What's New
With both
Dell and
IBM still facing big changes — Michael Dell’s $25 billion buyout to take his company private finally took place in mid-September — the near future of the Austin area’s tech scene remains a bit unclear. But that hasn’t stopped Forbes from putting the city at the top of its list of best places for future job growth, citing Austin employment’s current 4 percent annual growth rate. Forbes notes that
Accenture, National Instruments and
Time Warner Cable have all announced major expansions recently, and IT is leading the way. “For an IT professional, Austin is almost an ideal city,” says Rob Robinson, district president for IT recruiting firm
Robert Half Technology. In hiring news:
Popular cloud-based storage provider Dropbox will open its second U.S. office in Austin and is hiring. “Austin was an obvious choice,” the company said in a blog post. “The city has a lot going on in tech and art, paired nicely with a healthy dose of Texan hospitality. Also, the food is pretty legit.” Another growing company: DrillMap, a clean-tech startup that has raised $6.5 million in venture capital, is hiring locally to add to its 70-person staff.
- Mu Sigma, an Illinois-based data analytics firm, will hire 300 people in Austin within two years. The company has already hired 30 workers for what will become a delivery center, a customer lab and an innovation lab.
- Israel-based Upstream Commerce, a developer of price monitoring software, has set up its North American headquarters in Austin.
Meanwhile, an
Austin American-Statesman story in August explored whether the area can become a tech magnet for women. “There are efforts underway to address the issue in Central Texas — including a tech accelerator for women, networking and mentoring groups, and meet-ups — and many in Austin’s startup community say they’re optimistic that the picture is changing. But it is slow going,” the newspaper said. This fall, Austin entrepreneur Jan Ryan will launch a program called Women@Austin, which will meet at Capital Factory and focus on providing resources for women starting and building companies, including mentorship by experienced tech leaders, networking and access to investors. At the same time Avinde, a startup accelerator for women, combined with several meetup groups including All-Girl Hack Night, Rails Girls ATX and PyLadies, will hopefully draw more women into the tech scene.
Skills in Demand
Local recruiters say .NET, Java and JavaScript skills, and anything else relating to mobile application development, are hot. Cisco networking talents are consistently in demand as are skills in database administration and security. Business intelligence, user interface/experience and data warehousing skills are also needed.
Leading Industries
- Technology Manufacturing
- Government
- Financial Services
- Software Development
Local Employment and Research Resources
