Training Industry Identifies the Top Tech Skills of 2020
We're into the second month of 2020 now, but it's still a new-ish year, and definitely still new in the sense of offering opportunities to learn new skills and adopt new IT certification and training goals. If you're still attempting to set your certification and training compass for 2020, then you may be interested to learn about a new post to the IT and Technical Training blog at Training Industry. Citing data from various sources, blogger Brianna Rivera identifies the five most sought-after IT skill sets. At the top of the list is proficiency in SQL, or Structured Query Language, the core component of database management systems. As you'd expect, a majority of the job roles that require this skill are data-centric – data analysts, data modelers, database developers, database administrators, data scientists – but Rivera points out that SQL skills can also be applied to marketing, retail, and finance. The other top skills areas identified are Python, machine learning, React, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). If you're looking for a new learning or training emphasis in 2020, then there's a lot of good information to be gleaned here.
Dice Identifies the Top Tech Skills of 2020
Lest you suppose that there's only one source of opinion on this topic, IT employment facilitator Dice has also drummed up a new list of top tech skills for 2020. Dice blogger Nick Kolakowski also gives prominence of position to SQL, a skill that is requested in more than 28,000 current IT job postings. That leads the No. 2 skill on the Dice list, Java, by nearly 5,000 job postings. What's that you say? Why yes, the listmakers are at odds apart from agreeing that SQL is the bee's knees. Kolakowski does list Python, but ranks it sixth (out of 17), and doesn't find room for machine learning, React, or AWS. Kolakowski's post also includes a ranked list of top tech occupations, with "software developer/engineer" way out in front, followed by "network engineer," "systems engineer," "Java developer/engineer" and "application developer/engineer," and "software QA engineer/tester." (Know what the hot IT hiring buzzword of 2020 is? We can't say for 100 percent certain, but we're getting a strong vibe that it's "engineer.") "Computer support specialist" and "IT project manager" are the first non-engineer occupations to make the list.
CompTIA: There's Gold in Them Thar IT Hills
Several tech writers have been mining the 2019 IT Skills and Salary Report from Global Knowledge for nuggets of information over the past couple of months. This week, blogger David Engle sifts data from the Skills and Salary Report over at what was formerly the IT Career News blog, but is now just the capital-B Blog of tech industry association CompTIA. Engle cites data from the report showing that IT salaries are on the rise and then runs through some of the drivers that seem to be influencing that trend. For example, the members of one segment of survey respondents believe that adding new IT skills (Seen anything else about that lately?) to their repertoires helped them climb to new salary heights.
So You Want to Be a Multimedia Designer
Once upon the early days of the internet revolution, "web designer" was one of the hottest occupations out there. The role have evolved a bit since the days of making web pages look cool, but there's still plenty of work to be had for people who can match up a strong knowledge of design and illustration with solid web development skills. The latest job profile piece to pop up over at the CertMag.com, the official website of Certification Magazine, explores the role of "multimedia designer," and gives a ground-up assessment of what, generally speaking, is required of someone who'd like to enter the field. There's a lot more to is than just mastery of the Adobe Creative Suite, though that is still a valuable skill to have. The article states that the median annual salary for multimedia designers in the United States, per the latest data from the Occupational Outlook Handbook of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is $72,520, so you can still get a highly satisfactory salary by jumping into the field.
That's all for this edition of Certification Watch. Please keep your certification news and tips coming to the GoCertify News Editor.
