We don’t need to inform you the tech industry is hot. It’s one of the decade’s fastest-growing job markets, which makes it difficult to keep up with – even if you’re employed in the industry. Whether you’re an industry insider or considering a career change to this sector, it’s vital that you know the way the technology job market is evolving, and which skills are most in-demand to help you stay in front of the competition and advance your career.
To find this out, we looked to The Ladders’ newly launched Job Market Guide, which uses real-time data from our community of over 7 million employers and professionals throughout the nation. Our data science team then specifically analyzed current job openings and trending technical skills within the tech industry to find out which professionals are most in-demand by employers. Here is what they found:
2015 Top Trending Careers in Tech:
Here are top takeaways from these findings, and how these insights can be leveraged to strengthen your own career.
The right stuff? SQL, Java, C++ and C# are employer favorites.
We first looked at the top five tech positions employers are most eager to fill, and the core competencies they expect the right candidate to possess. As you may have guessed, today’s top tech jobs require a highly specialized set of skills. But which of these skills are currently most coveted by employers? Having in-depth knowledge of popular programming languages such as Java, C++, Javascript and C# were the most common desires among recruiters.
What does this mean for you personally? In the tech industry, it’s about possessing the proper expertise. Look in your local area and inside the Job Market Guide, and then use the listing of Desired Skills to find out which competencies are necessary to improve your career and stay in front of the pack.
The Industry is good – and not only where you think.
In regards to the job market, national trends aren’t typically that insightful. Why? Location matters! So rather than provide you with a blanketed ranking, they dug deeper and leveraged the Job Market Guide to also identify top trending markets for each one of these roles based on cities with the greatest current demand and greatest earning potential.
What does this mean for you personally? If you’re trying to prosper in the tech industry, you do not have to go to Silicon Valley or Silicon Alley to get a great job market. While cities like San Francisco and New York City top the charts for tech roles, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Raleigh, North Carolina also appeared on top of the list for several of these positions. Actually, after factoring cost of living adjustments, you could even earn more in a market like Boston or Washington, D.C.
You do not need decades of experience to be successful.
One last point of interest common among top trending tech jobs is the amount of experience these professionals hold. Although some have 25-year careers, the majority are fresh in the industry with 5 years of experience or less. If you’re thinking about a technology career, it is a great field to get involved with no formal education barrier of other career paths. Browse the five hottest jobs in tech today, and should they interest you, try resources such as this list from Mashable or bootcamp from General Assembly to show you the skills needed for the job!