The ‘Talent Shortage’
It is no speculation or prediction anymore. The shortage gap between IT professionals proportionally to available jobs in the market is here and is rapidly widening even further. The worldwide market, led by the United States has an incredible amount of IT related opportunities across varying segments- thus resulting in prolonged and many times unsuccessful hiring efforts. As a result of the talent shortage, companies who fall behind in terms of timing, benefits, or additional perks have a higher risk of not filling key positions in the future.
In many cases, IT professionals are being chased after even though they are not actively looking for new opportunities- opting to choose shorter termed contracts for enhanced future benefits. Employers are using every strategy possible to retain key IT professionals and hire new ones. Of which the most common ones are: above market pay, extensive financial schemes, even corporate partnerships, flexible work-life balance arrangements, and personal work schedules.
In the past 2-3 years employers had to disrupt their traditional recruitment processes, and it seems like in the approaching future they will have to act even quicker.
Top Industries for IT Professionals
Yes, it seems to be the case that every business looking for sustainable growth will need to up its game in terms of IT. But, what are the top industries for IT professionals to get into? After researching the subject, it looks to me like the following 3 industries will experience the largest demand for IT professional in the coming future.
Financial Services
Our smart phones become even smarter every day, and the time we have to physically interact with one another lessens. That said, an increasing amount of service-based businesses will adopt an almost exclusive tech approach. The shift to tech will drastically increase the need for IT professionals to ensure global organisations based in North America can extract every opportunity out of new technologies while keeping the service reliable and trustworthy. This is the case for internal as well as consumer facing networks or applications.
Healthcare
Although at a slower rate to other industries, healthcare organisations are adopting new technologies to meet the demands of new generations. Healthcare organisations are said to increase their focus on security as well as data management to increase efficiency and connectivity with customers. Within this industry, organisations will look to build new teams and department of IT professionals to fit an evolving US society.
Operations & Communications Services
More and more businesses will look for affordable, cloud-based operational systems and storage services. Moreover, the immediate need for improved data management in terms of operations has been a result of the immense demand for connectivity and instant communication by consumers. IT professionals within this industries will enjoy an even higher rate of demand for their skills.
Overall the biggest winners will be big data, security, operations and network IT professionals as organisations continue the drive towards enhanced tech-based services across the US and worldwide stages.
Most Valuable Certifications & IT All Star Professionals
As a result of increased salary rates in the market, companies resulted in requiring a few popular certifications and qualifications. The most valuable ones are:
- Cisco certifications: Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), Cisco Certified Networking Professional (CCNP)
- Microsoft certifications: Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP)
- Project management certifications: Project Management Professional (PMP)
- Security certifications: Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
- Virtualization certifications: VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Moreover, the hiring trend looks like organisations are actively looking after IT All Stars. What is meant by that is, the search after IT professionals who are well rounded in terms of business, communications, and team management. The most thought after All Star attributes are: communication and public speaking, understanding of complex business problems, creativity, social and team oriented.
Emerging Market: How Far are we?
Wearable technology, virtual reality and other technologies possess a great potential to create new IT jobs as they become commercially acceptable. According to research conducted by Robert Half Technology in 2016, more than 60% of CIOs who took part in the study believe that wearable technology is 3-5 year away from being an active part of business and our personal lives.
That said, IT professionals will be wise to get familiar with such technologies in order to have a higher chance of standing out during the next tech boom.
