The ongoing digitalisation of society has significantly increased the need for IT experts across virtually all industries. This trend has undergone rapid growth due to COVID-19, which has also led to a significant number of people working from home. According to the Labour Force Survey conducted by the National Statistics Institute (INE), in 2019 in Spain, only 4.8 % of the population worked from home. The figure rose sharply the following year to 42%, as detailed in a study conducted by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound).
On the other hand, a LinkedIn report revealed that the profession with the most active job offers is software engineering.. For the work these specialists do, there is no need to commute to the headquarters of the companies that are recruiting. This is why remote working is a big part of recruitment in times of COVID-19.
Nevertheless, the pandemic has not only changed the employment status of IT professionals, it has also led to changes in the fields they work in and in the methods and techniques they use in their day-to-day work.
Which industries are getting behind remote working in IT?
The pandemic has shaken up the labour market, which has also been seen in the IT industry, where remote working has taken off. There are a number of industries that are seeing an increase in IT workers being recruited, as explained by Robert Half:
- Technology companies, in particular e-commerce companies, continue to require IT professionals for their processes and products.
- Health, given the digitalisation of certain services such as telemedicine, diagnostic accuracy and healthcare means that IT workers are increasingly in demand. In particular, experts in Artificial Intelligence, the Cloud and Big Data are highly sought-after.
- Financial services, given that banks and other companies in the economic sector, traditional and emerging alike, are starting to digitalise. For this reason, IT workers with a high level of knowledge of Artificial Intelligence are increasingly sought-after.
- Public Authorities, in particular those that need to update and digitalise their services with a view to providing adequate service to citizens.
Most sought-after IT specialisations in times of COVID-19
The paradigm shift brought about by the pandemic opens the door to new IT-related job options, in many cases with the possibility of working remotely. Have you checked the most sought-after IT profiles in 2021?
There are a number of IT-related fields where the demand for professionals is on the rise. These include the following:
- Augmented and virtual reality. As travel is restricted, recreating spaces and environments through these techniques has become even more important, whether to help customers try on clothing virtually or to recreate the conditions of a training or educational activity.
- Technical support. As an increasing number of technological services are provided, there is also a need for technical support, which can also be provided remotely.
- This is one of the most evolving fields: attacks on devices and systems are becoming more frequent and, therefore, strengthening security is of the utmost importance. In fact, as specified by the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), cyber-attacks have risen two-fold since the outbreak of the pandemic. This is a global trend, also detected by Interpol, which warns of four major areas: online scams and phishing, destructive malware, malware to obtain data and malicious domains.
- Data Analysis. If there is one unstoppable trend, it is Big Data adoption as the standard for Business Intelligence and continuous improvement. A huge volume of data is flowing through the network and it is only going to keep rising. In this regard, Seagate predicts that the global datasphere will grow to 175 zettabytes by 2025, compared to the 70 zettabytes expected this year.
Remote working in IT: the most popular jobs on offer
More specifically, what remote IT positions are companies looking to fill in 2021, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic? BETWEEN has seen soaring demand for:
- Artificial Intelligence specialists, ready to get involved in exciting machine learning projects.
- Cybersecurity and ethical hacking experts. In fact, cybersecurity attracts profiles from all walks of life: program security managers, technical security managers, consultants, analysts, engineers or data architects.
- Cloud engineers with experience in edge computing.
- And a classic: full stack, front and back end
Are you an IT specialist? Are you contemplating a career change and seeking new challenges? At BETWEEN, we offer you the motivation and support you need to drive your talent. Ask us any questions you may have, we are waiting for you!