| January 2007 |
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| In a softer market, skills proficiency is the key to success |
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| Want to get ahead in Boston? You'd better know your stuff. "Companies here make hiring decisions based on the skills candidates have used on a day-to-day basis, not the class they took or the programming language they read about," said Terrence O'Leary, branch manager of IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies. "The market in Boston is one where the person who can hit the ground running with the skills the employer needs today is more attractive than the one who needs a few years of training. IT projects have tight deliverables these days so learning on the job is not the mainstream."
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But if you think you've got what it takes, Boston will welcome your skills. As the third-ranking city in eWeek magazine's June 2006 list of "Top 10 Blooming U.S. Cities for Tech," Boston is looking especially strong in the biotech, pharmaceutical, financial services, and healthcare sectors. Sapphire reported a long list of in-demand job titles: business analysts, project managers, developers (JAVA and .net), systems administrators (UNIX, Windows, DBA), systems engineers, network engineers, IT security personnel, and storage consultants.
But can Boston, no longer quite the hotbed of high tech that it once was, remain consistent over time? The local Chamber of Commerce has been pushing an innovation agenda that is looking to encourage life sciences development; increase federal research funding to support computer science, engineering, and medical research; and advance a statewide innovation policy to create a more business-friendly environment.
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| "Massachusetts will continue to enjoy a very robust demand for IT talent throughout 2007" |
| - Terrence O'Leary, branch manager of Sapphire Technologies |
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Alan Clayton-Matthews, a professor at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and an analyst for the New England Economic Partnership, was guardedly optimistic about job growth in the biotech, semiconductor, professional services, finance, and healthcare fields. “Some tech sectors are doing well,” he said, “but because of turnover it can sometimes be hard to tell if we’re counting newly created jobs or merely reopened positions.”
In the immediate future, things are looking subdued. IT staffing consultancy Robert Half Technology, whose first-quarter IT Hiring Index was just released, finds that just 10% of Boston CIOs plan to make new hires this quarter, a relatively low number compared to other cities. And the quarterly Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which covers all industries, reported that 13% of the companies interviewed expect to hire in the first quarter, down from 21% in the fourth quarter last year. Government and public administration are the sectors that Manpower identified as most likely to hire.
At Dice, job listings for Boston dipped 3% in the fourth quarter, with seasonality contributing to the drop, but over the course of 2006, the number of listings rose. "Boston's performance through 2006 indicates continued small-scale growth," said Scot Melland, CEO of Dice. "Tightly targeted job searches by people with strong skills should get results." Luckily, Boston jobs pay well. In the 2006 Dice Salary survey, Boston IT salaries were the second highest in the nation, just behind Silicon Valley, and up 1.38% over 2005 to $80,308. Clayton-Matthews reported that a dip in housing prices is making the region more attractive. “We’ve got high salaries and a great quality of life, which gets even better as the cost of living moderates.”
Sapphire's O'Leary was ultimately optimistic. "Massachusetts will continue to enjoy a very robust demand for IT talent throughout 2007. We see a significant amount of new IT initiatives scheduled for 2007, and this will continue to create new opportunities for job seekers."
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