IT150 @ Carlow

IT Help Desk Intern – Warrendale, PA
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WEB COMMUNICATIONS & DESIGN INTERN (Carlow University, Pittsburgh, PA)

We are currently looking for an intern to assist with web communications and web design. This internship provides a real-world look into how a small, private university communications department operates on a day-to-day basis, while inheriting the skills needed to succeed in today’s business world.

Duties include but are not limited to:
•    Generation of web concepts and elements
•    Administration of Web site, web projects, and other tools
•    Design layout for the web
•    Creating web marketing solutions, including design and implementation

Required Experience:
•    Submission of design portfolio and/or 1-2 web URLs with disclosure of role
•    Macromedia Dreamweaver
•    Adobe Photoshop
•    Macromedia Fireworks
•    Adobe Illustrator

Candidates must have excellent communication skills, with strong backgrounds in web design. Any web application development experience (XSLT, ASP.NET) is a plus.

We will also provide letters of recommendation and resume building skills for outstanding work. Internship work will be performed on location at Carlow University’s Oakland campus. Minimum hours required are dependent on individual school guidelines and project completion requirements. We typically expect between 10-15 hours a week on location. Internship dates are flexible, but generally will run from the beginning of September through beginning of December for the fall internship; January through April for spring; and May through August for summer.

Please explain your reasons for wanting this internship (i.e. school credit, general experience) and state your availability.

If you are interested, please send your cover letter and one-page résumé in a Word doc or Adobe PDF, design samples and/or URL submissions. All resumes and work samples should be emailed to raupka@carlow.edu or faxed to 412-578-2080.

[photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dplanet/268496060/]

Not every designer works with sewing machines and mannequins. inInformation designers develop big picture design direction for projects, including the vision for the user experience and component interaction, as well as documentation, training, and general communication — both internal and external. These professionals research and integrate design strategies, product specifications, and user expectations into product capabilities. They develop and use standard user scenarios to test and validate designs. Information designers interact with customers, vendors, and external development partners. Read the rest of this entry »

[photo source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3040/2843405195_4c3b5e09c2.jpg?v=0]

“The User Researcher uses empirical and statistical research methods to understand target audiences and potential users’ needs. By researching users with quantitative and qualitative techniques, this role contributes to defining user group profiles, personas, and analyzing user tasks and workflows. At times this role may validate or update existing user research materials.” – IconProcess

Many companies conduct user research to develop a better understanding of users’ behavior, preferences, desires, etc in their target markets. User researchers often use the Internet to recruit user participants, and to perform their research studies online. Some of these companies include:

• Yahoo! – see Yahoo! User Research
• Google – see Google User Experience Research
• Microsoft – see Microsoft Usability Research

[photo source: www.spiderwebdesignteam.com/advertising.php]

e-Marketing, sometimes called Internet marketing, or Web marketing, is a growing field that requires expertise in both adverstising and Internet technology. e-Marketers enhances website traffic by optimizing search engines, purchsing ad keywords, and designing banner ads. With their advertising talents, e-Marketers help improving the topline by increasing the organization’s visibility in the cyberspace.

Key job responsibilities include:

• Manage various e-marketing and interactive web projects
• Develop and manage website content
• Tracking, reporting, research
• Develop and manage on-line advertising programs
• Participate in e-marketing strategy development and planning
• Facilitate sales lead process when required

“A business analyst works as a liaison among stakeholders in order to elicit, analyze, communicate and validate requirements for changes to business processes, policies and information systems. The business analyst understands business problems and opportunities in the context of the requirements and recommends solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals.” -  International Institute of Business Analysis

“Businee Analysts work in different industries such as finance, banking, insurance, telecom, utilities, software services, and such. Due to working on projects at a fairly high level of abstractions, BAs can switch between industries. The business domain subject areas BAs may work in include workflow, billing, mediation, provisioning and customer relationship management.” – Wikipedia

Key job responsibilies include – (source: http://jonathanbabcock.com/2007/02/14/business-analyst-job-description/)

• Elicit requirements using interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops, surveys, site visits, business process descriptions, use cases, scenarios, business analysis, task and workflow analysis.
• Critically evaluate information gathered from multiple sources, reconcile conflicts, decompose high-level information into details, abstract up from low-level information to a general understanding, and distinguish user requests from the underlying true needs
• Drive and challenge business units on their assumptions of how they will successfully execute their plans
• Strong analytical and product management skills required, including a thorough understanding of how to interpret customer business needs and translate them into application and operational requirements.

Critical skills include: communication & international skills, analytical skills, project management, business expertise

[photo source: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2280/2074677830_88842b20b4.jpg?v=0]

Architects create blueprints for houses, churches, and skyscrapers. What do information architects (IAs) do? Information architects design blueprints for information flow on a website, or in an information system. Find out if you are born to be an IA:

• When looking at a web site, do menus that hold no meaning to you whatsoever leave you in a bad mood?
• Do you feel that the important stuff in the web site you’re building is somehow between the pages as well as on the pages?
• Are you the one asking your little brother to test your web sites during lunch?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, you may be gifted in information architecture! (Source: Information Architects Association) Read the rest of this entry »