The fields of computer science and information technology currently have the highest growth rate in terms of the latest trends and technology. With increasing evolution in IT trends, there is greater demand for certain skills within companies. These IT skills are still new and foreign, but developing at an exponential rate. With a development rate this high, it becomes necessary for an aspirant employee to keep expanding his skill-set. Not just that, IT professionals are expected to be in sync with the latest trends in computer science and information technology. This doesn’t just hone their existing skills and build new ones but also affirms their position in the company as a top employee.

So here are the top 7 IT skills in greatest demand in the year 2019

Full Stack Development

The times have long gone by when back-end developers and front-end developers were hired separately. Now, companies look for full stack developers, who are well versed in everything. Full-stack developers are software engineers who are skilled in all aspects of software development. These include design, front-end, and back-end development, networks, APIs, hosting, and security. Such engineers are valuable because they have such a vast skill-set.In fact, an average software engineer salary in the US can be up to $295K annually.

Full-stack developers potentially increase the efficiency of companies without increasing the number of employees or capital investment. These engineers need to have strong programming skills and a thorough knowledge of the areas of IT development. The greater the amount of experience in various development fields, the more valuable you are to a company.  

DevOps

DevOps is an amalgam of two words- Development, and Operations. It is a software development methodology that combines software development with information technology operations. DevOps reduces the time between the process of modifying a system and the permanent placement of this modification in the system. For example, if there is a bug in Instagram, then there is some time gap between its identification, correction and final delivery. A DevOps engineer reduces this time gap.

Be it growth opportunity, salary, or employment statistics, DevOps is one of the top skills in demand as of 2019. One can easily avail DevOps training online on many websites, in popular skills like Jenkins, SaltStack, Splunk, and Maven.

AI and Machine Learning

These two skills are, hands-down, the most popular and widely known IT skills in the world. AI and Machine learning always go hand in hand. Machine learning is a programmed system’s ability to learn and improve implicitly from past information and experience. Cookies can be a vague example.

When we search for an item of clothing online, the Internet remembers our search. So, every time we revisit the internet, it shows us ads of similar clothing items, knowing we are interested and tries to help us. Siri, Google Assistant, face recognition and speech recognition apps; all these employ AI and machine learning. As of 2019, professionals with these skills earn more than $500000 on an average. No wonder that it is one of the top IT skills in 2019.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity sounds like a boring skill. It is not as new as other skills on this list, but it is definitely in great demand. Cybersecurity has always been an issue, what with hackers on the large everywhere. And with the increased popularity of software-based databases and technology in industries, cybersecurity has become even more essential. The hackers of today are no novices. They are perfectly capable of breaking through the most advanced security measures. Hence, the constant evolution of cybersecurity is a necessity.

Cybersecurity is also a vast field in terms of employee roles, like ethical hacking or systems security. And the number of jobs in this field are increasing faster than the positions can be filled.

Data Science

Data science is the theory behind every technological advancement in the world. It deals with algorithms that analyze past data trends and make predictions based on it. These predictions enable IT engineers to formulate new algorithms using the existing ones to create new technological solutions. Everything that we see in sci-fi movies is possible with Data Science Analysis. And currently, data analysts are the hottest commodity out in the IT sector.

Uncovering new patterns in existing data and coming up with ways to use those patterns is an art. And a data scientist is the Picasso of the IT sector. It requires good mathematical, verbal reasoning and analytical skills, and knowledge of computer systems and coding. So if you love research work and solving logical problems, you will be a master of Data Science.  

Business Intelligence Analyst

Business Intelligence is quite similar to Data Science. The only difference is that a BI Analyst does the same things from a business perspective. Business Analysts analyze past trends, past data, and make future predictions. So you know how McDonald’s has a policy “Never serve stale food to customers”? This means that if there are fewer customers on a particular day, a lot of food would go waste. But that doesn’t happen.

McDonald’s has business analysts who analyze the customer density and food consumption data of over 100 years. Using their skills, they can predict a fairly accurate number of customers that the McDonalds outlets will get on a particular day. This helps the suppliers only deliver the exact amount of food to the outlets, so that food never goes waste.

And these predictions are extremely accurate. Most times, they even consider natural calamities and other impossible things. BI analysts are extremely valuable and earn 6 figure salaries. And if you are good at solving problems and analyzing patterns, you have the potential to be a BI analyst.

IoT (Internet of Things)

Today, people spend most of their time on the Internet. So it is natural that the material things around us should also be connected to the Internet. That, precisely, is the definition of the Internet of Things. IoT enables home appliances, cars, home security systems, and other electronic devices to share data over the Internet.

Fitbits are a classic example of the Internet of Things. They track our heart rate and using data available on the Internet, calculate the number of steps. Also, smart homes are also becoming increasingly popular as more people are adopting automated systems for their homes.

IoT increases efficiency, safety and improves decision-making ability in industries. It is a vast field, with many skill requirements such as data analytics, cloud computing, automation, etc. Also, the field of IoT is extremely promising in terms of career growth and job opportunities. So if you are an IT engineer who loves variety, go for a career in IoT.

The field of computer science and information technology is constantly evolving. With this evolution in technology comes an evolution in job profiles and skill requirements. Thus to keep up with these changes, the requirement for vaster skill sets has increased. And considering the amount of competition out there, you need to be the best. So get hired by mastering one of the above skills, and prove your worth to all the IT engineers out there!