The Covid-19 pandemic has left the job market in a state of upheaval. Simultaneously, it has led to drastic technological transformations in the IT world. The new advancements will render several existing job profiles outdated or irrelevant to the market's current requirements. In contrast, others will rise exponentially and rule the tech world in times to come.
Tech companies are finding that they have more IT positions lying vacant as against the professionals with the necessary skills and expertise to fill them. However, despite the number of vacancies, the competition remains fierce for such well-paid jobs.
Consequently, individuals need to upskill or reskill themselves to meet companies' growing demand and have a successful career ahead.
In-demand technologies for a career in IT
In this highly competitive world, learning and becoming adept at new-age technologies has gained paramount importance. Technologies are evolving rapidly and paving the way for innovations and creating new job opportunities in the process. Every year, the existing technologies tend to mature and become more sophisticated than in the past.
Here are a few upcoming technologies that are expected to create an impact in 2021:
1. Data Science
Data scientists primarily fetch data, build and maintain databases. They clean, segregate and compartmentalize data available to cater to different needs, along with working on data visualization and its analysis. It is mandatory to get a certification as there is a diverse set of profiles that require specialised expertise to land a job in this field. The overall scope of data scientists tends to be lower as compared to big data owing to the individual profiles which come within the ambit of data science.
The demand for data scientists has proliferated as the pandemic showcased the need and wide applicability of data science.
2. Blockchain Technology
Blockchain is another technology making waves across many different industries such as healthcare, insurance, real estate, and manufacturing, the financial sector, etc. With the increasing use of blockchain technology, the demand for skilled professionals in the field is also skyrocketing parallelly. In fact, blockchain is emerging as the second popular category of jobs.
The crypto job market has primarily four main players: start-ups, legacies, tech companies, and governments.
Blockchain businessmen and crypto nerds run the start-ups, while legacies are akin to accountancy firms, law offices, and banks around for many years. National governments are extensively hiring crypto experts as consultants and advisors.
3. AI and ML
Artificial intelligence (AI) is basically an area of computer science which deals with the creation of intelligent machines that act, react and work like humans, while machine learning (ML) is an application of AI that lends the system the ability to learn, understand and improve from experience without having to programme it automatically.
Certifications in AI & ML will help candidates gain the essential know-how, concepts, and skills that are needed to develop effective AI systems, comprehend the challenges being posed by AI in workspaces, and several other relevant functions that will enable candidates to secure good job roles in the industry as a machine learning engineer, AI engineer or data scientist.
4. Internet of Things (IoT)
Internet of things (IoT) is fast becoming an integral part of our lives. The IoT devices are increasing by nearly 31 percent every year, and it's projected that by 2022, there will be 30 billion IoT devices.
Individuals interested in going for an IoT certification course can gain a strong understanding and utilise the skills learned to develop and implement IoT solutions that use IoT devices with connected sensors and other functions. The professional certifications would open up opportunities to work as an IoT architect, IoT developer, IoT cloud engineer, etc.
5. Cloud Computing
Since its inception, cloud technology has been witnessing an exponential rise. All the enterprises are gradually migrating their services to the cloud as many believe that cloud services proceed parallelly with innovations. This has led to a humongous increase in the demand for professionals who are skillful in configuring cloud services.
There is a spike in cloud-based projects in IT companies, but they lack the skilled technology workers possessing the required skill set to fulfill the demand. Some of the popular roles in cloud computing are enterprise IT architect, Cloud Security Engineer or Cloud Analyst, etc.
6. Cybersecurity
With the growth of the internet, there is a rising threat to security on the web. This has given rise to cybersecurity jobs in all the major sectors. Candidates with cybersecurity certification are in high demand for the roles of a network administrator, IT manager, security engineer, systems administrator, or security consultant, etc.
Summing up
As per the findings of the World Economic Forum, education is the best way to prepare oneself for the upcoming decades of work. Continually pursuing and learning new skill sets and technical capabilities can help one expand their knowledge and set themselves apart from the rest in the field. This will pave the way for them to receive more attractive offers and highly prestigious jobs.
By Alok Bansal, MD & Country Head Visionet India.
Read: Explained: New hiring trends for IITians adopted by companies
Read: 10 skills that engineers should watch for in 2021
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