Chris King, a software engineer who says he's landed more than a dozen interviews through Dice - including one that led to his current job - knows his way around Silicon Valley. And, he's bullish on the area's immediate future.

"There are a lot of promising industries," he says. "Besides traditional tech, green technology probably has the most opportunity for growth. Telecom, especially mobile, is also strong, and biotech is another good area."
 
As for skills in demand, King lists all sorts. "There is particular interest for senior-level developers. Java is probably the most requested skill, with Web technologies C++, Perl, UNIX, C#, and Python also frequently requested. For mobile software, J2ME is most desired, followed by BREW, then Symbian and Windows Mobile."

King also touches on the importance of proximity to the 6,600 high-tech companies that keep the Valley humming - even in these wired times when location matters less than it used to. "The best thing about the climate here is the sense of collegiality," he explains. "Employees for different firms regularly spend time with one another and share ideas, and there is incredible cross-pollination between companies."

Indeed, "place still matters," Russell Hancock, chief executive of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, recently told the Associated Press. "What's in Silicon Valley is a critical mass, just this dense, fibrous network of innovators, of technology people bumping into each other like molecules in a gas."

Sean Norris, branch manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies, agrees. "The current IT market is very strong," he says. "There are very few talented IT individuals that are out of work right now." Norris believes those most in demand "are the ones who have a strong business and technical background. With much of the low-level testing and development being sent offshore, we are seeing that most new positions are for technical folks who can act as a liaison to business partners and non-technical business units."

In its fourth-quarter IT Hiring Index, IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology found that 17 percent of San Francisco-area CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter. Meanwhile, the quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey reports that from October to December, 28 percent of the companies interviewed plan to bring on more employees, says Manpower spokesperson Thomas Baity. (Manpower doesn't break out the Valley separately.)

According to the California Employment Development Department, information sector job growth is strong but slowing. Year-over-year job increases have occurred for 40 consecutive months. In the most recent report, IT jobs climbed 1,200, or 3.1 percent.

At Dice, however, the numbers are flatter. So far during 2007, IT job listings for the Valley have hardly fluctuated. There were approximately 6,500 available postings on the site at the end of September, pretty much the same number that were available in January - an interesting fact given the region's history of wild business cycles.

Lily Hsueh, regional analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and found that although the Bay Area has seen a fall in its share of the nation's total IT employment, it remains the leader among metropolitan areas. The Bay Area's slice of the U.S. IT labor force has dipped from a high of 9 percent to its current 7 percent, still an impressive number. While manufacturing jobs have slipped, higher-skilled innovation jobs have grown.

"The region's IT sector also has been shaped by the national trend in the growth of IT services," Hsueh writes. "In fact, over the past several years, Bay Area IT service firms have added jobs at a faster pace than IT service firms in the nation as a whole. As a result, while the Bay Area today maintains its legacy in hardware development, the region has a more balanced mix of IT manufacturing and IT service jobs than in the mid-1990s."

Statewide, California is first in computer systems design and related services with 172,600 jobs; first in telecommunications services employment with 114,300 jobs; and despite offshoring, still first in semiconductor manufacturing employment, with 67,600 jobs.
 
As the optimistic Chris King points out, there are always ways to find that next great gig. "If someone has an area of expertise, there is almost certainly a gathering of similar people in place who can help point them in the right direction," he says. "Make sure your skill set is polished and up to date. Attend conferences, read journals, browse technical articles and do whatever you can to keep abreast of the latest research so you will be able to intelligently discuss and select appropriate technologies." In Silicon Valley, you have to keep up if you want to get ahead.