It’s crazy, isn’t it? This whole Tech world or Tech industry or whatever it is you want to call it. It is so dynamic it just rarely gives you a chance to catch your breath, you’re almost always playing catch up to its ever-changing trends.
It feels like we wake up every day to new advances in the world of Tech. Trends are born over-night, take the world by the storm the very next day and suddenly its all everyone seems to be talking about. But just as sudden as they explode onto the scene, they also seem to disappear once the next big thing hits the news.
But that’s not what we’re talking about today. With the recent (and still ongoing) spree of massive layoffs within the Tech world, we wanted to discuss how can people remain relevant in todays’ Tech Job market.
Being relevant can provide you with better job security during these unstable times and can even go as far as making you in demand thus giving you the luxury of choice when it comes to deciding whether to stay or move to a new workplace.
Technical Skills vs Soft Skills
Obviously Technical Skills are a must for most roles within the Technical Job Market. Technical Skills are the base foundation of technical job scopes and without them, you simply wouldn’t be able to perform the most basic of tasks associated with the job nor would you be able to keep up with the continuous stream of Technological progress.
However, that’s not what the job is all about. Modern day corporates put almost as much importance on soft skills as they do on technical skills. Big companies are very focused on scaling their teams and knowledge transfer between different functions. This cannot be achieved without people who are able to coach and mentor. People who can arrange handovers, deliver presentations, and conduct training sessions.
Being Technically adept is no longer enough and you must complement your technical prowess with soft skills that enable you to effectively leverage it by sharing it with other members of your organization.
Detect the Big Trends
According to Forbes, demand in 2023 will increase by 23% for Cloud Computing roles, 28% for Artificial intelligence roles and 38% for big data analytics roles among many others. These are insights that you need to be following and be aware of.
They help you plan what areas you need to focus on for the near future. While it is important to generally familiarize yourself with the big trends, it is also recommended to limit deep focus to just one area. Focusing to several areas may prove to be too overwhelming due to the sheer amount of knowledge necessary to be consumed and so, may in turn lead to frustration.
Additionally, your choice shouldn’t be solely based on which seems to be the biggest trend but rather which is the one that interests you the most because chances are, this is where you’ll be more likely to succeed.
Plan but also be Flexible
Gone are the days when one needed to have a long-term plan (i.e a 5-year plan for instances). The world of Business Tech is just too dynamic for this kind of approach. Trends rise and fall during much shorter time frames. Today’s news can be obsolete as soon as tomorrow. You need to alter your planning accordingly and be agile enough to ditch the current plan for a new one when circumstances dictate so.
Having said that, it is important to remain laser focused on your plan so long as it’s still relevant and exercise the required self-discipline to stick to it.
Build a Network
At the end of the day, people hire people. Your skills are worth so much less if you unable to make a positive impression socially. When you’re unable to make a good impression people will either forget you or remember you for the wrong reasons.
When dealing with other people whether during training sessions, work events, meetings…etc be sure to do your best to leave a positive impression and in doing so, effectively adding those people to your social and/or professional network.
That person you met at a Project kick off meeting or Sales Kick off event might just be your next colleagues, hiring manager or reference.
