The electives are geared towards shaping a career in the areas of E-Business E-Merchandising, E-Business Financial analysis, Cross-Functional Enter rchitecture, and E-Commerce Entrepreneurship. Often, a practicum is also included to expose students to the industry and provide hands-on work experience Technology track. This track typically starts with prerequisite/core courses in basic (such as C++/ ra), E-Business Systems Analysis and Design, Design and Implementation, and Web Development. These specializations are geared towards entering into technical positions in industry such as Web Development, Technical Consulting, Systems Integration, Web-based ERP Analysis, Wireless Telecommunications Analysis, XML Development, E-business Infrastructure and Technical Architecture, and E-Solutions Entrepreneurship Industry Needs for E-Business Skills The second aspect of our study assesses industry demand for e-business professionals and the skill sets needed for specific e-business career tracks. To perform this analysis we conducted an extensive content analysis of e-business job listings on major US Web obsitesEightcareerWebsiteswereselectedBrassRingcom,CareerBuilder.com Dice.comCollegerecruiter.comHeadhunter.net,Jobsonline.comKforce.com,ane Monster. com. These were ranked the top sites by Alexa Research and PC Data Onli in 2001 [5]. Around 1,000 online job postings were coded independently by two researchers. The two sets of classifications were then compared, and minor difference were resolved The content analysis focuses on two outcomes: identifying general categories of e-business professions(for example, Web site developer, Java programmer, data base spe- cialist), as well as the relative percentage of positions within each profession; and, the spe- cific job skills required for each type of position The analysis of the data reveals several interesting facts: out of the approximately one thousand job postings, 60% were technical job postings and 40% were in the gramming(28%), Web administration(12%), networking(12%), Web-database (7%), and technical support(1%); the management job category consists of consult ant(19%), manager(12%), analyst(8%), and other (1%)(such as technical writer, human resources). Figures 2 and 3 show the breakdown of technical and managerial For the e-business technical job postings, common skill sets include: Unix, C++ Java, SQL, Visual Basic, HTML, ASP Oracle, SQL Server, TCP/IR OO Program ming, wireless application protocol (WAP), wireless markup language(WML), XML, P Applications, LAN/WAN technologies, common object request broker archi tecture( CORBA), Cold Fusion, Photoshop, Dreamweaver/Front Page, and distrib uted component object model/ component object model (DCOM/COM) As for the e-business managerial skill sets, job postings fall into two categories: gen- eral managerial skills and e-business-specific managerial skills. With regard to general man- agerial skills, most are very similar to traditional managerial skill sets. One possible reason is that managerial skills are less domain-specific than technical skills. The most commonly listed e-business managerial skill sets are: self-motivated with proven decision-making abilities; strong analytical and problem-solving skills; ability to communicate results of work in technical and non-technical terms ability to train and motivate personnel; abil COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM December 2003/ol. 46. No. 12ve I7IInternet. The electives are geared towards shaping a career in the areas of E-Business Analysis, E-Merchandising, E-Business Financial Analysis, Cross-Functional Enter￾prise Architecture, and E-Commerce Entrepreneurship. Often, a practicum is also included to expose students to the industry and provide hands-on work experience. Technology track. This track typically starts with prerequisite/core courses in basic programming (such as C++/Java), E-Business Systems Analysis and Design, Database Design and Implementation, and Web Development. These specializations are geared towards entering into technical positions in industry such as Web Development, Technical Consulting, Systems Integration, Web-based ERP Analysis, Wireless Telecommunications Analysis, XML Development, E-business Infrastructure and Technical Architecture, and E-Solutions Entrepreneurship. Industry Needs for E-Business Skills The second aspect of our study assesses industry demand for e-business professionals and the skill sets needed for specific e-business career tracks. To perform this analysis, we conducted an extensive content analysis of e-business job listings on major US Web job sites. Eight career Web sites were selected: BrassRing.com, CareerBuilder.com, Dice.com, Collegerecruiter.com, HeadHunter.net, Jobsonline.com, Kforce.com, and Monster.com. These were ranked the top sites by Alexa Research and PC Data Online in 2001 [5]. Around 1,000 online job postings were coded independently by two researchers. The two sets of classifications were then compared, and minor differences were resolved. The content analysis focuses on two outcomes: identifying general categories of e-business professions (for example, Web site developer, Java programmer, data base spe￾cialist), as well as the relative percentage of positions within each profession; and, the spe￾cific job skills required for each type of position. The analysis of the data reveals several interesting facts: out of the approximately one thousand job postings, 60% were technical job postings and 40% were in the management category; technical job postings can be further subdivided into pro￾gramming (28%), Web administration (12%), networking (12%), Web-database (7%), and technical support (1%); the management job category consists of consult￾ant (19%), manager (12%), analyst (8%), and other (1%) (such as technical writer, human resources). Figures 2 and 3 show the breakdown of technical and managerial positions. For the e-business technical job postings, common skill sets include: Unix, C++, Java, SQL, Visual Basic, HTML, ASP, Oracle, SQL Server, TCP/IP, OO Program￾ming, wireless application protocol (WAP), wireless markup language (WML), XML, ERP Applications, LAN/WAN technologies, common object request broker archi￾tecture (CORBA), Cold Fusion, Photoshop, Dreamweaver/Front Page, and distrib￾uted component object model/component object model (DCOM/COM). As for the e-business managerial skill sets, job postings fall into two categories: gen￾eral managerial skills and e-business-specific managerial skills. With regard to general man￾agerial skills, most are very similar to traditional managerial skill sets. One possible reason is that managerial skills are less domain-specific than technical skills. The most commonly listed e-business managerial skill sets are: self-motivated with proven decision-making abilities; strong analytical and problem-solving skills; ability to communicate results of work in technical and non-technical terms; ability to train and motivate personnel; abil￾COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM December 2003/Vol. 46, No. 12ve 171