Companies are always looking for proactive professionals who can help increase the productivity of the business. If you’re an aspiring professional starting your career path and trying to get a space to grow this article is for you. The article below details the skills that employers want in their teams.
According to Statista, these are the most important skills IT managers will look for when hiring in 2022, by the percentage of consideration.
Skill | Percent |
Problem-Solving | 51 percent |
Teamwork | 42 percent |
Communication | 32 percent |
Basic Cyber Security Knowledge | 32 percent |
Depth of Skill in a Particular Field | 32 percent |
Breadth of Skill | 28 percent |
User Experience | 28 percent |
Customer Service | 20 percent |
Business Acumen | 13 percent |
Four Highest In-Demand Skills for 2022
Below are some of the most in-demand skills that employers want. These are the staples that you need to get in order to obtain the jobs that you desire. The skills range from hard technical skills like cloud computing and artificial intelligence to soft skills like collaboration and effective communication.
Data Literacy and Cloud Computing
Data science and its related skills are the main proponents that a tech professional must know. A competitive tech professional must also skillfully manage data infrastructures and intelligent machines. Data and cloud are key parts of the technical profile when you’re submitting a job application.
As cloud computing helps build agile workplaces within remote and hybrid work environments, the professional who can adapt to this dynamic will rapidly step up levels. Focus on developing an in-depth understanding of how data science, web development, and software design systems function.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), data scientists have a mean annual wage of $108,660. A career in data science is proven to be a fruitful job as it offers high compensation and provides meaningful work.
These skills are learned through training programs like coding bootcamps that provide the necessary skills to students to jumpstart them into a tech career. Some examples of coding bootcamps are Thinkful and General Assembly. Coding bootcamps typically last between 17 and 34 weeks depending on the student’s time commitment.
Collaborative Negotiations
A professional who knows how to speed up digital workflows will succeed in any company. Employers look for detail-oriented experts who foster teamwork and develop great working relationships in virtual environments. This skill optimizes the brainstorming process in the staff, from which the main outcome can be an IT-based work infrastructure.
The high standards and services that the job market demands are now more virtual than physical operations in workplaces. Train your skills to generate an inclusive approach for effective digital collaboration through cloud databases and real-time monitoring software for work systems. The most important aspect is to create integrated and collaborative communications by utilizing the digital tools at your disposal.
Business and Artificial Intelligence
If you lead an analysis team for business intelligence operations, you’ll gain huge value as a tech expert for the financial industry. Business analytics is the basis of this skill. For the most part, AI and BI skills intersect with other skills. The combination of AI software and predictive analysis to foresee different scenarios is going to be the norm in the future.
In-depth knowledge of business is a major plus for commerce-related jobs and industries. If you know how to understand and extrapolate meaningful information from data, then you’re setting yourself up for success. The reliance on data will only become more prevalent as various sectors invest in information technology and data gathering means to aid them in their business operations.
Software and Mobile Application Development
Software skills are an important aspect of tech-related occupations. Employers seek professionals who are knowledgeable in software and mobile development. These skills are essential to breakthrough into the tech industry.
The growing digitization of enterprises requires more tech professionals who can take information technology (IT) software to a new level of sophistication. Innovations like transforming user-focused data into compact devices to enhance the consumer experience are some ways tech professionals stay ahead of the curve.
If you want to become a software engineer or developer, now’s the best time. There’s a positive job outlook for these tech careers and will see confident job growth over the years. According to the BLS, the job outlook for software developers has a projected growth of about 22 percent between 2020 and 2030. It also posits that there’ll be 189,2000 new job openings on average, per year, over the course of the decade.
Companies offer high salaries to people skilled in User Interface and Experience development, full-stack development, and various programming languages like Python, JavaScript, and C#. Professionals with software certifications are also highly sought after.
What Other Aspects Are Companies Looking For in Professionals?
- Engineering Quality: Technology is an ever-expanding field. Tech professionals must cater to creating high-quality products and services right from the start. That’s why you have to focus on improving your knowledge about optimizing computing processes. Great software development and coding engineering will be highly valued by employers.
- Combination of Functional, Technical, and Domain Skills: These characteristics include a combination of hard and soft skills that are essential for tech jobs. Dedicate time every day to train your technical and communication skills. Practice leadership with a group of colleagues and take on high-standard computing projects.
- QAI Certification: Quality Assurance International (QAI) is an international certification company based in the US. This organization is one of the leading certification bodies because it’s at the forefront of workforce development. The QAI certification is a must-follow point of reference for tech companies.
- Soft Skills: Soft skills like effective communication, empathy, and critical thinking are some traits that organizations value in their workforce. Having these traits are a surefire way of landing managerial positions in businesses. Honing and refining your soft skills provides you with lifelong aptitude in subtle and equally important situations.
- Leadership Skills: Leadership and entrepreneurial skills are also some of the top traits that companies vie for. Even in non-leadership positions, organizations tend to hire applicants that show characteristics of being a leader and entrepreneur. It shows organizations that the professional values autonomy, integrity, and action-driven. It also signals that they strive for excellence in the work that they do.
Conclusion
In a highly competitive labor market, you have to aim to be innovative and upskill to be ahead of competitors. Being creative is also a great skill that you need to have to artfully sift through towards the top. Knowledge and skillful use of technology will become the norm, as well as the reliance on big data and huge information infrastructures.
Professions like software engineering and data science have high job growth rates because of the growing dependence on technology. These occupations also have high salaries and competitive working environments. Tech careers will see a spike in employment as industries shift their gears and invest in better digital systems and equipment.
Building a successful career path is not as easy as some aspiring professionals think. Achieving a bright and fruitful career requires passion, dedication, and huge efforts to offer companies what other experts don’t know as much as you do. That’s what being a skilled professional is about.