The most popular 12 skills in future IT talent market

IT industry is very hot, but the premise is that you must have the necessary skills. If you want to enter this industry, you'd better have a look at the most popular IT skills in the coming future.

Kevin Scott is a senior technical manager in Google, and he is also one of the founders of Professional and Educational Committee of American Computer Association. He said, "What I have seen in the Silicon Valley is completely opposite to the view that the programmers will disappear and their work will be outsourced. Many companies are actively recruiting programmers no matter they are large enterprises or start-up companies."

Many recruiters consider that there are more jobs for job seekers to select. Kate Kaiser, IT associate professor of Marquette University in Milwaukee, USA, thinks that IT talent market is very hot, but the premise is that you have the necessary skills.

1. Machine learning

Scott says that with many companies making great efforts to develop the software to search data from massive data, such as collaborative filtering, spam filtering, fraud detection, and so on. Some observers find out that the demand on the market for those talents is rising rapidly, they can learn knowledge about machine or have the ability to design and develop algorithms and technology to enhance the computer's performance, and not only Google needs this kind of talent. Many applications contain very large data sets, which brings a fundamental issue that how to organize data and provide it to users.

2. Move applications to mobile devices

Sean Ebner, vice president of Spherion Pacific Enterprises in Florida, USA, said that the enthusiasm that people vying to provide content in mobile devices was like that in the crazy period of the 1990s for Internet. With BlackBerry, Treo and other devices increasingly becoming a commercial tool, many companies require the talents who are good at extending the applications, such as ERP, procurement, cost approval, etc. to those equipments. He commented, "Many companies need someone to promote the software applications to mobile devices."

3. Wireless networks

Neill Hopkins, vice president of American Computer Technology Industrial Association responsible for skills development, said that with the quick prevalence of the de facto wireless standard, such as Wi-Fi, WiMax and Bluetooth, for the employers who were scouting for technical talents, to protect the security of wireless transmission became the a top priority. He commented, "Many wireless technologies have been accepted by all, so quite a number of companies concern about how they cooperate and work with each other and what the security risks are. These risks are much greater than cable network."

Howard Schmidt, president of American Information System Security Association, former Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Security Strategist of eBay, agreed the above view. He said, "If I were to recruit a wireless technology expert, I also expect one that understands the impact of wireless technology on security, and can implement the measures to control at the beginning."

4. Human-computer interaction and interface design

The other aspect of the increasing demand is human-computer interaction and interface design, which is to design user interface for Web or desktop application software. Scott said, "Now, more and more people realize that engineers can no longer throw together a clumsy interface." Because of the existence of Apple, consumers can see more and more elaborately designed products, therefore, why not require the software to do the same?

5. Project management

Grant Gordon, the manager of Introni Solutions in Kensasus, said that the demand of project managers exceeds the supply, because people couldn't bear the overspend budgets or failed projects, in that case, those who could prove their capabilities of managing projects effectively were really popular. He also pointed out that what they needed were project managers with genuine knowledge and skills, but not the one only had the title. The employers need the persons who know well about the life cycle of the project, how to supervise and administrate, and how to manage the project in a way expected in deed.

This is quite different from the last year when it was easy to be a project manager. But now the evaluating process of hiring a project manager is getting stricter as the increasing demands for practical experiences from the employers. The suitable applicants are extremely rare, so they usually raise particular demands for salary and allowance.

The way Gordon uses to filter from the applicants is to organize interviews by internal subject-matter experts. They intend to know about how the applicants used to solve various problems, for example, how to defuse team conflicts or solve problems. "It is much easier to simply repeat theories, but you will find out whether they know about how to manage conflicts when talking about conflicts management." said by Gordon.

Gordon once asked an applicant to describe what he would do to change the dented surface of the golf ball in order to hit it farther. He said that it was affirmed that no one could answer the question, but we could get how fast they could response and how they could split the issue into smaller ones.

6. General skills on network

Nowadays, we cannot work without network no matter where we are doing IT work, so it is necessary for people who are not professionalized in network, such as software engineers, to get some basic knowledge about it. At least they need to know the ABC about network, such as TCP/IP, Ethernet and fiber; in addition, they need to understand the distributed computing and network computing so that they are able to deal with the related work.

Scott said, "Software developers programming the application software which need to be deployed to database center need to know how the program they designed utilize the network fully." For example, in order to carve up three tiers of application software in a number of computers, developers should know how to build and coordinate the network. The ones who know the basic theory of distributed system are very popular.

7. Network integration skills

According to Hopkins, along with more and more companies using VoIP, there are increasing demands for network administrators who know well about all kinds of networks such as LAN, WAN, voice networks and the Internet, and also they know how to integrate them together.

8. Open-source programme design

Now, there are more employers are interested in hiring the talents of open-resource. Ebner said, "Some people used to consider that open-resource was nearing its end, but now, it makes a comeback no matter in the aspect of operation system or application development." Those people experienced in Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP will find that they are in high demand.

9. Business intelligent system

Now, the business intelligence shows its increasingly rapid development momentum, and thus it is urgent for those people who know those skills in Cognos, Business Objects, Hyperion, and other business intelligent technologies, and how to use those technologies to companies' businesses.

Ebner said, "The customers invest a lot in business intelligence, but they don't need the pure technical people who only know how to create scripts and make queries. To become the skilled personnel in data explorations, the technical staff should possess strong practical knowledge about the business to be analyzed. Those who own the dual skills are currently the hottest in demand."

10. Security issues concerning embedded software

In recent years, security professionals have been in short supply, but according to Schmidt, all kinds of applicants are being evaluated by the employers in terms of security related skills and certificates, not just those applicants of security positions. He said, "In my past six months of viewing past working experiences of the applicants, I have seem "security" in almost every work experience depicted. This is because employers' job requirements have stated out that the applicants need to be able to construct a secured environment no matter whether he is responsible for e-mail system or software development. Security capability apparently is becoming a part of the job requirements."

Companies still need security experts and thematic experts, but in more and more companies prefer each IT staff to understand the effect of his work on safety.

11. Household digital technology integration

Household is becoming a high-tech paradise day by day, so household videos and video markets as well as household security and automated lighting systems have achieved considerable long-term development. But who is going to install such systems? What if problems happen, who is going to solve them?

In order to answer these questions, by cooperating with the Consumer Electronics Association, the United States Computer Technology Industry Association has developed a "Household Digital Technology Integrator" certification. Hopkins said, "This is the most popular and vital market we have ever seen in a very long period."

12. Advantages on Net, C#, C++, Java and so on

Recruiting staff and courses developers notice that a lot of jobs require the applicants to know and use various application frameworks and languages, including ASP.net, VB.net, XML, PHP, Java, C # and C ++. However, Gordon holds the view that employers in no way simply want staff with coding ability, but also staff who know Java, and also have the potential to become a team leader and project coordinator. Employers do not like employees who are working alone with computers and excluded from the working team.