12 most desirable skills in all of IT and all of information technology!

This is written by MaryBrandel, but I forgot where I saw it. I think it is an interesting and useful essay , so I share it!

12 most desirable skills in all of IT and all of information technology

1) Machine learning

As companies work to build softwaresuch as collaborative filtering, spam filtering and fraud-detectionapplications that seek patterns in jumbo-size data sets, some observers areseeing a rapid increase in the need for people with machine-learning knowledge,or the ability to design and develop algorithms and techniques to improve computers'performance, Scott says.

"It's not just the case forGoogle," he says. "There are lots of applications that have big, big,big data sizes, which creates a fundamental problem of how you organize thedata and present it to users."

Demand for these applications isexpanding the need for data mining, statistical modeling and data structureskills, among others, Scott says. "You can't just wave your hand at someof these problems -- there are subtle differences in how the data structures oralgorithms you choose impacts whether you get a reasonable solution ornot," he explains.

You can acquire machine-learningknowledge either through job experience or advanced undergraduate or graduatecoursework, Scott says. But no matter how you do it, "companies aresnapping up these skills as fast as they can grab them," he says.

2)Mobilizing applications

The race to deliver content over mobiledevices is akin to the wild days of the Internet during the '90s, says SeanEbner, vice president of professional services at Spherion Pacific Enterprises,a recruiter in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. And with devices like BlackBerries andTreos becoming more important as business tools, he says, companies will needpeople who are adept at extending applications such as ERP, procurement andexpense approval to these devices. "They need people who can pushapplications onto mobile devices," he says.

3)Wireless networking

With the proliferation of de factowireless standards such as Wi-Fi, WiMax and Bluetooth, securing wirelesstransmissions is top-of-mind for employers seeking technology talent, saysNeill Hopkins, vice president of skills development for the ComputingTechnology Industry Association (CompTIA). "There's lots of wirelesstechnologies taking hold, and companies are concerned about how do these allfit together, and what are the security risks, which are much bigger than onwired networks," he says.

"If I were to hire a wirelessspecialist, I'd also want them to understand the security implications of thatand build in controls from the front end," agrees Howard Schmidt,president of the Information Systems Security Association and former chiefinformation security officer and chief security strategist at eBay Inc.

But don't venture into the marketplacewith only a wireless certification, Hopkins warns. "No one gets hired as awireless technician -- you have to be a network administrator with aspecialization in wireless so you know how wireless plays with the network,"he says.

4)Human-computer interface

Another area that will see growingdemand is human-computer interaction or user interface design, Scott says,which is the design of user interfaces for the Web or desktop applications."There's been more recognition over time that it's not OK for an engineerto throw together a crappy interface," he says. Thanks to companies likeApple Inc., he continues, "consumers are increasingly seeing well-designedproducts, so why shouldn't they demand that in every piece of software theyuse?"

5)Project management

Project managers have always been inhigh demand, but with growing intolerance for overbudget or failed projects,the ones who can prove that they know what they're doing are very much indemand, says Grant Gordon, managing director at Overland Park, Kan.-basedstaffing firm Intronic Solutions Group. "Job reqs are coming in for 'trueproject managers,' not just people who have that denotation on theirtitle," Gordon says. "Employers want people who can ride herd, makesense of the project life cycle and truly project-manage."

That's a big change from a year ago, hesays, when it was easy to fill project management slots. But now, withemployers demanding in-the-trenches experience, "the interview process hasbecome much tougher," Gordon says. "The right candidates are fewerand farther between, and those that are there can be more picky on salaries andperks."

he way Gordon screens candidates is byhaving on-staff subject-matter experts conduct interviews that glean how thecandidate has handled various situations in the past, such as conflicting teamresponsibilities or problem resolution. "It's easy to regurgitate what youheard from PMBOK [the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body ofKnowledge], but when it comes to things like conflict management, you startseeing whether they know what they're doing."

In one case, Gordon asked a candidate to describe how he'd goabout designing a golf ball that goes farther by changing the dimples on theball. "No one has the answer to questions like that, but it shows how theythink on their feet and how they can break down a problem that's prettyambiguous into smaller segments," he says.

6) General networking skills

No matter where you work in IT, you can no longer escape thenetwork, and that has made it crucial for non-networking professionals, such assoftware engineers, to have some basic understanding of networking concepts,Scott says. At the very least, they should brush up on networking basics, suchas TCP/IP, Ethernet and fiber optics, he says, and have a working knowledge ofdistributed and networked computing.

"There's an acute need for people writing applications deployed in datacenters to be aware of how their applications are using the network,"Scott says. "They need to understand how to take advantage of the networkin their application design." For instance, to split three-tierapplications among multiple machines, developers need to know how to build andcoordinate that network. "People who understand basic distributed systemsprinciples are very valuable," Scott says.

7) Network convergence technicians

With more companies implementing voice over IP, there's agrowing demand for network administrators who understand all sorts of networks-- LANs, WANs, voice, the Internet -- and how they all converge together,according to Hopkins.

"When something needs to be fixed, companies don't want thenetwork administrator to say, 'Oh, that's a phone problem,' and the phone guyto say, 'Call the networking guy,' " Hopkins says. "Our research hasvalidated that there's a huge demand for people who've been in the phone worldand understand what the IT network is, or someone managing the IT network whounderstands the voice network and how it converges."

8) Open-source programming

There's been an uptick in employers interested in hiringopen-source talent, Ebner says. "Some people thought the sun was settingon open source, but it's coming back in a big way, both at the operating systemlevel and in application development," he says. People with experience inLinux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, collectively referred to as LAMP, will findthemselves in high demand, he says. Scott Saunders, dean of career services atDeVry University in Southern California, is seeing the same trend."Customer dissatisfaction and security concerns are driving thisphenomenon, especially in the operating system and database markets," hesays.

9) Business intelligence systems

Momentum is also building around business intelligence, Ebnersays, creating demand for people who are skilled in BI technologies such asCognos, Business Objects and Hyperion, and who can apply those to the business.

"Clients are making significant investments in businessintelligence," Ebner says. "But they don't need pure technicianscreating scripts and queries. To be a skilled data miner, you need hard-corefunctional knowledge of the business you're trying to dissect." People whocan do both "are some of the hottest talent in the country rightnow," he says.

10) Embedded security

Security professionals have been in high demand in recent years,but today, according to Schmidt, there's a surge in employers looking forsecurity skills and certifications in all their job applicants, not just theones for security positions.

"In virtually every job description I've seen in the lastsix months, there's been some use of the word security in there," he says."Employers are asking for the ability to create a secure environment,whether the person is running the e-mail server or doing software development.It's becoming part of the job description."

This, Schmidt says, mirrors the trend toward integratingsecurity into companies' day-to-day operations rather than considering it anadd-on role performed by a specialist. Companies will still need securityspecialists and subject-matter experts, Schmidt says, but more and more, everyIT person a company hires will have to have an understanding of the securityramifications of his area.

Hopkins echoes that sentiment. "Every single certificationwe do now has an element of security built in," he says. "We keepgetting feedback from the market researchers that security touches everythingand everyone. Even an entry-level technician better understand security."

Saunders says DeVry University has responded to this demand byadding a security curriculum to some of its campuses throughout the U.S."Companies are increasingly interested in protecting their assets againstcyberterrorism and internal threats," he says.

11) Digital home technology integration

Homes are increasingly becoming high-tech havens, and there hasbeen enormous growth in the home video and audio markets, and in home securityand automated lighting systems. But who installs these systems, and who fixesthem when something goes wrong?

To answer that question, CompTIA developed a certification incooperation with the Consumer Electronics Association, called Digital Home Technology Integrator."It's the hottest and most vibrant market we've seen in a long time,"Hopkins says.

 

12).Net, C #, C ++, Java -- with an edge

Recruiters and curriculum developers are seeing job orders comein for a range of application frameworks and languages, including ASP.Net,VB.net, XML, PHP, Java, C#, and C++, but according to Gordon, employers wantmore than just a coder. "Rarely do they want people buried behind thecomputer who aren't part of a team," he says. "They want someone withJava who can also be a team lead or a project coordinator."

2012.05.05