In recent years, the pace of IT recruitment has slowed down. The sector has grown, but at a slower rate than before 2023, and the demand for specific specializations has shifted significantly. While there is no shortage of CVs on the job market, companies are increasingly facing not a lack of candidates, but a very narrow match in competencies — when they need not just any employee, but a highly qualified specialist in a very specific field. So, which IT professionals are in highest demand in today’s job market?
In Brief:
- Artificial intelligence (AI) is coming to more and more areas of the job market, so we must learn to work with it.
- With the advent of AI, businesses will need to think about the technical solutions required for successful AI implementation.
- The demand for security, data analysis, and processing specialists will increase significantly due to AI.
- Traditional IT professions requiring a lot of manual work or being very time-consuming will lose their relevance, and businesses won’t need to compete as much for these specialists.
The Most In-Demand IT Professions Today
Cybersecurity – Not a Luxury, But a Necessity
Government institutions and businesses are increasingly investing in digital security solutions, but… who will implement these solutions? High-level cybersecurity specialists are rare. Even offering salaries of €5,000–6,000 gross, these experts often have to be searched for over several months. Laws already require certain institutions to have a responsible person for security, but the market still doesn’t have sufficient supply. As a result, this field becomes an excellent niche for young professionals planning their IT careers.
Advice for Career Planning:
Enhance your skills with international certifications (e.g., CompTIA Security+, CEH), aim to participate in real projects, and improve through practice. This is a position that employers will certainly be looking for in the near future, so by investing in yourself, you will secure a long-term career.
Data = Power, But Who Will Analyze It?
There is still a significant shortage of data analysts, and with the development of AI, their demand will only grow. In this field, the job market is more candidate-driven than employer-driven — qualified specialists can negotiate terms and even choose work formats (remote, hybrid, freelance).
Advice for Career Planning:
Focus on SQL, Power BI, Tableau, and learn business logic — the ability to turn data into decisions is crucial.
Cloud Computing
By 2025, the global cloud computing market is expected to reach approximately $912.77 billion, and by 2034, it could reach $5.15 trillion. With the growth of AI, the demand within companies will only increase. At the same time, cloud computing’s development is boosting the already-discussed cybersecurity field. The security of cloud solutions is one of the main concerns troubling businesses.
Advice for Career Planning:
The leading global cloud service providers are AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Experience working with any of these platforms will definitely be noticed by employers.
Artificial Intelligence
Recently, AI has been widely discussed to the point where it feels like we’re getting tired of it. However, we shouldn’t get tired because this topic will only grow. AI solutions are already in tech companies, and they are making their way into more traditional industries like construction and manufacturing. Although its use here is still somewhat experimental, those who are early adopters in this field will definitely benefit in the job market.
Advice for Career Planning:
Experiment, experiment, and experiment some more. Many employers know that AI solutions will inevitably affect them, but many still don’t know how. AI is a rapidly growing and developing field, with new solutions appearing almost every day or, at least, every week. The specialists who will succeed are those who invest time in researching different solutions and discovering what best serves businesses. A relatively new area worth focusing on is AI internal employees — agents. It’s expected that more and more companies will increase their hiring of these “employees.”
Which IT Positions Will Lose Importance?
Manual labor is yesterday’s news. Just like in other sectors, the more manual labor a position requires, the more likely it will be replaced by an internal AI agent. Planning a career in areas like classic web design (even without AI, there are many platforms allowing people to create websites with basic knowledge), IT support specialists (who are increasingly being replaced by AI-managed “chatbot” solutions), or “manual” testers (unless it’s a very specialized field where automated testing might be too complex) is probably not worth it today. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be any demand for these specialists in the future, but it seems that there will be significantly less. The role will shift from manual work to reviewing completed work, correcting mistakes, and solving more complex situations. Therefore, competition among specialists will increase, and developing a career in these areas could become much more challenging.
In Conclusion
The demand for IT specialists in the market is changing. If you are considering starting a career in this field or planning to retrain, your starting point in your considerations should be the development of AI. AI service management is a new challenge that requires more than just technical knowledge. You will need to think not only about what businesses need to do and which new functions they should implement but also how to do it while protecting sensitive business data.
At Tripod Link, we work extensively with IT specialist searches, including AI engineers, so we are ready to help you!
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