Boston Web Tech Job Market | November 2016

The citizens of the United States have spoken and Massachusetts is seeing red.  Over the past three months employers have expressed caution in hiring new employees and this apprehension has resulted in a sea of red arrows (decrease in job postings).

Boston Web Tech Job Market

The list of Top 25 Web Technologies in Boston has been updated for November. It appears in the right-hand column and below.  This list 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. Indeed helps more people get hired than any other jobsite.

Top 25 Web Technologies in Boston

Here is an abbreviated list of the 25 most in-demand web technologies in Boston. [  or  from early August ] listed by number of job postings at Indeed.com:

November, 2016

1. SQL | 4,970  11%
2. Java | 3,758  7%
3. agile *** | 3,623  2%
4. JavaScript | 2,537  16%
5. Python | 2,521  8%
6. social media | 2,150  5%
7. SaaS | 1,648  4%
8. Oracle | 1,616  13%
9. C# | 1,479  13%
10. Web Services | 1,419  6%
11. AWS | 1,360  2%
12. HTML + CSS | 1,286  24%
13. scrum *** | 1,232  6%
14. UI | 1,210  11%
15. SQL Server | 1,135  10%
16. PHP | 1,090  20%
17. iOS | 1,016  21%
18. MySQL | 986  13%
19. API | 970  8%
20. jQuery | 967  26%
21. Ruby | 944  22%
22. Git | 930  15%
23. Perl | 862  8%
24. Angular | 839  15%
25. XML | 817  17%

*** Note: While "agile" and "scrum" are not technologies, they are methodologies used in technology development.  These two  keywords appear in many web development job descriptions.  Experience with "agile" and "scrum" is often preferred, if not required, in many web development jobs.

Recommended Skill Strategy

Select five technical skills in the Top 25 and focus on becoming proficient -- if not expert -- in each technology.  Then, list three links to projects that demonstrate your proficiency in these technologies.

What is the one technical skill holding you back?  If you developed a greater competency in this skill, it would open up more opportunities for you.

Guard against being distracted by "shiny new object" skills that are not listed in the Top 25.  Without having solid core skills in high-demand technologies, you may not experience an optimum return-on-investment in terms of time and energy invested in becoming proficient at lower-demand technical skills.

To help you develop your technical skills consider joining Boston PHP Meetup and participating in one of the following virtual self-study groups:

jQuery jAM, Season 7
PHP Percolate, Season 9
jQuery jAM, Season 8
Drupal Diner, Season 2
jQuery jAM, Season 9

[ Full Disclosure: The author of this blog is one of the co-organizers of Boston PHP Meetup. ]


Recommended Search Strategy

When it comes to landing a new position, here are the strategies that tech workers have found to be most successful:

~ a friend referred them (28 percent)

~ websites other than Stack Overflow (17 percent)

~ external recruiters (14 percent)

~ seeking out an opportunity directly (10 percent)

~ in-house recruiter (10 percent)

~ career fair (6 percent)

So, use Indeed to identify a new opportunity (17 percent), then use your LinkedIn network to land a referral into that company (28 percent).  This combination strategy will maximize your odds of landing an interview, and ultimately, the job.

If you are going to use external recruiters (14 percent), consider working with those recruiters who come highly recommended by others.

Monitoring the Boston Web Tech Job Market

The markets HATE uncertainly.  With the surprise results of the election for United States President, the markets have the potential to act erratic between now and the inauguration in January.  As a result, Beantown Web will monitor the the Boston Web Tech Job Market on a monthly basis (instead of quarterly) until our new president takes office.  I will provide an update to this report on the following dates:

~ December 9, 2016
~ January 9, 2017
~ February 9, 2017

The Top 25 Web Technologies in Boston are being counted down for the next month @webapprentices.

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and become a Fan of Beantown Web on Facebook today.

Boston's Fastest-Growing Private Companies | 2016

Inc. has released it's 2016 list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in America.  Here are the 20 fastest-growing private companies in the Boston area:

1. Paint Nite | Somerville
2. Globalization Partners | Cambridge
3. HAYSTACKID | Boston
4. Downeast Cider House | Charlestown
5. Cambridge Select | Charlestown
6. HomeWorks Energy | Woburn
7. Project Repat | Boston
8. Chicken & Rice Guys | Boston
9. Pixability | Boston
10. Palo Media | Boston
11. Turbonomic | Boston
12. Wicked Good Cupcakes | Cohasset
13. CloudLock | Waltham
14. Augmenix | Waltham
15. Valore | Boston
16. WordStream | Boston
17. BioPoint | Wakefield
18. Northeast Suites | Stoneham
19. The Cambridge Institute | Waltham
20. The Westport Group | Braintree

Fast-growing companies are more likely to be hiring and contracting for services than slow-growing (or shrinking) companies.  The links above will provide you with access to your LinkedIn connections into that company.

For a complete list of nearly 150 of the fastest-growing private companies in the Boston metro area, access the Inc. 5000 filtered for Boston.  You can apply filters for any state or major metropolitan area in the United States.

[ NOTE: You can follow Beantown Web on Facebook and on Twitter. ]

Boston Web Tech Job Market | Q3, 2016

According to the 2016 Open Source Jobs Report, demand for open source talent is growing and companies struggle to find experienced professionals to fill open roles.

• 65 percent of hiring managers say open source hiring will increase more than any other part of their business over the next six months.
• 79 percent of hiring managers have increased incentives to hold on to their current open source professionals.

Beantown Web's quarterly Boston Web Tech Job Market analysis confirms that demand, especially for web technology workers, continues to expand, albeit at a less robust pace than last quarter.

Boston Web Tech Job Market

The list of Top 25 Web Technologies in Boston has been updated for the third quarter. It appears in the right-hand column and below.  This list 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. Indeed helps more people get hired than any other jobsite.

Top 25 Web Technologies in Boston

Here is an abbreviated list of the 25 most in-demand web technologies in Boston. [  or  from early May ] listed by number of job postings at Indeed.com:

August, 2016

1. SQL | 5,558  2%
2. Java | 4,024  2%
3. agile *** | 3,567  2%
4. JavaScript | 3,032  5%
5. Python | 2,732  2%
6. social media | 2,274  2%
7. Oracle | 1854  28%
8. SaaS | 1,713  3%
9. C# | 1,709  4%
10. HTML + CSS | 1,698  7%
11. Web Services | 1,511  1%
12. PHP | 1,365  46%
13. UI | 1,352  5%
14. AWS | 1,339  13%
15. scrum *** | 1,316  6%
16. jQuery | 1,314  8%
17. iOS | 1,289  27%
18. SQL Server | 1,256  6%
19. Ruby | 1,205  7%
20. MySQL | 1,134  5%
21. Git | 1,088  0%
22. Angular | 989  24%
23. XML | 982  8%
24. Perl | 941  8%
25. MVC | 918  20%

*** Note: While "agile" and "scrum" are not technologies, they are methodologies used in technology development.  These two  keywords appear in many web development job descriptions.  Experience with "agile" and "scrum" is often preferred, if not required, in many web development jobs.

Recommended Skill Strategy

Select five technical skills in the Top 25 and focus on becoming proficient -- if not expert -- in each technology.  Then, list three links to projects that demonstrate your proficiency in these technologies.

What is the one technical skill holding you back?  If you developed a greater competency in this skill, it would open up more opportunities for you.

Guard against being distracted by "shiny new object" skills that are not listed in the Top 25.  Without having solid core skills in high-demand technologies, you may not experience an optimum return-on-investment in terms of time and energy invested in becoming proficient at lower-demand technical skills.

To help you develop your technical skills consider joining Boston PHP Meetup and participating in one of the following:

A Quick Introduction to Agile Management (in-person meetup)
Agile Appetizer, Season 1 (virtual self-study group)

[ Full Disclosure: The author of this blog is one of the co-organizers of Boston PHP Meetup. ]

Recommended Search Strategy

When it comes to landing a new position, here are the strategies that tech workers have found to be most successful:

~ a friend referred them (28 percent)

~ websites other than Stack Overflow (17 percent)

~ external recruiters (14 percent)

~ seeking out an opportunity directly (10 percent)

~ in-house recruiter (10 percent)

~ career fair (6 percent)

So, use Indeed to identify a new opportunity (17 percent), then use your LinkedIn network to land a referral into that company (28 percent).  This combination strategy will maximize your odds of landing an interview, and ultimately, the job.

If you are going to use external recruiters (14 percent), consider working with those recruiters who come highly recommended by others.

Boston's Top 100 Web Technologies

An expanded version of this list -- Top 100 Web Technologies in Boston -- is being counted down for the next two months on Beantown Web's Facebook page.

[ NOTE: You can also follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices. ]