In a Computerworld 2009 annual Forecast survey, IT pros were asked to name the hottest IT skills in 2009. I’ve noted the key points of each skill, and provided additional reading on each topic, in a format that’s easy to peruse for your viewing pleasure. (A nod to everyone out there who, like me, passed college thanks to CliffsNotes.)
1. Programming/application development
SAP, .NET, and C# are cited as the hottest skills in this segment right now. The study estimates that SAP experts make $35 to $40 per hour more than average senior technicians.
2. Help desk/technical support
This one shouldn’t come as a surprise—with increased outsourcing and more people expressing frustration over conversing with support staff that aren’t from America, having a sharp personality and the ability to explain complex problems simply is in high demand.
3. Project management
Many professionals, despite their experience and savvy, do not have good organization and project management skills. If you are able to acquire these skills and take on a leadership role in projects, you’ll be indispensible to your organization.
4. Networking
With the increase in unified communications, there’s a high demand for individuals who are knowledgeable in the latest networking technologies.
5. Business intelligence
When it comes to BI, individuals who can understand the systems and collect the right data are obviously valuable. Though, IT pros who can think in terms of business strategy, driving creative ideas for what data to pull and how to use it, are of extreme value.
6. Security
Security threats are abundant and always growing. Organizations not only need someone with a background in security, but also someone who can be proactive and forsee potential threats and eliminate them.
7. Web 2.0
Social networking becomes a bigger part of modern-day business every day, and it’s not just limited to Millennials. If you feel like you came to the party too late and won’t be able to keep up with the new tools, you’re wrong. Most of them are surprisingly intuitive.
8. Data center
Understanding the data center and virtualization is critical, as organizations move to cut energy and storage costs. While many general IT pros are expected to learn these skills, becoming an expert in virtualization will be a smart move.
9. Telecommunications
VoIP, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Bluetooth—become familiar with these technologies, the devices that are using them, and what growing role they will have in the future.
I’ve been looking at Scala. It runs on the JVM and combines the best of both Object-Oriented and Functional programming languages (like Erlang). I could see it one day replacing Java as the primary JVM language.
Unfortunately for me, C++ is really slow right now. I have C++ experience in all sorts of environments up to my eyeballs, as well as years and years of VB and RDBMS of all types. But being a little light on .NET (1 year) and Java (1 year) has really been a obstacle in this environment. I'm working on .NET certifications to close the gap.
I half expected to see C/C++ on this list, in spite of the fact that it's practically universal for systems programming. There's just not much like that going on near me right now.