Top Tips You Need to Know Now to Rule the Developer Talent Pool

More than Code: Top Tips You Need to Know Now to Rule the Developer Talent Pool

A common theme across the expansive IT industry space seems to definitely be the increasing premium employers and organizations place on talent with diverse, yet specific, skill sets and expertise that they can bring to their positions and roles.

Gone are the days where organizations would seek out singular JavaScript experts- instead, the competition between talent has continued to ramp up as candidates race to build up their credentials and add more programming languages and environments to their resumes.

Also important to note is that the Development side of the IT industry is understandably going through an intense boom phase, with no signs of slowing down. A recent study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics predicts that software developer jobs will grow as much as 17% between 2014 and 2024, a significantly faster rate than is seen in other professions.

Within this, Application Developer jobs are anticipated to grow 19% in this 10-year timeframe, with Systems Developers forecast to increase by 13% comparatively.

In an effort to ensure you’re positioned to take full advantage of this projected growth, while putting your best foot forward in presenting your skills and background to potential employers, here are some top tips to consider as an IT Developer:

• Build up your arsenal of skills, languages, and tools. With larger skill sets in higher demand than ever before, and an increased focus on familiarity with agile skills methodologies, it is wise to build up your resume with several top tools and environments, including:
  • Open source;
  • Tableau for BI;
  • Interactive technologies, particularly as they relate to the gaming sphere;
  • BlueCodes;
  • Net5;
  • Shifting from legacy systems; and
  • Full Stack.
• Don’t discount the UX. With UX and UI designers right alongside front-end developers, full stack developers, mobile and back-end experts in Indeed.com’s recent ‘Hardest-to-Fill Tech Jobs’ list, these are areas where you have a tremendous opportunity to build new expertise and shine even brighter in front of employer organizations.
• Stay on top of the most sought-after positions, to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry and ensure you’re consistently innovating, expanding your skills, and staying current amid the fast pace of growth this space, in particular, experiences. TechRepublic lists its 10 Hottest Developer Jobs right now as:
  • Ruby Developers;
  • Mobile App Developer - iOS and Android;
  • Information Security Software Developers;
  • IoT Developers (Internet of Things);
  • JavaScript Developers;
  • Cloud Developers;
  • Full Stack Developers;
  • Machine Learning Developers;
  • DevOps Developers; and
  • UX/UI Developers.

In addition to providing you with direction on what employers are looking for, staying on top of the latest roles and positions within the Development space gives you important insights into the direction the space is heading in, a necessary view if you want to ensure you stay at the leading edge of the talent pool.

• Big Data rules. As a result of the intense speed of innovation and evolution that is sweeping the IT industry, particularly on the Development and IoT sides, it should come as no surprise that the most in-demand (and highest paid) roles at the moment center chiefly around the ability to analyze and make sense of massive amounts of data. You definitely cannot go wrong in expanding your skill sets within the Big Data/Data Management areas, focusing on some of the top ones, such as:
  • HANA, MapReduce, Cloud Foundry, Hbase, Omnigraffle, Cassandra, Apache Kafka, SOA, Ansible, and Jetty, to name a few - which are among the highest-paying skills in technology today, according to Dice.

The bottom-line?

Your skills are your future. Make them as diverse as possible, and focus on continuing to learn, while paying close attention to nuances and changes in the IT industry as a whole, and your talent will be irresistible to top employers. The sky is the limit!

If you are looking to take the next step in your development career contact the experts at Sparks IT, our specialized Information Technology staffing and recruiting division.