Two surveys provide insights into how workers find jobs and what employers are looking for in candidates.
Who You Know
How did you secure your most recent position?
- "word-of-mouth" referrals | 28 percent
- online job postings | 19 percent
- recruitment/staffing firms | 16 percent
- direct approaches from employers | 16 percent
More than 18,000 U.S. workers were included in these findings which were presented in the Kelly Global Workforce Index. This report is rich with information about the emerging effects of social media on job search and is worth a deeper look. [ Press Release 
What You Know
What skills sets are employers looking for in new grads?
- communications skills (written + verbal) | 69 percent
- technical skills | 57 percent
- project management skills | 44 percent
These findings included more than 2,800 hiring managers and human resource professionals and are reported in CareerBuilder’s Annual College Job Forecast.
Seven-Day Action Plan
Based on these findings, here are three questions to ask yourself about your goals for this week:
~ What networking event will I attend?
~ What article will I write or presentation will I make to my industry peers?
~ What project will I manage from start to finish?
Boston Market
Now for the technical skills. The list of Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston has been updated for May and is presented in the right-hand column. Many of the technical skills posted increases over the past 30 days. Twelve of the 20 skills were mentioned more frequently in job descriptions posted at Boston.com than this time last month.
The double-digit movers on the plus side were as follows:
#08 "Web Services" | 267 job postings 
#12 JSP | 181 job postings
#13 UI | 176 job postings
#18 Photoshop | 148 job postings
Bottom line: Interpersonal skills + technical skills = increased opportunity
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