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Hone your skills to stay ahead of the game

With the present and projected high demand for skilled IT professionals, it has never been more important to ensure that your skills are up to date and that you have an eye on the next 'big thing' to ensure your market competitiveness in future years.

We are currently experiencing what recruiters call a "candidate-driven market place" - in other words a candidate-short market place. This has been fuelled by high demand from clients to hire permanent staff over the last 18 months, in order to create banks of staff internally to drive IT/business change projects using more cost-effective internal resource rather than contractors or external consultants. 

However, with fewer candidates now available or willing to move jobs, this will result in increasing demand for contractors over the next two to three years. Search IT are starting to see evidence of this already, with high contractor-hiring levels compared to the same period last year. Business leaders also share this view, with a recent survey of CIOs indicating that 69% believe business patterns are becoming more suitable for IT freelancers.

So, how can you align your skill set to take advantage of this up and coming wave? Well, firstly, it's not always technical skills that are important. Business and "soft" (interpersonal and communication) skills are an increasing commodity, too. A recent survey by www.computing.co.uk established that out of 5,000 business owners in the UK, 85% noted that a positive attitude and soft skills are more important attributes than technical qualifications. This is driven by the need for IT staff to not only fix problems when things go wrong, but to also work with business staff to provide the best of breed technology solutions in order to support future business growth.

So, you are 'street smart' and 'book smart'? And what are the best skills to have, now and moving forward, in order to take full advantage of this developing market?

There is currently very high demand for skills in development technologies, such as Java, .Net, C#, Ruby on Rails and Oracle SQL. This will continue, with demand increasing for those with mobile apps experience, as well as those who have demonstrable experience in RAD, namely Agile.

If you're not a developer, don't worry. Demand is high for business analysis skills, with particular focus on those who have experience within banking, life and pensions and investments. Testers are also sought after, with project output and system assurance reaching a ten-year high. Project managers are also being lined up as new projects kick off, with management skills required in order to encourage delivery of a positive outcome.

Ensure you're first in line to take advantage of these fantastic opportunities by getting in touch with one of our IT consultants. Our approachable experts will review your CV and career aspirations, helping you to fulfil your potential.