BATEC Workforce Study

"Technical skills get you the interview, soft skills get you the job."

This is just one conclusion from a study presented at the Boston Area Advanced Technological Education Connections (BATEC) IT Futures Forum conducted at Staples headquarters on February 2.

This study presented data on current and future information technology (IT) workforce skills requirements in the Boston area. Data was compiled as a result of live focus groups and telephone interviews and was gathered from the following three sources:

• IT workers
• hiring managers
• strategic planners

For students the research attempted to answer two questions:

• Who is getting the jobs now?
• Who gets to keep them in the future?

Technical skills:

Career growth potential is a function of the technical area that you chose to focus on. In general, Web developers (programmers) with database knowledge and expertise should do quite well. The research projected the following outlook for the greater Boston area:

Much faster than average growth potential:

• database design and administration

Faster than average growth potential:

• Web development and administration
• Digital media (desktop publisher)
• Programmer

About average growth potential:

• technical writing
• technical training

Declining growth potential:

• technical support (help desk)

Soft Skills:

In addition, customer service skills are in demand as more IT jobs are becoming customer-facing. Technical workers should highlight experience working with the following three groups:

• internal customers
• external customers
• potential customers

Finally, employability skills, in addition to technical skills, factor into the soft skill set that will help win over the hiring manager. Listed below are eight general skills that employers are looking for. Providing examples during an interview of how you have implemented these skills in a work setting will help separate you from your competition:

• communication (oral and written)
• work productively in teams and groups
• customer and business focus
• listen for meaning and comprehension
• resourceful and creative problem solving
• prioritize work and self evaluate
• comprehend and communicate quantitatively
• develop original solutions to novel problems

The PowerPoint presentation and streaming video of Peter Saflund's presentation are available on the BATEC website. The full report is expected to be published by the end of February.