10 skills that will help get jobs

In this tech-driven world, the job market is constantly evolving. Many career opportunities that previously did not require IT-related or new-age skills now demand knowledge in these areas. Lately, enterprises also prefer candidates with additional IT or tech skills, apart from the usual core skills mentioned in the job description. If you are looking for a new job and want to make the most of your career in 2023, your CV and job application must be up to date.

To stand out among a sea of applicants, here's a list of the top 10 skills employers will be looking for in your application in 2023:

Cybersecurity

The demand for cybersecurity professionals will increase even more in the years to come. Due to the fact that there are still significant cybersecurity flaws that constitute a serious threat to enterprises, there is a high demand for experts in this field. It is expected that businesses would expand their investment in cybersecurity to close these loopholes and protect internal technologies and trade secrets.

The cybersecurity market is anticipated to reach $376.32 billion by 2029.

The most in-demand cybersecurity sub skills include penetration testing, application security, network security and cloud security, but adding fundamentals like risk assessment, intrusion detection, security controls and frameworks, and incident response can bolster your market value even more. In fact, cybersecurity professionals with threat detection, modeling and threat management skills have garnered premium pay equivalent to 16 per cent of the base salary.

Cloud computing

One of today's most widely used technologies, cloud computing has a high demand for skilled professionals. Since most firms, both large and small, have migrated to the cloud, there has been a significant rise in employment in fields related to the cloud.

The global cloud computing market will be worth $832.1 billion by 2025. Cloud computing skills are in huge demand, including anything from building cloud infrastructure to maintaining them.

Working with cloud technology can open doors to positions like cloud developer, cloud administrator, and cloud architect. Knowledge of the cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle can be an added advantage.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

AR and VR are the technologies that bridge the real and virtual worlds. These technologies enable users to view information and content visually, in the same way you take in the world.

Many industries, like healthcare, travel, aviation, and automotive, are developing augmented reality solutions in training applications. AR adds digital elements to a live view and improves how our digital devices can help in our daily tasks, such as searching for information and shopping. VR, on the other hand, lets users experience what it is like to go anywhere. While AR offers an interactive experience of the real-world scenario, VR creates a completely immersive virtual environment.

Apart from basic programming skills, good understanding of UI/UX, 3D animation and modeling skills are required for a career in AR and VR.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

ML is an application of AI where the system learns and develops without any programming. With their cutting-edge technologies, ML and AI are here to revolutionise the world.

According to the World Economic Forum, AI will provide 133 million new jobs by 2025. Learning AI/ML can help you land a job that is well-paying and stable because this technology is gradually becoming the most in demand. Nearly every industry, including banking, healthcare, and education are currently using AI and ML.

DevOps

Based on job posting data, the employment opportunities for DevOps expertise will continue to soar. The future looks promising for professionals with DevOps skills since the market generated more than $4 billion in revenue in 2019 and is anticipated to grow by over 20 per cent between 2020 and 2026. Companies of all sizes benefit from DevOps, including Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, Walmart, and more.

DevOps - a combination of 'development' and 'operations' - acts as a bridge between the software development and IT teams. Though a field unto itself, DevOps skills can help in both the IT and development aspects of running an organisation.

Working in DevOps can mean becoming a DevOps engineer. Some of the required skills include having an understanding of continuous delivery theory, container technologies like Docker or Kubernetes, knowledge of scripting languages like Python, Ruby, and C as well as familiarity with cloud operations.

Data Science and Data Analytics

According to Gartner, nearly 91 per cent of organisations have not yet reached a 'transformational' level of data and information maturity; this created the need for better decision-making, leading to an increase of 27.9 per cent in the number of jobs requiring data science expertise by 2026. Data Scientists collect data and apply ML, deep learning, predictive analytics, and sentiment analysis on large datasets to extract meaningful insights from them.

On the other hand, Data Analysts combine technical, business, and management expertise. They perform statistical analysis on complex datasets and apply data visualisation techniques to make sense of the extracted insights and translate them into lucid business language.

Blockchain

Blockchain services increase security and transparency while providing a wide range of decentralised solutions. By 2029, the market for blockchain technology is anticipated to be worth $163.83 billion. Blockchain is an emerging technology for recording information in a way that is impossible to manipulate.

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology in which transactions are recorded via hash which is a cryptographic signature. The technology is used in many areas such as in cryptocurrencies, financial services as well as peer-to-peer energy trading. A blockchain engineer should be good at programming and have a thorough knowledge of Ripple, R3, Ethereum, and Bitcoin technologies, as well as consensus processes, security protocol stacks, and crypto libraries and functions.

Big data

Big data jobs are increasing every day since organisations have become data-driven and analyse data for higher productivity. It fits into every sector: Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Finance and Telecommunications.

The demand for Big Data will increase in the near future and prepare you for a future-proofed career. The top skills required to become an expert in Big Data include having analytical skills, programming skills, data visualization skills, knowledge of SQL, data mining, as well as familiarity with cloud technologies.

Internet of Things (IoT)

The phenomenal growth of the IoT market is driven by the increased development and usage of internet-enabled devices, rising investments in smart cities, and higher adoption of cloud services. IoT adoption is expanding and industry reports suggest that 75 billion linked devices will be worldwide by 2025. The must-have IoT skills that you need to keep up in 2023 are Node.js development, information security, cloud computing, programming, API automation and testing, and UI/UX- centric design.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

RPA is the process of creating a software program that can do any repeatable business task. It is one of the technologies with the fastest rate of development. Therefore, professionals may anticipate many career opportunities in this area in the coming years.

The size of the global Robotic Process Automation (RPA) market is expected to reach $190 million by the end of 2025. The key RPA skills to be prepared for, in 2023 are business process management, debugging, testing, and updating robots, basic workflow skills, data analytics experience, and RPA platform skills.

Additionally, knowledge of your organisation's systems infrastructure and coding skills will also play an important role in RPA roles. With these immense opportunities to look forward to in 2023, upskilling oneself is the only way to be prepared for the in-demand jobs and be future-ready.

(The author is the chief business officer, TeamLease Digital)