The number of tech employment opportunities is expected to increase by 12% by 2024, according to a recent report by Modis, which will lead to more and more jobs becoming available to IT professionals looking to get into the space. Now that we are about a third of the way into 2018, the IT job market is well established, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t get in on the hottest new positions for this year. If you’re not quite sure what field of IT you’re looking to get into, you’re in luck! We have done the heavy lifting for you and discovered the Top 10 hottest new IT skills for this year. Investing in learning any of these skills will provide you with the perfect launching pad to achieve the IT Job of your dreams in 2018.
AI has been a buzzword within the world of IT for quite some time now, but it is now forecasted to be the most important technological innovation within our lifetime. If you are unsure of what AI is, it simply enables computer systems to perform certain tasks that would have previously required human interaction, like speech recognition, chess-playing, or self-driving cars. The benefit of getting into AI now is that the possibilities for this technology are pretty much limitless, and it can be applied to virtually any industry.
Pursuing a career as a full-stack developer requires you to possess a very wide range of different IT and programming skills. The term “full stack” simply means that you are engaged on every level of the programming system and that you understand the big picture when it comes to the development of major projects. There are no specific requirements that are needed for each project you may be assigned to, but rather you need to know what needs to be done at every level of a project or system, from the front end to the back end.
Project Management is a rapidly growing profession in the IT space and beyond. In a recent study done by the Project Management Institute, it is projected that 87.7 million project managers will be needed by 2027. IT Project Management includes the process of planning, organizing, and delineating responsibility for the completion of an organization’s specific IT goals. This position cannot be done by just any individual, since it requires a person who exhibits strong communication, leadership, and subject matter expertise skills.
In the technology-dependent world that we live in today, there is a hacker attack or data breach that occurs about every 39 seconds. In response to this startling number, there has become an increased need for cybersecurity analysts. Cybersecurity analysts help prevent cyber-attacks from happening with their immense knowledge and expertise of databases, networks, hardware, firewalls, and encryption software. The world of cybersecurity is constantly evolving and changing, so cybersecurity analyst’s responsibilities are constantly changing as the number of cyber-attacks continues to increase.
Cloud computing is the process of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data, instead of having it hosted on a local server or personal computer. According to the MIT Technology Review, some accounts trace this technology all the way back to 2006, when companies such as Amazon and Google began using “the cloud” as their place for online storage. As of 2018, knowing the skills needed to perform cloud computing can take you a long way. Several skills needed for this include database skills, Linux (open-source operating system), DevOps (method of software development), and information security (which is crucial in the world of cloud computing).
Biomedical is the perfect intersection between 2 booming industries: healthcare and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Both industries require a degree of technical expertise and knowledge of biology, which has changed the game in terms of how doctors examine and diagnose their patients. If someone were to want to pursue a career in this field, they must have research skills (to discover and make medical advancements), technology skills, and medical software skills (such as visual instrument software, gait analysis software).
A neural network is a technology system that is patterned after the operation of neurons in the human brain. The purpose of a neural network in data mining is to help recognize any sort of pattern that may exist within your data set, and to react to that certain pattern in a “humanlike way.” To “train” this technology, you must present it with a wide variety of different scenarios and teach it how to react, and it will eventually reach a point where it knows how to respond on its own, similar to a human. Commercial applications for this technology range anywhere from signal processing, to weather radar systems, to even security networks (credit cards and debit cards).
Data scientists are employed to analyze and interpret complex to help businesses make decisions. Data scientists tend to be part mathematicians, part computer scientist and part trend-spotter. Most people that choose to pursue a career in this field tend to come from a statistics or data analytics background, which allows them to use both their skills in computing in combination with their skills of data mining and analytics. Skills needed to be a data scientist often include data visualization, machine learning (branch of AI-based on algorithms and automation), pattern recognition (recognize patterns in data), and data preparation (the process of converting raw data into another format to be more easily consumed).
UX design is short for a User Experience Designer. Someone who works this job is primarily concerned with “the feel” of a given product, whether that is how visually appealing the product is, or how the product psychically feels (all of these things play together to create the overall user experience). The general responsibilities of someone in UX design differ from company to company, and even from project to project. With that being said, their broad responsibility is always simple: to ensure that the product flows logically from one step to the next.
In the world of Information Technology, it is incredibly common for outstanding candidates to lack the soft skills necessary for the jobs they are applying for. Soft skills include anything from verbal and written communication to listening skills to basic emotional intelligence. Most scientists and engineers are hardwired to pursue logical reasoning based on the scientific method, and they often lose their ability to use their “people” skills to manage online projects and diverse teams, so that is why this skill is so important.
In the ever-changing modern world of IT, there are almost always new technologies and processes being developed each day. Although that may seem overwhelming, it is actually a strong positive for someone who is trying to gain access into the world of IT. So, take a class, intern at a new company, or even give us a call at Agile to see what position within the IT universe will best suit your unique skill set.