Hot Skills 2012

According to several industry reports, the critical shortage of Information Technology (IT) skills continues with IT salary increases faster than any other skills. The highest demands are in Mobile application development, Cloud computing management, and Database administration. Last few years, Web development was hot but with the number of mobile phone, especially smart phone increases, the need to have more mobile apps accelerates the industry demand toward mobile app development. (It is estimated that the world has over 4.5 billion phone users with a third of them are smart phones). These reports analyze growth patterns for technology skills and IT hiring trends in 15 countries, including the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Japan, Finland, China, Norway, Italy, and S. Korea etc. and list the IT skills in greatest demand as:

1) Mobile application development: – iPhone/iPad, Android, Window 8, HTML 5, JavaScript, and UI design.

2) Cloud Computing management: – Salesforce, Google Apps, Amazon Web services, Azure and Eloqua.

3) Database Administration: – My SQL, Oracle, Cognos, Hbase, and Informatica

Among those skills, iPhone/iPad and Android development skills are among those in greatest demand, as companies are paying the highest salaries to obtain those skills. Companies are also paying top salaries for Cognos and Informatica expertise. HTML 5 and JavaScript skills are next and little higher than people with MySQL skills.

The reason why so many companies cannot hire workers with these skills is currently no formal training of these skills in any college so most workers are self taught or learn these skills on their own. According to a source from NASSCOM, only India has these skills in their training programs at some universities. That may explain why many companies are looking to India as the main source for their skilled workers today and in the future. One executive said: “On the average it takes about two years for U.S schools to develop new course for a new technology but India can do that in less than a year. Their trainings are flexible and always response to industry needs. That is why they are ready whenever we need skilled workers. That may explain why even in a slow economy, their IT outsourcing industry is still doing well.”

Sources

  • Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University