An IT job is among the best-paid and fastest growing across all industries – if you want to work in the area with stable employment and high salary you wouldn’t be able to think of anything better than this. However, IT is also well-known for its quickly changing landscape and high competitiveness. If you want to land an IT job with one of the best employers, you have to constantly perfect your skills, acquire new competencies, in other words – constantly grow as a specialist in order to remain competitive. Hired released their 2018 Global Brand Health Report, and from it, it is seen that a handful of companies are regarded as the most attractive employers, and the competition for the positions with them is always fierce. So, on what areas should one concentrate to ensure career growth and employment stability? Here are the nine top tech skills that will make you a highly sought-after professional — and raise the odds you will get the IT job you want.
1. Artificial intelligence
AI is one of the most important avenues of research and development in the IT industry and, ironically, also one of the most understaffed ones. There are just not enough specialists in this area to go around, especially when it comes to project head managers and other leadership positions. Any expert capable of delivering consistent results in moving an AI project forward is going to be in extremely high demand in the years to come.
2. Adaptability
One of the most important skills — or rather, outlook on life — for a tech specialist is the ability and readiness to adapt to new technology. Taking into account how quickly the IT world changes, nobody can be completely sure what knowledge requirements are going to be standard in half a year. Anybody who isn’t fast to adapt and learn new skills on the go is going to lag behind and eventually become obsolete.
3. Machine learning
Although the number of companies actively using machine learning-based solutions is still relatively small, they are actively hiring specialists in this area, and it seems that it is much more than a passing fad. The possibilities opened up by ML-based solutions in the area of data analysis are just too great to miss, and in the years to come, we are likely to see more and more organizations actively seeking out experts in this sphere to develop and perfect their own solutions.
4. Cybersecurity
The last couple of years have been a serious wake-up call for many companies that became over-reliant on technology without paying sufficient attention to protecting their networks. Both malicious software and the people who use it grow more and more sophisticated and versatile in their methods with every passing year. It seems that the time of lone hackers is coming to an end, with whole criminal organizations taking their place, often selling their services to the highest bidder. In such a situation, the strain put on security systems of businesses both large and small is going to grow exponentially, which means that cybersecurity specialists in this area are also going to be worth their weight in gold. If you concentrate your efforts in cybersecurity, you have all chances of clearing a path to a solid IT job and a long and successful career.
5. DevOps
DevOps is not a particularly new concept or a skill set, but it remains in progressively high demand. As companies look for the most efficient ways to develop and implement internal applications and release more client-oriented software while streamlining the process as much as possible, specialists in DevOps will retain their highly respected position in any organization. It is especially characteristic of companies developing AI-driven solutions.
6. Big Data
Big Data is one of the most important buzzwords of the last few years. The possibilities opened up for companies through the analysis of huge swathes of data in terms of customer relations, business practices, and decision-making are far too enticing to neglect them. Although many businesses use Software as a Service-based solutions for this purpose, many larger companies turn to the development of their own software capable of doing this work. A number of industries, from banking to health care, start seeing Big Data as one of their primary areas of interest, so expect a further increase in jobs dealing with it.
7. Mobile app development
By 2019, the number of smartphone users across the world is expected to reach 5 billion. The mobile revolution came and is still ongoing, and today we live in an increasingly mobile-centric world. Companies and organizations that are willing to stay relevant in this situation need to have not just websites — they have to have their own applications. They need to be more than mobile-friendly — they must have a mobile-first approach in everything they do. And, of course, to meet their demands, the supply of mobile app developers should also grow — and by choosing this as an avenue for self-development, you can quickly become an esteemed specialist in the field.
8. AR and VR
Augmented and virtual reality technologies are still very much in their infancy, but even so, they have gained significant traction. Used in everything from entertainment to sales, they open up a host of opportunities for businesses and organizations willing and capable to think out of the box, to develop solutions that have not been used by anyone before.
9. Cloud computing and SaaS
Cloud computing and SaaS are rapidly becoming the new standard in the world of software. More and more developers forgo the old approaches when software was sold as individual units and embrace the new method of offering it as a cloud-based service. With the possibilities of cloud computing growing rapidly, we are likely to see this industry showing explosive rates of development over the next decade.
Now, go get that IT job!
It is impossible to stay relevant and employable in the field of IT without constantly learning new skills and actively planning one’s career. However, the choice of skills should be done wisely — and these nine we’ve selected are among the most important ones that will lead you to the IT job of your dreams.
Featured image: Pixabay
Definitely, machine learning and what Gary V says, voice recognition and search. In the future, I’d imagine people would use Alexa instead of Google without ever having to type stuff into the search.
Not to mention the blockchain technology that supposedly will revolutionize the world