Top 5 technical skills that will get you hired in 2020

The IT industry is becoming a lot more competitive and landing the perfect IT job is becoming increasingly difficult. However, IT skills are still in high demand and a lot of organizations are constantly recruiting technical talents.

In the U.S. alone, there were nearly 1 million vacant IT job openings as reported by The Wall Street Journal with companies now investing more in technology to drive business goals. But as technology continues to evolve and the demand for tech workers continue to skyrocket, it can be difficult to keep up with the necessary skill sets needed to thrive in today’s ever-demanding IT industry.

Today, hiring managers are having an especially difficult time trying to fill up roles that require advanced technical skills in software development (e.g., JavaScript, C#, Python), cloud computing and artificial intelligence (e.g., Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services), business intelligence and data visualization (e.g., D3.js, Microsoft Business Intelligence).

According to a report, companies took an average of 55 days to recruit for a tech role in 2016 but in 2019, that number has increased to 66 days. With specific technical skills now becoming in high demand, it is necessary to know what drives the tech market today to ensure you are adequately equipped.

“We’re seeing a shift in skills development that requires us to think differently about how we approach talent,” said Shelley Osborne, vice president of learning at Udemy during an interview.

Here are the top 5 most popular technical skills that would land you a job in the IT industry in 2020:

1. SQL

Structured query language (SQL), is the standard domain-specific programming language for structured database management systems. It primarily used to store, search, retrieve, define and basically, control data. While it was originally developed by IBM to manage their data storage, today, it is used by other database management systems such as Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle MySQL.

According to Udemy, SQL is the most sort after technical skill in the workplace and Indeed ranked it as the most in-demand tech skill for job posting from 2014 till date.

2. Python

Python is a high-level programming language that is quite easy to learn with heavy application infrastructure management, software development and data analytics. It allows users to build a variety of applications, including games, web and mobile applications, websites, GUI and 3D applications.

Over the past few years, Python has grown in popularity in the tech industry due to the growth of machine learning and data science. As an entry-language programming language, it boasts of a large community of developers and was ranked as the most popular technical skill in 2020 by Udemy.

3. Machine Learning

In simple terms, Machine learning is the study of statistical models and algorithms.

However, it has extensive applications in data analytics and artificial intelligence as it allows systems to learn from historical data and patterns. With machine learning, organizations can now automate their business processes and focus on more important strategic decisions.

Machine learning has been regarded as one of the most sort-after technical skill in 2020 by Forbes, LinkedIn and Udemy.

4. React

React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces (UI). It makes it quite easy for users to create interactive and intuitive user interfaces for either single page or web applications.

React is very simple, lightweight, and easily scalable, enabling users to create reusable UI components. Udemy ranks React as one of the most in-demand skills in 2020 and thanks to its large community of developers, a lot of newbies are keen to learn React.js.

5. Amazon Web Service

Launched in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is Amazon’s cloud computing platform that provides a range of services including database storage, computing, customer engagement, developer tools and analytics.

Since 2014, AWS has recorded a growth of over 400% making it a market leader in cloud computing. Indeed and Udemy ranks AWS as one of the most sort-after skills in the tech job market for both startups and large enterprises.