JOIN USThe importance of technical skills and knowledge are often undermined. While pursuing academics, many students tend to sideline the importance of technological know-how, believing they can train on the job, when and where it happens. Others believe focusing on their subject area is what would yield results. However, this perception does not match the current market reality. In a highly competitive professional world, employers look for people who bring with them a basket of skills. Hiring and training people is not something all companies do, most want their employees to hit the ground running.
Keeping a tab
Thus, it is important to keep a track of the market trends and equip yourself with technical skills that will make a difference. Having acquired specialised technological education brings several benefits — it opens several doors of opportunities in varied fields for you, it puts you in a position to demand salary above your peers, and boosts your eligibility for being considered for lucrative jobs.
Information Technology (IT) is fast becoming an intrinsic part of all fields. Be it business, government, telecommunications or healthcare, every field is looking for people skilled in IT. This is why a carefully chosen set of technical certifications can improve your chances of employment by a great margin.
Realising the power that knowledge of information technology holds and
avenues it opens, a large number of students today are pursuing multifarious IT courses. Some learn programming, others venture into Computer Aided Design (CAD), and yet others take to learning hardware and networking. Most pursue these courses even as they are studying regular courses. Now, the question is when a large number of people are already acquiring these additional degrees, how can you outshine everyone? The answer lies in sharpening your IT skills that can make your resume attractive.
Here are seven tech skills that can help you stand out from the crowd:
User experience design
With internet ruling the world, programs like HTML, JavaScript and CSS have
become the language of communication. While the knowledge of these languages were once skills exclusive to developers and programmers, they have become a much desired skill for every job seeker to attain today.
Most businesses today have online interfaces to interact with their audience. How friendly your user interface is a major determinant in your success. Therefore, acquiring working knowledge of skills that help you improve user experience design would add to your employability. If you are applying to work in a customer servicing department, it would certainly add points to your resume, even if you are a fresher.
Mobile app development
The shrinking form of technology has taken place at a mind-boggling speed, converging all applications of a computer into a mobile. This has led application developers to evolve new support systems and mechanisms to match the pace with the developing technology. Mobile application development course is the first level introductory course that helps developers leverage their code base, so as to support a multitude of mobile platforms. Therefore, acquiring this skill will add another feather to your cap.
Ruby on Rails
This training helps you build full-featured, high quality, object-oriented web apps. It enables you with the knowledge of complete process of creating a dynamic database-driven applications on the Rails framework. This particular IT skill is particularly helpful to those seeking a career in web designing and application.
Data analytics
Every employer looks for an employee who is capable enough to draw analyses from available trends and make sense of numbers. Even the footfalls on a website can tell you a lot about which way your strategy must move. Having data analytics skills put you in a league of people who are capable of reading numbers and cultivate strategy accordingly.
Networking certifications
With all workplaces becoming computerised, network engineers and systems managers are needed in every office today. Networking certifications can help you make a career in hardware and networking. They can land you in positions such as network engineer, systems admin, or technical operations. The course you chose will give you a hands-on knowledge of how a computer network functions and how it can be made more efficient.
Ethical hacking
With systems security and hacking becoming major concerns, many companies hire experts to find loopholes, shortcomings and vulnerabilities in their systems, so that they can plug them before a hacker invades. Ethical hacking aims at rectifying weaknesses against hackers who raid systems to steal information.
Agile methodology
A replacement to the traditional software development methods, agile software development has received wider acceptance today as it follows more collaborative and flexible processes. In a world that has plenty of software developers and programmers, learning a different strategy makes you valuable.
(The author is manager, HR, Koenig Solutions Ltd.)