IT skills & trends that are flourishing and fading in 2022

Career Trends: May 23, 2022
Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS

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Content Credit:

• Article by Stephanie Overby, published on enterprisersproject.com. Original article link.

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There’s no dispute: An IT talent war is afoot. Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of global technology leaders who participated in IEEE’s ‘Impact of Technology in 2022 & Beyond’ survey say recruiting technologists and filling open tech positions in the year ahead will be challenging.

Both the needs of enterprises and the capabilities of tech talent marketplace are a mixed bag.

There are red-hot and lukewarm skills and a variety of enterprise technology requirements. Determining how best to match supply and demand has become as much art as science.

Understanding what capabilities are likely to be increasing in value and which are likely to decrease is also important, for both hiring managers and job candidates.

Here are five flourishing ‒ and four fading ‒ IT skills and trends:

Flourishing: Product management

• According to Martha Heller, CEO of Heller Search Associates, more CIOs (chief information officers) are moving to agile development and away from a ‘projects’ approach.
• They need people with a blend of technology, business, and leadership skills to bring high impact technology products to market, whether internal or external to the company.

Flourishing: Cloud and container technology

• Organisations dramatically accelerated and expanded their adoption of cloud infrastructure in reaction to the pandemic challenges and will continue to do so in pursuit of digital transformation.
• The 2021 Open Source Jobs Report from the Linux Foundation found that cloud-native skills are now more in demand than any other technical discipline.
• Nearly half (46 per cent) of hiring managers seek cloud and container technology skills.

Flourishing: Leading change

• It is one of the “power skills” identified by Ouellette & Associates in its research, which separates high-performing technology leaders from the rest.
• Although many IT leaders and managers understand how to manage people, managing change requires a different arsenal of capabilities.
• It includes an understanding of change dynamics, experience with change leadership frameworks and tools, the ability to create a clear roadmap for change as well as structure and processes to sustain it, and the ability to manage the organisational risks, human challenges, and success factors of change initiatives.

Flourishing: Software engineering

• The demand for high-quality engineers will likely continue to increase in 2022 as cutting-edge tools like AI/ML, and automation become table-stakes features for growing businesses.
• Compensation and benefits remain critical components of attracting and retaining developer talent.
• However, training, mentorship, career guidance and growth opportunities, and a culture of innovation are also strong draws.
• Person of LaSalle Networks, notes that Python, JavaScript, C#, .NET, React, Angular, and Golang developers are in highest demand.

Flourishing: Cybersecurity mindset for all

• With deep/wide convergence in functional areas such as R&D, manufacturing, engineering, supply chain and logistics – combined with cloud adoption – there are new and evolving threat vectors and attack surfaces.
• Global trade becomes complicated as countries continue to enact their cyber security and data privacy laws and resultant data sovereignty aspects.
• The appropriate response to the increased risk and complexity is adopting a security by design culture.
• It will require upskilling and re-skilling around cloud, networks, threat hunting, private/public/government sector collaboration, privacy, and counterintelligence.

Fading: Single technology expertise

• As business success will depend on a confluence of digital technologies, polytech capabilities and leadership will be the name of the game.
• CIOs will be looking for people who can orchestrate a complex technology and business process landscape and understand trends such as edge computing and AI.
• Employers are seeking skills in combinations that align with their future needs. IT professionals looking to stay competitive should avoid becoming overly specialised in niche products or technologies.

Fading: STEM degree requirement

• “We see more and more companies hiring people based on the skills that they have, not based on a degree,” says Jim Chilton, CIO of education technology company Cengage Group.
• His own IT organisation has gone degree-blind for many of its roles.

Fading: Traditional PMO leadership

• With the rise of agile integrated IT delivery, the skills and processes associated with traditional project management will become increasingly less valuable.
• Companies that move to a product model have a decreased need for traditional PMOs (product management officers).

Fading: Tech-only contributors

• Even the biggest enterprise IT organisations have started to realise that the soft skills are in fact the most difficult.
• Along with technical skills you also need great communication skills, empathy, and ‒ especially for leaders ‒ the ability to inspire and motivate your staff, says Lorna Mitchell, head of developer relations at Aiven.

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Have you checked out yesterday’s blog yet?

Career Options for Students of Cognitive Science

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(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)

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