The business and technological world is rapidly changing. In fact, we are currently experiencing their fastest development in centuries. Chances are those hard-earned and prized skills of yours may not work anymore (for the time being, at least). Constantly upskilling and gathering knowledge is the key to survive the digital jungle.
Months ago, LinkedIn discovered and brought to light what expertise will be in-demand next year by pooling and analysing billions upon billions of user data and going through tens of thousands of job postings, searchings, and recruitment activities in their website to pin point the“hot skills” that companies will be looking for.
Here are the top ten. There is still time to upskill, train, and obtain your certifications before 2017 knocks on our doors.
Cloud computing refers to the storage and access of data and programs over the Internet as opposed to your computer's hard drive. Using the Google drive or your iPhone’s iCloud are examples of these. Someone who knows to enable this technology is an asset to companies because it provides self service provisioning, flexibility, and pay-per-use set up for the business.
Distributed computing, on the other hand, lets components of a software system to be shared among multiple computers working on the same goal to boost up efficiency and performance. Dozens upon dozens of projects on various fields ranging from Astrophysics to Cryptography to Finance are currently operating on this technology.
Statistical Analysis refers to the process of obtaining, scrutinising, and presenting huge quantities of data to uncover underlying patterns and trends. This is helpful to any business that process huge amounts of information or deal with a big number of people like manufacturers, airline companies, communication companies, and even government agencies. Data mining is drawing out meaningful information from large sources to create models that help important business decisions.
The two might sound the same, but they are not. Both are equally important to businesses and yes, they sometimes overlap but they utilise entirely different approaches.
Website architecture is simply the planning and designing of the technical, functional and visual components of a website. It deals not only with the appearance, but also server, memory, processes, and security parameters of the site.
Development Framework is the creation and improvement of software frameworks that provide specific functionality as part of a larger software platform to expedite development of software applications, products and solutions.
Middleware is the software that often operates between operating systems and applications or between clients and database servers, allowing them to communicate and work efficiently together. The Android system and other game engines operate on this system.
Integration, on the other hand, is the process of merging together disparate subsystems so that the data contained in each becomes part of a larger, more inclusive system that will easily share data when necessary. The AppleWorks for the Apple II utilised software integration.
User Interface Design refers to maximizing the user’s interaction, efficiency, and experience. It applies mostly to computers, smart phones, and other electronic devices where usability is of paramount concern. The multiple applications running on your smart phone do not negatively affect or slow down each other's operation and efficiency because of User Interface Design.
With the advent of social media upon us, not to mention the digitalization of government agencies, more and more sensitive information is being shared on line than ever. This leads to the rise of Network and Information Security to thwart any efforts of stealing and misusing these information.
Network security refers to the protocols and practices implemented by a network administrator to prevent and keep track of unauthorised access, exploitation, and modification, of the network and network resources. Information security, on the other hand, is the set of protocols and practices implemented to detect and counter the threats to digital (and even non-digital) information.
Mobile development is the creation and development of applications for mobile and smart phones. The era of smart phones is here and progressing, thousands of mobile applications are being created and developed every day to ride on this technological boom. No wonder mobile development will be a huge hit next year. If you are reading this article from a Chrome browser application on your iPhone, you can thank mobile development for that.
This refers to the summarising, organising and communicating mathematical data and information using various tools, such as diagrams, distribution charts, graphs, and histograms,. This skill is handy in business, sales, auditing, and marketing fields.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the maximization of online presence by making sure the website ranks high in the search engine results. Wikipedia always appears first on Google results whenever you search for a word or a term because it is one of the most efficiently optimised websites on the planet. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a type of digital marketing being done through the use of paid promotions and advertising.
Both skills are essential in this day and age where businesses are no longer of brick and mortar variety and marketing is already beyond billboards and TV spots .
This is a broad skill, as it comprises (and even encompasses) the virtualisation, replication, and mirroring of data and networks, as well as security, compression, traffic analysis, process automation, storage provisioning, and other related techniques.