Navigating the Tech Job Market: Top Skills Students Should Develop

Despite mass layoffs at Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, the tech job market is still in a crunch. Tech companies struggle to find the right talent – and for the right price.

That said, competition is as cutthroat as it could be. That’s why, if you’re a student envisioning a career in tech, you have to be ready to navigate the said competition – and do your prep to come out on top.

Of course, this prep isn’t something you can expect your college or university to help you with. The recipe for success evolves too fast for academia to keep up with.

So, if you want to become a successful tech job applicant, get ready to develop skills beyond your curriculum. You may even have to choose that over homework – but hey, that’s what professional paper writers are for. But what skills should you develop, you may wonder? Let’s break down the top nine that tech companies pay extra close attention to.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)

This probably comes as no surprise to you if you’ve kept up with tech news over the past year. From generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT and Midjourney) to predictive analytics, AI and its offspring technology, machine learning, is ubiquitous. It powers everything from Face ID on your phone to NPC behavior in games.

The demand for AI and ML development skills grows at an unprecedented rate. It’s expected to show a 71% compound annual growth rate by 2025, according to Forbes. So, if you want to be sure there’ll be a job waiting for you in tech, learning AI and ML is a safe bet.

Data Science

The AI and ML revolution is impossible without quality data sets. And this is where data scientists come in. They create those datasets to train AI and ML algorithms. But not just – they can also write algorithms to extract valuable insights from corporate data, for example.

But even if you don’t build a career in data science, data skills are crucial in any development project. You need to be able to set up the correct flow of data, ensure its quality, and protect sensitive information.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is another tech field that is growing at an unprecedented rate. The global market is expected to almost quadruple by 2030 in value, compared to its value in 2022, according to Forbes.

This growth means that – you guessed it – cloud computing skills are going to be in high demand, as well. Those skills span working with APIs, databases, private cloud systems, as well as public cloud providers like:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

DevOps

Whether you’re planning to work with cloud platforms or not, knowing your way around the DevOps methodology is crucial. A portmanteau of Development and Operations, this methodology is aimed at bridging the gap between development and operations teams, allowing them to collaborate closely.

Building DevOps skills means familiarizing yourself with:

• Common DevOps tools like Docker and Ansible
• Version control
• Continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines
• Testing automation

Project Management

If you ever envision yourself climbing the corporate ladder to a leadership position, this is the skill you should invest in early on. Project management isn’t a hard skill; however, it’s crucial for becoming a team lead in the future.

Project management skills typically include:

• Strong communication skills
• Proficiency in project management tools like JIRA
• Task prioritization, distribution, and monitoring
• Team and time management
• Budget management

Cybersecurity

In an increasingly digital world, cybersecurity vulnerabilities are many. That’s why organizations of all sizes and across industries require cybersecurity specialists to protect them against data breaches, ransomware attacks, and hacking attempts.

Apart from being an alluring career path, cybersecurity is vital for any developer, no matter their specialization. You should be well aware of the best security practices for coding in specific programming languages. Otherwise, you won’t be able to avoid easily preventable vulnerabilities.

Business Analysis

You’ll have to be working with business requirements no matter the project you’re involved in. Business analysis skills can help you gain a good grasp of what’s expected of you as a developer.

Understanding business challenges, needs, and goals and finding appropriate technical solutions will also allow you to show initiative as a developer. That’s a valuable skill for employers.

Business analysis skills typically come in handy for developers and test and QA engineers. Project managers and system analysts also often need them.

Technical Writing & Documentation

As a developer, your job isn’t only to write the code itself. You also have to document it – i.e., write down why you chose this or that approach or what purpose a particular function serves. To nail this task, you’ll need technical writing and documentation skills.

Technical writing means translating complex technical processes into simple language. It’s meant to communicate information to an audience with a less advanced level of expertise in the matter. Documentation, in turn, is meant for fellow developers who will maintain or change the code. So, it can include professional jargon and complex terms.

Quality Assurance

Even if you don’t plan to become a QA engineer, having basic quality assurance skills will help you write cleaner code. As a developer, you’ll be expected to test your own code – otherwise, you won’t be able to make sure it follows the client’s functional requirements.

Quality assurance skills include manual and automated testing. As for types of testing, the most common ones include unit, acceptance, integration, performance, and functional testing. You may also want to look into other test types, such as usability and smoke tests.

In Conclusion

Competing in any job market is no easy feat, but it’s especially true for tech jobs. Yes, employers do state that finding the right talent is a challenge. Yet, there is a clear mismatch between the available candidates and organizations’ needs.

To be the right person for the job, you need to take your time building the right skill set that combines valuable hard and soft skills. But for that, of course, you may need to make sacrifices if your academic tasks take up most or all of your waking time.

In this case, do consider turning to the best essay writing service to get some help. It’ll free up some time for you to develop the skills that are truly valuable for the employers of today – not yesterday.