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Understanding Factors that Influence Research Computing and Data Careers

Published: 08 July 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Research Computing and Data (RCD) professionals play a crucial role in supporting and advancing research that involve data and/or computing, however, there is a critical shortage of RCD workforce, and organizations face challenges in recruiting and retaining RCD professional staff. It is not obvious to people outside of RCD how their skills and experience map to the RCD profession, and staff currently in RCD roles lack resources to create a professional development plan. To address these gaps, the CaRCC RCD Career Arcs working group has embarked upon an effort to gain a deeper understanding of the paths that RCD professionals follow across their careers. An important step in that effort is a recent survey the working group conducted of RCD professionals on key factors that influence decisions in the course of their careers. This survey gathered responses from over 200 respondents at institutions across the United States. This paper presents our initial findings and analyses of the data gathered. We describe how various genders, career stages, and types of RCD roles impact the ranking of these factors, and note that while there are differences across these groups, respondents were broadly consistent in their assessment of the importance of these factors. In some cases, the responses clearly distinguish RCD professionals from the broader workforce, and even other Information Technology professionals.

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References

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Cultivating Cyberinfrastructure Careers through Student Engagement at Texas A&M University High Performance Research ComputingPractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2024: Human Powered Computing10.1145/3626203.3670544(1-6)Online publication date: 17-Jul-2024
  • (2023)The Inclusive Conferences Survey: Analysis and validation of inclusivity at HPC conferencesPractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2023: Computing for the Common Good10.1145/3569951.3597580(363-366)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2023
  • (2023)Career Phases in Research Computing and DataPractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2023: Computing for the Common Good10.1145/3569951.3597562(374-377)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2023
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cover image ACM Conferences
PEARC '22: Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2022: Revolutionary: Computing, Connections, You
July 2022
455 pages
ISBN:9781450391610
DOI:10.1145/3491418
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Published: 08 July 2022

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  1. CI
  2. Career Arcs
  3. Cyberinfrastructure
  4. Professionalization
  5. RCD
  6. Research Computing and Data

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Cultivating Cyberinfrastructure Careers through Student Engagement at Texas A&M University High Performance Research ComputingPractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2024: Human Powered Computing10.1145/3626203.3670544(1-6)Online publication date: 17-Jul-2024
  • (2023)The Inclusive Conferences Survey: Analysis and validation of inclusivity at HPC conferencesPractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2023: Computing for the Common Good10.1145/3569951.3597580(363-366)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2023
  • (2023)Career Phases in Research Computing and DataPractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2023: Computing for the Common Good10.1145/3569951.3597562(374-377)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2023
  • (2023)Professionalization of Research Computing and Data: An Expanded AgendaPractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2023: Computing for the Common Good10.1145/3569951.3593610(129-136)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2023
  • (2023)Compensation of Academic Research Computing and Data ProfessionalsPractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2023: Computing for the Common Good10.1145/3569951.3593599(145-152)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2023
  • (2022)Characterizing the US Research Computing and Data (RCD) WorkforcePractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2022: Revolutionary: Computing, Connections, You10.1145/3491418.3530289(1-7)Online publication date: 8-Jul-2022
  • (2022)For the Public Good: Connecting, Retaining, and Recognizing Current and Future RSEs at U.S. National Research Laboratories and AgenciesComputing in Science and Engineering10.1109/MCSE.2023.325675924:6(6-13)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2022

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