Which tech jobs will grow the fastest in 2024?
That’s a critical question for any tech professionals on the job hunt at the moment. Fortunately, CompTIA’s latest State of the Tech Workforce 2024 report offers some crucial insights into those tech jobs currently on the rise. Here’s the chart:
CompTIA expects tech occupation employment to grow at roughly twice the rate of overall employment over the next decade. If you’re concerned about the current spate of layoffs within the tech industry and what that means for your future employment prospects, that single data point will hopefully put things into a bit of perspective. Moreover, that growth will include multiple sub-industries within tech, including data science and cybersecurity.
“The interconnected nature of technology across software and applications, infrastructure and hardware, data, support operations and cybersecurity, means job growth tends to occur in concert,” the report added. “On a volume basis the large software and IT support categories contribute the most to employer gains numerically, while on a percent change basis the categories covering all things data and cybersecurity are growing the fastest.”
If you’re interested in data science (the top-listed occupation here), keep in mind that the job involves breaking down data problems via the following steps:
- Discovery: Identifying the data you need.
- Curation: Determining how that data fits with other data you may already have.
- Synthesis: Analyzing the data and drawing insights from it.
- Fabrication: “Packaging” the data for consumption by other stakeholders.
- Delivery: Actually presenting the data (visualizations help!).
Some key tools for aspiring data scientists to learn include:
- Python. This is a programming language that’s been around for over three decades, but has lately proven to be ideal for processing data.
- Python libraries. These are sets of code written in Python to help you do your work. Such libraries include numpy, matplotlib, pandas, and seaborn. While learning python, you can look up these library names, and start practicing with them.
- SQL (which stands for Structure Query Language, and is usually pronounced like ‘sequel’). This is a decades-old language that is still used for storing data in tables and connecting the data through relationships.
- Tableau. This is a tool that’s required for data scientists that helps analyze data and then present it in graphs and charts. This is a skill called data visualization. Data visualization involves plotting data in different types of graphs and representing the data in a way that non-scientists can easily understand.
- Power BI. This is another data visualization tool that’s created by Microsoft.
- Jupyter Notebooks. This tool lets you run python code right in the browser, and then run visualization tools and see charts and graphs appear right below each set of code.
Meanwhile, if you’re interested in breaking into cybersecurity, consider learning some or all of the following:
- Information Systems
- Python
- Linux
- Cryptography
- Project Management
- Customer Service
- Authentication
- Software Development
- Software Engineering
Cybersecurity specialists often try to earn at least some of the following cybersecurity certifications, as well:
- Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
- Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
- Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP)
- SANS/GIAC Certification
- CompTIA Security+
- Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
- GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH)
- GIAC Security Essentials Certification
Whatever your interests or skill set, it’s imperative to keep advancing your skills; these fields within tech all advance rapidly. Whatever the future holds, polishing your “soft skills” such as empathy and communication will also help you succeed in a team context.
