By Lakshmi Mittra, SVP & Head, Clover Academy
2023 offers immense potential for professional growth and development as the digital economy is booming and there is a huge demand for skills revolving around digital platforms, customer experience, and emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning.
Modern technologies are slowly penetrating our everyday lives with IoT devices, self-driving cars, AR/VR & voice-enabled assistance, etc. Hence, we see IT leaders scouting for professionals with digital skill sets. There has been a surge in demand for digital skills and L&D teams are taking cognizance of the same. There is a plethora of digital technology courses in the market that are shaping new entrants who want to build their careers in these new-age technologies. Whatever the specific job you are interviewing for, recruiters will be looking out for a wider skill set and broader experience in their new hires.
Let’s look at 5 such in-demand skills that are a must to stay relevant in this digital economy.
1. Web/App Development
Web and mobile application development with new programming languages is considered as one of the top skills in demand today. These languages include Bootstrap, jQuery, Angular, Code Igniter, PHP, and JavaScript. Creating a portfolio with knowledge of one or more languages will definitely improve your chances of success. Also, understanding the business user’s perspective on using those applications will help in programming tremendously.
2. Data Analytics
Digital channels bring in a lot of data that are rich in business insights. Organizations collect massive volumes of data, which can be extremely vital for business decision-making. Big Data Analysts and data scientists are the ones who can make sense of it all. Learning data science techniques, and statistical theories, managing data sets, and creating visualization reports will help in ensuring a great career in data analytics.
3. Digital Design
Digital customer experience encompasses everything that a customer sees, interacts with, and engages with on a digital application. It includes the user interface (UI), user experience (UX), and the journey or the flow of different scenarios. Having design skills to understand the requirement and convert it into a visually appealing application will be highly sought by organizations who are on their digital transformation journey. Professionals with experience in creating effective, dynamic user experiences will be in high demand by most tech companies. And now that NFTs are in trend, designers who can create digital art and NFTs will be highly sought after.
4. Digital Project Management
You don’t need to learn coding or programming languages to have a career in digital project management. Project management has been there for decades now. What makes digital project management different is that one needs to understand user behavior and pain points while using the digital properties being created. One also needs to understand the objective of creating the property and take end-to-end ownership of building it right from planning to go LIVE. An understanding of methodologies such as SCRUM and AGILE will help you to stand out from the crowd.
5. Cybersecurity
Digital channels can, at times, become avenues for hackers to penetrate and extract sensitive information from internal systems if not secured properly. Gaining some knowledge in cybersecurity areas such as endpoint security, identity & access management will prove beneficial if you are trying to get a job in the IT security division of any organization. One can also opt to have a career in ethical hacking as it is also one of the most sought jobs in the cybersecurity space.
Conclusion
The professional skills mentioned above will be in high demand for the upcoming digital decade. People who are looking for a stable career in digital technology must learn the skills not only for the jobs that exist today but also for the sorts of jobs that may come up in the future. Hence, it is necessary to be prudent and understand the kind of jobs that new technologies might create soon such as machine learning specialist, neural network designer, etc. Learning the right skills and finding your niche in this digital decade will ensure your as well as your organization’s success.
