved in a job search, meetings over lunch or coffee with contacts in your network-and with your contacts' contacts-can help you uncover job opportunities or lead you to people who work at desirable organizations. Depending on how you approach these meetings, your networking will be either tremendously productive or a painful waste of everyone's time.

Given signs that the IT job market is finally thawing, IT professionals are actively searching for better career opportunities. Who can blame them? After two years of withering under budget cuts that left people more overworked and underpaid than ever, IT professionals at all levels are ready to jet. Many of you can't wait to tell your employers, "I quit!"

If you've recently begun to update your résumé, you've probably encountered conflicting opinions on how to write a résumé for a CIO position so as to attract an executive recruiter's attention. For example, you may have heard or read that your résumé needs to tell a story about your work experience, and thus needs to include specific details about your professional accomplishments. Yet you've probably also read that a résumé, by nature, should be brief, and that the goal of your résumé is to give the executive recruiter just enough information to make him want to call you to find out more. Such contradictory advice can curse even the most effective communicators with writer's block when they have to re-write their résumés.

One of the reasons you may not like to network is because, in asking others for help with a job search, you feel you're imposing on your contacts (and their contacts). But viewing networking as an imposition demonstrates several common misconceptions about the practice: that only one person benefits from the exchange; that job seekers have nothing to give to the people with whom they're networking; and that the people being contacted don't want to meet or see the job seeker.

Nearly 42 per cent of the 14.8 million Americans who are out of work fall into the category of "long-term unemployed," according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, meaning they have been jobless for 27 weeks or more.

Want to lock in some job security in IT over the next five years? Then make sure you're poised to move into cloud computing or mobile application development. That's where the IT jobs are expected to be, according to 2,000 IT professionals recently surveyed by IBM.

In this employer's market for talent, job seekers need to pull out all the stops to impress hiring managers and distinguish themselves from the legions of other qualified candidates looking for jobs. That means sending thank you notes to hiring managers immediately after job interviews. It sounds like basic job search advice, but the practice of sending thank you notes is not as common as it should be, especially among younger workers, according to Tracy Cashman, partner and general manager of the information technology group at staffing firm Winter, Wyman & Company.

When some people leave a job, the only thing they want to take with them from their office is their dignity, and maybe some family photos. Others leave with contact lists, project plans, marketing collateral, code snippets and other work-related files from their computers. Still other employees take the opportunity to loot the supply cabinet for notebooks, pens, flash drives and other items that they don't want to buy from Staples.

Daniel Rego got up early on April 8, 2010, donned his best suit, and printed copies of his résumé, headlined by a newly minted masters degree in information systems from George Washington University. Then he headed off to a career fair held by George Washington University's School of Business with the hope of landing an IT job.