Seven In-Demand Jobs in The Tech Sector

Posted on May 22, 2012 by tech jobs

Despite the fact that the current job market is quite weak overall, one sector of the market that is doing quite well is tech. There is a high demand for many different jobs in the tech sector from engineers to programmers and many different areas in between. Being in one of the many tech fields provides great opportunities for upward mobility, and the shortage of skilled professionals to fill many of these positions means that employers will compete over talent. Some areas of tech are growing faster than others, and the seven fastest growth areas in the tech sector are listed below.

1. Cloud Computing

The cloud is one of the biggest tech sector shifts since the creation of the internet. As the entire globe becomes more interconnected and more devices come online, the importance of cloud computing is growing exponentially. Two years ago, only the most die-hard techies could explain what the cloud is, but it now has entered the popular lexicon. Almost every major enterprise is embracing the cloud including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Cisco, IBM, and normal consumers as well. Demand for engineers, programmers, and technicians who are about to assist in the migration over to the cloud is growing and will continue to grow. Management tools, data security, seamless connectivity, data migration, and many other tasks are part of the growing demand for cloud-ready employees.

2. Network Management

The rise of cloud computing is increasing the demand for network experts. A recent study of CIOs showed that 65% of them listed networking professionals as their most wanted employees. In addition to being the most wanted employees, the network professional positions were also the most difficult to fill. Being a skilled network professional requires proficiency working with many different technologies including servers, routers, peripheral hardware, workstations, wiring, data security, and others. Another vital skill for any network manager is the ability to work within a virtualized environment, while still being able to maintain stable and efficient network operations.

3. Mobile App Development

The mobile app market has exploded in the past 3 years. Today, a majority of people in industrialized nations carry a smart phone that is app capable. Today, medium and even small sized businesses are embracing mobile apps and the demand for individuals that can design and develop mobile applications is high. There is currently a massive shortfall of mobile app developers and the mobile app market is projected to continue growing at a 100% plus annualized rate for the near future.

4. Database Management

Database management is currently one of the highest paying areas for IT professionals with average salaries ranging from $80,000 to upwards of $100,000. Demand for professionals with experience with ETL (Extract, Transform & Load) and Informatica are particularly high. The resurgence of ETL is primarily a result of exponentially improving network infrastructure, extremely inexpensive SANs, and the newfound popularity of free and open source software. With the greatly reduced cost and the ever increasing amount of data available, more and more businesses are in need of database management professionals.

5. Desktop Support

A combination of factors including the rapid adoption of technology, government requirements for greater reliance on technology – the healthcare reform law for example – and a disjunction between employee knowledge and technological proficiency requirements has created a high demand for support professionals. A recent survey conducted by Computer World found that 42% of employers consider technical skills extremely important when considering a new employee. This shows how integral technology is becoming to business operations. With that said, many people are not proficient in operating the wide array of technologies and programs they are required to use, and support professionals are needed to aid them. Individuals who do not understand how to use a technology will choose not use it due to frustration, or they will use it incorrectly. Either option results in a waste of time and money, as well as a noticeable decline in workplace satisfaction.

6. Data and Network Security

Data and network security is quickly becoming one of the most in demand segments of the tech sector. With the numerous and catastrophic security breaches at major firms like Sony, Bank of America, Citibank, and others, the public demand for data security is palpable. Professionals that are skilled in data and network security are in more demand now than ever, and this is forecast to continue going forward. Most major enterprises are playing catch up in terms of system security, and with small and medium sized businesses embracing technology more and more, further security professionals will be in need.

7. Analytics & Pattern Recognition

With the mountains of data that is being generated and stored today, the value of analytics is continuing to grow. Inside these mountains of data are sets of valuable information that can be used to improve efficiency and performance for businesses. Currently, only 10% to 15% of the Fortune 1000 is making use of data analytics to streamline their business processes, but this number is sure to grow in the coming years. The ability to mine useful information from large data sets is a huge competitive advantage, and it will continue to be embraced by ever more businesses.

The high tech jobs of the future will revolve around mobile, analytics, cloud computing, and other forward-looking technologies. Information Technology spending on aggregate is expected to increase at a rate of 2% to 3% in 2011, but a greater portion of IT budgets is being shifted to data analysis, cloud computing, and embracing mobile.
The tech jobs of the future do not all require math or engineering degrees, however. It is true that programming, network management, and the heavy tech lifting will still fall on the engineers and math majors, but the ability to take data and apply it to normal business operations is just as important. As such, many firms are hiring MBAs and other people with non-technical degrees to work in conjunction with programmers and engineers to turn data into actionable intelligence for the company.

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Three Hot Tech Startups Hiring in 2012

Posted on April 21, 2012 by tech jobs

In the tech world things move extremely fast, there is so much innovation going that allow companies to hire new talent to help develop the amazing mobile and web applications that we have today.   Three hot tech startups are currently hiring new tech talent for new tech jobs through the year 2012.  As you probably already know there is a lot of opportunity to find a good company that will use your skills to grow their business.  Most people think of Google, Facebook and Microsoft when it comes to the top tech companies, but working for a startup is a great way to get started, specially, when these companies have investors that provide them with millions of dollars to build amazing applications or services.

The first tech startup is Acquia, this company will be hiring 120 new employees this year, yes you heard me right, one hundred and twenty employees, also they will be hosting 25 interns in the year 2012. Acquia is a content management support company that currently employs 170 people. This is the company responsible for one of the most popular content management systems in the world Drupal, this company offers a paid version of the CMS application and an open source version as well.

The second hot tech startups that is hiring new people in 2012 is IPO Bound Inc which will be hiring 60 new employees. This recruiting software company, based in Boston who was funded in 1999 currently employs 177 people. The company will split the new employees in the following departments: Marketing, Sales and IT Development. Also the company will be adding people to their Quality Assurance department, Project management and User Experience.

And last but not least among the hot startups hiring in 2012 is Framehawk. This is a startup from San Francisco that will be hiring 25 new people this year which currently has 38 employees. This small startup makes a platform for developers that allow them to make mobile applications, with their platform, building these apps are easier and more efficient. This company is looking for great talent, especially in software development but they are focusing on people who are passionate about mobile applications since they are taking advantage of the smart phone boom and the popularity of mobile applications.

Salaries on the mentioned companies can be compared to that of some of the most popular tech companies like eBay, Amazon, Google or Microsoft. And if you have good skills it is a great opportunity for you to grow within these companies and make a great living working for them.

As you can see there are a lot of opportunities to get hired by some of the hottest startups in the tech world. If you are a talented software developer, web design or if you have experience in marketing there are many companies looking for people like you, people who have a passion for technology and people who are creative when it comes to developing new technologies.

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Codeacademy Makes Learning Programming Fun and Easy

Posted on April 3, 2012 by tech jobs

Few things in life are as certain as death and taxes, but one considered by many to be up there on that list is the fact that learning how to program is tedious and boring. While the vast majority of people who use the internet assume the internet just sort of happens, it is actually built by millions of people writing code. Without programmers, all of exciting websites and programs that we all know and love simply would not exist. Today, there is a shortage of people with the knowledge and skills required to build the digital world.

This was the central problem that Zack Sims and Ryan Bubinski set out to solve when the created Codeacademy; a website that aims to teach people how to code online in a fun and effective way. Codeacademy came is one of many successful businesses to come out of Y Combinator – one of the most successful startup incubators in the world – and by the time it was presented at a Y Combinator Demo Day this past summer, it had more than 200,000 users who had completed almost 3 million exercises.

Codeacademy utilizes game mechanics within a crisp, clean web interface to make learning to program easy and fun. Codeacademy also keeps track of a person’s score and accumulated trophies as well as awarding badges that can be shared across various social networks for completing lessons. One of the biggest reasons for the success of Codeacademy is the fact that it is free to use – simply sign up or login with your Facebook account – unlike its competitors who charge a fee

Based on its incredible success at such an early stage, many prominent angel investors and venture capital firms have put money behind the fledgling company. More than $2.5 million dollars have been put behind the company from prominent venture investors including Union Square Ventures, Ron Conway’s SV Angel, Yuri Milner, and Michael Arrington’s CrunchFund to name a few. Codeacademy also launched a new programming course simultaneously with their announcement of venture funding. Albert Wenger, a partner at Union Square Ventures, designed the course, and USV was one of the leaders in the round of funding.

Zack Sims told VentureBeat that the capital Codeacademy has raised will largely be spent hiring coders and designers to aid in expanding the number of programming languages that the academy offers. Currently, the exercises primarily teach people how to program in Javascript. The co-founders started with Javascript because it is one of the easier programming languages to learn, and it is the backbone of websites and web-based applications. While Codeacademy currently offers hundreds of JavaScript lessons, Sims said the plan is to have thousands of lessons soon for numerous languages including HTML.

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Standing Out Over Other Tech Talent

Posted on February 10, 2012 by tech jobs

There are over 14 million people currently unemployed in the United States and over 3 million job openings currently that need to be filled. Millions of people are dismayed that they cannot find work; however, employers and recruiters complain that they are unable to fill positions with workers. Clearly, there is a disconnect between people looking to work, and companies looking to hire.

According to a number of corporate recruiters, part of the problem is that there is a mismatch between the individual circumstances of each potential candidate and the expectations and needs of the companies. For example, the combination of the weak economy and years of technological advances have resulted in a double-edged problem. Some companies are requiring far too much of potential employees. These companies are often attempting to replace an employee that spent years at the firm and developed a wide range of abilities across numerous skill sets outside of their primary area of expertise. Instead of searching for applicants based on the core need, they search for applicants that have the unique skill set that the previous job holder developed over years of tenure at the company. Numerous qualified individuals may be interviewed, but because the recruiter is looking for an applicant whose expertise includes numerous tertiary skill sets, the position is left unfilled.

Another problem is that many companies are unwilling to give a good candidate time to learn new tech. Numerous excellent candidates are rejected for positions because companies are unwilling to allow for a learning curve. Even if there is evidence that the learning curve for the candidate to acquire proficiency is minimal, these companies are looking for the perfect candidate that often simply does not exist. Even though job seekers cannot fix the selectiveness of hiring managers who are looking for the perfect candidate, there are ways that qualified and excellent candidates can get in the door anyway.

While the internet is a great way to find many job openings, the online job search is completely devoid of the human element. People aren’t machines and moving the job search away from cyberspace and into the real world is a great way to improve your chances. Face-to-face networking – professional gatherings, local groups, lunches, etc – will allow you to establish rapport and generate contacts. This also offers an opportunity to show off additional skills and traits that cannot be gleaned from reading an e-mail attachment. Personality, appearance, patterns of speech, likability, and many other factors are considered both consciously and subconsciously when interviewing for a job, and those factors can supersede weaknesses in a resume.

Another important benefit to be gained from networking in person is improved communication and personal skills. A resume can be perfect, but if you appear nervous, shifty, and uncomfortable during an interview, it can turn a certain offer into a certain rejection. Being comfortable communicating with confidence and conviction is vital for landing a job, especially in the current job market. In person networking gives you the ability to hone these skills in a low-pressure environment and makes it more likely that you will be able to perform in an interview situation.

The importance of strong communication skills cannot be understated. The ability to convey your thoughts in both technical and layman’s terms is an incredibly valuable and important skill. Answers to questions should address that question and avoid going off on unrelated tangents. Additionally, many applicants get incredibly flustered if they need to answer a question with a negative response. Instead of saying no, they will try to redirect which is one of the worst things that you can do. It is quite easy to turn a negative response into a positive response. “Do you have X skill?” Answer: “No, however, I have experience with X which is quite similar, and I am actively working to expand my skills to encompass X.” Instead of being a simple no, a response such as that highlights a related skill as well as personal motivation and a desire for growth. Skills can be taught, but positive personality traits like eagerness to learn, honesty, and motivation cannot.

Research and preparedness is another vitally important aspect of the job search. Many recruiters complain about the lack of preparation on the part of job applicants. Learn about the company to which you are applying, understand their business, read their website, learn some history, etc. You are not just applying for a job, you are applying to be a member of the company. Companies are not going to hire someone without doing their due diligence on the applicant, and no applicant should even consider an interview without doing their due diligence on the company.

Then, of course, there is the resume. In the past, resumes were used to highlight the complexity and diversity of an individual’s skills. In recent years, however, the focus of the resume has shifted to specialization and the breadth of experience. A resume that adheres to the old model instead of the new will be as much an asset as it will be a liability in the hiring process.

The current job market definitely is skewed in favor of the employer and searching for a job in the current environment is more stressful than any other in a generation. With that said, becoming demoralized will make it far more difficult going forward than keeping a positive outlook. The most important thing is to not give up and use each rejection as a learning experience so you are better prepared for the next time.

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Google Unveils Dart Programming Language

Posted on December 9, 2011 by tech jobs

It is official; Google is developing a programming language. Lars Bak, a Google project manager, at the Goto Conference in Denmark, detailed the news of the new Google programming language. The new language, called Dart, is designed to be used for all sorts of projects ranging from small simple projects to massive collaborative projects like Gmail.

Programmer and project leader Lars Bak detailed the project in a talk today at the Goto conference in Denmark and in a blog post. Dart is geared for everything from small, unstructured projects to large, complicated efforts–Gmail and Google Docs, for example.
“If we want to focus on making the Web better over time, we have to innovate,” including with new programming languages, Bak said in an interview.

The unveiling of the Dart programming language also included a site that provides developers tools, code samples, and tutorials for programming with the language. The website also features a discussion forum, libraries of supporting software, and the language specifications. When an internal Google memo leaked in 2010 with details about the Dart programming language – called Dash at the time – one of the notes from the memo was that the language was designed to replace Javascript as the preeminent programming language of the web.

Of course, this does not even mean that everyone at Google is adopting the new language. Numerous individuals within the company remain strong proponents of Javascript and even Bak is not claiming the impending demise of Javascript. While he remains incredibly ambitious about the future of Dart, he said, “It’s not going to replace JavaScript. JavaScript is a cornerstone of the Web today, and it will continue to be for a long, long time.”

He was not receptive, however, to complaints by many about the fact that the language was developed completely in-house at Google, and not with an open and collaborative approach. He said, “I don’t buy the argument that before writing any line of code or designing any features, you put it in a standards committee, because that would just be a lot of screaming. You have to have coherent design before you start adopting Dart as a standard.” This closed, in-house approach is a large departure from Google’s past support of open collaboration and is more akin to the Apple approach to tech; a business model that Google has ridiculed on numerous occasions.

Google does want to make Dart a standard though. They have moved Dart forward to the next phase of its maturation, which includes getting outside feedback and active participation from potential partners and developers. On moving to the next phase of development Bak Said, “We hope the other browser vendors will be excited.” It remains to be seen how quickly others will adopt Dart.
Creating and introducing new programming languages is difficult. Many industry experts have tried to encourage the development and adoption of new, more advanced programming languages. Many of the programming languages that are widely used were created decades ago when computing was in its infancy, and they lack features that can easily take advantage of modern hardware and computing architecture. One of the biggest obstacles to reforming and replacing existing programming languages is the fact that millions of people use the languages and have extensive supporting libraries and knowledgebases. With that said, some new programming languages have been introduced in the past 20 years that have seen wide adoption including Java, Javascript, and C#. In addition to Dart, Google is trying to encourage the adoption for the Go programming language, which is designed to be used for native software applications that would generally be written with either C or C++ today, which are not known for their ease of use. Google has created Dart to address a variety of shortcomings present in today’s web programming languages. According to Dart’s technical overview, some of the problems it intends to address include:

1. Unwieldy code growth. It is not uncommon for small scripts to develop and grow into massive web applications with huge amounts of code. These gigantic apps are incredibly unwieldy and difficult to maintain and debug, and because they are monolithic structures in nature, it is nearly impossible to break up the code into different parts. This prevents teams of programmers to work on different pieces of the program independently.
2. Choosing Static or Dynamic. With the existing programming languages, programmers are forced to choose between using a static language or a dynamic language. Current static languages necessitate an inflexible style of coding that can feel constraining and difficult to work with in addition to requiring large, complex toolchains.
3. Lack of Client/Server Homogeny. With few exceptions – Node.js and the Google Web Toolkit for example – developers have failed to build systems that encompass both client and server operations under one umbrella.
4. Cumbersome Context Switches. The different formats and languages require content switches that made coding more complex and time consuming.
5. Heavy Comment Usage. Scripting languages are popular because they are lightweight languages that are easy to learn and allow programmers to develop applications quickly. One drawback is that they rely heavily on comments to detail how each part of the application works with the other parts. This can make it difficult for other programmers beside the author to read, understand, and maintain the code.
One potential advantage that Google has with the Dart language is that they will be able to integrate it directly into their Chrome browser, which recently overtook Mozilla Firefox as the number 2 browser behind Internet Explorer. This integration is something that Bak and the rest of the Dart team is extremely excited about because it will enable “snapshotting.” Snapshotting greatly reduces a web apps startup time, and speed and efficiency are one of the hallmarks of the Chrome browser and operating system. Snapshotting makes this possible by taking the web application and serializing it into a single data block.
To demonstrate the potential of snapshotting to improve performance, Google loaded a 55,000-line Dart program in 60 milliseconds with snapshotting. Without snapshotting, the same 55,000-line program loaded in 640 milliseconds. A traditional Javascript program would have comparable load times to a Dart program without snapshotting. He said, “I can see a lot of optimizations that’ll be applicable to Dart when it’s integrated directly into a browser.”
Bak also elaborated on Google’s design goals for Dart:
1. Create an easy and familiar language for quick learning and adoption by programmers.
2. Deliver great performance on all modern web browsers and computing environments from server-side execution to handheld devices.
3. Create a structured and flexible web programming language.

Bak envisions Dart being used in a wide range of different development scenarios. The goal is to have Dart as viable for a small one-person project with very little architecture as a large-scale enterprise projects using teams of programmers needing format types in the code. In order to support such wide variety of projects, Dart includes optional types allowing people to code without types and add them further down the road as needed.

Dart programs will be able to run in a variety of ways. The fact that Dart programs will be able to run using a compiler that translates Dart code into Javascript will be huge boon to its viability allowing it to run on browsers that do not support Dart. Dart will also run within its own virtual machine.

Google has used its Chrome browser as a vehicle to roll out other technology products such as WebM and SPDY, and the 2010 Dart/Dash memo discussed Google’s plans to integrate Dart into the Chrome browser. On this topic, however, Bak was hesitant to make any definitive affirmative statements beyond mentioning that full integration would have a whole host of benefits. With that said, Bak is intimately familiar with working with the Chrome team and the challenges involved with improve web app performance; he was the lead developer of Chrome’s V8 Javascript engine.

One of the biggest benefits for getting Dart integration into the Chrome browser would be the fact that it would allow Google to build more advanced versions of its Web Apps suite than is currently possible. Google is betting big on cloud computing and its Google Apps platform, and if Dart lives up to its stated design goals, the improved performance could further increase the adoption of its browser and web apps. “Google has a lot fairly big Web applications. That includes Gmail and Docs. I hope many of these apps will be converted into Dart,” Bak said. He went on to say that this is merely his opinion and there are currently no explicit plans to convert these web apps into Dart programs.

“At this point it is mostly the language we are focused on,” he said. “We hope to get positive feedback on the language.”

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Silicon Valley Sets Sights on Smart Grid Sector

Posted on December 7, 2011 by tech jobs

Silicon Valley has been the center of the technology revolution for decades, and one of the most promising areas of the tech sector is smart grid technology. Silicon Valley is ideally positioned to further development of the smart grid and applications that take advantage of a smart grid.

Because Silicon Valley is home to many of the world’s largest technology companies, many of the components required to make the smart grid viable are designed and created in the area. One of the core concepts behind the smart grid is the utilization of monitoring systems and meters both on the small scale – within electric devices – and system-wide. These devices will generate huge volumes of data that need to be analyzed, shared, and stored, which will offer new opportunities for data management and analytics companies.

Recent analysis by the Silicon Valley Smart Grid Task Force has provided attractive projections for the future of smart grid technology and many companies both large and small will benefit from growth in the sector including Cisco, Google, General Electric, and Oracle to name a few. The president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Carl Guardino, said in a statement, “For decades, Silicon Valley has been on the forefront of new technologies. Increasingly, those new technologies touch the smart grid, and Silicon Valley is reaping the economic benefit of these advances.”

The task force’s report breaks down the smart grid industry into four separate sectors. The largest of these sectors – based on employment – is the distributed power generation sector, which accounts for 59% of the overall industry. That is followed by energy storage and power management and efficiency with 17% each, and the transmission and distribution sector with 10%.

While Silicon Valley has been one of the bright spots in the American economy for decades, the smart grid industry has been particularly vibrant. From 1995 through 2009, the number of people employed in the smart grid industry increased by an astounding 129%. Even at the depths of the global recession of 2008 and 2009, the smart grid industry managed to grow by 4%.

Our lives have been completely revolutionized over the past three decades by advanced technologies, but our electrical system is still antiquated and unintelligent. With the threat of runaway global warming lurking in the not-too-distant future unless we drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, smart grid technology offers huge efficiency gains, drastic reductions in wasted energy, and impressive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

The environmental impact of widespread smart grid development and utilization would be considerable, and financial savings on both the individual and institutional levels would be considerable as well. Many technologies currently in their infancy – electric cars, for example – will require a smart grid in order to be viable on the large scale.

In response to the release of the task force’s report, the mayor of San Jose, Chuck Reed, said, “A central tenet of San Jose’s Green Vision is that clean technologies are the economic drivers of the future. This report shows that the future is now and that the smart grid has already begun creating jobs in Silicon Valley.”

The Silicon Valley Smart Grid Task Force was a joint project consisting of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, PG&E – one of the nation’s largest utilities – and the City of San Jose. The task force was launched in 2010 to analyze how the development of a national smart grid would affect the Greater Bay Area. In a press release, the president of PG&E, Chris Johns, said, “Investment in the smart grid by PG&E and other utilities nationwide is good for customers, good for Silicon Valley tech jobs, and good for the Bay Area economy. The smart grid is a part of PG&E’s commitment to delivering safe, reliable and affordable energy to our customers.”

Numerous other private and governmental groups are involved in smart grid research and development including the NASA Ames Research Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), the City of Sunnyvale, Google, and Juniper Networks. The Moffett Park Community Smart Grid Project – a large public-private partnership – is currently developing and rolling out a fully integrated smart grid in Sunnyvale, California which is home to both the Ames Research Center and LBNL.

As with many technological revolutions before, Silicon Valley is setting itself up to be ground zero of the smart grid revolution.

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Hottest Tech Startups in NYC

Posted on December 5, 2011 by tech jobs

For Decades, Silicon Valley has been the home to the vast majority of tech startups. From Apple, to Google, to Facebook, if a tech startup is not started in Silicon Valley – or moved to “the valley” shortly thereafter – it is widely considered a serious headwind to company growth. Over the past decade, however, New York City has become increasingly competitive in the tech startup field with many big names calling NYC home. The increase in New York City’s popularity for tech startups is due in part to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s efforts to make the city start-up friendly with subsidized office space, funding, and favorable local tax benefits for startups in the city. Below are ten of the biggest and best tech startups that call New York City home.

Foursquare

Foursquare is Dennis Crowley’s second foray into the geolocation space having sold Dodgeball to Google a number of years ago. Foursquare allows users to “check in” to bars, restaurants, and stores letting friends know where they are and earning “badges” that can provide special perks for that establishment. Foursquare has millions of users, and it is currently one of the darlings of the tech industry. Many people consider Foursquare to be the next Twitter or Facebook, and with skyrocketing valuations, the comparison to these other tech giants is understandable.

Square


Another square? Square is a mobile credit card processing service founded by Jack Dorsey who also founded Twitter. Square allows businesses and individuals to accept credit cards as payment using their mobile phone. By using a small peripheral card reader that plugs into the headphone jack on a smart phone, the person can swipe credit cards, accept payment, and send receipts all with their smart phone. Unlike traditional merchant accounts, anyone can open a square account, the card reader is free, there is no contract, and the fees are around the industry standard. Tens of thousands of businesses and individuals have adopted Square, and Square is processing well over $1 million in transactions every day.

Etsy

Etsy has gotten a great deal of press recently for good reason. Etsy is growing as one of the largest marketplaces online for handmade goods. People have always wanted to support small time craftsman and artists, and Etsy gives artisans across the globe the opportunity to sell their goods to buyers anywhere. The business model for Etsy is similar to eBay in that it takes a small fee for listings as well as a cut of the total sale. You can get anything from handmade ceramic plates, to knit scarves, to blown glass, and just about anything else you can imagine, and all of it is made by a small-time craftsman. Etsy has raised huge sums of money totaling well over $30 million from big name angel investors and venture capital firms including Albert Wenger, Union Square Ventures, and Accel Parters to name a few.

Kickstarter

Got an idea for a product to change the world? A volunteer project that needs funding? An art installation? Kickstarter exists for people like you. Kickstarter was founded to provide peer-to-peer funding for people looking to bring ideas to life without having to trade large amounts of equity for small sums of money. Kickstarter allows inventors, artists, or anyone with an idea to post their project, outline their funding goals, what they will do with the funding, etc and attract funding from hundreds or thousands of people. No one is charged unless the total money needed for the goal is met, and the projects posted on Kickstarter are generally quite good.  Kickstarter isn’t all altruism; the company takes a small cut of each successful funding round.

SecondMarket

SecondMarket has gotten a great deal of press and business by being part of the great Facebook trade. SecondMarket is a private “stock market” that allows people to buy and sell illiquid assets like shares in private companies, including Facebook. While Facebook stock trades are what have brought SecondMarket into the mainstream, it also has markets for many other illiquid assets including collateralized debt obligations – CDOs – mortgage backed securities, and bankruptcy claims among others. Like a traditional exchange, SecondMarket makes money on transactions. The company also has some big money behind it including the Chinese Billionaire Li Ka-shing.

Boxee

Boxee allows you to stream web content to your television easily. The Boxee Box is a networked device that – for $179.99 – makes streaming content from your computer and watching it on your TV as easy as changing the channel. Getting content from the computer to the TV has been a problem for the mainstream as few people have the technological skills to create the integrated setup necessary to do just that. Boxee fixes this problem, and it has attracted money from investors including Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, and General Catalyst Partners. Boxee will also allow content creators to sell their content, which will create a whole new market for web-only content and potentially bring it into the mainstream.

Hunch

Hunch is a “recommendation engine.” Basically, what Hunch does is it takes all sorts of information that it has learned about you – which you give it – and it makes recommendations that it thinks you might like based on the information that it has. Unlike traditional recommendation algorithms that are used by companies such as Amazon and Netflix, Hunch incorporates tertiary and seemingly irrelevant information to build a deeper profile resulting in better recommendations. The company has raised over $20 million from venerable angel and venture firms including Ron Conway’s SV Angel, Khosla Ventures, and Bessemer Venture Partners among others. Currently, Hunch is only a recommendation engine for shopping, but the algorithm could easily be licensed to third party companies such as Amazon, and it has such detailed user profiles that the information could be used to provide incredibly targeted advertising in the future.

Onewire

Onewire takes the idea of business social networking pioneered and perfected by LinkedIn and focuses solely on the finance industry. However, instead of targeting recruiters and candidates, Onewire is entirely recruiter facing, which allows jobs there to be filled within a matter of days. Onewire makes money by charging financial firms large sums of money for accounts — $15,000 or more – and almost every large bank and financial institution has accounts on Onewire. Onewire uses a structured data system that forces candidates to use answers from a limited number of options, so there is no need for recruiters to use traditional search functions.  Instead, it uses a faceted search that lets recruiters set the criteria they are looking for and confidential results are returned. Personal information is not displayed, and the recruiters can only contact the profile through e-mail and request that the candidate reveal themselves so the recruiter can see the profile and personal information.

Adsafe

Maintaining a positive company image can be incredibly difficult on the web, especially when it comes to web advertising. Ensuring that your ads are not appearing next to inappropriate content is a full-time job, and ad auditing is done after the fact. As a result, by the time problems are found, waste and damage has already happened. Adsafe, on the other hand, does ad auditing in real time by using algorithms on large computational networks to prevent ads appearing next to offensive or inappropriate content. The number of firms signing on with Adsafe is growing incredibly quickly, and with more and more companies relying more heavily on online advertising, there is even more room to grow. There is no confusion as to how Adsafe is making money; it charges users for the service it provides.

Makerbot

3D printing has been getting a lot of interest over the past few years. One company that is producing and selling 3D printers is Makerbot. The Makerbot printer sells for about $750, and it allows users to design and “print” three-dimensional models out of plastic. People can upload the designs for their creations and other individuals from all around the world can then have the Makerbot “print” a copy of the item. Currently, 3D printing is still in its hobby stage, and it is not at a point where it has many useful real-world applications; however, as the technology matures, the possibilities are limitless.

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Second Life Founder Creates New Online Marketplace

Posted on November 30, 2011 by tech jobs

Successful entrepreneurs often have more than one great idea for a company, and the greatest entrepreneurs go on to create many successful companies. Elon Musk – founder of Tesla Automotive, Paypal and SpaceX – and Jack Dorsey – Founder of Square and Twitter – are two of the most notable additions to the serial entrepreneur club. Philip Rosedale, the founder of Linden Lab – creators of Second Life – is poised to join the esteemed ranks with his innovative new startup; Coffee & Power.

Coffee & Power is attempting to take what Rosedale learned from Second Life and create an online marketplace where people can buy and sell small jobs. Unlike the freelance websites that currently exist, Rosedale has designed Coffee & Power to be fast, fun, and easy. The marketplace has many game features including its own virtual currency with an integrated payment system, a rating and review system, and live chat rooms. Game features are integrated into the whole experience. Job listings are called “missions” and cover a wide range of services including everything from web development to commissioned art. In addition to the website, Coffee & Power also has an iPhone app and It also provides real-world office space where users of the marketplace can meet each other and work together in the heart of San Francisco. The meeting space provides coffee, power, wifi, and a place to work; and the company plans to open many additional collaboration locations as the company grows.

Rosedale says of his inspiration for creating Coffee & Power, “What can you do for someone else, right now? There are so many amazing and useful things that we could all do for each other if we just had a way to quickly find, explain, and pay for them. The remarkable range of jobs and services in Second Life was the inspiration to create Coffee & Power — we wanted to bring the same thing to the real world.”

Second Life gained a great deal of publicity for the fact that it had an extremely vibrant virtual economy that translated into real life jobs and profits for many people. Rosedale wanted to bring that success to a wider audience and as a standalone endeavor. He said, “Work is really about directly providing value to others, not where or when you do it. Coffee & Power provides a shared space, both virtual and physical, where people can meet and do small, interesting jobs for each other.”

Coffee & Power was built from scratch to make the most of the connectivity resulting from social media, and it matches job posters and job seekers through many different avenues including live chat, a reputation system, social media connections, and searchable project histories. These features, along with the real life meeting space, go a long way toward differentiating itself from rivals such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.

The virtual currency that is unique to the marketplace can be used to buy services from other Coffee & Power users, which keeps money in the system and helps to drive more activity and growth. The website also taps into user’s social networks by encouraging people to invite their friends by allowing people to give free gifts or missions to their friends. The marketplace brings everything together in one place, and the ratings and feedback system helps to build trust within the community.

The number of people who are full-time mobile workers is growing astronomically, and the poor economy has accelerated this trend. Over 25 million Americans spend one day or more per week working remotely, and full-time mobile workers make up 14 percent of the overall U.S. workforce.

The idea has gained a significant amount of traction, and it has attracted more than $1 million worth of funding from tech giants including Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg among others.

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Converting Human Energy to Electricity

Posted on November 19, 2011 by tech jobs

Green tech is one of the biggest emerging sectors of the tech market with private and public investment growing exponentially every year. As our impact on the climate and environment becomes more evident, we are collectively looking to reduce our impact on the planet. Renewable energy is a particularly large sector of the growing green tech market, and there are some truly innovative creations coming out.

One of these new innovations are paving tiles that convert the kinetic energy of people walking into electricity that can be used to power anything a wide array of public goods. The new “PaveGen” paving tiles are currently being tested in London and at other locations in England, and the special energy-generating tiles are going to be used to power a huge urban mall in London as part of the 2012 London Olympics. This installation will feature 20 tiles scattered along the crossing between the Olympic stadium and the Westfield Stratford City Mall. Based on the estimate of 30 million visitors, it is projected that the tiles will provide up to 50% of the power needed for the outdoor lighting in the mall. While the initial rollout for the tiles will be in modern cities like London, eventually, they could be used to help power third world cities and slums that lack the electrical infrastructure to keep the lights on.

The PaveGen tiles were created by Laurence Kemball-Cook, a 25 year old engineer who created the tiles while a university senior in 2009. Kemball-Cook designed the tiles as a means of powering off-grid appliances like street lights, illuminated signs, and advertising. Because of the nature of the system, they would be most effective in high traffic areas including major transit hubs, city centers, shopping malls, and schools.

The current iteration of the tile is made from a highly durable rubber and includes an on-board battery that stores energy in order to provide consistent electricity. Because the tile only produces energy when it is stepped on, the energy is produced in spikes so a consistent transfer mechanism was required to make it effective. The tiles compress approximately 5 millimeters and that kinetic energy is converted into electricity; however, Kemball-Cook declined to share exactly how that process takes place. The PaveGen tiles also feature an integrated LED that lights up to convey the idea that it produces energy to the user. The LED only uses 5% of the energy generated by each footstep allowing it to encourage people to walk on it without negatively impacting its performance.

The PaveGen tile has already won a whole host of awards for its design ingenuity including the Shell LiveWire Grand Ideas Award and the Ethical Business Awards “Big Idea” award. The enthusiasm for the tile has garnered attention from numerous angel investors and venture firms and the company recently closed a round of financing from a consortium of London-based angel investors.

There is a great deal of enthusiasm for the product; however, many are withholding far reaching predictions of the tiles potential impact. Richard Miller, the head of sustainability at the Technology Strategy Board said, “As much as it’s an effective, common-sense source of some sustainable electricity, it’s also a great way for people to engage with the issue of sustainability … to feel like they are part of the solution in a very immediate, fun and visual way that doesn’t make you do anything you wouldn’t already be doing… As with all things of this nature, on a large scale and in the long term, its success will be determined by how cost-effective it is to produce … If it turns out to be expensive, then it will struggle to find a place as anything more than a niche application.”

Kemball-Cook would not comment on the current cost of each tile, but he stated that the current price is considerably higher than it will be once it begins to be mass produced.

The test installations of the tiles have been getting a good deal of traffic, and durability testing has been promising. According to Kemball-Cook, the tiles easily withstood testing from a machine that mimicked being stomped on 24/7 for an entire month. Based on these results he said, “We’re confident enough to give it a five-year guarantee, but that could well go up. […] It’s also really easy to install as a retrofit on existing pavements, because they can be made to match their exact dimensions … you just replace one slab with another.”

Even though one step produces very little electricity – enough to power an LED-powered street light for 30 seconds – he believes that widespread use could make a significant energy contribution. Discussing this potential for outsourcing, Kemball-Cook said, “We recently came back from a big outdoor festival where we got over 250,000 footsteps — that was enough to charge 10,000 mobile phones.” Looking to the future, he sees immense possibilities, “The average person takes 150 million steps in their lifetime, just imagine the potential.”

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How to Get a Job at Google

Posted on October 24, 2011 by tech jobs

For years, Google has been considered one of the top places to work in both the United States and abroad. The huge number of perks from gourmet cafeterias, free massages, game rooms, laundry service, and many others have drawn the attention of most everyone. It was ranked #4 in 2011 by Fortune Magazine on the best companies to work for list, and it ranked #1 in 2007. If there’s one place where almost everyone wants to work, it is at Google. Even while the life of a Google employee has gotten a great deal of attention, so too has the peculiar and innovative hiring practices and interview methods that Google employs. Because Google’s interview process is so outlandish, it has been the target of many internet rumors, which obscure the truth. In an interview recently, Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt shed some light into what makes a Google employee, and how the interview process actually works.

• Be Independent. According to Mr. Schmidt, the best employees are ones who do not need to be micromanaged. Employees that can come together and make decisions without looking for affirmation and approval before they proceed keep things running smoothly. “People are going to do what they are going to do, and you’re there to assist them. They don’t need me, they are going to do it anyway. They are going to do it for their whole lives. Maybe they could use a little help from me. At Google, we give the impression of not managing the company because we don’t really. It sort of has its own borg-like quality if you will. it sort of just moves forward,” said Schmidt. Independence breeds innovation and innovation is what brought Google to the top.

• Be Exceptional. If there is one thing that Google demands of its employees above anything else, it is exceptionality. In this sense, Schmidt said, “We spent more time — and pretty ruthlessly — on academic qualifications, intelligence, intellectual creativity, passion and commitment. What bothers me about management books, they all say these things generically, but nobody does it.” If you want to work at Google, you have to be exceptional, and it is not just the engineers that are exceptional either. Even the sales and customer support people at Google are the best of the best.

• Be who you are. Schmidt mentioned how important it is to get the right people for the job. The right person for the job, however, is not always the most friendly and outgoing. “You are going to have to deal with the odd people. Not every single one of these incredibly smart people is a team player… even if people don’t want them around, we still need them,” said Schmidt.

• Enjoy the interview process. Google is known for having a creative and often arduous interview process. According to Schmidt, Google is streamlining its interview process and prospective employees are no longer subject to up to 16 interviews before the company makes a decision. Today, he said that they can make a decision in only 5 interviews. These interviews often include brainteaser questions like, “explain how would you fit an elephant in a refrigerator” and “figure out how many piano tuners are in New York.” The quirky interview questions are designed to show how your brain solves problems and your intellectual creativity.

Even though Google is no longer ranked the #1 best company to work for, working at Google is still the dream of many college grads. In fact, this February Google announced that it was hiring 6,000 new employees, and they received over 75,000 resumes for those openings in less than one week. Getting a job at Google may not be easy, but it is an amazing experience for all who get the opportunity. Furthermore, a job at Google opens up the opportunity to work almost anywhere else.

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