| January 2007 |
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| Web 2.0 is just one factor driving new growth and innovation |
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| Technology enterprises in San Francisco and Silicon Valley have long been fueled by venture capital, and it still holds true today. So where is that money going these days? "Biotech, medical, software, and telecommunications companies are attracting the VC funding around the Bay Area," said Ginger Caldwell, manager of IT recruiter Greythorn's San Francisco office. "Additionally there are many corporate head or regional offices for banking, retail, and biotech in the San Francisco area that have provided much of the demand for IT skill sets."
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Caldwell identified several other hot spots, including telecom vendors catering to wireless companies, the VoIP industry, and the mobile device industry, all of which are looking for the complete range of software developers. "The top four wealthiest industries--technology, medical, banking, and retail--have chosen California as their home base, and California was ranked first among states for fastest growing companies in the U.S. for 2005, for these reasons Northern California is an IT job seeker’s Mecca," she said. Independent contractor and Dice user, Jack Amato, backed up Caldwell's opinion, saying that telecom is strong and "VoIP is taking off."
Sean Norris, branch manager for IT recruiter Sapphire Technologies, was also bullish. "The Bay Area boasts a huge IT market with a diverse background in many industries. The economy has grown steadily for the last two years, and you can expect this trend to continue."
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| "Northern California is an IT job seeker's Mecca" |
| - Ginger Caldwell, manager of Greythorn |
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Norris cited software development, Web 2.0 development, financial services and banking, and biotech as the hottest Valley sectors, with heaviest demand for: .NET developers, software developers, business analysts, project managers, QA experts, desktop support experts, data warehousing experts, and interface developers.
Of all regions, it would be logical that Silicon Valley would be most concerned about the effect that outsourcing could have on IT employment, given how dependent the local economy is on tech. Yet, such concern tends to be muted, perhaps because of what's becoming known as "the Vista effect." The arrival of Microsoft's new OS into corporate sites and eventually into the mainstream will create a lot of work.
In fact, a recent IDC study said Vista-related employment could reach 18% of IT employment in the United States in its first year of shipment. Some 60% of the growth in Windows-related employment will be driven by Vista. "These direct benefits—157,000 new jobs and $70 billion in revenues to companies in the U.S. IT industry—will help local economies grow, improve the labor force, and support the formation of new companies," the report said. (It should be noted that the IDC report was commissioned by Microsoft.)
University research is also on the upswing. Berkeley is competing with the University of California San Diego to benefit from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Governor's Research and Innovation Initiative, a $95 million project that hopes to bring at least one petascale computer to the university system and help a school win a huge alternative energy research grant from British Petroleum. The R&D atmosphere is pervasive statewide.
Still, job seekers in the trenches may have to wait a bit to find that one ideal job. After a very steady year, Silicon Valley job listings at Dice dropped in the fourth quarter, with seasonality at least partially to blame. "Obviously there's no better place to be a tech expert than in the Valley," said Scot Melland, CEO of Dice. "It may take time to find a perfect fit, but tech careers are destined to flourish in such a rich environment." And the jobs pay well, as they must in such an expensive region. In the 2006 Dice Salary Survey, the Silicon Valley region was found to pay the highest average IT salary in the nation, $90,310, up 5.71% over 2005. That's one statistic that's definitely heading in the right direction.
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