Master Soft Skills to Reach Echelons of IT Leadership

An economic report by Korn Ferry indicates that the value of human capital is 2.33 times the value of physical capital. But the best part is that the productive value of human resource appreciates with time. As workers master soft skills, they get better at their job.

This applies to the IT world too. It is a common belief among IT professionals that strong technical skills can take them a long way in their career. However, American Express and Millennial Branding’s study revealed that over 60% managers consider soft skills as the most important factor for evaluating an employee’s performance. 32% consider hard skills and 7% consider social media skills as top parameters for appraisals.  The latest IT jobs being posted on all the top tech job posting sites are clearly mentioning that soft skills would be an important component of evaluating candidates, especially for leadership roles.

Now, that raises the question, which soft skills should IT professionals acquire? Here’s a list:

Listening Skills:  Whether you are coder or project head, you will be pulled into meeting with customers and other team members to share product insights. To be able to understand customer’s requirements and ensure that you are on the same page with your team, you have to listen effectively. It takes some of self-awareness and practice, to break bad listening habits. IT professionals, who truly listen, recognize ideas, collaborate internally and externally, and contribute fully to their respective teams.

Communication Skills: IT professional with strong communication skills are highly sought after. Fine communicators know how to tailor their communication to suit their audience- technical people, who understand IT jargon and non-technical people, who do not understand it. Body language and verbal cues are integral to communication. Controlling your non-verbal cues along with reading others’ allows you to leave the right impact of communication.

Communication skill extends to writing. Be it composing a simple email or developing learning material, every format of communication entails a set of guidelines. Following them in spirit is imperative to gain successful outcomes from communication.

Public speaking: Presentation is also a form of public speaking. So for a project manager who is asked to give an overview of project status or a developer who is invited to present a webinar, honing public speaking skills helps make the best impression and avail the opportunity on hand.

However, public speaking skill is considered as toughest soft skill to master. Most of the IP professionals do not even want to try their hand at it. According to National Institute of Mental Health, 74% of people suffer from speech anxiety.  Practice is the only solution to anxiety. By practicing good posture, eye contact, articulation and projection, you can master public speaking.

In today’s dynamic world, soft skills are essential for great IT leadership. A research by Ernst and Young found out that high performing companies are keen on their leaders continuously improving their soft skills. So, to reach the echelons of IT leadership, developing the right soft skills should be the top priority of IT professionals.

Top Certifications to Land the Latest IT Jobs

The best tech job posting sites are inundated with IT resumes. Still, there is a shortage of experienced professionals to fill the latest IT jobs. IT managers are always in search of candidates who can apply their knowledge and skill set to solve real-time problems, an ability that comes with experience. Given that, certifications offer less experienced candidates an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills, and land a job.

Having said that merely adding certifications to your name cannot take you far. Certifications are just entry tickets. Managers will put you through a rigorous assessment process to evaluate command you have on the technology before offering you the job.

Here are a few pointers to help you choose and pursue a certification:

1. Choose the technology you are passionate about. Identify relevant certifications.
2. Know the technology fairly well before opting to go for a certification in it.
3. Understand the product life cycles and analyze whether or not a certification can help you in near future.
4. Explore if you have to opt for multiple certifications to gain mastery in an area of specialization.
5. While studying, do not memorize for the test. Understand the practicality of using the technology.

Here is a list of certifications that are some of the most valued ones in the US. The list will help you decide where to spend your time and money in earning a certification:

Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC): ISACA, a non-profit group offers this certification. It is designed for IT professionals whose job is to use Information Systems (IS) controls to identify and manage IT and business risks. It covers the entire life-cycle from design to implementation to ongoing maintenance IS controls. There are only a few professionals, about 200,000 worldwide, who earned this certification. Because of the demand for professionals with these skills, the certification lists at the top of the highest-paying certifications.

Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP): CISSP is offered by (ISC). It demonstrated expertise in security and risk management, communications and network security, software development security, asset security, security engineering, identity and access management, security assessment and testing, and security operations. The certification is useful for those who want to enter the security field. The certification does not necessitate that aspirants have relevant work experience.

CISSP allows professionals to earn an associate credential while working on the required experience, rather than necessitating them to have the experience already. This makes it a valuable certification for those wanting to break into the security field, Global Knowledge noted. Nearly 111,000 people worldwide hold a CISSP certificate.

Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: This is a certification with a focus on implementing technology on a wide range of platforms. This is instead of the previous certification, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer that focused on specific disciplines. However, it is still a respected certification and the certified professionals earn high salaries.

Cisco Certified Design Associate: To take this Cisco’s certification for network design, another Cisco certification like CCNP, Routingand Switching, or one of the CCIE certifications is necessary. Network engineers who earn this certification along with a CCNP certification are sought after in the market.

Project Management Professional (PMP): This certification is administered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). It covers topics related to the life cycle of a project – initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.

This certification is the most recognized project management certification. About 730,000 PMPS in 210 countries have an active certification.

Certified Ethical Hacker: This vendor-neutral certification is targeted at IT professionals who wish to specialize in legally tackling malicious attacks on networks. Through this certification, IT professionals gain a thorough understanding of networks, and hands-on experience in using tools related to ethical hacking.

Top Coding Trends Among Developers

Cross-platform development, deep learning and acquiring new coding skills are the top trends noticed on the popular code sharing site, GitHub. An analysis of activity on its site in 2017 led to these conclusions.

Here are more details on what is keeping developers busy on GitHub:

Developers are increasingly participating in Google’s Angular JavaScript framework and TensorFlow machine learning library. GitHub’s Coding Interview University and its other projects for learning have done very well.

Multiplatform and web development has experienced uptick in number of contributors. The number of contributors for the Angular CLI project, which provides a command-line interface, has doubled its number of contributors between 2016 and 2017. On par is participation in Facebook’s React JavaScript UI library and GitHub’s own Electron framework.

Another striking trend that emerged from the analysis of activity on Github is growing profile of artificial intelligence across different industries. Top AI projects that enjoyed increased interest include:

• TensorFlow: While TensorFlow received 2.2 times more visitors than the year before, TensorFlow Models, the companion project for implementing models received 5.5 times more visitors
• Python based Keras high-level neural networks API
• Mozilla’s Project DeepSearch that provides a speech-to-text engine leveraging machine learning

Based on Githubs data, developers are keen on learning to code. The professionals are also investing time in getting to know coding best practices. Some of the top accessed learning projects are:

• Charengelo 30 Seconds of Code that provides snippets of JavaScript code
• Norvig Pytudes that provides Python programs to demonstrate or sharpen coding skills
• Jwasham Coding Interview University that provides a study plan to become a software engineer
• Yangshun Tech Interview Handbook offers help with coding interviews.
• iOnatan Node Best Practices, providing best practices for Node.js.
• Alibaba p3c is a repository of Java coding guidelines.
• The david dias Front-End Checklist of elements to test before launching a website or HTML page.

Skills to Land the Latest IT Jobs

The survey reports published by the best tech job posting sites reaffirm that IT jobs will continue to proliferate in 2018. Below is the list of 7 latest IT jobs that are high in demand. Read along to know what the employers look for in candidates, to hire for these positions.

Business Intelligence Analyst

To hire a business intelligence analyst, the hiring manager will check whether the candidate can understand and communicate the data needs of the business, and business meaning of the data.

The skills and experience he is particularly interested in are:

⦁          Online analytical processing

⦁          Data cube technology

⦁          Database query experience

⦁          Stored procedure writing

⦁          Strong written and verbal skills

Data Scientist

Data scientist is responsible for gathering, processing and analyzing the data. He is expected to share his findings with the stakeholders and offer recommendations to others in the business. So, along with assessing the technical skills of the candidate, the recruiter will pay an attention to his communication skills too.

He will go through the skills and experience sections of the resume to find mention of:

⦁          Strong analytical skills

⦁          Strong mathematical skills

⦁          Good report writing skills

⦁          Strong communication skills

Database Developer

A database developer is responsible for developing and managing the enterprise databases. So the recruiter would select a candidate who demonstrates analytical and problem-solving skills.

The skills and experience  he wants to find on the resume are:

⦁       Experience with enterprise database programs

⦁       Certifications such as Microsoft Certified Database Administrator or Oracle Database Administrator Certified Professional

Support Desk Technician

Support desk is an important part of running a business efficiently. A support desk technician will apply his technical and soft skills  to troubleshoot and provide solution to the customer’s problem.

To hire for this position, the recruiter would want the candidate to have:

⦁          Four or more years of experience in a help desk setting

⦁          Relevant professional certification

Network Administrator

Network administrators spend a lot of time troubleshooting LAN/WAN protocol, software and hardware problems. They are sometimes expected to provide solutions to critical network issues, instantly, on a call. When hiring for this position, what the recruiter looks for in the candidate depends on how extensive the organization’s network is.

Some basic skills and experience that qualify the candidate for the role are:

⦁          Relevant technical skills

⦁          Analytic and diagnostic skills

⦁          A willingness to be on call after hours

⦁          Communication skills

⦁          Five-plus years of related work experience

⦁          Professional certifications

Data Security Administrator

When hiring a data security administrator, the recruiter will ensure that the candidate is committed to data security. To be convinced of the candidate’s ability to define, implement and monitor the network security strategies, the recruiter will probe for:

⦁          Critical thinking and problem solving skills

⦁          Proactive thinking

⦁          A willingness to continue learning new skills

⦁          Strong programming, mathematics and general engineering skills

⦁          Relevant certifications

System Administrator

Like most of the IT roles, a system administrator role also demands strong problem-solving, communication and analytical skills. Along with these skills, the recruiter expects the candidate to understand the company’s specific hardware and software.

The skills and experience he wants to find on the resume are:

⦁          Experience in resolving hardware, software and networking problems

⦁          Experience with servers, backup and recovery

⦁          Experience with installing, patching and upgrading software

⦁      Certifications such as the Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) or  Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE)

Now that you know what the recruiters look for, update your resume and submit it to the top resume posting sites to land your dream job.

Way to Go!

If you are an aspiring software engineer or a hands-on programmer, it pays to be informed that Google Go language (Golang) is being increasingly accepted by companies for professional software development. An analysis of the latest IT job postings on the best tech job listing sites, confirm this. Read along to know more about Golang?

Google introduced Go as an open source project eight years back. The project and the ecosystem grew manifold and has become what we see today and continues to grow.

Go for Cloud: By 2017, Go has become the driving technology behind cloud infrastructure.  Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Digital Ocean or AWA, they are all implemented in Go. Cloud companies like Alibaba, Cloudflare, and Dropbox encourage Go.

Go for Open Source: Some of the most popular open source projects like Moby, Hugo, Kubernetes and Grafana are based on Go. Many of the authors admit that their projects would not exist without Go.

Go Communities: Go conferences are quite popular among developers across the world. There are hundreds of presentations and tens of thousands of professionals attending them.

According to Octoverse 2017, a report by Github, Go is among the top 10 popular languages. The findings of Go 2017 User Survey are even more interesting.

1. 67 per cent respondents who participated in the survey are being paid to write in Go. 63 per cent write Go code outside their work
2. 48 per cent of respondents use Go as part of their daily routine. 29 percent use it every week. 9 percent use it at least once in a month.
3. 17 per cent respondents strongly believe that Go is critical to the success of their company.
4. 65 per cent of the respondents said that they use Go for writing API/RPC services. 63 percent users use it to write CLI tools. Web services at 49 percent, agents and daemons at 44 percent and libraries and frameworks are 38 percent are other applications of the language.
5. 64 per cent develop with Go on Linux OS, 49 percent on MacOS and 18 per cent on Windows.
6. 27 per cent of respondents had used Go for two to four years. 26 per cent it for one year and less than three years. 21 percent used it for over 13 months to two years. 13 percent used it over four years.

The data above clearly shows that Go is a popular choice among software programmers and software development companies. So, whether you want to start your career in software development or what to learn a new language to grow in career, Go is definitely an option to consider. Contributing to Go project and participating in relevant discussions can accelerate your learning.

About the Go 2017 User Survey:

6,173  software professionals participated in the survey, that is 70 percent more than the participants of the 2016 survey. 25 percent of the participants were from the USA. The survey revealed that programmers are not only actively using Go for software development, but are also eagerly contributing in some way to the Go community and projects.