The pace of change in technology has increased several-fold in the past couple of years. The lifecycle for new technology has reduced from years to mere months, making it difficult to keep track and up to date. Learning new skills is not only essential to making one’s presence felt in a talent market that is struggling with a supply-demand for key technical skills, but also necessary to ensure that a professional continues to stay employable in the future.
Keeping this in mind, we’ve put together the 6 most in-demand technology skills to focus on for a successful career in 2020.
DevOps
Most enterprises today are looking to take a DevOps approach to their IT, making sure their operations and development teams are working in sync to avoid bottlenecks during project implementations. A proliferation of DevOps tools has also emerged such as Docker, Puppet, Chef, and Ansible – making skills with these a key asset for IT professionals.
Cloud Computing
Not new, but not yet fully understood. Cloud Computing continues to evolve, and at a rapid pace. Where the skillsets needed earlier revolved around cloud computing models such as IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, as enterprises have increasingly moved away from setting up their own cloud, the skillsets required have evolved towards the unique skills needed to manage infrastructure built on leading public cloud providers such as AWS and Microsoft Azure.
Data Visualization and Engineering
As the quantity of data around the world grows exponentially day by day, data analytics is growing into one of the most sought after skillsets by enterprises – and data visualization is fast becoming one of the key skills required for a successful data analyst, as data mining and textual representation of data continues to grow insufficient and incomprehensible.
Machine learning and AI/NLP
With AI finding its way into almost every business application today, machine learning and NLP (Natural Language Processing) has become a very much in-demand skillset, taking precedence over hitherto popular skillsets such as Java. Machine learning engineers are the key asset enterprises look for in their pursuit of AI, and professionals today would be well advised to pursue both skillsets and certifications in this area.
Cybersecurity
According to ZDNet, 12 of the top 25 highest-paying certifications today are related to cybersecurity. Security needs are growing exponentially as the number of disparate security systems companies are using increases, making it essential not only to know how to work with multiple tools but to know how to integrate them together to put together a secure work environment.
Blockchain
Blockchain continues to be a driver for growth for multiple industries. Blockchain technology promises to bring accountability and reliability into several key problem areas such as supply chain management, financial transactions, and medical records, but every day brings new applications of the technology. Not surprisingly, Blockchain is the only slightly mature technology that finds itself on Gartner’s top 10 strategic technology trends for 2019 – and it will probably be there for a while to come.
Some other skills that bear mention include mobile development, SEO/SEM and digital marketing. Truly, the technology landscape is shifting radically with each passing day – and there are both opportunities as well as pitfalls galore. Hopefully, our list here helps you keep up!
