"Life is too short to drink cheap scotch." ~ The Agency Post
The same can been said about reading business books. No need to wait three years. The list has been distilled. Here are the twelve business books that represent the finest that 2013 had to offer.
For the sixth year running Beantown Web has conducted a quasi-scientific
meta-search to identify the best business books published during the calendar year. This year's search began by identifying 12 "Best of" lists as follows:
A total of 118 books were mentioned on at least one "Best of" list. Ninety of these books were mentioned only once. An additional 16 books were mentioned on two lists and these 16 books comprise The Honorable Mention list.
The Fifth Shelf
Three books were mentioned on three lists and have been placed on The Fifth Shelf:
The Fourth Shelf
One book was mentioned on four lists and was placed on The Fourth Shelf:
The Third Shelf
Three books were mentioned on five lists and were placed on The Third Shelf:
The Second Shelf
Two books were mentioned on six lists and were placed on The Second Shelf:
The Top Shelf
Three books were mentioned on seven lists and were placed on The Top Shelf:
Personal Recommendations
I only read one book from this list of 12 and none from the 16 books on the Honorable Mention list. I also read one book from the 90 that were mentioned once. Here are my personal reviews for both books on Goodreads.com:
You can access reviews of all 59 Leadership and Strategy books I have read at Pinterest.
Suggested Success Strategy
Regardless of your professional discipline, web-related or otherwise, business is the engine that drives economic well-being.
The economy continues to improve at a less-than-optimal pace. You can help enhance your economic prospects by
learning more about the business of business.
Goal:
Select one business book from the twelve listed above, read it,
practice its principles and shift your career into a higher
gear in 2014. Of course, you can also grab a bottle of
the finest scotch, select all twelve books, read one per month and receive a guaranteed seat in business class!
Check out previous lists:
[
NOTE: The 16 Honorable Mention books, as well as, the 12 Best Business Books of 2013 will be counted down on Twitter. Follow Beantown Web on Twitter
@webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a
Fan of Beantown Web. ]
Demand remains strong for workers in the Boston area with technology skills.
For example, Dice listed Boston's 10 Most In-Demand Software Skills. In this analysis Ben Hicks from WinterWyman reviewed the skills sought in jobs that have come through his technology search firm since the beginning of the year.
The Ben Hicks Top 10
- Java (including all related open source frameworks)
- Web UI (JavaScript, AJAX, jQuery, Backbone, Angular, etc.)
- C#
- Ruby
- Python
- Mobile (both iOS and Android)
- Full Stack Web App Development (JavaScript, node, etc.)
- PHP
- C++
- Scala
The article concluded ...
"Newer skills such as Ruby, Python, Scala, JavaScript and .node would
be good bets if he were to predict skills with growing demand."
Boston Web Tech Job Market
The list of Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston has
been updated for the fourth quarter. It appears in the right-hand
column and below. This list is broader than the WinterWyman analysis and is based on keyword searches in job postings at Indeed.com. The most in-demand keywords are listed more frequently than less in-demand keywords.
Indeed.com is a
meta-search engine that offers a maximum number of search
possibilities. All searches encompass a 25-mile radius of Boston.
Search parameters can be adjusted to fit your personal needs.
Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston
Here is an abbreviated list of the 20 most in-demand web technologies in Boston.
[ 
or 
from early September ] listed by number of job postings at Indeed.com:
December, 2013
- SQL | 3,623 02%
- Java | 3,009 02%
- agile *** | 2,197 01%
- JavaScript | 2,132 08%
- Oracle | 2,098 03%
- Python | 1,384 06%
- C# | 1,251 03%
- Social Media | 1,240 02%
- "Web Services" | 1,216 01%
- XML | 1,201 00%
- SQL Server | 1,194 02%
- HTML + CSS | 1,055 02%
- UI | 1,019 06%
- jQuery | 961 03%
- MySQL | 918 19%
- SaaS | 915 06%
- Perl | 893 04%
- Ruby | 811 14%
- scrum *** | 740 02%
- PHP | 711 09%
*** Note:
While "agile" and "scrum" are not technologies, they are methodologies used in technology
development. These keywords appear in many web development job descriptions. Experience with "
agile" and "
scrum" is often required or preferred.
An expanded version of this list --
Boston's Top 100 Web Technologies -- is being counted down for the next three months
@webapprentices.
[
NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter
@webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a
Fan of Beantown Web. ]
