It’s been another big year for tech recruitment and all the signs are that will continue into 2018.
Given the demand, we’re seeing candidates place more emphasis on work / life balance, coupled with reluctance to remain in jobs where technology and/or soft skills updating and career progression doesn’t occur consistently and often.
Here are the top five IT recruitment trends we expect to drive the market in the coming year.
1. Big data and analytics
The promise of big data is yet to deliver for many organisations, but Aussie enterprises are now actively seeking to make use of the vast amount of customer data they’ve been accruing for years. This is especially true across the retail, gaming, travel, logistics, broadcasting, utilities and banking sectors in particular.
It’s no small undertaking and we’re seeing strong demand for candidates who can marry business intelligence and technology together to meet business objectives. We expect BI, data analysis, science and engineering, insights and analytics professionals to be heavily sought after in coming months, in line with what has happened in 2017.
2. Product management
Digital product management as a profession has grown rapidly in the last three years. It’s set to become even more specialised and in demand, as business demands shorter product release cycles and customers become ever less patient with below par user experience.
Product professionals are becoming more sophisticated over time, dipping toes into tech, marketing and business functions constantly. Product managers that bring a technology background are at a great advantage, particularly to manage API driven products. Expect to see further shortfalls and fierce competition for top talent.
3. Artificial Intelligence
To make the most of the coming wave of Ai, businesses will need internal customer ambassadors, exceptional UX designers, great product owners and managers, and empathetic architects and engineers who can build with the customer in mind. Customers do not accept slow apps for long anymore, so the shift to microservice based structures will support the back ends.
4. Cloud services and DevOps
The migration to a cloud world accelerated this year and 2018 will be even bigger. We expect to see specialist vendors performing extremely well and looking to hire architects and engineers that can consult. Microsoft’s Azure service has taken a strong foothold and will become more of a challenger to the AWS offering. Who will the other big challengers be?
5. Digital transformation
Those last organisations that have been holding on to the bitter, manual end have all but realised their fates and are starting the digital shift, or are about to. In particular, we expect to see growing demand for solution architects, agile delivery experts, Javascript developers and BA’s that understand both core IT and digital channels, as well as digital payment technology gurus.
The marketplace for these skillsets is already competitive and we have seen the average permanent tenure for these technology roles drop below 18 months.
Bonus trend – Cyber security
With mandatory reporting of data breaches coming into effect on 22 February, cyber security is increasingly becoming a strategic priority for business leaders. The culture of security is rapidly changing, with business leaders realising that it takes a whole of organisation approach to reduce risk and ensure security. Change management expertise will be in demand to help ensure our biggest organisations are protected at all levels.
As a result, we’re also seeing severe shortages of cyber security architects and engineers. Hiring managers will need to look outside the relatively small pool of local candidates with security expertise and find skilled technicians wanting to move into the security space.
So what does it mean for you?
Candidates with good skills in architecture or business analysis will be highly sought after in coming months, as will skilled product managers and security experts. Talent shortages continue in the areas of software development, agile change and delivery, BI, data, business analysis, product management, automation testing and DevOps.
Employers need to be proactive in their recruitment planning, ensuring they have recruitment processes in order and offer not just compensation, but that all elusive ‘work/life balance’ and regular opportunities for people to upgrade their skillset.
If you’re looking for a strategic recruitment partner to help you find and vet talent in any of these areas, or maybe you’re after a new role in the new year, don’t hesitate to get in touch.