Saturday, June 23, 2012

Web Innovators Group | WebInno34

Nine companies. Nine hundred networking opportunities. All in one room. All FREE.

If you are interested in previewing the latest innovations on the Internet and mobile devices, and networking with industry leaders, then check out the next gathering of the Web Innovators Group.


This 34th installment will feature the following presentations:

Main Dishes

  • Cloze | Making real connections is hard.  Cloze makes it easier.

  • ImpulseSave | How we can save you money and make pigs fly.

  • MyReci | Share recipes.  Stay Organized.  Get Inspired.

Side Dishes

  • ByteLight | Anyone can find their exact position inside a building.

  • GivingSomeThing | The world's most transparent donation resource.

  • Ovuline | A free ovulation calendar.

  • Specctr | Supercharges Adobe Fireworks and automates spec generation.

  • Stix Mobile | Your iPhone photos will never look ordinary again.

  • Trendslide | A pulse on your business.  Trending up, flat or down?

Event Details

Monday, June 25, 2012, 6:30 pm

Registration is FREE and the networking could prove invaluable! Check out the Attendee List of more than 900 pre-registrants to determine if this networking event is right for you.

Registrants are encouraged to join the Boston Web Innovators Group on LinkedIn and connect with more than 1,500 members.

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]
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Friday, April 13, 2012

Boston Web Tech Job Market | Q2 2012

Boston is one of the 10 largest job markets in America for technology workers.

Boston is also one of the 10 fastest growing job markets in America for technology workers.

Boston is the only city in America to make both lists, according to The Dice Report for March.

The Boston technology job market is large and growing.

Boston Web Tech Job Market

The list of Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston has been updated for the second quarter. The list is based on keyword searches in job postings at Boston.com. The most in-demand technologies are listed more frequently than less in-demand technologies.

Here are the Five Biggest Movers from early January to early April, listed by percentage increase:

  1. Python | 173 listings 53%
  2. MySQL | 145 listings 48%
  3. Social Media | 238 listings 39%
  4. PHP | 153 listings 34%
  5. jQuery | 156 listings 26%

So, by developing programming skills, particularly in Python, PHP and/or jQuery, customers, recruiters and hiring managers will likely be queuing up to offer you a seat at their table. Add in some MySQL database knowledge and a dash of social media spices and you have a recipe for award-winning Job Jambalaya.

Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston

Here is the complete list of the most in-demand web technologies in Boston. [ or from early January ] listed by number of job postings at Boston.com/Monster.com:

April, 2012

  1. SQL | 874 listings 14%
  2. Oracle | 690 listings 10%
  3. Java | 546 listings 12%
  4. SQL Server | 363 listings 16%
  5. XML | 332 listings 25%
  6. JavaScript | 331 listings 06%
  7. C# | 286 listings 11%
  8. Social Media | 238 listings 39%
  9. "Web Services" | 237 listings 22%
  10. HTML + CSS | 196 listings 06%
  11. Perl | 184 listings 17%
  12. Python | 173 listings 53%
  13. jQuery | 156 listings 26%
  14. PHP | 153 listings 34%
  15. Ajax | 147 listings 04%
  16. MySQL | 145 listings 48%
  17. ASP.NET | 142 listings 03%
  18. UI | 141 listings 16%
  19. SharePoint | 131 listings 21%
  20. Photoshop | 124 listings 22%

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]

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Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Best Business Books | 2011

Nine books catapulted to the top in this year's search for the Best Business Books of 2011.

For the fourth year running Beantown Web has conducted a quasi-scientific meta-search to identify the best business books published in the previous year. The search began by identifying 10 "Best of" lists. This year's research started with the following:

A total of 65 books were mentioned on at least one "Best of" list. Ten books were mentioned on at least two lists. These 10 books comprise The Honorable Mention list.

Best Business Books | Runners Up

Here are the three books mentioned on at least three lists (The Runners Up):

Best Business Books | Third Place

Four books tied for Third Place honors by being mentioned on four lists:

Best Business Book | Top Honors

The second place finisher was mentioned on five lists:

The best business book of 2011 was mentioned on six of the 10 "Best of" lists:

Personal Recommendations

I can personally vouch for four of the nine books honored on this year's list. Feel free to check out my reviews at Goodreads.com:

The other five books are now on my wish list.

Suggested Success Strategy

No matter what your professional discipline is -- Web technology or some other field -- business is the engine that drives economic well-being. The economy appears to be slowly moving forward after several years of being stuck in the mud. You can help improve your economic prospects by learning more about the business of business.

Goal: Identify one business book from the nine listed above, read it, practice its principles and shift your career prospects into a higher gear in 2012.

Check out previous lists:

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Dice Salary Survey | 2012

The average salary for technology professionals is $81,000.
One in three technology professionals receives a bonus.

These findings are highlighted in the annual Dice Salary Survey of more than 18,000 employed technology professionals. Dice is the leading career site for technology and engineering professionals.

Industry Matters

Here are the industries where you are most likely to receive a bonus:

  • telecom
  • hardware
  • banking
  • utilities/energy
  • software

Technology Matters

Here are the technologies that command the highest salaries, all in excess of six figures:

  • ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming)
  • SOA (Service Oriented Architecture)
  • ETL (Extract Transform and Load)
  • Weblogic
  • JDBC (Java Database Connectivity)
  • UML (Unified Modeling Language)
  • JBoss
  • WebSphere

The Here and Now

OK. Now back to the real world.

Let's say you don't work in one of the industries that is most likely to offer a bonus and you don't possess skills in any of the acronyms listed above?

Boston Web Tech Job Market

The previous Beantown Web posting entitled Boston Web Tech Job Market | 2012 revealed the Top Ten most in-demand technology skills in the Boston area.

Here are The Second Ten:

  1. Perl | 157 job postings
  2. Ajax | 142 job postings
  3. ASP.NET | 138 job postings
  4. jQuery | 124 job postings
  5. UI | 122 job postings
  6. PHP | 114 job postings
  7. Python | 113 job postings
  8. SharePoint | 108 job postings
  9. SaaS | 104 job postings
  10. Photoshop | 102 job postings

The complete list of the Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston is presented in the right-hand column.

It is interesting to consider the year-over-year trends. Postings for 18 of the Top 20 Web Technologies in Boston are up from this time last year. The largest increases were posted by these seven (eight) technologies:

  1. jQuery | 70%
  2. SaaS | 35%
  3. JavaScript | 25%
  4. Perl | 24%
  5. Social Media 23%
  6. Java 22%
  7. Python | 22%
  8. HTML + CSS 22%

Bet The House

You can roll the "Dice" and select an obscure technology to master and earn a six-figure income.

Or, you can play the odds and select one technology that is both in high demand (Top 20) and fast growing (up 70% in one year).

And the award for the single best technology to master in 2012 goes to . . .

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Boston Web Tech Job Market | Q1 2012

Technology hiring managers have established their staffing priorities for 2012. They are looking for innovative tech professionals who can demonstrate the following four abilities:

  • design
  • code
  • build
  • operate

According to data compiled by Dice from nearly 1,200 tech-focused hiring managers and recruiters, here are the top priority skill-sets that will be in demand:

  1. Java developers
  2. Software engineers
  3. Mobile developers
  4. .NET developers
  5. Project managers
  6. Web developers

Details can be found in The Dice Report for January, 2012.

Boston Web Tech Job Market

Beantown Web has been reporting on the job market for Web professionals in the Boston area since February, 2005. Here are The Top Ten most in-demand technology skills in the Boston area:

  1. SQL | 768 job postings
  2. Oracle | 629 job postings
  3. Java | 489 job postings
  4. JavaScript | 312 job postings
  5. SQL Server | 312 job postings
  6. XML | 266 job postings
  7. C# | 258 job postings
  8. "Web Services" | 195 job postings
  9. HTML + CSS | 185 job postings
  10. Social Media | 171 job postings

Clearly, there is no shortage of Web-related work for technically inclined professionals with a balance of knowledge and experience.

It is interesting to consider the year-over-year trends. Postings for all Top Ten skills are up from this time last year. The largest increases were posted by these four (five) technologies:

  1. JavaScript | 25%
  2. Social Media 23%
  3. Java 22%
  4. HTML + CSS 22%

The data shows that demand for front-end developers (HTML + CSS + JavaScript) has been on the rise over the past 12 months. This trend will likely continue into the first quarter of 2012.

In the next issue we will take a closer look at "The Second Ten" skills and dive deeper into the year-over-year Web technology trends shaping 2012.

[ NOTE: Follow Beantown Web on Twitter @webapprentices and on Facebook by becoming a Fan of Beantown Web. ]

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