When it comes to skills, the secret to future-proofing any IT career is diversification. In a recent Deloitte survey, a majority of CIOs said that one-third of their staff’s current skill sets will not be relevant in the next three years.
In fact, 68% of executives surveyed by Deloitte said their organization’s skills gap is “moderate-to-extreme,” with 27% rating it as “major” or “extreme.”
The IT landscape is rapidly evolving, and employers are seeking skills in combinations that align with their future needs. To help your career avoid a dead end, we talked with tech leaders to identify areas that are nearing the end of their life cycle — and how you can pivot to establish a revamped skillset that will keep your career growing.
The rise of cloud based-services along with a trend toward hybrid and remote work environments has reduced the need for on-premises IT staff. Those whose skills are focused on physical hardware and legacy systems may see their career options limited sooner rather than later, says Susie Cummings, a principal and national leader of IT services at BDO Digital.
“Employees who are generalists with broad skills, but no contemporary areas — cyber, cloud, etc. — of subject matter expertise will likely struggle to remain relevant in current or future positions,” Cummings says. “We’re also seeing the lines blurred between IT and business. Being a purely technical resource without the ability to navigate conversations with business leaders about the value of a future IT investment may increasingly cause challenges.”
Peter Tsai, head of technology insights at Spiceworks Ziff Davis, says the need for foundational skills around understanding the integration of infrastructure, operating systems, and software won’t disappear — but they won’t make tech pros stand out either.
“Current trends have influenced which tech skills are in demand,” Tsai says. “A decade ago, the most useful IT certifications might have revolved around … networking gear, operating systems, and virtualization environments. However, with an increased focus on protecting against cyberthreats and shifting software and infrastructure to an ‘as-a-service’ model, many of the highest-paying certifications now involve IT security and cloud computing.”
Those who excel at individual programming languages currently in use may feel a sense of security, but the need to understand multiple languages will grow quickly in the next few years, says Ivan Panchenko, co-founder and deputy CEO at Postgres.
“In the past, a tech pro could use one technology for a decade — it’s no longer the case,” Panchenko says. “Innovations come at a faster pace. A bad design decision, an acquisition by a competitor, a license change — and previously popular languages and frameworks start losing their users. Now all leading tech companies are adding second and third programming languages in the desired skills sections of their job descriptions. Senior software developers often switch to 100% new technology stacks in just months and succeed in their new roles.”
Some tech pros may have found greater compensation as the reward for focusing on one area, but it can also leave a tech career vulnerable, says David Wintrich, chief academic officer of bootcamp Tech Elevator. “Avoid becoming overly specialized in specific products or niche technologies. Generalists are going to be more adaptable to changing technology landscapes and better equipped to evolve with the needs of organizations.”
Tony Lysak, CEO at the Software Institute, argues that IT skills have limited lifespans and says that scripted testing is one that’s fading.
“At the moment, the IT skills nearing the end of their life cycle include manual test and SQL,” Lysak says. “These are being progressively replaced by UX/UI, cross-functional team members with automated test skills and cloud-based engineers often with specialist skills in big data.