According to this CNET article – http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10282905-92.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5 , for the 2nd straight quarter, VCs are becoming increasingly optimistic about the nascent recovery in the economy. This survey is specific to West Coast/San Fran VCs, but the polling is from June — very recent and useful data.

This reflects  not only what we are hearing, but what we are seeing in the past 3-4 weeks here in the Boston, MA software engineering job market — that firms that put the brakes on hiring in the Fall, and/or budgeting for lean operations, are starting to thaw out their recruiting budgets and make strategic hires. It’s a great sign for all of us, when the VCs show optimism, as the money, brainpower, and infrastructure that entrepreneurs bring to bear on a situation are usually the catalysts that bring us out of such an economic tsunami.

Although the national economic picture is still awful, as is the Boston job market, the software/IT industry has better weathered this storm, and is showing signs of being the first-mover to the recovery phase. With the Nasdaq leading all major indices this year (around +10%) and recent M&A activity (EMC for Data Domain), I remain confident we’re on the recovery path. That said – I’ve got nearly a dozen unfilled, and “HOT” jobs that need to be filled — the requirements are very specific, but if you’re waiting for “better days” to make a move — beat the rush and snag one of these outstanding jobs — drop Boston’s #1 Software engineer recruiter a line – scott@biviumgroup.com

Definitely a positive sign to read that Mass officially added job s in the month of May – led by the tech sector - http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/articles/2009/06/19/bay_state_gains_jobs_in_may/

Although we are still very much in “bear mode” overall, I am confident, barring any unexpected developments, that we are at an inflection point and that the market will steadily improve as the year moves into the 4th quarter – with a fairly robust recovery of the Boston/Massachusetts software engineering  job market in Q1 of 2010. We are starting to see companies that needed to hire over the 6-9 months gain confidence in “pulling the lever” on hiring.

Good candidates should take this opportunity to dust off the resume, and start proactively looking for the ‘right place’ now. Once every else is in “me too” mode, the noise will fall back the other way.

HOT NEW JOB!

Due to the extremely high bar, and specific requirements of our client, only those candidates best fitting the

position description will be contacted.

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Concord, MA area – parallel systems, super computing, distributed systems, massively parallel computing backgrounds are all “on target” for this client.

Ph.Ds in Computer Science – junior to Principal level salaries to 140k + bonus.

Our client, a widly profitable, software product company is looking to add a few brilliant Computer Scientists, with

robust commerical experience (or strong academics/internships).

A Ph.D. in Computer Science (or very closely related area) is a must have. This environment is filled with some of the best of the best – MIT, Stanford, Tsinghua, IIT, Carnegie-Mellon etc etc

Strong distributed, complex apps work in C/C++ and/or Java is required

This client’s gruelling interview style and process ensures that anyone offered a job, will be in the company

of other genius-level colleagues. A true environment where the best & brightest are successful. We’re talking about 2% turnover in engineering in the past 8 years.

You’d better love the whiteboard, and not be afraid to prove your skills!

IF you’re up to the challenge, send a resume to scott@biviumgroup.com “Ph.D Software Engineer”

Have a hot new job for someone with QA/SQA experience in the medical device space (or similar regulated field) – 495N location in MA. See http://bit.ly/QAMedicaldevice for more details

Looks like a great weekend to get out and enjoy the sun!

Enjoy,

Scott

Recruiting for a hot startup where we’ve placed most of the team, and have an exclusive. SWEET. Looking for monster PHP/Drupal skills, lots of MIT/CMU/Stanford folks here, sharp sharp! Several open source committers – so hacking on the side is a good thing.

Read more here http://bit.ly/PHPDrupalWebdeveloper and send me an email if you’re interested – scott@biviumgroup.com

Been very busy with wedding planning – fun stuff!! A couple new jobs today to talk about – the first is a C++ Linux role in Cambridge, MA – focus on video apps – more of a mid-level ~ 105k salary -http://bit.ly/LinuxSoftwareEng – 2nd role is much more algorithmic/search in nature Java/C++/C#/Ruby – client doesn’t care what language you’re a master of,  just that you’ve got the chops to work for GOOG or MSFT, but you choose not to. 20 person company looking for “the best of the best”

Hot new job to start Monday off on the right foot  - Middle tier (data access layer, ORM nHibernate etc) –  C# Software Engineer – salary + stock options – 110kish –  http://bit.ly/MiddleTierSoftwareEngineerBiviu

For a long-time startup client in the greater Waltham, MA area – we are conducting a search for a “high horsepower” Junior with strong CS fundamentals – with Java/J2EE . More details here - http://bit.ly/WalthamJuniorJ2EEBiviumGroup

With two days until May, we had a nice taste of Summer, and the Sox were on a nice roll until last night – although April was a reasonably busy month,  the two trends to note – layoffs have slowed significantly, but new job growth has been just a trickle. Those clients hiring are finding it tough to find “excellent” talent.

I’m partnering with a really cool new contact (you know who you are!) , to assist in their existing search for a strong VP Engineering/CTO – specific traits I seek – C#/.NET hands-on skills (architecture minimally), startup prowess (been there, done that), and experience/passion/love for the music/media space. We’re already talking with some top talent, so the bar is set high. Need to read a full job description? http://bit.ly/VPEngineeringTheBiviumGroup

Drop me a line – scott@biviumgroup.com

According to the recent press release http://bit.ly/MarchMassUnemployment – the Mass. unemployment rate has risen to 7.8%, still less than the 8.5% national average.

Of course, in March 2008 the rate was an incredibly low 4.7%…. the silver lining is that the rate “only” went up from 7.7% to 7.8% from Feb ro March… in line with what we see in general – that it’s not great out there in general, but the “mass layoffs” of some firms may have already passed. In technology, I dare say the unemployment rate is LOWER at this stage of the recession than during the .COM recession.

Again, it’s not easy out there, but as a lifelong entrepreneur, I’m still an optimist at heart. You should be too.