1. Charlene Gamero Nicholas Barger
Careers in Technology
Charlene Gamero
Nicholas Barger

2. What We Hope to Accomplish
Give you a little background on us
Introduce you to Arthrex
Explain why choosing a career in technology is a good choice
Discuss what we actually do
Discuss how we actually do it
Suggestions on how to pursue a career in technology
Provide you some additional educational resources
Explain the hiring process and give a few tips
Discuss how non-technology careers are impacted
Q&A

3. Who We Are (Education) Charlene
Graduated in 2005, Bachelors in Computer Science
Masters in Computer Science
Nicholas
Graduated in 2004, Bachelors in Business Administration
Minor in Classical Studies

4. Who We Are (Work) Charlene University of Miami
Online Management Systems
Arthrex
Nicholas
Flame Internet
Clark Software
Online Management Systems
Florida Family Insurance
Arthrex
Charlene: Worked in the IT department at UM, started part-time and graduated to full-time helping manage research applications.
Started as a Microsoft .NET developer with OMS and has been working as one ever since.
Nicholas: While in college, worked freelance web development. After graduating worked at Flame Internet as a web developer. Started a one-man company called Clark Software. Tried to pick up OMS as a customer and wound up being hired by them full time. Worked at Florida Family Insurance before finally settling in to Arthrex.

5. Arthrex
The worldwide leader in arthroscopic and sports medicine surgical devices, new procedure innovation and educational services for orthopedic surgeons and staff.
Over 6000 products for arthroscopic and minimally invasive orthopedic surgeries.
1500+ direct employees worldwide with a projected growth of 150 new employees each year.
Privately held, headquartered in Naples, FL.

6. Why Technology? Job Growth Salary Stability Dynamic Environment
Creative
Exciting
Impactful
Computer science and engineering jobs are one of the fastest growing industries.
Even during tough economic times, many companies look to technology to help efficiencies and in some cases allow the reduction or redeployment of staff.
Salary for engineering disciplines, specifically computer science and engineering are very strong.
Technology is ever changing, therefore the challenges that you face are always new and fresh. This forces you to constantly be learning.
Problems can be solved in a variety of ways, computer science jobs allow for a lot of flexibility and creativity in how they are solved.
The work you do is both exciting and impactful to the business. IT is moving out of the area of support and fixing only that is broken, but now helping to guide corporate strategy.

7. What Do We Do? Solve difficult problems.
Innovate the business through technology.
Gather and analyze data to make critical business decisions.
Does anyone see any significance to the graphics on this slide?
They represent two famously difficult problems in computer science, the Knapsack Problem – a packing optimization problem, and the Traveling Salesman Problem – a route optimization problem.
Today, these problems are found in several areas, but two common ones are minimizing costs in shipping and distribution.

8. How Do We Do It? Software programming Web technologies
Database design and performance
Business intelligence and analytics
Business process design
Infrastructure design and support
System architecture design
We use software languages to develop custom applications based on business problems/needs. A few popular languages are shown below.
We distribute this software mainly through web technologies because of it’s wide adoption and ease of distribution and deployment.
Nearly all useful applications these days requires database persistence to store the data long term. The databases need to be tuned to perform optimally.
Business intelligence and analytics are terms for analyzing huge amounts of data to give beneficial meaning and help guide business decisions.
The picture to the right is a fairly non-standard representation of data, but it demonstrates visually how people are looking at data very differently now a days. More often, massive amounts of data is represented very simplistically to give clear information to the business.
Business process design usually revolve in flowcharting how the business performs important activities. We do this to identify where inefficiencies exist or to decide where technology could enhance the process.
Infrastructure design is more related to the physical hardware and systems needed to make all of this happen. This encompasses network engineers, hardware designers, and several other roles.
System architecture is the big picture design of how different systems communicate with each other, how they are technically designed, whether they adhere to performance, security, or usability patterns and best practices.

9. How To Get Started?
Decide an area you’re interested in. Don’t stress over this, you can (and probably will) change it later.
Find and participate in internship programs (Arthrex).
Develop your own projects.
Find others to work and learn with.
Fellow students
Clubs
Online (LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, etc.)
OpenStudy (
Don’t worry about figuring everything out right now. The key is to simply start. Programming, database design, and your career all go through rough drafts and iterative improvement.
Internships are really useful. It’s true that you most likely will get a lot of busy work, even work that may not completely align with your career goals. Don’t let this bother you, do it, do it well, and do it with a smile and if the people and company you are working for are worth anything, they will notice. This is real life experience.
The Google Resume is a decent book if you would like to read more about software internships for major companies.

10. Additional Educational Resources
Podcasts
Read Blogs/Articles/Magazines
Open Courseware
MIT OCW (
Stanford Engineering Everywhere (
Information is everywhere now. I personally wish I could be in school right now. Unfortunately with family and work it gets very hard. However, there are great resources out there for self learners. Just because you are in school, doesn’t mean you can supplement your education with even more.
MIT and Stanford, two top tier technology schools offer most videos of their classes online for free. This does not replace real college, but it is great to hear information presented several ways.
I write a technical blog and it has been a real benefit, both educationally, and professionally. [Tell story about Arthrex interview, quickly]
Write a technical blog yourself (

11. Stereo Types and the “it” Factor
Many people in technology are weird. Don’t be.
Personality and the perception of how you will fit into the team is more important than your technical ability, especially right now.
Set yourself apart by bringing something new to the group.
Leadership is a skill, practice it.
Urkel, hopefully that’s not before your time.
Some people find leadership more natural, but I’ve seen people become better at it simply through forced practice. Learn to become a leader, and learn when it’s the right time to follow as well.

12. The Hiring Process - Tips
The resume is important to even have a chance. No typos, focus it to the job, highlight accomplishments with specifics.
Speak professionally and genuinely during phone interviews. Admit if you do not know something, this speaks volumes, do not try and fake it.
Over dress for onsite interviews. Wear a suit. Practice your interview with someone who has hired others before – they will give you good advice.
Resumes really do go into one of two piles. You either catch the attention of someone or you don’t.
I expect to work with professionals. There is a big difference from college behavior verses professional behavior. Make sure you know when to switch it on and off. At the same time, do have fun and show your personality.

13. Who Hires? (Tech-Companies)
Technology companies such as Microsoft, Google, Oracle and Facebook.

14. Who Hires? (Everyone Else)
Non-Technology companies such as hospitals, government, retail, research, and nearly every other industry.

15. Big Business vs. Startups?
Startup Pro’s
Breadth of work and knowledge.
Working for a startup forces everyone to play lots of different roles and learn on the fly.
Very exciting.
Startup Con’s
Stability, stability, stability.
Usually, the hours can be /week. Work becomes your life..

16. Big Business vs. Startups?
Big Business Pro’s
Stability, stability, stability – usually.
Depth of knowledge. Division of labor allows you to really focus deeper in your area.
There is a focus on best practices.
Big Business Con’s
Compliance and bureaucracy.
More difficult to stand out amongst so many people and layers of management.

17. Careers Outside of Technology
Often, you are the customer.
The more you know about how technology works the easier it is to work with IT, engineers, and new technology.
Technology is prominent in nearly every company from tools to entire departments.
Use technology to help make you more productive.

18. Q & A We’re into bribery; candy for anyone who asks a question!
We’ll be available after the presentation as well.