Sunday, January 25, 2009

Dice Annual Salary Survey | 2009

The 2008-09 Annual Salary Survey from Dice reveals that the average technology salary in Boston exceeds $84,000.

Dice.com is the leading career site for technology and engineering professionals.

The survey analyzes responses of more than 19,000 technology workers and was conducted between August and November 2008.

Average Salaries

The average salary nationwide for a technology worker exceeds $78,000. Salaries are higher, on average, in larger metropolitan areas. Four metropolitan areas command higher average salaries than Boston. They are as follows:

  1. Silicon Valley | $97,259
  2. Washington D.C. | $86,841
  3. Los Angeles | $86,766
  4. New York | $85,452
  5. Boston | $84,627

Salaries by Job Title

Here are the average salaries nationwide for selected job titles:

  • IT Management | $111,998
  • Project Manager | $103,424
  • MIS Manager | $93,318
  • Software Engineer | $90,031
  • Database Administrator | $89,742
  • Developer: Systems | $87,211
  • Security Analyst | $86,778
  • Business Analyst | $85,933
  • Developer: Applications | $84,672
  • Developer: Database | $84,176
  • Developer: Client/Server | $78,560
  • Programmer/Analyst | $74,851
  • Technical Writer | $73,762
  • Network Engineer | $72,496
  • Systems Administrator | $70,307

What Worries Technology Workers?

The top worries for technology professionals, according to the survey, are as follows:

  • keeping skills up to date | 22 percent
  • job elimination | 20 percent
  • lower salary increases | 14 percent
  • cancelled projects | 12 percent
  • increased workload due to staff cuts | 10 percent

Keep Skills Up-to-Date

According to a Dice spokesperson:

"... over the long-term, updating and broadening one's skill set is the key to continued salary gains."

If your salary falls below the average for your metropolitan area, consider developing a plan to upgrade your technology skills in 2009. What skills should you focus on? Check out the Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston in the right-hand column.

Currently there are nearly 200 Web-related postings on the Dice job board for the Boston metro area. As part of your skills upgrade plan, check out these postings and compare your skill set with the skills that employers are currently demanding.

A press release summarizing the Dice Annual Salary Survey is available at the Dice website.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Ignite Boston 5

This FREE networking event is coordinated by O'Reilly Media.

Keynote presentations will kick off the evening followed by guest speakers who'll catch you up on the "cool, new, innovative stuff going on in technology today." Presentations are informal and lightning fast -- each presenter talks for five minutes max!

Books, t-shirts and other promotional items will be raffled off.

This is a fun event -- the fifth in a series. Space is limited to the first 250 registrants. Sign up now.

Details

Access Ignite Boston for details and registration.

Also, consider joining the Ignite Boston Social Network to begin networking with more than 100 Web 2.0 professionals in the metro Boston area.

Of course, you should also consider joining the Ignite Boston Facebook group.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Boston Market | Q1 2008

Technology workers will continue to weather the current economic turmoil better than many other professionals, according to John Challenger, CEO of outplacement and job recruitment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The demand is expected to be stronger than average for technology workers with the following skills:

  • systems engineers
  • application developers
  • database professionals

Challenger predicted in a recent interview that growth will be strong in the following two areas:

  • mobile technology
  • electronic medical records

Boston Market | January

Despite Challenger's outlook, the job market continued to slow in December. There are fewer job postings in early January than there were in early December. This seasonal effect is typical in strong markets, as well as weak ones.

This quarterly report on the marketplace for technology professionals in the Boston metro area will look at bigger picture trends for 50 Web-related technologies.

Top 20 Web Technologies

There are fewer job listings this month than last month for 19 of the top 20 technologies. The lone exception:

  • Ajax | 103 (job listings)

The list of the most in-demand Web-related technologies has been updated and appears in the right-hand column along with links to job postings for that technology at Boston.com.

Nine Month Trend

Job opportunities peaked in the second quarter of 2008. On average there were a staggering THREE TIMES as many opportunities posted at Boston.com in April 2008 than there are today.

For example, SQL remains the most in-demand skill to add to your portfolio. Today, there are more than 500 postings that mention "SQL" in the job description. In April 2008 there were more than 1,500 postings! This ratio holds for each of the Top 10 skills listed in the right-hand column.

Good news: There are more than 500 postings for workers with SQL knowledge and experience! Database skills are in demand.

More good news: Job opportunities historically increase from January through April.

The Remaining 30 Skills

Here are a few popular Web-related skills that have not made the Top 20 list:

#29 Visual Studio | 40 (job listings)
#32 Illustrator | 30
#33 Dreamweaver | 28
#35 Ruby | 26
#39 InDesign | 20
#41 Rails | 19
#50 ColdFusion | 10

In addition, Web-related buzz words that simply do translate into job demand include the following:

  • Silverlight
  • Fireworks
  • Adobe + Flex
  • WordPress
  • Drupal
  • Joomla
  • Adobe AIR

Claiming expertise in these technologies will not likely improve your profile with technology recruiters. None of these technologies currently offer more than single-digit job opportunities.

The Next Step

In a challenging job market, it is wise to follow market demand trends and the Boston marketplace is pointing to the Top 20 Skills in the right-hand column. The best value in the market in January can be found in the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN).

A one-day MSDN Developer Conference will travel through Boston on Thursday, January 22. Top 20 Skills that will be covered at this conference include the following:

#1 SQL
#4 SQL Server
#6 C#
#9 Web Services
#10 ASP.NET
#11 Ajax
#12 HTML & CSS
#20 IIS

If you are new to Microsoft's approach to Web development, this series of presentations can provide an overview of why Microsoft's technologies are in-demand. Getting in the door will require a $99 investment. Details are available at MDC Boston.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Mobile Monday Boston

Developing websites for mobile devices is expected to provide significant growth opportunities for Web designers/developers, even in a down economy. See The Next Five Years | Part 2 for details.

To learn more about the mobile web marketplace consider attending Mobile Monday Boston.

Compelling Mobile Business Models

Six speakers from Boston-area mobile companies will discuss their organization’s current business model, how the model has evolved over time, and the impact of the current economic climate.

Keynote:

Jeff Glass | Bain Capital Ventures

Speakers:

Details

Event > Mobile Monday Boston
Date > Monday, January 12, 2009
Time > 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Where > Boston | Langham Hotel
Description > This FREE seminar is brought to you compliments of Bain Capital Ventures.

Registration for this FREE event is required.