By Catherine Adenle
Explore the 6 most sought-after tech career skills by widely known tech companies. As tech involves, so are the skills needed by employers.
For tech professionals, there’s this constant pressure as well as the need to keep up with emerging technologies in addition to the growing demand for some most sought-after tech skills.
Tech is like change, it’s constant but that doesn’t make it easy for organizations to manage its numerous moving parts. One obvious constant in the technology industry is its rapid rate of change. This change places an enormous amount of pressure on talent acquisition managers, tech businesses, and tech candidates. The competition to find top talent in tech is fierce wherever you turn.
Tech candidates, especially those whose hope is to get hired quickly by big tech organizations or Start-ups, are also burdened with staying aware of the hottest skills and trends in the field of technology.
For Technologists, the gold standards of yesteryears are now the qualifying standards of today especially if you want to work for major tech organizations.
The Power of Technology
These days, whether you are in tech, finance, retail, fashion or media companies, you are bound to use one technology or several in your business. Whatever your interests, and whatever your skills, there is a digital aspect to it. For this reason, tech professionals are needed in almost all organizations.
Having any of these 6 most sought-after tech career skills will fast-track you to land your dream digital career. Even, if you’re in another line of work but with a degree in Math, embarking on training or looking to upskill to improve your tech employability is now a lot easier. Whether you’re an established IT professional or an aspiring one, having one of these 6 most sought-after tech career skills will elevate your career.
In our careers, we need to be adaptable. As the world changes, so will our jobs. So, what skills do we really need to future-proof our professional life? The World Economic Forum believes that by 2020, 5 million jobs will be lost by automation. So, it is imperative that we have the skills we need to protect our livelihood.
Futuristic Elements
Technology is changing at a whiplash-inducing pace. What’s much more difficult to predict is which technologies specifically are about to be unleashed in the next few years.
When we consider the future now, we typically think about futuristic elements such as self-driving cars, robots, artificial intelligence, machine learning, bots, face-detecting systems to authorize payments or provide access to facilities, smart chips and even life beyond Earth. These aspects won’t come to reality without having the workforce with the right skillset. Fortunately, many research bodies have identified what the in-demand skills will be for the foreseeable future to help us prepare for the years ahead.
Amongst others, these are the 6 most sought-after tech career skills by employers
By learning the skills of the future now, we can make sure our career continues to be a success and can grow alongside the technological advancement that is happening across the world.
Breakdown
In terms of a hard skill that you can learn through e-learning and courses now, one of the best talents to start getting to grips with is computer coding. Computer coding is vital for the increasing use of digital technology. As technology is progressing so rapidly, many programming languages are being simplified, making them easier for a human to understand. However, with a good grasp of computer coding, you have an adaptable skill that will make sure you’re equipped to handle to workplaces of the future.
See 10 Skills Necessary for Coding
A good per cent of IT hiring decision-makers need Business Intelligence (BI) and data analytics. Using specific BI tools and data-related programming languages to sift data, this skill requires deep, broad experience across database technologies with an emphasis on analytical and reporting tools.
As we continue to make smart devices that can simplify and improve our lives as well as being intuitive to human wants and needs, business intelligence is a useful skill to have.
With this skill, Social and emotional intelligence will also be in demand. Whether helping to programme robots and smart devices with soft skills or utilizing these skills with people we interact with across the globe, collaboration and effective communication are all essential.
To support the new and innovative Internet of Things (IoT) products and services, Artificial Intelligence (AI) skill is in serious demand and the field is understaffed. Due to the significant growth in this field, companies are investing heavily in the skill. With the rise of analytics, big data, deep learning and machine learning, data scientists are becoming a key component of all industries. From Healthcare, Finance, and banking to managing general world issues. Companies are already investing on a big scale to employ top talent in this field
There is no denying that artificial intelligence is the key to the future, and to ensure you align yourself with this, it’s vital as a tech professional to at least understand this one of the 6 most sought-after tech career skills. AI engineering courses are now available from small modules to full degrees.
AI is a fascinating sector of growth as is not only requires excellent data skills and numeracy but it also requires people with the skills to solve the problems of the brain.
See What Skills Do I Need to Get a Job in Artificial Intelligence?
Related to Business Intelligence skill, the understanding of data science also helps businesses see a return on investment in big data technology. Data scientists are responsible for the database technology and design used to store any kind of data. These tech professionals typically have a PhD or a Master’s degree in Math.
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As cyber threats continue to upsurge in scope and sophistication, so is the need for Cybersecurity. Security will continue to be a priority across all industries. Consequently, many companies increase spending on cybersecurity skill and technologies to prevent the exploitation of hackers.
Due to the noticeable growth and the adoption of Cloud services in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure and Google Cloud, there is a demand for professionals with a working knowledge of these platforms.
See The Top Cloud Computing Skills You Need To Pick Up This Year and Cloud Computing Career Guide
Infographic: 6 Most Sought-After Tech Career Skills
Other technical skills and Soft Skills
General Management
The world of freelancing is growing, with more and more people becoming freelancers so they can achieve their ideal work/life balance and be in control of their own careers. In the US alone, it is predicted that 40% of the population will be contracting by 2020. By learning business management skills, you can provide yourself with the tools you need to run your own business and be prepared for future working relationships and collaborations for projects.
Know Your Skills: They Are Your Prime Selling Points
Training
As the world seems to change ever-quickly, we all want to learn and adapt to the changes we are facing. Teachers and trainers will be crucial for developing effective learning. E-learning and app-based training will continue to grow as people will be hungry for information in small, digestible modules. It is likely that we’ll see more dynamic training methods to enable people to learn and brush-up on training quickly. The World Economic Forum predicts demand for teachers with it being number six on their growth list for jobs.
Soft Skills
While tech professionals develop any of these 6 most sought-after tech skills, hiring organizations are usually looking to hire a more balanced employee who also possesses soft skills that are not readily apparent on a CV or Resume. For instance, the ability to work well as part of a team and the ability to communicate with others can go a long way for potential tech candidates looking to work for great organizations.
Critical thinking
Another critical skill for the future will be analytical and logical problem-solving. It is currently the most in-demand skill, and this is predicted to continue until 2020. In fact, over a third of jobs in the future will be looking for complex problem-solving as a core competency, so training now will help you for future competency-based interview questions.
Creativity
Creativity has been listed in the top three desired skills for 2020. As the way of working, products and technology are all advancing rapidly; it will require creative minds to harness these changes and make them beneficial. Creativity has jumped from the number 10 top skills of 2015 all the way up to the top three, which shows that flexibility and imagination will be crucial for the future successful development of the working world. To help bring out your creativity and come up with new ideas, allow yourself to be more curious, ask more questions and utilize self-expression.
You will be in high demand as a tech professional if you have any of these 6 most sought-after tech skills as well as strong communication skills, adaptability, creativity, problem-solving skills as well as the experience of working with the latest technologies.
Now that you have explored the 6 most sought-after tech career skills wanted by teaching employers, which other tech skills can you add? Let’s hear from you, leave your comment below.
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Really interesting article. We have also published a list of skills employees are looking for – https://skillsarena.com/six-skills-youll-need-in-2019/
Thank you @skillsarena.com I love your article too.
Thank you for stopping by. Your article is interesting too.