The IT industry is growing fast as new startups and joint ventures provide more job opportunities. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, IT and Computer Sciences employment is expected to grow 15% between 2021 and 2031, which is much faster than any other profession. As a result, you will have around 682,800 new jobs to apply for. Are you prepared for the increasing job opportunities? If not, you need to explore the top IT skills in this post to brace yourself for jobs of the future.

5 In-Demand Tech Skills for Technology Careers

1. Cybersecurity

Cyber security is the ultimate focus of any IT team or organization. It is a vast field and offers several career prospects. The future belongs to offering a secure connection, gateway, and cyberspace to stakeholders. Being a beginner, one can initiate a career in networking, help desk, or system administration. It will kick start your career and reveals the purpose and importance of security for an organization. If interested in cyber security, take a look at the following skills or expertise you can master.

• Cyber security analysis
  It requires expertise in securing valuable data of the organization. Continuing professional development may lead to skill sets like risk analysis, threat intelligence, data modeling, intrusion detection, etc.
  
• Risk analysis
  To excel in this field, one must know the significance of risks and vulnerability identification. Regular risk analysis and data management can help in preventing mishaps.
  
• Penetration testing
  Companies do need IT experts for penetration testing to find loopholes before a criminal finds and misuses them. This is moving a step ahead in the line of cyber security.
  
• Compliance
  Besides the cyber attacks, companies do want to avoid any lawsuit that may result because of the data or network they manage. For this reason, they are looking for experts to ensure compliance with regulations.

2. Development

Being able to develop software, web or mobile applications, or user experience are some of the in-demand skills one must secure in 2022. It is useful for organizations if they need to automate various routine tasks that may take several hours or days of their valuable resources. It is also a vast field as IT graduates have a lot to choose from. They may either get expertise in a specific programming language, a technology, or any particular eCommerce or CMS platform. It can lead you to careers in:

• Programming
  Among various programming languages Java, JavaScript, C++, and Python are high in demand. Learning them can not only open your doors to programming jobs but various other IT jobs.
  
• SaaS and PaaS development
  There is an increasing trend of selling Software as a Service or Platform as a Service like Shopify and Magento. Getting familiar with such platforms can help them find another set of opportunities.
  
• Mobile application development
  With the increased use of mobile phones and handheld devices, companies are now ensuring their presence to users as well with easy-to-use mobile applications. It gave way to a whole lot of opportunities in software development solutions for Android, Apple, and cross-platform.
  
• User experience designing
  UX is a specific form of development it aims to make the user experience smooth and free from obstacles. It is a continuous learning experience to find where exactly a user is facing difficulty in understanding or using a feature, option, or design element. It focuses more on visual design skills.
  
• Quality assurance
  One cannot launch a product or software if it is not tested for quality and usability. Quality assurance executives are given the responsibility of finding issues and flaws in a system and suggestions for how it can be improved. It may need data analysis as well.

3. Systems and Networks

One must never ignore the hardware aspect of the IT industry as more and more people focus on the software market and its demand. Systems and networks are equally demanded this year. Basic networking can lead to advance computing and networking. Whether it’s a small business or a large enterprise, they rely on systems to ensure their data is secure, connected, and available around the clock. To excel in this field, one must acquire skills like:

• System administrators for Mac, Windows, Linux
• Computer hardware and software configuration
• Managing networks and applications
• LAN, WAN, and VPN maintenance
• Technical support
• Troubleshooting

4. Data and Analytics

Data is the new oil, there is no doubt in accepting it as collecting data about target customers is the need of the hour for every business. To know people and offer them desirable products to solve their problems is the goal of many. The game does not end with data collection as it needs to be processed to evaluate better prospects as well. Implementing it leads to continuous monitoring of its effectiveness. To step into data and analytics, one must learn the art of:

• Data analysis
• Data visualization
• Database Administration
• Big data
• Data Science

5. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a part of networking but is getting bigger day by day that’s why it gets a separate mention here. It starts with building a complete cloud infrastructure for transforming an enterprise workflow and making sure it runs safely and smooth. It has a great number of opportunities for youngsters to explore. They can choose the career of being a cloud administrator, developer, or architect. They will need to acquire expertise in:

• Amazon Web Services – AWS
• Google Cloud
• Oracle
• Microsoft Azure

How can you gain Top IT Skills?

To acquire any skill may need guidance and a career path from an expert. IT skills are no different than skills as they also demand a thorough understanding of its concepts, technologies, and platform. Some organizations prefer to hire university graduates, whereas some renowned IT companies negate the need for degrees as they value the skill set only. Following are some of the ways to brace yourself with IT skills for jobs of the future.

Be a Graduate – getting a degree in IT may seem to be time-consuming, but it is worth the effort. A recommended solution to manage it would be to start with a basic skill, start earning from it and continue your graduation. It will help you fund education, and keep exploring new things and innovations. After completion, you will be able to offer services in a multitude of sectors or you can better recognize a field you are made for.

Get Certified – Online courses can help you kick-start your IT career. Coursera is a bank of online courses where you can find hundreds of certifications to learn a skill and get them recognized. Certifications vary from beginners to experts so you can start with basic and move to advanced levels as you practice.

Boot camps – IT field is often driven by new technologies and techniques. Your knowledge or skill may seem to be obsolete after a few years as it may demand understanding and exposure to new techniques. For such skill enhancement, boot camps are carried out to give you a clear understanding in a short period. Join them to expedite your learning experience.

Learn yourself – Search the internet and you will find several reliable sources for learning any IT skill. There are different communities and discussion forums where expert programmers share their expertise with beginners to learn a language or a technology. Stack Overflow is a prominent name among them whereas there are official help desks for developers of specific platforms such as WordPress or Shopify.