IBM and professors from Columbia University in New York City have joined forces to get more people trained for some of the higher-level green tech jobs that have started opening up.

Columbia is already a very environmentally-focused school, offering 23 environmental studies-related degrees. But according to an article posted on SolveClimate.com, by partnering with IBM through the Smarter Students for a Smarter Planet initiative, the university will gain access to things like:

"...software that relates to energy management, as well as courseware, cloud computing capabilities, smart systems, analytics, technology roadmaps, and the like."

All of these things are going to be integrated into Columbia's first-year design course, which is mandatory for all engineering students. The tools will also be used to help train students in other areas, such as project management, systems integration and data analysis, with the goal of turning out more well-rounded engineering graduates.

For more information, here is the video of IBM's and Columbia's green jobs announcement.

_{Image Copyright: Ervin Bacik}

In 2010, new college graduates will still face a competitive job market – but there's a light at the end of the tunnel, as far as starting salaries go.

A recent CareerBuilder survey of 2,778 U.S. hiring managers and HR professionals found that 44 percent of employers plan to hire recent college grads in 2010, which is not much better than the 43 percent who said the same in 2009, and actually much lower than 79 percent in 2007.

However, 21 percent of employers who confirmed they would hire recent grads this year also said they will hire more than they did last year, and 16 percent also said they will offer those new grads higher starting salaries than they did in 2009 – which is great news, compared to the 11 percent of employers who said the same thing last year.

Note that although experience (whether through internships, part-time jobs or volunteer work) is an important factor for employers trying to decide which new grads to hire, survey respondents also said they want someone who will fit in with the company culture, has good ideas and asks excellent questions, has a solid educational background, and prepares well for the interview.

So... remember these tips for getting your foot if you're just starting out in your tech career, or making a career switch:

• Thoroughly research the company that's posting the job so you have an idea of what it's like to work there (our Tech Company Profiles page is an excellent place to start if you're applying for a job with a major technology firm).
• Arm yourself with questions to ask during the interview, and practice answering some of the interview questions you could be asked.
• Be prepared to share some ideas about how you could contribute to the company.
• Stay positive during all steps in the hiring process, including your resume and cover letter submission, your follow-up after sending in your resume, the writing of your post-interview thank-you letter, and your salary negotiation.

Also, be sure to check out our Entry Level and New Grad Resources Center for lists of career services, resume and cover letter samples, interview tips and other things that can help you land your first job in your chosen tech field.

_{Image Copyright: Mary Gober}

Not too long ago, Elance, an online job board for contractors and service providers, released a report that noted its online talent pool earned more than $20 million in the first quarter of 2010, with information technology as one of the top-performing categories.

According to the report, here are some of today's most sought-after IT skills that you should be seriously thinking about acquiring:

• Mobile Development: This category saw a 98 percent increase in the number of job posted by employers, and Elance attributed the increase to the emergence of devices such as Apple's iPad and the next generation of iPhone, as well as the popularity of Google's Android mobile operating system.
  
  
• Open Source: Open source technologies make up 20 percent of Elance's IT Top 50 Skills list. Popular skills include working with content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal, as well as open source database systems such as MySQL, and mobile, e-commerce and web server technologies.
  
  
• Cloud Computing: Job prospects for cloud computing are on the increase, with popular cloud computing languages such as PHP, ASP.NET, Ruby on Rails and Python making it onto the top 50 IT skills list.
  
  
• Social Media: These include application development skills for popular social networking sites such as Facebook.

_{Image Courtesy of Apple}

Not long ago, I wrote about how Linux skills are in high demand these days.

While contributors to the Linux kernel have traditionally been portrayed as hobbyists or volunteers, I recently came across an article in APC magazine that cited some interesting stats about where Linux code is coming from.

In a Linux.conf.au presentation, Jonathan Corbet, a kernel contributor and the founder of LWN.net, pointed out that, between December 2009 and January 2010:

• 18 percent of kernel contributions came from people not affiliated with any single corporation (volunteers);
• seven percent of contributions weren't classified;
• 75 percent of contributors were paid to write Linux code as part of their jobs.

According to the article, these are some of the tech companies that have been hiring developers specifically to write Linux code:

• Red Hat;
• Intel;
• IBM;
• Novell;
• Oracle.

_{Image Copyright: Julia Eisenberg}

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