Whether you're a seasoned IT leader or a rising newcomer, the new year is a good time to pause and take stock of your professional and personal progress in this always interesting, always chaotic industry.
Take a few moments to read through the best of Computerworld's management and career articles and videos, or click a link below to skip directly to your chosen topic.
- Grow your IT career
- Track up-and-coming roles within IT
- Find a new job in 2016
- Hone your managerial skills
- Keep tabs on what's coming next
- Think like a business strategist
Grow your IT career
Video: How to map out your IT career path. Tech pros from LinkedIn and GoDaddy talk about ways to keep your IT career moving forward.
10 hottest tech skills for 2016. Gunning for a banner year in IT? Make sure you have these skills in your toolbox.
6 traits of up-and-coming IT stars. What qualities put IT pros on the fast track? We talk to five rising stars -- and their CIOs -- to find what sets them apart (and what you can do to make your star rise, too).
Get a raise! Salary negotiation tips from the experts (with videos). Computerworld contributing writer Julia King gleans inside info from two experts in IT salary negotiations.
Tech experts rake in the cash by teaching online. As online education platforms proliferate, some IT pros are making bank by teaching online. Just beware those negative reviews from students.
Tech pros make the most of the 'gig economy.' Younger IT workers are increasingly choosing independence over full-time employment. Is the "open talent economy" right for you too? Three 20- and 30-somethings share their experiences.
How to stay happy in IT: Book excerpts. If you're dealing with more than your share of problems -- either within your department or beyond -- these excerpts from Warren Zabloudil's new book, Excellence in IT: Achieving success in an information technology career, may be just the tonic you need.
Track up-and-coming roles within IT
Budding role of IT communications director helps IT deliver its message. As CIOs face rising competition, they are creating a new, dedicated IT communications role to help promote the IT brand and coordinate messaging. Related video: What does an IT communications director do?
Tips for landing a plum project manager's job. As companies continue to invest heavily in new projects, those IT staffers with project management skills are hot commodities. Here's how to get started. Related article: Growing into an IT project management job.
IT careers: Security talent is red-hot. Security pros are in high demand, and companies are willing to pay top dollar for the right candidates. Do you have what it takes to succeed on the infosec career track?
Rise of the so-called citizen developer (with video). For IT, harnessing the talents of business users who code can be well worth the effort of supporting them.
Tech hotshots: The rise of the chief data officer. As CIOs become overwhelmed by IT demands, chief data officers are stepping in to serve as a centralized point of data governance.
Find a new job in 2016
Video: How to find 'cool' IT jobs beyond Google or Apple. American Express's Yvonne Schneider makes the case that older companies can be "cool" too.
Video: Job hunting tips for the IT pro. Should executives job jump or build tenure? How much social media should they do? Martha Heller, an IT executive recruiter, offers up career advice for IT professionals.
How to boost your LinkedIn profile with keywords. IT managers, are you highlighting the right words and phrases to set yourself apart from the crowd and make your profile rise to the top of LinkedIn searches?
Career Watch: Where the gender pay gap is narrowest. Network architect is one of two IT-related occupations to show up on Money's list of the 25 careers with the smallest wage gap between men and women.
Computerworld's IT Salary Survey 2015: Free research on dozens of tech titles. Download this free, 23-page report for details on the latest trends in IT workers' pay, the state of the job market and today's hottest skills.
Hottest jobs, industries and cities for IT pay. The 10 job titles that saw the highest percentage increases in total compensation in Computerworld's most recent Salary Survey.
IT careers: How to switch industries and survive. Some tech leaders swear that the perspective they bring to a new industry is invaluable, but others say it’s an idea whose time has come and gone.
IT jobs market booming in the Southwest. A look at the prospects for both hiring managers and job seekers in Austin, San Antonio and other cities in the region.
How to get a job in healthcare IT. This downloadable Knowledge Pack includes salary data, best places to work and in-depth advice for launching or continuing a career in healthcare IT.
Hone your managerial skills
Video: New ways to assess the performance of IT employees. Liz Centoni of Cisco and Wei Lin of Symantec explain how their organizations have revamped IT employee assessments.
Video: How to identify rising stars in IT. Martha Heller, president of Heller Search Associates, talks about the skills and traits that CIOs should look for to identify employees who can become the next generation of IT leadership.
Computerworld’s guide to working with non-geeks. A collection of columns from contributor Paul Glen, who has been observing the interaction between geeks and non-geeks for many years. He shares his insight on the ways that differences can cause these two cohorts to work at cross-purposes or simply misunderstand one other's motives.
How data analytics can drive workforce diversity. Many companies are struggling to make their IT teams more inclusive. Is it time for data analytics to take over the job?
IT hiring: 4 things you're doing wrong (and how to fix them). IT organizations may be their own worst enemies when it comes to effective strategies for sourcing, screening and hiring IT talent.
Surefire ways to enhance meetings for remote teams. The right hardware and software can help meetings with a distributed workforce run smoothly and efficiently.
Degree-free IT: Can college-skippers thrive in tech? With college costs sky high and the IT job market red hot, some techies are skipping the sheepskin and heading straight to work. Is that a smart move or short-sighted?
Keep tabs on what's coming next
Video: Top tech trends for 2016 from our top editors. Editors from Computerworld parent company IDG Enterprise offer up their IT predictions for 2016. Find out which trends we'll be looking at in the upcoming year.
Video podcast: Mingis on Tech. Executive News Editor Ken Mingis and Computerworld writers discuss the approaching crisis in health record security and bold predictions for the coming year in IT.
Forecast 2016: Essential data points for the tech year ahead. All the facts worth knowing about IT leaders' tech budgets, spending plans, hiring priorities and strategic initiatives for 2016.
Forecast 2016: 5 fast-track trends to tackle now (and one to ignore). IT will drive business change in 2016 thanks to these key tech developments.
Forecast 2016: 5 disruptors to keep on your radar. Savvy tech execs can't afford to ignore these developments, which stand to remake the future of IT.
Emerging enterprise techs to watch. Technologies that should be on your radar include quantum computing, gamification, reactive programming, augmented reality, transient electronics and Named Data Networking.
Future-proof your IT career: 8 tech areas that will still be hot in 2020. It’s prudent for IT pros to cultivate skills that are in high demand. Even better are skills that will stay in demand. Here are eight key technology areas that show no signs of falling out of favor.
Think like a business strategist
How three old-school companies became digital platform players. IT is a key driver when product-centric companies move to a new platform model. Here's how to make customers and supplies part of your business ecosystem. Related video: How Houghton Mifflin Harcourt moved from product to platform.
8 ways to master change management. With change becoming a near-constant in business and in IT, CIOs need to become much better at managing the process. It's as much an art as a science, but it can be mastered, IT leaders say.
Finding ROI in a swirl of data analytics. Computerworld's Data+ Editors' Choice Awards honorees, which include PayPal, Zulily, DirecTV and National Grid, are mining data to make fast business decisions, measure risk, create efficiencies and more.
How to reduce IT complexity and increase agility. Overlapping, outdated systems cost money, hobble innovation and confuse users. 5 execs share strategies for simplifying your tech stack. Related video: How The Weather Co. 'chops the tail' of technology to reduce IT complexity.
Make analytics pay off for you and your customers. When customers got a better experience, these companies got a revenue kick, thanks to accurate and timely analytics data in the hands of salespeople.
Modernizing enterprise apps for the mobile world. IT shops are looking mostly to their existing software providers for an assist when extending enterprise apps to mobile -- and finding compelling ROI along the way.
Modular software creates agility -- and complexity. Good things may come in small packages, but microservices can present big challenges for software application design. Here’s how to make the most of modular design without sweating the small stuff.
Promise and peril in the journey to DevOps. Steep learning curves, cultural warfare and unbridled criticism are among the land mines littering the path to DevOps. However, plenty of perks await organizations that complete the trek successfully.
Rip and replace: When it pays to make a total systems change. A full system replacement can be costly and difficult. But for one Vermont insurance company, ditching stodgy technology opened new business opportunities.
Sharpen your vendor management skills. The changing vendor landscape means IT must forge tighter partnerships with service providers and third-party vendors. Here are the skills you should have in your back pocket.
The holy grail of digital transformation: Improved employee efficiency (with video). How three organizations delivered digital initiatives that help people close deals faster, reduce paperwork and get the most out of their workdays.
Why IT and Operations are on a collision course. Long autonomous, IT and operations are now forced to work together, spurred by increasingly complex digital devices that pose fearsome cybersecurity threats.
Cloud, virtualization take toll on data centers. More and more businesses are opting out of the data-center game, choosing instead to go with cloud or colocation. Find out why outsourcing may or may not be right for your organization, along with advice on how best to manage the transition.
Join the CIO New Zealand group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.