COVID has changed the professional working world forever. In the case of IT, however, that might just be a positive thing. According to IT staffing agency Motion Recruitment, the market lost 180,000 total jobs in December 2020 – but gained 20,000 IT jobs. Why has the IT job market exploded, and what are the most in-demand tech roles in 2021?
The reason for the increase in available IT jobs is simple: COVID has demanded an unprecedented amount of work in the healthcare and technology space while also forcing companies to rapidly develop and improve their e-commerce platforms. But this change comes with significant growing pains; there just isn’t enough IT talent to execute these roles properly.
Here are 5 of the most in-demand IT roles in 2022:
AUTOMATION ENGINEERS
We knew that we were lacking in automation engineering talent even before the COVID meteor hit our world. But in the past year, automation roles have exploded – and will continue to do so. Oxford Economic Reports claims that more than 3 million automation roles will need to be filled in the next decade. According to WorkMarket’s 2020 (In)Sight, 53% of employees report that automation can save them up to 2 hours of work a day, while 78% of business leaders assume it can save them up to 3. This time-saving allows employers to preserve resources while giving employees some extra room for professional development. Automation is a no-brainer – but where’s the talent to effectively execute it?
E-commerce has boomed in the past year – now the expectation is for companies to conduct business with an effective and streamlined automation service. Automation specialist roles are in high demand – and will continue to be even after the pandemic.
NETWORK AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR
IT professionals working on big projects are in high demand, but that also holds true for those that work on the day-to-day tasks. Managing daily operations is just as crucial to keeping a computer network in good health which is why there will never be a decrease in the need for network and computer systems administrators. Especially with the direction our world is moving-tech everywhere and all of the time- these expert troubleshooters are needed for their extensive analytical and diagnostic skills.
FULL STACK AND MOBILE ENGINEERS
Coding professionals carry unique skills that are impossible for most laypeople to replicate. And with the emergence of telehealth in a COVID and post-COVID world, full stack and mobile engineers are more crucial now than ever. 2020 saw 50% of doctors shifting their in-person appointments to online. While this was an effective way to reduce the spread of COVID, it also overloaded the health professionals’ IT systems, causing website crashes and a high volume of customer service calls. Full stack and mobile engineers are necessary to manage these telehealth interfaces – while also maintaining a secure system that ensures HIPPA protocols.
Gaming also saw an upswing in usage in 2020; according to App Annie, game downloads increased 80% in just one month. This led to a high demand of developers in the gaming industry – gaming companies require someone to know the front end, back end, and infrastructure of their games. The demand for full stack and mobile engineers won’t be slowing down any time soon.
HELP DESK ANALYST
Help Desk Analyst is another position that has exploded on Indeed in the past year – likely due to an unprecedented influx of e-commerce and telehealth services and, as a result, the need for dedicated roles that solely help end users. According to an article from Digital Commerce360, e-commerce grew 44% in the US in 2020 – the highest annual growth in two decades. As stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures became the new normal, companies had to switch to online commerce to keep up with demand – and quickly. Grocery shopping, clothes shopping, and restocking prescriptions and household supplies needed to be available online on a convenient, simple, and effective e-commerce interface.
Telehealth has also exploded in the past year. Telehealth appointments doubled in March 2020 alone. As hospitals and doctors’ offices wanted to keep as many people out of their buildings as possible, they began offering more telehealth services. As with any new system, people needed instruction and assistance to get their appointments booked and their services working properly. They needed to speak with a professional.
Help Desk Analysts work to support the end-user by answering basic questions and helping them troubleshoot and solve any issues they are dealing with. Companies rushed to implement a better e-commerce experience and needed more Help Desk professionals to be the first point of contact for end users. E-commerce and telehealth services firmly planted themselves into our marketplace in 2020, and in 2022 Help Desk Analysts won’t be going away any time soon.
CYBERSECURITY ENGINEERS
Working from home has allowed many in the workforce to execute their jobs comfortably and safely, away from large groups of people. But with the large amounts of people working from home, we’ve also seen increased security threats. Cyber-attacks through phishing scams are occurring more frequently and are even more dangerous. Most peoples’ at-home WiFi is not equipped to handle large-scale cyber-attacks in the way that office network systems can. Preventative measures are now more important than ever – along with the professionals that can prevent these attacks from happening.
The need for cybersecurity engineers will continue to grow in 2022. As a large amount of our workforce abruptly transitioned to a work from home schedule, companies scrambled to fill network security roles – and are still looking for more talent. Much of the professional workforce will continue to work from home, and this vulnerable workforce will need to be protected by worthy administrators.
HOW DO I GET INTO IT?
COVID has forced us to reevaluate the importance of certain roles in our workforce, especially IT roles. These roles allow us to safely work from home, online shop with ease, schedule telehealth appointments with our doctors, and just might allow us to get back to normal life by helping to curb COVID. While these backend roles may not get the glory from the public, they are definitely getting attention from recruiters and business leaders.
Luckily, there are training programs available to become an IT professional, no college degree required. Centriq Online IT Career Program Training offers a 4-month program for students who wish to learn either Full Stack or network and security — no IT background or knowledge required. This is the perfect time to break into the IT world. IT’s significance grew exponentially in the past few years, and we aren’t pulling back the reins on this surge any time soon – or maybe ever. Speak to us today to start your IT career!
Sources:
Motion Recruitment The 5 Tech Roles in Highest Demand for 2021
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/hottest-tech-jobs/
https://www.cio.com/article/230935/hiring-the-most-in-demand-tech-jobs-for-2021.html