Hot tech skills and certifications that will get you through the beginning of 2021

 

The pandemic has generally been very good to tech professionals but not every tech job and skill is crushing it. These skills and certifications are doing better than most right now.

In the modern history of economic recessions, technology has led us to the light. And it always will because no matter what upheaval is happening in the world of commerce and industry, technology innovation persists. Evolving technology barrels down the train tracks at breakneck speed no matter what, often out-distancing the ability of humans to adopt it or quickly turn it into drivers of competitive advantage, market share, or profitability.

The difference right now is that prior to COVID-19’s arrival, some companies had banked enough cash prior to withstand its disruption. Others have been fortunate to be able to surf new pandemic economy opportunities---think online retailers, banks and financial services, logistics and shipping companies, to name a few.  And then there are those outliers who simply know how to extract winning solutions from the innovation freight train and are able to make fewer mistakes in their execution. Key to their success is they have the talent and skills in place at the right time, in the right place, and in the right intensity to build and deliver the products and services consumers want. Because without the human element they cannot execute on these tech opportunities know matter how smart and well-financed they are.

 

Winning tech skills and certification right now

As long-time forecasters and analysts of tech labor markets and the supply and demand for tech talent and skills, Foote Partners focuses on this human element. We’ve pulled the latest data from our long-running IT Skills and Certifications Pay Index^TM (ITSCPI) to determine what tech skills and certifications are good bets right now and into the new year for being attractive to employers who are either hiring or exploiting tech innovation.

 

How we chose the winners. We focused on hard statistics: cash pay premiums employers are willing to pay for certified and non-certified tech skills. Further, we searched for those that meet two prerequisites: they are earning workers pay premiums well above the average of all 1,110 skills and certifications reported in our ITSCPI and also recorded the biggest gains in market value in the six months ending October 1, 2020. We have no reason to believe their attractiveness to employers will not continue into 2021.

 

NON-CERTIFIED TECH SKILLS

1.      Security architecture and models

      Average pay premium: 19 percent of base salary equivalent

      Market value increase: 5.6 percent (in the six months through October 1, 2020)           

Two fundamental concepts in computer and information security are the security model, which outlines how security is to be implemented—in other words, providing a “blueprint”—and the security architecture of a computer system, which fulfills this blueprint. Security architecture is a view of the overall system architecture from a security point and how the system is put together to satisfy the security requirements. It describes the components of the logical hardware, operating system, and software security components, and how to implement those components to architect, build and evaluate the security of computer systems. With cybersecurity related skills gaining prominence and the threat landscape continuing to be a core business issue, we expect security models and architecting skills to continue to be strong going forward.