What are the hardest jobs to fill in 2018? Ask any recruiter or tech professional about the results and you won't be shocked.
Artificial intelligence and data science jobs top the list, in part because their technologies are relatively new and companies are introducing them to digital transformation.
At the same time, there are some surprises. The authors of this article have focused on these areas—both identifying the needs of hiring managers and helping IT professionals find new opportunities in much-needed areas with a promising future.
1. Killer combination: emerging technology + business awareness
The experts came up with a satisfying list: skills and experience needed in emerging fields such as cognitive computing, machine learning, data analytics, IoT, and blockchain. But the real unicorns are candidates who can not only deepen their technical skills, but also keep an eye on their bottom line.
"The challenge is not just finding the skilled people, but also those who can connect the dots to create business impact," said Harley Lippman, founder and CEO of IT human resources firm Genesis10. For example, enterprise data management, big data and analytics have been in the spotlight for the past few years. Finding real data scientists is still a challenge. Companies are focusing on acquiring data and their disparate systems. The focus now is on how to use this data to improve business decisions and create competitive advantage.
2. Penetration testers with scientific thinking
Finding candidates with the right technical skills in 2018 is not so much a problem as finding a problem-solver. For example, cybersecurity technology is in high demand, but so is a positive mindset, and high-value penetration testers are hard to come by.
"Many testers can run tools, find bugs, and even exploit them," said Doug Barbin, principal cybersecurity analyst at Schellman & Co. "If they can't be found and interpreted as statements of risk and threat, these reports can also become Noise, leading to wrong behavior or inaction. The perpetual student or scientist is always looking for new challenges and ways to do things, these are soft skills, they are not very general, but when found they carry their weight .
3. Security auditors with in-depth investigation capabilities
According to hiring managers, security auditors are a job they struggle to find candidates for.
"You can recruit senior professionals in cloud and virtualization technologies, Linux, networking and security technologies," Barbin said. "But without the ability to interview developers, evaluate control systems, ask tough questions, and more importantly, Document their findings, then no matter how specialized they are in the underlying technology, they will end up being thrown away."
4. Robots, cryptography and other partial experts
Some roles are difficult to fill because the technology is cutting edge, requires a combination of skills, and the candidate pool itself is small.
"Our situation is unique in that we focus primarily on mobile robotics specialists rather than general IT staff," said Randolph voor, CTO of inVia Robotics. “Engineers with the requisite skills are extremely rare, so we had to rely on a combination of headhunting, word of mouth and social media to attract the right talent.”
These types of jobs lead to intense competition in wages and company benefits, so it's a seller's market, said Ben Carr, vice president of corporate strategy at Cyberbit.
"For roles like malware reverse engineer, big data experts with security or cryptography experts are the most competitive." Candidates can be very selective about the roles they pursue. Many of the vacancies are key roles, and hiring managers are struggling to find the best fit — making it harder to find the right fit in a tight market.
5. GDPR experts, and data privacy professionals
Companies using personal data of European residents have until May 2018 to comply with EU data protection regulations. However, finding experienced technologists in this field has proven difficult.
"Not only is this a very hot field at the moment, it's also much newer than our other services," said Lori Jendruko, talent manager at Schellman & Co. "There aren't as many men coming into this space, and we're focused on finding one. suitable for women."
Cengage CIO Jim Chilton found that the demand for various data privacy roles was particularly high.
"Most companies need an organization, not just an individual, that's focused on protecting employee and customer information, as well as their digital assets," Chilton said. "Because everyone is hiring for these roles, salaries are rapidly increasing. Added, job seekers also have great bargaining power.
6. DevOps engineers, and other agile developers
The need for technologists with DevOps experience is nothing new. However, organisations say they still have difficulty finding talent in this area.
"As DevOps gains visibility, it can save departments costs and streamline infrastructure, and many companies are looking for talent with this skill set with little or no success," said Giancarlo DiVece, president of Unosquare. Get into DevOps by mistake and continue learning DevOps on the job.”
It's very difficult to build DevOps teams that show some flexibility in the evolution of roles, says Sarah Lahav, CEO of SysAid Technologies.
"Over the past few years, we've attracted quite a few talented candidates with unique skillsets," says Lahav. Still, we've found it difficult to focus agile on DevOps matter. Generally speaking, the hardest employees to find right now are Agile IT candidates who have the ability to change and adapt to changes based on real feedback.
OpenClassrooms co-founder Mathieu Nebra agrees that employees with agile experience are one thing, but finding true agile is more daunting.
Anyone in tech can follow the same steps to succeed on a project or solve a problem, but the hardest and hardest to teach is skills. It's important to find someone with skills, for example, in a programming language like Python. But employers believe it is critical to find those who have the skills and can continue to learn, adapt and develop in preparation for other digital skills needs.
7. Freelancers
Some positions are difficult to recruit because candidates prefer to keep their options on a contract basis. SAP senior vice president Arun Srinivasan said he sees this in hot areas such as data science, security architecture, advanced mobile and analytics.
"As a matter of supply and demand, these people are increasingly choosing to work as independent contractors, freelancers, hourly workers or consultants," said Srinivasan, describing the labor market as one he's seen in more than a decade. the tightest labor market. "They find more variety, more flexibility, and want options that allow them to shape their career path."
8. Data Scientists and Big Data Talents
As companies strive to inform data and business decisions, it is becoming increasingly difficult to gain a foothold in enterprise data management, big data, and data analytics.
"Finding real data scientists remains a challenge," says human resources firm Genesis10Lippman. “Companies are focused on acquiring data and their disparate systems. The focus is now on how to use this data to improve business decisions and create competitive advantage.
9. Cloud native experts
As enterprise cloud technology matures, more and more people need technicians who use cloud-native technology.
"It's not just about moving to the cloud, it's getting processes and organizations to take advantage of the cloud," said Joe Beda, chief technology officer at Hetio, who previously ran Google's virtualization services. "The most effective and sought-after candidates for the year ahead are those who not only master the emerging technologies of cloud native, but also have the solid foundation and people skills to effectively move the larger organization forward."
Beda highlights a particular role: "Most of these skills are focused on SRE engineers -- focused on building sustainable technology and people systems that enable engineers to create services and applications more efficiently and reliably. Among these candidates are A lot of people will make their mark at tech companies. It's those companies that are the hardest to hire.
10. Infrastructure staff
Reduxio CMO and CSOMike Grandinetti said many companies are hiring for roles in computer vision, deep learning and IoT infrastructure, but few are finding people.
"As cloud computing grows, it's hard to find suitable candidates for infrastructure roles," Grandinetti said. "Companies want people who are 'everyone can see' because without a solid team base, the role security and infrastructure play at work doesn't really matter."
11. Technical translators
Some recruiters told us they had difficulty finding IT managers who could talk to non-technical people, said Elisha Thompson, IT staff at Addison Group and manager of the Philadelphia branch.
“It’s hard to find candidates who can enter and thrive in any business environment,” she said. “This is especially true in cybersecurity and DevOps roles, where business culture plays a big role in professional development.”
End, how to find your unicorn?
The trick to filling a job opening starts with the job description, recruiters say. A job listing with a lot of requirements, it's hard to read. So the first piece of advice for recruiters is to avoid overwhelming potential candidates.
"It may seem like a good idea to make job requirements as detailed as possible, but in reality, it could be an opportunity for qualified candidates to lose their jobs," said Jason Hayman, market research manager at IT recruiting firm TEKsystems. "To address this issue. , we recommend that companies work with IT managers, front-line workers and recruiting experts to build a realistic job description to broaden the pool of candidates.”
It's worth taking the time to work closely with recruiters to identify your hiring needs, says inViaRobotics' Voorhies, who offers some suggestions for improving the service.
"One of the biggest challenges we had with hiring last year was having to provide a lot of mentoring and education to recruiters," Voorhies said. For example, a control engineer has several meanings, depending on which industry it's used in. After a few rounds of applicants, our hit rate has improved a lot. Now our recruiters, employers and job seekers maintain excellent relationships.
Looking inward can be a valuable strategy when recruiting for difficult roles, especially for positions related to the specific security threats an organization may face, said Tim Helming, security researcher and director of product management in DomainTools' product management division.
"Some of the skills that security sector leaders see as the most critical are less technical," he said. "The need for critical thinking, curiosity, problem solving, collaboration and other soft skills is huge." In this context, any business Both are likely to have great team talent on their own team.
Original title: The 11 most difficult IT hires today
Original link: https://www.cio.com/article/3250679/hiring-and-staffing/the-11-most-difficult-it-hires-today.html