ULM 2010 All-Majors Job Fair

I received information from the Office of Career Connections and Experiential Education about their annual All Majors Career Fair

It’s that time again!  The time when juniors and graduating seniors polish up their resumes, dust off their business suits, and put their best foot forward. The All-Majors Career Fair will take place on Wednesday, February 10, 10 am-3 pm, on the second floor of the Student Union Ballroom.  In light of this very difficult job market, we would welcome your assistance in making sure students are advised and prepared for this event.  Your support is crucial to ensuring our student attendance.  The Career Connections office is available to help students with their resumes and interviewing skills. 

• If you wish to participate; visit the Career Connections website (www.ulm.edu/careerconnections) to pre-register for the Career Fair and obtain tips on getting the most out of the event.  They may also visit our offices on the 3^rd floor of the library or call us at 342-5338.
• Also, the day before the career fair, February 9^th, several local employers will be here to present a “Pre-Career Fair Workshop” in our office ( library 302) from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm. This work shop will teach students how to network, create a 30 second pitch to  employers, and land a full-time job!

If I haven’t already mentioned this to you, after you walk across the stage is kind of late to start looking for a job.  These career fairs and internships provide an incredible opportunity for you to get your foot in the door with employers from all over the region and the country.  ‘They want experience to get the job, but you have to get a job to get experience.”  Well, these events and internships are how you overcome this.  Students in the CIS program at ULM are encouraged (in some classes even required) to attend these events regularly and to seek internships or short-term projects where ever possible.

Foundation Scholarships

Are you a student at the University of Louisiana at Monroe?  Need some money for school? Have decent grades?  Then you need to apply for one of the Foundation Scholarships, heck apply for them all.  The application period for the 2010-2011 ULM Foundation Scholarships is now open and will continue through noon on 26 February 2010.

So, what are the criteria??  Go to www.ulm.edu/scholarships and find out. Look over the web site and see which ones that you qualify for and APPLY!  Actually, apply for anything that you qualify for.  The folks at the Scholarship office can answer questions on particular scholarships and the process of applying.  You can find their number in the campus directory.

News and Changes for Fall 2009

Hello Everyone or Anyone Interested,

It’s that time of the year again, The Beginning of the Regular School Year!!!  Dr. McEacharn has been busy sending me information on updated sections and changes to the late registration process, so I’m now busy passing them on to you.

First.  Have you registered??  Really??  Why not?? Well never mind, that’s why we have late registration.  You NEED to know that the process is a bit different this year (its a bit different every year actually).  Regular registration for classes will close at 12:00 noon on Monday, August 17^th 2009.  The system will then re-open on Wednesday, August 19^th 2009, at 6:00 a.m. for late registration.  Advisers will be available in the College of Business from 8am till 4pm on 19 through 24 August 2009.  NOTE:  You may or may not have an adviser from CIS during this extended period. However, I will be around campus performing various administrative functions, and will be able to provide answers specific to CIS related topics if needed.

Second.  If you are trying to get into a ULM Online class, the Registrar will be opening all remaining 1^st 8-week sections up on Thursday, 13 August 2009.  So this is your chance if you’ve been looking to get into one of these classes.  Also, there is a new online section of CSCI 170 available and has some seats open.

That’s it for now.  If you want to stay up on the latest in the CIS program at ULM, remember to subscribe to the RSS feed from CIS@ULM.

Dr. Barnett

More Seats in Intersession and Summer Online Courses

Dr. McEacharn notified all faculty chairs that the they would be opening up seats sometime Monday afternoon in a number of the online CBA classes that are being taught in the Intersession and Summer I.

If you are looking to get into an online class for one of these sessions, but have unable due to he class being full, then give it a go again on Monday.

Good Luck..

Are You…Advised?

Hello All,

It’s advising time again.  Well, it seems that about half of you know that, because I or one of the CIS faculty have already seen you.  For those that have not been advised, next week is the last week of regular advising.

There are a number of changes to ULM policy about registration, fees, and course offerings. Your adviser should go over these with you during your session.

One critical change that I want to let you know about is Late Payment.  In the past, if you registered and then didn’t pay off your account, the school just dropped you from those courses.  NOW, you’ll have a bright shinny unpaid bill that will have to be paid before you can enter school at some later date.  ALSO, there are now TWO, count them, TWO points at which you will be charged a late payment fee.

So, GET ADVISED and GET REGISTERED…the class you save may be the one you need to graduate.

Have a great Spring Break, and hope to see you all back next week.

Cheers,

Dr. B

Advising Time Again…

Its that time of the semester again, the time that you need to start thinking about the future.  For those of you whose immediate future involves graduating, you should be well into your job search.  If you haven’t heard, CenturyTel will be on campus this Thursday interviewing for a whole host of postitions.

For those of you that still have classes to take, it’s advising time.  There will be about a two week period where the entire College of Business Administration will be organized to review your progress and help you plan the next semester or two.  Advising dates are October 29 – November 11.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ADVISING TIME!!!

Advising after November 11 will be on a first come first serve basis during instructor office hours.

Staying on Schedule

During this past advising and registration period, I had to sign off on a large number of course substitutions and waivers so that students could meet requirements for graduation this Fall. Most, but not all, of these were due to some significant changes in the CIS area that has occurred over the past two years. Specifically, these changes are:

• A smaller Computer Information Systems faculty due to retirements and budget cuts
• Inclusion of CINS435 (Information Systems Design) as a required course

In the past, CINS430 was the final course in the curriculum and was offered each semester. Two years ago the CIS faculty made the move to provide students with a more comprehensive and realistic exposure to the Information Systems career with a two course sequence that focused on a single development project. CINS430 (Information Systems Analysis) and CINS435 (Information Systems Design) are now a required sequence of courses in the CIS curriculum. Read the post “Scheduling Classes” to read more about the change. Part of this change in the overall CIS curriculum is that CINS430 will no longer be offered in the Spring semester. Students must take CINS430 in the Fall so that they can transition to CINS435 in the Spring, and pick up the development project begun in the previous semester.

Some of you may have also noticed that some classes were not offered in Fall 2008. CINS 302, 306, and 340 will no longer be offered every semester. To deal with our additional CIS class (CINS435) and the smaller size of the CIS faculty, we are implementing a more standardized rotation of classes. You will need to be sure that you and your advisor plan out your progress through the CIS curriculum so that when you need specific classes, they will be available.

The new CIS course rotation is as follows:

Fall

• CINS220
• CINS302
• CINS340
• CINS344 (Elective)
• CINS350
• CINS430

Spring

• CINS220
• CINS306
• CINS341 (Elective)
• CINS350
• CINS435
• CINS492 (Elective)

Internship in Delhi

Company in Delhi has an internship available for an IT person–sounds very good. This could be an ongoing job if the intern likes the work and does a good job. The start date is June 1st, officially, but the student can begin sooner if desired.

Pay is $10/hr., with mileage added–more for more qualifications.

General computer knowledge is necessary, but an ability and inclination to learn specific skills, programs, etc., is even more important. Here’s a list of some of the qualifications:

Description of Responsibilities:
Performing updates, security fixes, and replacing personal computers at three company locations. Also maintaining networking and other types of hardware at these 3 locations. Organizing and maintaining all the software and replacement hardware at the central office.

Hours/Work Schedule:
During a semester up to but not more than 20 hours / week. If the student is interested and his/her schedule allows, extra work would be available up to 40-50 hours / week during certain seasons.

GPA: 3.0

Major: CIS or non-CIS interested in a technology career or CIS minor

Computer Skills:
Basic understanding of Windows XP Professional, Vista Business, Office 2007, mostly pertaining to settings and maintenance. Knowledge of servers and networking is a plus but not required. The following are other software programs in use at RaleyBros: Windows Server 2003, Citrix Presentation Server 4.5, Symantic AntiVirus Enterprise Edition, Symantic BackUp Exec. Most important is the student’s ability to learn about the specific task at hand in the broader areas mentioned above.

Other Information about Internship:
The intern will have the option to continue with RaleyBros as a part time employee if he / she so desires. As the company grows so do our IT needs. There is long term potential for a full time job with this internship if the student involved shows interest.

For more information contact:

Ms. Ann Smith (asmith@ulm.edu)
Director, ULM Office of Academic Internships
Library 314

WalMart Expands ISD Workforce

In the midst of what most news organizations are calling an economic downturn and restructuring in other areas, IS organizations continue to hire.  The Employment page of this site currently has four openings in the Monroe, LA area alone.

This week, recruiters from the nations largest retailer, WalMart, contacted the ULM CIS faculty with information on new job openings in their Information Systems Division.  WalMart is looking to hire between 300 and 500 IS professionals as it continues to expand it’s use of information systems to support ongoing operations and to improve customer satisfaction.

A wide range of positions are available in this new round of expansion at WalMart’s ISD, ranging from entry level to management and including development, network engineers, and business analysts.

Candidates should apply online at www.walmart.com.

Save a class, Register Now!

As any student at ULM knows, registration stays open for quite a long time.  This gives students that may need to arrange funding for their next semester a little more time to get things together.  However, as I and the other CIS faculty have advised more and more students since our scheduled advising period, this lengthy registration period may lead some to think that there is no real urgency to registering for the follow on semester.

Registering for freshman and sophomore level classes can be problematic, those classes can fill up.  Lets face it, there are many more freshman and sophomores than juniors and seniors.  Not getting right on to advising during the specified time and then getting into the registration system can result in missing critical classes…. Math courses to specific.

Juniors and Seniors don’t generally have to worry as much about sections filling up.  However, just because your sections probably won’t fill up doesn’t mean that you won’t run into other issues with classes.  Scheduled classes with insufficient enrollment get canceled unless there are very special circumstances.  That required course you were going to get around to signing up for, might get canceled as enrollment is reviewed by the administration.  The decision to cancel courses comes much earlier than you think.  The decision to cancel a course may come over a month prior to the beginning of class, for Fall the decision may come several months before the beginning of class.  This can be especially bad for classes that are pre-requisites, like CINS340 and CINS306.

So, Save Your Classes…get advised and register as soon as you can.