In today’s competitive job market, employers and candidates are looking to stay at the forefront of technology. Whether you are a PHP developer, Mechanical Engineer, or Web Developer, working with the latest technology will keep you marketable to the top companies. If you are a company, you also need to pay attention and invest in new technology and training for employees. If not, employees will feel they aren’t growing their skills and look for companies who are willing to make these investments, while your appeal to potential new candidates will also diminish.
If you are a PHP developer, working with a MVC framework like CakePHP, Zend, or a custom framework will give you the advantage over the developer without this experience. On the web side of things, HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript are necessities for any open role these days but learning JavaScript libraries such as AngularJS, Backbone.js, and Knockout.js will open doors to great places. iOS Developers are going to need to be prepared for Swift, Apple’s new alternative to Objective-C and the release of iOS 8. Resources like the Xcode 6 Beta, Apple’s Swift Programming Language iBook, and tutorials from experts like Ray Wenderlich can help. Mechanical Engineers need to stay in tune to the latest releases of SolidWorks and PTC Pro/Engineer and Creo. Even as recruiters, we need to know about the latest technology in our niche and in recruiting in general.
To keep up with the latest technology and trends in your field spending time and resources is a must in the fast paced tech world. Attend local and national meet-up events such as the Boston PHP Group, The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, and Boston TechJam. Follow industry specific blogs and resources like Undercover Recruiter, Dailyjs.com, StackOverflow, and Tech Republic. Follow thought-leaders or technologies on Twitter for constant updates and interesting content on your area of expertise. As a company or a candidate, you cannot afford to stick with yesterday’s technology. Using the newest tools will help you keep your current job and be an ideal candidate for the job you want.
