India’s is witnessing one of the biggest layoff spree in recent time. According to an estimate, 200,000 people will lose their jobs by the end of 2017.
The major reason behind these layoffs are:
- Incapability of current staff to embrace new digital technologies
- Stringent protectionist policy by US and few European countries
- More acceptance to pay-as-you-go model
- Strong competition from young and disruptive startups
- Automation is eating jobs of many
- Global slowdown and dwindling IT services demand
In this time of trouble, the best option would be to get trained and acquire skills in new digital tech.
We have compiled a list of top 11 most in-demand IT skills 2017 in India’s IT Industry.
We have consulted top HR heads at TCS, Genpact, EXL, Capgemini and Tech Mahindra to prepare this list.
So, here is the list:
1. Big Data Analytics
The data is exploding. In order to manage it and use it for valuable insights, we need big data analytics.
Therefore, today there’s a huge demand for big data trained professionals. But, there’s an immense dearth of trained professionals. Moreover, there are very less institutes in India offering quality training in big data.
Already due to demand and supply gap, the salaries are shooting up. And India’s IT industry is scrambling talent.
Salary range: 8 lacs – 22 lacs per annum
2. Website Development and Designing
There has been perennial demand for web developers and designers in India. This demand is still there. However, there are changes in it.
Now, there’s a huge demand for web developers and designers in following CMSes:
- WordPress
- Magento
- Zencart
- Opencart
- SharePoint
- Woocommerce
- Joomla
- Drupal
- Moodle
Apart from these CMSes, following are the top web programming languages are in demand:
- Go
- PHP
- Scala
- Swift
- Java
- Javascript
- JQuery
- Python
- Ruby
- C++
- C#
- js
- AngularJS
- MySQL
- CSS
- HTML
Expertise in at least 2 CMS and 2 programming languages can easily land you a high paying job.
Salary range: 3 lacs – 15 lacs (depending upon how many CMSes and languages you know)
3. Mobile App Development
Mobile space is booming only due to easier availability of Internet and Smartphones. In few years only, mobile usage has increased fourfold.
That in turn increased demand for mobile app developers in India. The industry is already reeling under low supply of app developers. That has made mobile app development one of the lucrative careers in India.
Following mobile app development platforms and languages are in demand:
- Swift
- Microsoft Xamarin
- Salesforce App Cloud
- Appcelerator
- Phonegap
- Java
- C++
- HTML5
- Javascript
- Ruby
- PhoneGap
There are other mobile app development platforms that are way easier to use.
Salary range: 5 lacs – 21 lacs per annum
4. AI and Automation
Artificial Intelligence and Automation are the buzzword disrupting IT industry in India. We are at the nascent stage of AI and Automation, and already it has eaten millions of jobs around the world.
Bill Gates even went on to say that AI and Automation technology should be taxed!
Undoubtedly, AI and Automation has made millions unemployed. But in turn it has created new job opportunities that require different set of skills.
The marketing and manufacturing industries are already infested with AI and Automation. Following are the popular Automation apps that you could learn:
- Marketo
- Adobe Campaign
- HubSpot
- AdRoll
- Pica9
- Mailchimp and Mandrill
- Pardot
- Eloqua (Oracle)
- Unica (IBM)
There are many more platforms not just for marketing for variety of common tasks. For example, there are lot CRM and Logistics Management automation tools.
In IT industry of India, there’s a demand for both software managers and developers in AI and Automation.
Salary range: 8 lacs – 26 lacs per annum
5. User Experience and Design
There was a time, when software apps were made with extremely poor user experience and design.
Over the years, as user’s needs, tastes, preferences, behaviors and lifestyles has changed, so do the software apps UX and UI.
Today it is highly imperative to research through, plan and develop effective UX and UI to ensure success of app itself.
Therefore, it is highly recommended to developers, designers and marketers to learn UX and UI.
Salary range: 3 lacs – 12 lacs per annum
6. Digital Marketing & Search
Time and again it has been proven that digital marketing is effective in comparison to offline marketing.
Recently, the online ads spend overtaken TV ads spend globally. You just name any new startup to global multinationals, across all verticals companies are spending large portion of marketing budget on digital marketing.
Therefore, globally there’s a huge demand for trained digital marketers. Also in India, there are dearth of professionals but high demand for them.
Anyone can learn it. You could take up a certification course in digital marketing to acquire relevant skills in it.
Salary range: 3 lacs – 15 lacs per annum
7. Cloud Computing – SaaS, IaaS and PaaS
After automation, cloud computing is major reason behind layoffs in Indian IT sector.
As cloud computing is not only highly efficient, but also highly cost effective than conventional in-house software architecture.
There are major three types of Cloud Computing that are:
SaaS – software as a service
IaaS – infrastructure as a service
PaaS – platform as a service
India’s IT industry have already embraced it. Also, industry is searching for talent to fill up lacs of job positions in it.
You could learn following cloud computing platforms to get instantly hired:
- AWS (Amazon Web Service)
- Google Cloud
- Salesforce
- Azure (Microsoft)
- Oracle PaaS
- Rackspace
- VMWare
- Heroku
There are many more.
Salary range: 6 lacs – 18 lacs per annum
8. IT Security and Network
Already cybercrime is costing the world US$ 6 trillion per year. All top MNCs and IT companies are spending billions of dollar each year to up skills in IT security.
You too can make a lavishing career in IT security. All you need the right and advance skills in it.
There are lot of IT security certification courses available in India both online and offline. You could opt for one. However, you will need to lot of research to learn the latest hacking methods.
Apart from that you will need to gain advance level proficiency over programming languages such as Java, C, C++, PHP, Phython, Perl etc.
Salary range: 5 lacs – 15 lacs per annum
9. IT Project Management
Project management is the key to successful development of a software. Moreover, it is a key to become a lead leader or project manager.
After, you gain and acquire skills in programming, your next step should be to learn project management.
PMP (project management professional) certifications are popular that you can take up. There’s a huge demand for PMP certified professionals in India and abroad.
Apart from that you could also learn Project Management apps such as:
- BaseCamp
- Zoho
- Trello
- Asana
These apps are commonly used in IT industry.
Salary range: 6 lacs – 20 lacs per annum
10. Data Architecture and Management
Managing big data has become complex by the day. Small to large enterprises are facing big data problem. Which is making difficult for them to manage, store and process it effectively.
That’s why Data Architecture and Management Designers come in to the scene. They design the architecture to efficiently and cost-effectively manage data.
There are lot of job opportunities in it. But again, industry is facing talent crunch. Moreover, salaries are quite high for these cases.
Salary range: 12 lacs – 28 lacs per annum
11. Business Analytics
Pile of data is just a pile until it is processed and used to come with valuable and actionable decisions. Hence, business analytics takes center stage here.
Business analyst works in conjunction with data team to help organization make effective decisions.
There are lot of degree and certification courses in Business Analytics. That anyone can join. However, it is recommended to gain knowledge in programming and analytics platforms.
Follow are top business analytics platforms:
- MS Excel
- Hadoop
- IBM SPSS
- SAP Analytics
- SAS Analytics
There are many more. You could explore, and learn a few.
Salary range: 5 lacs – 24 lacs per annum
List finishes here. For your suggestions write to us in comment section below.
