Future skills, future jobs
According to an industry report, the next five years will be very good for students in Information Technology (IT) as the industry continues to expand with significant job growth all over the world. There will be more opportunities than ever as more jobs are added and starting salary will continue to climb for qualified workers. However, most positions will require at least a Bachelor's degree or higher because computer systems are getting larger and more complex which require special technical skills. More than that, as technology is changing, workers must upgrade their skills, and else they will not be able to find works. A senior manager explained: “The time of programmers and testers who only have few months of training is over. If you do not specialize, you will not get job. Even workers that have several years of experience, if they do not learn new skills, they may not be able to keep their job. Today information technology industry demands specialized skills, it is rare to find job openings that do not require a college degree or special skills.”
A top software executive said: “We anticipate that the next five years will have many changes with a lot of project-based work, and we are predicting that it will be more on new development. Today many companies are planning to do bigger projects but they must set up certain infrastructure to make sure that they are secured before starting their projects. In the next few years, most companies will be busier than ever to automate their processes to increase efficiency.” A top hiring manager told newspapers: “There will be a lot of job openings in IT but the market has changed. Most jobs will require more than just technical skills. Anyone can learn technical skills but unless they also have soft-skills, responsibility and dependability, they may not get hired. We want to hire people with strong career plan as we will ask them where they see themselves today, where they will be next year, where they will be in five years. Those are very important aspects of understanding their career plan and what they will be. People with technical skills who often change job to get better salary will mostly be eliminated."
Although Big Data Analysts and Cloud Computing Specialists are in high demand but the highest demand is Information Security specialists. The report stated that computing security will be very critical for every country but there are so few qualified workers so company will have to pay a lot to get them as the market is competitive. It is estimated that the world will need half million of security specialists by 2015. Even today, companies are having a difficulty finding candidates to fill this position so it is very likely that many countries will have to “import” foreign workers who specialize in this field to meet this need. According to the report, the top jobs are:
1) Information security specialists
2) Big data analysts
3) Cloud computing specialists
4) Mobile apps developers
5) Computer systems analysts
6) Web developers (Both front end and back end)
7) Software developers,
8) Database administrators
The highest demand position, Information Security requires workers to possess both problem-solving and analytical skills. They must have strong understanding of computer systems and security regulations and standards. Information Security specialists must plan and implement security measures to protect company's computer systems, networks and data. They must stay up-to-date on the latest news surrounding hackers' methodologies so they can anticipate and prevent security breaches. They also are responsible for preventing data loss and service interruptions by continue to learn new technologies that will protect the IT systems. One of the reasons for the shortage of workers in this field is only few universities offer specializing trainings and they often very selective.
Big data analyst is another high demand position that requires workers to have strong skills in mathematics and statistics. Besides computing skills they must also understand the business implications of complex data sets. Soft skills also play an important role for this job as they are constantly communicating and working with managers, executives and business analysts. Beyond analyzing existing data and industry data, they must be able to understand key driver of the company and how the data can contribute to business strategy and success of the company. Since Big data training is new and only few universities have training program, it is difficult to find qualified candidates.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
