Have you ever wondered what it takes to be the very best tech professional you can be? AWS, Databricks, Google Cloud, Microsoft Cloud, Salesforce, and Snowflake are among today’s fastest-growing technologies. No matter what area of these technologies you wish to specialize in, here are four key skills you’ll need.
Register to learn more about our Tech Career Programs
Some experience with programming / coding
Whether you’ve built a mobile app that’s being used by millions (in which case, can we have your autograph, please?) or only just cracked how to build your first website, in-demand technologies such as those mentioned above offer a wide variety of roles you can specialize in. Plus, lots of tech products, especially those operated on the cloud, offer low-code or no-code solutions. Therefore, it’s safe to say that the tech sector of today needs hardcore and part-time coders alike.
But whatever role you decide to go for, you’ll benefit from having at least some knowledge of a high-level programming language. However, don’t try to become a jack-of-all-trades. Unless you really want to show off on your résumé or are going for a Developer role, for most roles in the aforementioned technologies you’ll only need (some) experience in one coding language.
Here are the most popular coding languages used across the top cloud computing, AI, and data solutions:
- Java & JavaScript
- Python
- Ruby
- Elixir
- C, C++ or C#
- Go
- Node.js
- React.js
In-depth expertise on a particular platform
Whether or not you have existing experience in tech or you come from a completely different industry, if you’re serious about becoming the best tech specialist on the block, you’ll need to go deep by building your credentials with vendor-approved certifications and hands-on experience in your chosen specialism.
However, with the cloud, data, and AI ecosystems being so vast, it’s impossible for you to learn absolutely everything. So, if you’re after the highest-paying jobs in tech, you need to decide which platform you want to specialize in and go from there.
For example, if you’re looking to become an AWS Cloud Developer, you’ll need to have a solid understanding of automatic deployment tasks and the ability to build environments using AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS Cloud Formation, a ton of CI/CD tools, and other AWS services.
The further you progress in your career, the more expertise you’ll build, and the more sought-after you will be on the job market.
As a starting point, check out these vendor-approved certifications across the world’s top-paying technologies.
Prior industry experience
If you’re looking to switch from an existing career in a completely different field to a specialist technology, you may daunted by the prospect. You might think that there are tech specialists out there who have much more experience than you do and would therefore outcompete you for the roles you wish to apply for.
However, if you come from a different sector, your prior industry experience will often be a huge advantage. For instance, one of the world’s best ERP systems, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, has evolved in such a way that hard-core programming skills are no longer required for every single role. Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultants, for example, can utilize their prior experience in supply chain, manufacturing, or finance on a day-to-day basis as they have a good understanding of the entire process to make the product work effectively for a range of stakeholders without the need for in-depth programming abilities.
In short, if you’re a tech professional with years of experience in the tech sector looking to go deep on a particular specialist technology, then kudos to you. But if you’re looking to get your foot in the door, transitioning from a totally different industry, then make sure you highlight your prior industry experience and all the transferable soft skills you’ve acquired in your career journey to date.
Excellent communication skills
Following on from the previous section, it’s not just technical skills that you should think about developing. Virtually any role in the tech sector will require you to communicate across teams and with a number of other business stakeholders.
To put some data around this, a study by a leadership consultancy Fierce, Inc. found that a whopping 86% of employees blame lack of collaboration or ineffective communication as the main reason for failures in the workplace.
Meanwhile, another study by Ketchum Communications found that only a disappointing one-third of employees agree that their leaders communicate well.
However, for someone entering a new field, having excellent communication skills that you can confidently demonstrate on your résumé, application, and during the interview process can really make you stand out from your competition. Because, surprisingly, while soft skills such as these can be taught, they are actually much more difficult to master than hard tech skills.
So, what does great communication look like in a tech specialist’s day-to-day role? More often than not, you’ll have to take a ‘tech-for-dummies’ approach to explain complex technical concepts to people who make up the wider business (these could be sales and marketing teams, for example) who may not be well-versed in the latest technology advancements.
They’ll highly appreciate it if you can help them understand a technology or a solution that seems completely baffling. That’s because no amount of research can trump a tech expert who’s willing to take the time to explain it. This will do a tremendous amount of good for your reputation within the company and warm people towards you, contributing to a positive working culture.
To sum up, if you’re looking to manage projects, lead teams, and get noticed, then excellent communication skills are a must.
What if I don’t have these skills?
Don’t worry if you don’t tick all these boxes yet! Whether you have experience in tech already or not, with our fully-funded Tech Careers Program, you could soon be well on your way to becoming a certified and sought-after tech specialist with plenty of work experience under your belt.
And the best part? There’s such a demand for tech specialists across cloud, data, and AI, that we’ll pay you to learn the skills you’ll need to succeed, and match you with one of our market-leading companies to complete your paid work placement.
