Monday, November 05, 2007

2007 WebAward Winners

The Web Marketing Association recently announced the winners of its eleventh annual WebAward Competition for Web site development. More than 2,400 sites from 40 countries were considered during this year's competition.

Entries were judged on the following criteria:

  • design
  • copy writing
  • innovation
  • content
  • interactivity
  • navigation
  • use of technology

Web designers and developers can review these award-winning websites to spark inspiration and benchmark industry trends.

Best of Show

Disney took home the best of the best award for the following site: Disney.com / Disney XD

Best of Industry

Here are the Best of Industry winners in 96 categories:

Additional websites are available for review in each category by searching the WebAward site. A press release is also available for review.

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Friday, November 02, 2007

Boston Market -- November

The employment picture in Boston is currently giving mixed signals.

On the One Hand

The Hudson Employment Index reveals that Bostonians are a little gloomier about job prospects than their counterparts in other metropolitan areas. Boston registered its lowest scores in the last 12 months.

The Monster Employment Index revealed that New England recorded larger than average gains in job postings in the last month compared with other regions of the country. However, its Index for Boston (pdf) is tracking the "slowest annual growth rate on record."

On the Other Hand

The same Hudson Employment Index revealed "a huge demand for skills, and some of it is going unfilled," according to a Hudson representative quoted in InformationWeek. Web development skills that are most in-demand include Ajax and Java programmers.

"Demand for IT workers in the U.S. remains healthy and will likely remain that way for the remainder of the year,” according to a spokesperson representing the Spherion IT Employment Report.

Small and medium-sized business (SMBs) are optimistic about the business outlook for the next 12 months and plan to invest in technology and staff. A Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) survey of more than 700 business owners with less than 1,000 employees reveals that technology investment is a vehicle for enhancing productivity.

What to Ask

So, what is a web technology professional to do? Focus on implementing technology solutions that help both you and the organization(s) you represent become more productive.

Ask yourself the following three questions:

Question #1

Can I demonstrate that the most important project I am currently working on is enhancing the productivity of my organization by increasing revenue or decreasing expenses?

Question #2

Do I have a plan for developing a technology skill that has value in today's marketplace (see the Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston in the right-hand column)?

Question #3

What networking activity can I undertake to enhance my contacts in the marketplace?

Where to Go

If you are looking for a way to enhance your technical skills and develop new contacts, consider attending Flex Camp Boston. The day-long series of seminars on Friday, December 7 is designed to introduce you to Adobe Flex 2, an entry into the emerging Rich Internet Application (RIA) marketplace.

Flex 2 is not yet a Top 20 skill. However, you can't go wrong when you get to learn an emerging technology and network with your peers for only $10! Register now while seats are still available.

What to Do

If you are looking to develop two Top 20 skills (PHP and SQL) that are in demand today, consider taking an online course entitled PHP & MySQL: Building Web Applications.

The course is FREE and made available compliments of Hewlett-Packard. The course runs from November 2 through December 7.

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Design Deadline

Design Deadline is a new Web-based service developed to help Web designers complete projects in a timely manner.

If you are a Web designer working on an independent project and are looking for a little extra motivation to complete a project, then consider turning to your online peers for help.

Simply Register

If you are working on a redesign, simply upload a "before" screen shot of the current Website anytime before the monthly deadline. Then, upload an "after" screen shot of your redesign within a week of the deadline.

Once the deadline has passed registered users will be allowed to comment on your design work and provide feedback. Since only registered users will be allowed to comment, the feedback you receive will likely be from fellow designers who are motivated enough to review your work and professional enough to provided meaningful feedback.

The service can be useful for Web applications, company sites, personal blogs, redesigns, brand new designs — you name it. As a member of Design Deadline you can rank sites, comment on them and identify favorites.

First Tuesday

Mark your calendar for the first Tuesday of every month. The first portfolio review is scheduled for February 5, 2008.

The Creator

This service was developed by Adam Howell, a UI (user interface) designer and front-end engineer at Google. Check out Design Deadline and sign up today.

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Monday, October 29, 2007

Tech Worker Hourly Wages

Technology wages are near an all-time high recorded in February according to a newly released quarterly survey of more than 9,000 hiring managers representing more than 15 major metropolitan areas.

Yoh Index of Technology Wages

The average hourly wage for tech workers approaches $32 per hour.

Not all technology skills are valued equally, however. Among the hottest skills, according to Yoh Index of Technology Wages are the following:

  • Java developers
  • .Net developers
  • Oracle database administrators
The average hourly wage of a Java developer, for example, approaches $51 per hour.

This tech profile mirrors the demand for technology workers as identified in the Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston located in the right-hand column.

Demand for .NET Developers

The demand for .NET developers also parallels recent trends.

Two competing technologies for developing interactive websites are PHP and ASP.NET. According to PHP's own website, PHP usage has leveled off after years of growth.

The Web server technology platforms that support PHP and ASP.NET are Apache and Internet Information Server (IIS), respectively.

According to Netcraft's monthly Market Share for Top Servers, Apache's commanding market share has dropped to 50% for the first time since 1998. Microsoft's share has climbed to an all-time high of 35 percent.

Fortune 1000 Web Servers

Further analysis reveals that Microsoft web server technology holds a commanding lead in the large companies that comprise the Fortune 1000.

According to port80 Software, web server share in this market is as follows:

.NET Future

Demand for .NET developers should stay strong, if not expand, as Microsoft continues on a pace of reporting its fastest quarterly operating growth since 1999. The company has already begun focusing its formidable marketing resources ahead of the release of SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 scheduled for the first quarter of the new year.

If your target market is medium to large companies, you can't afford to bet against Microsoft. Consider adding ASP.NET to your Web development arsenal by downloading express (free) editions of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Web Developer today.

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Sunday, October 28, 2007

Mass High Tech All Stars

The 16 most influential and dynamic leaders from across New England's innovation economy were honored at a ceremony last week coordinated by Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology.

A special Distinguished Alumnus Award was presented to Desh Deshpande, Founder and Chairman, Sycamore Networks, Inc.

Here are the remaining honorees in each category:

Internet

Jeremy Allaire, Founder & CEO | Brightcove, Inc.

Interactive Media

Thomas Burgess, Founder and CEO | Third Screen Media

Media Web 2.0

Joe Chung, Co-Founder and CEO | Allurent, Inc.

Telecom

Meredith Flynn-Ripley, CEO | Integra5, Inc.

Finance

Michael Greeley, Founder & General Partner | IDG Ventures

Robotics

Helen Greiner , Co-Founder & Chairman | iRobot Corp.
Colin Angle, Co-Founder & CEO | iRobot Corp.

Software

Dev Ittycheria, President, CEO & Director | BladeLogic, Inc.

Hardware

Yael Maguire, Co-Founder & CTO | ThingMagic, Inc.

Networks

Andy Ory, Co-Founder, President & CEO | Acme Packet, Inc.

Medical Devices

Amar Sawhney, Founder, President & CEO | I-Therapeutix Inc.

Storage

Jit Saxena, Chairman & CEO | Netezza Corp.

Energy

David Vieau, President & CEO | A123 Systems, Inc.

Information Systems

Bill Warner, Founder | Warner Research, LLC

Life Sciences

Christoph Westphal, Vice Chairman & CEO | Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. Inc.

Defense

Elizabeth Wilson, Engineering Fellow | Raytheon Company

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Friday, October 19, 2007

2007 Technology Leadership Awards

The Mass Technology Leadership Council recognized leading individuals and companies in Massachusetts at an awards banquet last evening.

The individual awards recognize the best and brightest technology innovators and leaders. The corporate awards are bestowed upon companies that either develop or implement innovative technology solutions.

Here are the honorees (category winner identified with a ★):

Individual Categories

CEO of the Year

CIO of the Year

CTO of the Year

CXO of the Year

Emerging Executive of the Year

Mover and Shaker of the Year

Corporate Categories

Enterprise Applications

Communications / Infrastructure

Consumer

Innovation

User / Implementer

Details can be found in three press releases (1, 2, 3) available from Mass High Tech.

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Web Design Survey

Nearly 33,000 web professionals worldwide contributed to a survey on the business of web design and development. The survey was conducted by A List Apart.

Here are a few highlights . . .

Demographics

The largest age group (44%) are between the ages of 25 and 32. A majority (52%) have a Bachelor's degree. An overwhelming majority (83%) are male.

Where We Work

Most Web professionals (73%) work in one of three environments:

  • corporation -- 28%
  • self-employed -- 23%
  • consulting agency -- 22%

Show Me The Money

The two largest salary categories are as follows:

  • $40k to $60k -- 23%
  • $20k to $40k -- 20%

Six Figures

Six percent of Web professionals earn six figure salaries. Of these the most common job titles are as follows:

  • accessibility expert
  • creative director
  • information architect
  • interface designer
  • usability expert
  • web producer
  • web director

Staying Current

The most popular methods of staying current in the field are as follows:

  • websites/blogs/zines -- 95%
  • trial & error -- 78%
  • books -- 76%

Most Valuable Skills

The four most valuable skills respondents said they needed to succeed in their current job are as follows:

  • Markup (XHTML) -- 81%
  • Development (PHP, ASP.NET) -- 78%
  • Coding (CSS) -- 78%
  • Programming (JavaScript) -- 76%

Between 20 percent and 25 percent of Web professionals say the they don't have the skills they need to succeed.

Download a detailed 81-page summary (pdf) of the A List Apart survey.

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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Where Does Boston Rank?

When it comes to high tech employment which areas of the country come to mind first?

  • Silicon Valley?
  • Seattle?
  • Boston?

Buried Treasure

A new report reveals that none of these three areas are among the Top Four high tech employment centers in the United States. In fact, Boston is only the third largest technology center on the East Coast.

According to this report the New York City metropolitan area employs nearly twice as many technology professionals as the greater Boston area.

Here are the largest metropolitan areas for technology workers along with the total number of workers:

  1. New York City -- 620,000
  2. Los Angeles -- 484,000
  3. Washington, DC -- 377,000
  4. Chicago -- 356,000
  5. Boston -- 318,000
  6. San Jose -- 251,000
  7. Seattle -- 209,000

A press release of "Buried Treasure: New York City's Hidden Technology Sector" is available for review. An Executive Summary (pdf) is also available, as well as, a Full Report (pdf) from the Industrial and Technology Assistance Corporation (ITAC).

The Dice Report

Dice.com -- "The Career Hub for Tech Insiders" -- publishes The Dice Report . The September findings confirm the relative size of the Boston job market. Currently, there are more than 4,000 high tech job vacancies posted at their Boston Dice Website, ranking Boston as the sixth largest technology marketplace.

The Top Tech Skills according to Dice.com are as follows:

Operating Systems
  • Windows
  • Unix
Databases
  • Oracle
  • SQL
Programming Languages
  • C, C++, C#
  • J2EE/Java

High Tech Pays Well

Average salaries according to "Buried Treasure" exceed $75,000.

Average salaries according to "The Dice Report" exceed $73,000.

Boston Two Step

According to the Dice Tech Appeal Index, more than 90 percent of technology professionals continue to be overwhelmingly satisfied and loyal to the technology field. More than 85 percent of technology professionals are likely to recommend technology as a career to others.

If you are a Web designer/developer and would like one of these high paying high tech jobs, consider setting measurable targets in each of the following two areas:

  • upgrade your network of contacts -- how many of the 318,000 tech workers in the Boston area are part of your professional network?
  • upgrade your skill set -- developing database and programming skills will enhance your employment opportunities
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Monday, October 08, 2007

MITX Awards Finalists, Part 2

The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) has announced the finalists for the 2007 MITX Awards. This 12th annual initiative recognizes excellence in the creation of interactive technologies designed, produced, or developed in New England.

Finalists were announced in two awards categories:

  • Part 1 reviews the General Categories finalists
  • Part 2 reviews the BIMA Categories finalists

BIMA Categories

BIMA Categories represents online marketing, mobile, video and search campaigns as well as social media and other emerging technology programs.

The Boston Interactive Media Association (BIMA) is New England’s only online advertising focused industry group, comprised of over 2,000 online advertising and marketing professionals with business interests in the New England market.

Web designers and developers can review The Finalists below to identify award-winning techniques and trends.

Acquisition/Direct Marketing Campaign

Best Integrated Campaign

Best Use of Mobile

Best Use of Search

Best Use of Social Media

Best Use of Sponsorship

Best Use of Video

Brand/Launch Campaign

Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday, November 8.

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Saturday, October 06, 2007

MITX Awards Finalists, Part 1

The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) has announced the finalists for the 2007 MITX Awards. This 12th annual initiative recognizes excellence in the creation of interactive technologies designed, produced, or developed in New England.

Finalists were announced in two awards categories:

  • Part 1 reviews the General Categories finalists
  • Part 2 reviews the BIMA Categories finalists

General Categories

General Categories represents Web projects in 17 industry categories, as well as, two special categories of applied technology and rich media application.

Of The Finalists listed below, Web professionals should definitely check out Website Grader, a finalist in the Rich Media Application category. This free Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tool measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. The application provides an overall score along with basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

Web designers and developers can review The Finalists below to identify award-winning techniques and trends.

The Finalists

Applied Technology

Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals

Consumer Goods

Corporate Training and Support

Education and Learning

Educational Institution

Entertainment/Sports

Financial Services

Government

Health and Fitness

Human Resources

Kids, 'Tweens & Teens

Nonprofit

Online Commerce

Professional Services

Real Estate

Rich Media Application (RIA)

Social Computing

Technology

Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality

Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday, November 8.

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Thursday, October 04, 2007

Q4 Hiring Surveys

Five employment-related surveys released over the past four weeks paint a landscape of positive, but slower growing, jobs prospects through the remainder of 2007.

Manpower Employment Outlook Survey

This survey of 14,000 U.S. employers reveals that companies have conservative hiring plans in the fourth quarter. Three times as many employers expect to increase their workforces than trim their payrolls, a decrease from previous quarters.

CEO Economic Outlook Survey

A survey of more than 100 corporate executives reveals that "CEOs see a modest decline in economic conditions in the coming months." The CEOs in this survey represent companies that employ more than 10 million workers. "The latest results continue a pattern of gradual decline in expectations since the beginning of the year," the survey concludes.

Help-Wanted OnLine Data Series

This monthly measure of online job posting activity reveals that the rate of growth in job posting has slowed in areas like the Northeast where online job advertising has been popular for some time. Still, New England continues to offer one of the highest ads rates in the country (3.65 ads per 100 persons in the regional labor force). Technology continues to be one of the top occupations with the most online ads posted.

Q4 2007 Job Forecast

CareerBuilder.com released its quarterly survey that projects "cautious, but steady" hiring. More than four times as many employers expect to grow their workforce than trim their workforce over the next three months. The information technology industry expects to hire more workers than in most other sectors.

Hudson Employment Index

This index of the workforce's overall confidence in the employment market presented the most cautionary outlook. The national index dropped for the second month in a row indicating that workers are concerned about future job prospects. The Boston Index also dropped on a decrease in hiring expectations. However, the industry-specific IT Workers Index reveals that IT workers are the happiest they've been two years!

Conclusion

Technology workers remain in demand; however, jobs are expected to be harder to come by over the next three months. Each worker must remain vigilant about expanding his/her personal marketplace by focusing on both of the following:

  • upgrading your skills
  • expanding your network of contacts

Remember:

It's not what you know.
It's not who your know.
It's how well you network what you know with who you know.

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Monday, October 01, 2007

Boston Market -- 4th Quarter, 2007

October marks the expansion of the Top 10 Web Technologies in Boston. The list has now doubled to include the The Top 20.

This analysis provides links to job postings in the greater Boston area and is ranked in order by how many times that technology is currently listed in job postings at Boston.com/Monster.com.

The Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston can be found in the right-hand column.

Data Rocks

In the Information Economy data rocks. Demand for database expertise continues as three of the top five web-related technologies are database-related: SQL, Oracle and SQL Server. Rounding out the top five are HTML and Java.

Web Scripting

Lurking just outside of the top five are two technologies that offer upside potential for forward-thinking Web professionals:

Each technology is listed more than 600 times in job descriptions posted in the greater Boston area. Proficiency in these two technologies opens doors to Web-based jobs. In addition, these two languages combine to form the basis for the fastest growing technology in the Boston Market today. That technology is . . .

  • Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

Ajax sits in 16th place in the demand rankings. Ajax is now listed in more job postings than either Flash or PHP at 17th and 18th places, respectively.

The job demand curve for XML, JavaScript and Ajax looks as follows:

Demand for Ajax-trained professionals has exploded from virtually zero to more than 200 jobs in just over two years!

FREE Ajax Course

If you would like your Web career to sparkle like a freshly scrubbed bathroom, consider learning more about Ajax. The best training opportunity in the fourth quarter of 2007 promises to be an 18-week "Free" AJAX Programming (with Passion!) Online Course.

The course was developed by a technology architect, consultant, and evangelist at Sun Microsystems. The next session starts Monday, October 15.

Prerequisites include the following:

  • 1 month Java programming experience
  • 1 month web application programming experience
  • some HTML experience would be helpful but not required
  • some JavaScript experience would helpful but not required

Tutorials are available to help meet the basic requirements.

Once you have successfully completed the course you will receive a certificate stating the you have "Mastered Ajax Programming Truly with Passion!"

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Sunday, September 23, 2007

New England Technology Fast 50

The 11th annual New England Technology Fast 50 list has been released. It ranks the fastest growing companies by percentage of revenue growth over the last five calendar years.

The ranking includes companies in the following four business sectors:

  • technology
  • media
  • telecommunications
  • life sciences

Technology companies predominate the list, as do companies from Massachusetts.

Rising Stars

A special category called "Rising Stars" recognized the fastest growing companies over a three-year period. These companies were:

Fast growing companies need "rising star" employees to keep growing. If you have a technology background and are looking to make a career move, then consider targeting these Fast 50 companies.

The List

Here are the 50 fastest growing technology companies in New England:

  1. iTech US, Inc. (South Burlington, VT)
  2. Vestmark, Inc. (Wakefield)
  3. Litle & Co. (Lowell)
  4. Airvana, Inc. (Chelmsford)
  5. SiGe Semiconductor, Inc. (Methuen)
  6. IneoQuest Technologies, Inc. (Mansfield)
  7. Endeca Technologies, Inc. (Cambridge)
  8. Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Cambridge)
  9. TheNextRound, Inc. (Westborough)
  10. Bullhorn, Inc. (Boston)
  11. Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Lexington)
  12. NitroMed, Inc. (Lexington)
  13. Evergreen Solar, Inc. (Marlborough)
  14. Constant Contact, Inc. (Waltham)
  15. NeuroMetrix, Inc. (Waltham)
  16. iRobot Corp. (Burlington)
  17. SoundBite Communications, Inc. (Burlington)
  18. Indevus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Lexington)
  19. Compete, Inc. (Boston)
  20. OpenPages, Inc. (Waltham)
  21. NameMedia, Inc. (Waltham)
  22. Dealer.com, Inc. (Burlington, VT)
  23. Vertical Communications, Inc. (Cambridge)
  24. VistaPrint USA, Inc. (Lexington)
  25. Infoscitex Corp. (Waltham)
  26. Network Engines, Inc. (Canton)
  27. Smarter Living, Inc. (Boston)
  28. VoiceSignal Technologies, Inc. (Woburn)
  29. Agiltron, Inc. (Woburn)
  30. CardioTech International, Inc. (Wilmington)
  31. Veroxity Technology Partners, Inc. (Bedford)
  32. Biogen Idec, Inc. (Cambridge)
  33. IPG Photonics Corp. (Oxford)
  34. Capital Fulfillment Group, Inc. (Hingham)
  35. Data Intensity, Inc. (Bedford)
  36. Oscient Pharmaceuticals Corp. (Waltham)
  37. ImmunoGen, Inc. (Cambridge)
  38. Clinical Data, Inc. (Newton)
  39. Sepracor, Inc. (Marlborough)
  40. Salary.com, Inc. (Waltham)
  41. Palomar Medical Technologies, Inc. (Burlington)
  42. OpenAir, Inc. (Boston)
  43. Virtusa Corp. (Westborough)
  44. Nucryst Pharmaceuticals Corp. (Wakefield)
  45. Click Tactics, Inc. (Waltham)
  46. Ektron, Inc. (Nashua, NH)
  47. Double-Take Software, Inc. (Southborough)
  48. Caliper Life Sciences, Inc. (Hopkinton)
  49. Hittite Microwave Corp. (Chelmsford)
  50. Diomed Holdings, Inc. (Andover)

Deloitte & Touche and Mass High Tech both provide summaries of the New England Technology Fast 50 ranking.

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Sunday, September 16, 2007

IT Faculty Survey

Young professionals looking at career options should heed the advice of information technology (IT) instructors at colleges and universities.

Survey Says . . .

According to a recent survey, the two categories of applications that IT instructors rated student proficiency levels as "limited" or “no proficiency” are as follows:

  1. database applications (68 percent)
  2. spreadsheets (46 percent)

Here are the remaining technology skills in which students are considered most lacking by IT instructors:

  • graphic design software
  • multimedia applications
  • web creation
  • web conferencing

According to the survey results, IT instructors expect that more than half of their students will utilize IT skills in their careers after graduation.

The survey results included nearly 800 faculty members, who teach IT courses at four- or two-year colleges and universities. Cengage Learning, formerly Thomson Learning, sponsored this second annual technology survey. A summary is available for review.

The Opportunity

The survey concludes: "This is not a skill set confined to particular major or career interest – it is a life skill."

The Web is calling and young professionals are surprisingly lacking in training in how to use graphic design software and related Web creation tools. Not-so-surprising, young professionals are most ill-prepared to manage data in database applications.

Conclusion

A web professional with database knowledge should continue to do well in today's knowledge economy. As reported consistently in Beantown Web, database knowledge in the form of structured query language (SQL) is the most in-demand technical skill (see right-hand column).

high SQL demand + low SQL supply = employment opportunity

If you are new to SQL, the best training opportunity available in September is self-paced training. Check out a newly released book entitled Head First SQL (Your Brain on SQL -- A Learner's Guide). A 50% discount coupon code offer applies until the end of September when ordering directly from O'Reilly Media. Combined with free shipping, an investment of under $23 is a nominal price to pay for an significant upside of career opportunities.

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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Two Jobs Reports

Despite a weak jobs report that stirred concern on Wall Street late last week, two new surveys suggest that a strong jobs market is expected to continue for information technology (IT) workers.

The EDGE Report

The Employment Dynamics and Growth Expectations (EDGE) Report was released last week. The report concludes that employers are finding that workers are most difficult to recruit in the following category:

  • Professional and technical

In particular the three most challenging positions to fill are as follows:

  1. sales
  2. customer service
  3. information technology

Here are the three primary reasons why companies say they are finding it difficult to fill vacant positions [ percentage of respondents ]:

  1. shortage of qualified workers [ 52% ]
  2. inability to offer competitive compensation [ 19% ]
  3. inability to offer career advancement opportunities [ 6% ]

The survey includes responses from more than 1,000 hiring managers and 900 workers, and was conducted from mid-July to early-August by Harris Interactive on behalf of Robert Half International (RHI) and CareerBuilder.com.

An eight-page summary (pdf) of The EDGE Report is available for download.

RHT IT Hiring Index & Skills Report

A quarterly report from Robert Half Technology takes a closer look at the IT market by surveying chief information officers (CIOs). While 14 percent of CIOs polled expect to add IT staff in the fourth quarter of this year, only two percent anticipate cutbacks.

Here are a few questions and responses that are relevant to Web technology professionals:

"Within your IT department which single job area is experiencing the most growth?"

  • data/database management [ 11% ]
  • internet/intranet development [ 9% ]
  • other responses [ 80% ]

"Which of the following technical skill sets are most in-demand within your IT department?"

  • database management [ 60% ]
  • .NET development [ 22% ]

A press release of the Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index & Skills Report is available along with links to Hot IT Jobs and IT Skills in Demand.

Summary

These two reports suggest that technology workers are expected to have more career options than many other workers through the remainder of the year. However, not all technology skills have the same demand profile.

Web professionals who are targeting organizations with 100 or more employees for employment opportunities will do well to highlight experience with the following Microsoft-centric technologies:

  • SQL Server
  • ASP.NET

Open source advocates can consider making the transition by downloading MySQL and developing a solid command of Structured Query Language (SQL).

Conclusion

More than 1,800 job postings in the greater Boston area currently list SQL among their requirements, making it the most in-demand Web-related skill and a core component of database-driven Web 2.0 sites. Can you afford not to structure your technical skills around SQL?

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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Effective Networking

Nearly half of senior level executives surveyed are "confident" or "very confident" that the executive employment market will improve during the next six months. This level of optimism provides encouragement for those attempting to capitalize on end-of-year hiring plans.

While many of us may not be in the hunt for executive level jobs, we can learn a few lessons from those currently in executive positions who have demonstrated success at finding and excelling in jobs with significant responsibility and commensurate compensation.

Three Rules

According to ExecuNet, the executive career and business networking organization, networking consistently ranks as the most effective method for developing job opportunities. Executives report nearly twice as many interviews obtained by this method than any other approach.

Here are three rules for effective networking, according to ExecuNet:
  • Offer Help Before Asking For It
  • Avoid "Needworking"
  • Don’t Be Shy

Three Networking Opportunities

Here are three opportunities to practice your networking skills within the next week:

One Next Step

So, once you make a new connection by practicing the three rules at one of the three networking events, the next step is to systematically manage your new connections.

According to an article in USA Today, more than 1.4 million senior executives have LinkedIn accounts. Senior executives understand the value of effective networking. Let's follow their lead and the next door that opens might be a door to the corner office.

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Monday, September 03, 2007

Boston Market -- September

MonsterTRAK is the student division of Monster.com, the online careers and recruitment resource. Based on the number of entry-level job opportunities posted to MonsterTRAK, one of the five occupations with the greatest demand for young professionals is the following:

  • Computer, Information Technology and Mathematical
According to a MonsterTRAK press release, this category has provided the greatest increase in opportunities over the past year with programming and web design being among the most desired positions.

Development vs. Design


This month's analysis of the Boston job market reveals that Web programmers are in greater demand than Web designers. A keyword search at Boston.com/Monster.com reveals a demand ratio of 3.5 to 1.0 in favor of Web developers:
Web design and Web development are segments of a continuum of technology skills. These skills can be placed into the following five categories:

structure > presentation > behavior > logic > content

In an open source environment the most popular Web skills in each category are as follows:

HTML > CSS > JavaScript > PHP > MySQL

In a closed source environment (Microsoft, for example) the Web skills in each category are as follows:

HTML > CSS > JavaScript > ASP.NET > SQL Server

Here are the demand rankings for these skills in the greater Boston area, based on keyword searches [ relative ranking of number of jobs posted ]:

  • HTML [ #4 ]
  • JavaScript [ #6 ]
  • SQL Server [ #7 ]
  • ASP.NET [ #11 ]
  • CSS [ #14 ]
  • MySQL [ #19 ]
  • PHP [ #22 ]

Here are four additional skills directly related to the five design/development continuum categories:

You can use this demand analysis to identify one technology with the highest demand ranking not currently in your skill set and commit to a goal of improving that skill over the next 30 days.

A Web technology professional who can deliver an end-to-end solution -- from structure through content -- is valued in today's Boston Market.

Notes:

Top 10 Web Technologies in Boston has been updated for September and appears in the right-hand column.

Average Salaries in Boston has also been updated for September and appears in the right-hand column.

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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Labor Day: Salaries, Part III

This three-part Labor Day special report focuses on three salary surveys.

Part I examines the 2007 AIGA|Aquent Salary Survey.

Part II examines the 2007 InformationWeek IT Salary Survey.

Part III examines the 2007 Redmond's (Microsoft) IT Salary Survey.

Redmond's 12th Annual IT Salary Survey

Redmond Magazine is the independent voice of the Microsoft information technology (IT) community. Its 12th annual Salary Survey is subtitled "Break Out the Bubbly." Presented here are a few highlights that are relevant for Web technology professionals.

The overall base salary of all survey respondents (excluding bonuses) is $72,000. Adding in an average bonus of nearly $6,000 brings average cash compensation to nearly $78,000. Salary Distribution is available for review.

Base salary for a Webmaster/Developer/Producer is $71,600.

"Becoming an expert in implementing technology is a critical component to a better salary," according to a summary of the findings. Here are the average salaries for Web-related professionals based on Technology Expertise:

  • Web Site Development/Management [ $75,100 ]
  • Database Development [ $78,800 ]
  • E-Commerce [ $82,000 ]

Middle-Aged Males

One interesting statistic from the survey reveals that male respondents outnumber female respondents by a ratio of 6-to-1.

Other findings:

  • You don't need a college degree to reach these salary levels -- nearly half of all respondents do not have a college degree.
  • You don't need a certification to reach these salary levels -- non-certified professionals actually out-earn certified professionals.

A 19-page report is available for free from the Tech Library with a one-time registration.

Next Step

If you are new to Microsoft's approach to Web development, check out ASP.NET 2.0: Building Applications, a FREE online course available from the HP Learning Center. Class begins Monday, September 3 with two modules being posted each week for a total of six modules.

Additional Surveys

Labor Day: Salaries, Part I examines the 2007 AIGA|Aquent Salary Survey.

Labor Day: Salaries, Part II examines the 2007 InformationWeek IT Salary Survey.

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