How Are IT Jobs Changing This Year?

Information technology is disruptive by nature. Both the IT industry and IT departments are going through massive shifts as a result of social media, technology coming to market and on-going innovation. The shifts taking place are subsequently impacting the job market for IT professionals.

While the career outlook for the average IT professional is as good as ever, these men and women need to keep up with the rapid pace of innovation and technology adoption. Some old tech skills will still be relevant in 2018, but some will become increasingly outdated. Also, tech professionals need to keep up with technology use the modern workplace.

Consider the following ways that IT jobs are expected to change in 2018 and in the coming years.

1) More flexibility

IT professionals should be adaptable and willing to learn. The job market has stopped calling for “Networking” or “Storage” specialists. Rather, it’s demanding individuals who have a large IT toolkit to pull from and who realize why each tool in that toolkit is valuable. Being versatile means being better able to serve end users and companies that depend on technology for specific operations.

2) Sellers’ market to intensify

Now, more than ever, talent is limited and lots of businesses are competing for it. Furthermore, the growing economy and on-going STEM crisis is expected to make this competition even more fierce.

Therefore, very lucrative and even outrageous offers are common for qualified job applicants. In addition to offering large base salaries, many employers are being compelled to offer large bonuses, stock options and other fringe benefits. The risk in making these kinds of offers may be considerable, but with the demand far outstripping supply, IT professionals have the luxury of holding out for a job opportunity that is both a good fit and pays extremely well.

3) More complexity

In addition to increased demand for flexibility, IT professionals can also expect to see their jobs get more complicated. For instance, converged infrastructure blends server, storage, networking, virtualization and automation into one unified platform.

4) Addressing BYOD

Looking to save money and cater to employee preferences, companies are increasingly allowing their staff members to use their own personal electronic devices for work purposes. This trend has led to a whole new raft of concerns for IT professionals, who must now master issues like usability, application development and workloads on multiple devices.

5) Rise of Software Defined Networking

Software Defined Networking (SDN) has become increasingly popular in recent years and its popularity is only going to increase in 2018. Network professionals now must have a working knowledge of virtualization and control panel techniques.

6) Rise of Software Defined Storage

The simplified handling of data and optimization of storage offered by Software Defined Storage (SDS) platforms have made them extremely popular. Savvy tech professionals should look to jump on this red-hot trend in 2018.

Are you looking for IT talent?

At SMCI, we stay on top of the latest development so we can best serve job seekers. If your company is currently looking to source highly-skilled IT talent, please contact us today.