These are the skills you need to get hired in tech

Though the unemployment rate for tech workers remains near historic lows, there’s been a shift in the rate at which firms are hiring — and what they’re seeking in new prospects.

Coupled with a large number of layoffs last year at tech giants, the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) has exploded, shifting what companies seek from more traditional roles to skills involving data, analytics, and machine learning.

Even as overall US hiring has slowed in recent months, IT will remain strong for the third quarter of 2024, according to the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey. The ManpowerGroup data, gathered from more than 6,000 employers across the US during April, showed that hiring outlooks are down 4% from Q2 and off 5% compared to the same period last year. The decrease indicates that US economic uncertainty continues to affect hiring. 

“In real time, we’re seeing a steady-as-they-go job market where demand remains strong, but it is softening in some sectors,” said Becky Frankiewicz, ManpowerGroup’s president of North America Region. “While tech hiring isn’t as robust as it used to be, software developers and IT generalists are the most in-demand roles in the US today.

To address skills gaps and remain competitive, employers need a dual approach, Frankiewicz said — attracting and retaining new workers as well as reskilling their existing workforce to transition to growth roles.

In a recent IDC Research survey, two-thirds of than 800 North American IT leaders said they’re experiencing a lack of skills that has resulted in missed revenue growth objectives, quality problems, and lower customer satisfaction.

The situation is not expected to get any better. IDC predicts that by 2026, more than 90% of organizations worldwide will feel the IT skills crisis, amounting to some $5.5 trillion in losses caused by product delays, impaired competitiveness, and loss of business.

Moving away from a ‘candidate-driven’ market

Jennifer Schielke, CEO of IT staffing and recruiting firm Summit Group Solutions, said the IT industry is shifting from a candidate-driven market to one where multiple factors are at play.   On one hand, “major players” such as like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, T-Mobile, and Expedia, have announced significant layoffs due to over-hiring during the pandemic. On the other, small-to-medium businesses (SMSs) are finally getting a shot at closing skills gaps.

That can prove advantageous for tech workers who might otherwise be locked into a corporate pay scale and roles that typically do not change quickly. “Working for [large] companies that offer salaries or compensation packages higher than the average small or mid-sized business limits your options,” Schielke said. “You end up confined to the circle of giants to maintain the desired salary range.”

Additionally, job candidates’ demands often don’t align with traditional large employer expectations. For example, enterprises tend to be less flexible, especially regarding fully remote work, “which is in high demand, but not always feasible for employers to provide,” Schielke said.

Both data and studies have have shown organizations — including the US federal government — are dropping the traditional four-year college degree from job postings, opting instead for technical hard and soft skills or specific personality traits.

By eliminating unnecessary and outdated degree requirements, employers open themselves up to a larger talent pool of would-be hires with skills learned through on-the-job training, boot camps, and certificate programs. “This creates greater diversity and engenders a more creative culture, leading to improved problem solving and idea generation, as well as facilitating skills and knowledge sharing,” said Job van der Voort, CEO of Remote, a global HR and payroll services company.

For example, tech bootcamp graduates, including coding bootcamps, report quickly finding full-time jobs, a quick return on their educational investment, higher salaries, and better STEM career opportunities.

Fiona Mark, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, said while she has seen organizations move away from requiring college degrees, there’s on-going interest in certifications, particularly in cloud and security areas. AI and data skills — data science, analytics, data management — are all showing growth in demand, she said, as are cloud and infrastructure skills needed to support AI environments.

Developer demand is down from its highs of 2020-2021, but organizations still need developers to support digital initiatives and enhanced customer experience, according to Mark. “What has shifted in the marketplace is not just the skillset, but experience in using that skillset. Years of experience is often being used as a proxy for skill proficiency, and the demand for workers with less experience is down from 40% of tech roles in 2021 to around a quarter of tech roles in 2023,” she said.

That’s creating a challenge in the tech labor market, as less experienced or early career workers struggle to enter the workforce, and it reduces the future pipeline for f experienced workers.

As part of the hiring process, an organization is more likely now to offer candidates real-life cases or projects to work on as a demonstration of a candidate’s ability.

What soft skills companies want

While soft skills are high on the list of what organizations want today, being able to actually perform the job requires hard skills. SHL, a talent acquisition and management platform, recently identified the top 10 soft skills employers seek. Specifically they want a worker who:

Considers strategic vision

Thinks broadly

Motivates and empowers others

Monitors markets and competitors

Considers financial impact

Drives Improvement

Applies functional expertise

Gains agreement

Demonstrates empathy

Learns quickly

A MarketPulse survey by payroll and HR firm ADP found something similar for companies (regardless of size) that value soft skills over traditional, industry-specific traits for potential hires. For surveyed companies, the highest ranked skills/traits prioritized in new hires included a strong work ethic, problem-Solving skills, and being detail oriented.

While soft skills are important, communicating them to a prospective employer can present a conundrum. Tina Wang, division vice president of human resources at ADP, said there are a few ways for job seekers to bring attention to their behavioral skills. It goes beyond just listing “strong work ethic” or “problem solving” on a resume, “though it’s good to add it there too,” she said.

Job seekers can incorporate behavior skills in a track record of job experiences. “For example, what was an example of ‘ability to work on a team’ at your previous job? Did you manage or actively participate in a long-term project with multiple internal teams and bring together various ideas from these teams into one cohesive strategy,” Wang said.

Soft skills during an interview, hard skills on the resume

An interview with a prospective employer is also a good time to introduce behavioral skills, but time is limited and job-seekers won’t likely be able to share all their demonstrated skills and experience. 

“Preparation will go a long way, so think through your talking points and what is important to share,” Wang said. “Think about a few applicable, real work experiences where you demonstrated these skills and sketch out how and when to bring them during the interview process.”

References can also be an excellent way to highlight behavioral skills. Intangibles such as a strong work ethic or attention to detail might be something former managers, team members or peers identify. “They likely have perfect examples when you demonstrated these skills that have become in such demand, and you might never have realized your skills were on full display in that instance,” Wang added.

While soft skills are in higher demand, hard skills — especially those learned on the job or through certification programs — are still in play.

In today’s dynamic job market, job seekers aim to stand out. With that in mind, MyPerfectResume  performed an analysis of 25,000 resumes created on its site and found the most frequently used skills posted by job seekers. The top five soft skills were time management; customer service; critical thinking; active listening; and attention to detail.

Meanwhile, SHL identified the top five hard skills as: project management; Microsoft Excel; Python; SQL; and Javascript.

Familiarity with how artificial intelligence (AI) platforms work and the ability to customize large language models (LLMs) through skills such as prompt engineering are also at the top of employee skills lists employers want. Data from research firm IDC indicates that 32% of business and IT leaders now expect advancing AI constructs such as genAI to save time and improve productivity. For example, genAI tools support greater access to diverse knowledge resources by enabling employees to access them using natural language queries.

“GenAI and skills are increasingly tightly related: Organizations spanning all industries and geographies face a widening shortage of all IT tech skills, regardless of those skills relating to security, cloud, IT service management, or AI itself,” IDC said in a recent report. “GenAI tools used in conjunction with or inside of tech training platforms can and do accelerate training.”

Far from eliminating jobs like other watershed moments in technology, AI is expected to create many more jobs that it eliminates.