Author Archives: Paul Heltzel

There’s a major IT skills gap in the country and it’s only expected to widen. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, there will be 1 million more computing jobs than applicants by 2020.

And while this poses a problem for organizations without a plan to address it (two-thirds don’t, according to a recent CompTIA report), the skills gap can also be viewed as an opportunity. For IT pros and for businesses, there’s a chance to get ahead of your competition by matching supply and demand.

If you’re up for the challenge, read on to find out which areas are trending — in education, soft skills, networking, and hot technologies among others — and which are cooling down.

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We’re seeing a number of shifts this year in hiring as technologies mature, new ones emerge and companies work to cut costs by blending full-time IT staff with contract work.

While some see the gig economy as a flexible new way to work, one that appeals to solo entrepreneurs, others see a general consequence of the Great Recession. Either way, the gig economy is experiencing growing pains. And growing it is: 40 percent of the workforce is expected to be part of it by 2020, according to a report by Intuit.  

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Unusual job titles aren’t new in the IT world. Before the Twitter ninja and social media rockstar, before the webmaster was hired to conjure up HTML sorcery, there was the software evangelist, an IT job title that merged the worlds of sales and religion. In the early ’80s an Apple executive coined the term for an Apple marketer who would praise the first Macintosh to potential developers and customers.

Since then, as firms have looked to boost innovation, cut costs, or improve security, new IT job titles have been forged to catch attention and signal a possible way forward. Scan IT job sites like Glassdoor, Indeed or LinkedIn and you’ll see bizarre IT job one-offs – Microsoft, for example, has a chief storyteller, and Google a chief futurist — but also hundreds of (somewhat) recent additions and with openings like innovation manager.

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IT is on the precipice of unprecedented change. Every company, now in the business of technology, is experiencing glimmers of larger shifts to come: automation, decentralized technology budgets, rapid adoption of cloud-based services, and most recently, artificial intelligence as a business necessity.

Thanks to these emerging and converging trends, technology is increasingly freeing workers from routine tasks, from the warehouse to the C-suite. Massive amounts of data are being ingested in real time, as business decisions are beginning to be offloaded to machines, leaving more time to focus on planning, pursuing leads, and adopting new technologies. 

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If you’re burning out on your current gig, or feel that your role may be heading toward a dead end, it might be time for a change. To that end, we reached out to recruiters, executives, and tech pros, asking them to weigh in on the best opportunities they see evolving in the year ahead. What they came up with may surprise you, a mix of bleeding-edge tech and standbys that make up the hottest jobs currently hiring in IT.

Some of these high-demand roles come with signing bonuses, stock options, and the ability to work remotely, of course. More eyebrow-raising perks include college debt payoffs and planned sabbaticals.

[ Get a leg up with our free tech resume samples and expert advice. | Prep for your interview with these eight websites for researching your next employer. | Sign up for our CIO Careers newsletter for tips and trends in IT careers. ]

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New and evolving technologies are rapidly reshaping how we work—offering creative opportunities for developers who are willing to pivot and adopt new skills. We took a look at 11 tech trends experts say are likely to disrupt current IT approaches and create demand for engineers with an eye on the future.

It isn’t all about The Next Big Thing. Future opportunities for developers are emerging from a confluence of cutting-edge technologies, such as AI, VR. augmented reality, IoT, and cloud technology … and, of course, dealing with the security issues that are evolving from these convergences.

If you’re interested in expanding your developer’s toolkit, check out these trending domains—and our tips on how to get ahead by getting started with them.

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