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Brittany Ballenstedt

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Brittany Ballenstedt writes Nextgov's Wired Workplace blog, which delves into the issues facing employees who work in the federal information technology sector. Before joining Nextgov, Brittany covered federal pay and benefits issues as a staff correspondent for Government Executive and served as an associate editor for National Journal's Technology Daily. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Mansfield University and originally hails from Pennsylvania. She currently lives near Travis Air Force Base, Calif., where her husband is stationed.

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Teaching Teens About Tech

April 16, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV One industry group is hoping to educate youngsters on how the technology and devices nearly all of them use actually work, in hopes of inspiring the next generation of IT professionals. Todd Thibodeaux, CEO of CompTIA, said last week that the trade association is launching a new effort in hopes ...

Companies Partner With NIST to Share Cyber Staff

April 16, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV Eleven private organizations on Monday agreed to partner with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to share cybersecurity staff and best practices to help better combat cyber threats. In a signing ceremony at NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, the 11 organizations agreed to collaborate with federal agencies as ...

Cybersecurity Jobs Continue to Pay Better Than Others

April 15, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV Demand for cybersecurity professionals continues to climb, and while overall pay for security staff dipped slightly this year, cyber pros are still earning more than their counterparts in general IT jobs, according to a new survey. InformationWeek’s 2013 Salary Survey of 682 IT security professionals found the strong market for ...

Is Government Cool Again for IT Pros?

April 12, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV The government often gets a bad rap for lacking the “cool factor” when it comes to attracting and hiring talented technology professionals into federal jobs. But one expert contends that the government may well be the “coolest” place to work if you’re an IT pro. “I think people in the ...

Senior Execs Have a Rosier View of Their Jobs

April 11, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV If you’re a federal employee on the General Schedule pay scale, chances are your job satisfaction is significantly lower than that of your senior leaders. That’s according to a new report by the Partnership for Public Service and Deloitte, which found a gap of nearly 19 percent in satisfaction levels ...

2014 Budget Invests in IT Workforce

April 10, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV The fiscal 2014 budget proposal unveiled by the White House on Wednesday identifies a few goals for recruiting, hiring and retaining federal workers, including some that relate specifically to the federal IT workforce. Those goals include identifying specific skills gaps in mission critical occupations like IT and cybersecurity, modifying the ...

Is a 1 Percent Pay Increase Enough?

April 10, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV While federal workers have to endure through the remainder of 2013 without an across-the-board pay increase, President Obama is hoping to provide a 1 percent pay boost next year, according to budget documents released Wednesday. Obama’s 2014 budget proposes a 1 percent pay increase for General Schedule employees, which is ...

How to Convince Your Boss to Let You Telework

April 9, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV Many studies, reports and personal anecdotes have supported the notion that telework leads to improved outcomes for both employees and their managers, at least where it's a good fit for the employees and their specific job duties. Yet the Office of Personnel Management’s 2012 telework status report found that management ...

Calling All Hackers

April 8, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV The White House is inviting tech experts, developers and entrepreneurs to come together for some civic hacking on June 1. The second White House hackathon will bring together these tech experts to help produce full, production-ready apps and visualization tools that will be featured on the White House’s petition website ...

Most CIOs Check In After Hours, Study Finds

April 8, 2013 FROM NEXTGOV Most chief information officers are not clocking out when they leave the office, according to a new report. A survey of more than 2,300 U.S. CIOs by Robert Half Technology found that the majority (73 percent) are checking in with work often or somewhat often on the evenings and weekends. ...