Slide 1: 12 IT skills that employers can't say no to
Slide 2: • The market for IT talent is hot, but only if you have the right skills. If you want to be part of the wave, take a look at what eight experts -- including recruiters, curriculum developers, computer science professors and other industry observers -- say are the hottest skills of the near future.
Slide 3: 1) Machine learning • As companies work to build software such as collaborative filtering, spam filtering and frauddetection applications that seek patterns in jumbo-size data sets, a rapid increase in the need for people with machine-learning knowledge, or the ability to design and develop algorithms and techniques to improve computers' performance, there are lots of applications that have big, big, big data sizes, which creates a fundamental problem of how you organize the data and present it to users. Demand for these applications is expanding the need for data mining, statistical modeling and data structure skills, among others, there are subtle differences in how the data structures or algorithms you choose impacts whether you get a reasonable solution or not.
Slide 4: 2) Mobilizing applications • The race to deliver content over mobile devices is akin to the wild days of the Internet during the '90s, and with devices like BlackBerries and Treos becoming more important as business tools, companies will need people who are adept at extending applications such as ERP, procurement and expense approval to these devices. They need people who can push applications onto mobile devices.
Slide 5: 3) Wireless networking • With the proliferation of de facto wireless standards such as Wi-Fi, WiMax and Bluetooth, securing wireless transmissions is top-of-mind for employers seeking technology talent. There's lots of wireless technologies taking hold, and companies are concerned about how do these all fit together, and what are the security risks, which are much bigger than on wired networks. But don't venture into the marketplace with only a wireless certification, No one gets hired as a wireless technician -- you have to be a network administrator with a specialization in wireless so you know how wireless plays with the network.
Slide 6: 4) Human-computer interface • Another area that will see growing demand is human-computer interaction or user interface design, which is the design of user interfaces for the Web or desktop applications. There's been more recognition over time that it's not OK for an engineer to throw together a crappy interface. Consumers are increasingly seeing well-designed products, so why shouldn't they demand that in every piece of software they use?
Slide 7: 5) Project management • Project managers have always been in high demand, but with growing intolerance for overbudget or failed projects, the ones who can prove that they know what they're doing are very much in demand. Employers want people who can ride herd, make sense of the project life cycle and truly project-manage. • That's a big change from a year ago, when it was easy to fill project management slots. But now, with employers demanding in-the-trenches experience, The right candidates are fewer and farther between, and those that are there can be more picky on salaries and perks.
Slide 8: 6) General networking skills • No matter where you work in IT, you can no longer escape the network, and that has made it crucial for non-networking professionals, such as software engineers, to have some basic understanding of networking concepts. At the very least, they should brush up on networking basics, such as TCP/IP, Ethernet and fiber optics, he says, and have a working knowledge of distributed and networked computing. There's an acute need for people writing applications deployed in data centers to be aware of how their applications are using the network. People who understand basic distributed systems principles are very valuable.
Slide 9: • With more companies implementing voice over IP, there's a growing demand for network administrators who understand all sorts of networks -- LANs, WANs, voice, the Internet -- and how they all converge together. There's a huge demand for people who've been in the phone world and understand what the IT network is, or someone managing the IT network who understands the voice network and how it converges. 7) Network convergence technicians
Slide 10: 8) Open-source programming • There's been an uptick in employers interested in hiring open-source talent. Some people thought the sun was setting on open source, but it's coming back in a big way, both at the operating system level and in application development. People with experience in Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, collectively referred to as LAMP, will find themselves in high demand. • Customer dissatisfaction and security concerns are driving this phenomenon, especially in the operating system and database markets.
Slide 11: 9) Business intelligence systems • Momentum is also building around business intelligence, creating demand for people who are skilled in BI technologies such as Cognos, Business Objects and Hyperion, and who can apply those to the business. Employers are making significant investments in business intelligence, but they don't need pure technicians creating scripts and queries. To be a skilled data miner, you need hardcore functional knowledge of the business you're trying to dissect. People who can do both are some of the hottest talent in the country right now.
Slide 12: • Security professionals have been in high demand in recent years, but today, there's a surge in employers looking for security skills and certifications in all their job applicants, not just the ones for security positions. Employers are asking for the ability to create a secure environment, whether the person is running the e-mail server or doing software development. It's becoming part of the job description. This mirrors the trend toward integrating security into companies' day-to-day operations rather than considering it an add-on role performed by a specialist. Companies will still need security specialists and subject-matter experts, but more and more, every IT person a company hires will have to have an understanding of the security ramifications of his area, even an entry-level technician better understand security. Companies are increasingly interested in protecting their assets against cyber terrorism and internal threats. 10) Embedded security
Slide 13: 11) Digital home technology integration • Homes are increasingly becoming hightech havens, and there has been enormous growth in the home video and audio markets, and in home security and automated lighting systems. But who installs these systems, and who fixes them when something goes wrong? • Digital Home Technology Integrator. It's the hottest and most vibrant market we've seen in a long time.
Slide 14: 12) .Net, C #, C ++, Java -- with an edge • Recruiters are seeing job orders come in for a range of application frameworks and languages, including ASP.Net, VB.net, XML, PHP, Java, C#, and C++. Employers want more than just a coder. Rarely do they want people buried behind the computer who aren't part of a team. They want someone with Java who can also be a team lead or a project coordinator.