Amid Layoffs, tech companies will continue to find candidates with tech skills!

Is improving your tech skills a method to safeguard your career?

In a meeting recently, Elon Musk, after firing a major chunk of individuals, announced that he would hire personnel across the world who is a well-versed scholar in tech skills. One of the discussion’s main points is the necessity for software engineers who are adept at coding. He even stated emphatically that obtaining these professionals is “absolutely top priority.” In these challenging times of widespread layoffs, the moment has come to cultivate your professional life with tech skills.

While the first half of this year witnessed skills scarcity and astronomical compensation and rises for tech talent, the second episode of 2022 saw a market slowdown, a sharp spike in mass layoffs, and budget cuts as inflationary pressures stress the company’s financial portfolios. 

Despite the fact that the number of new job openings has decreased significantly, causing emotional trauma in a number of candidates, highly specialized tech skills and personnel with tech talent remain in demand through both tech and non-tech companies, and all these roles that require a strong command of tech skills continue to entice substantial pay hikes.

According to industry analysts, personnel with competent tech skills is still difficult to find, and qualified employees have plenty of options, with demand seeming to surpass supply. Experts argue that the surrounding environment is unimportant if you’re excellent at what you do, and eventually your abilities will be in the market in good and bad times. 

So what are the skills that have the potential to act as a life jacket for your career?

Despite the widespread drop in hiring, the skills that are still the talk of the town are— data engineers, full-stack engineers, frontend developers, backend engineers, DevOps,  and data scientists. These are the tech skills that continue to dominate the IT hiring sector.

Relevance of Skills- Why do these skills hold a position of dominion over others?

There has been a decrease in job posts for general skills, although hiring for specialized projects is still underway. While job listings have decreased significantly, the bulk of the remaining proportion is for ‘challenging to find’ abilities, which is an ongoing process in which the organization must either wait for an individual to upskill their existing skillset or wait for the appropriate person to employ. And hence, these ‘challenging to find’ area demands professionals who are ‘guru’ in tech skills.

Because the world is moving towards an era that deals with more emphasis on growing automation and digitalization, the demand for these tech skills and expertise talents has held steady high since late 2020. All important groups of tech, such as IT, product firms, and so on, continued to experience demand for these tech skills across industries and territories. Despite the fact that all cohorts have hired in the previous year, the requirement to have an engaged recruiting team on these top tech skills and talents has persisted.

Words from someone who is a close part of the recruitment zone.

CEO Sekhar Garisa, who is the founder of Monster(now Foundit), an organization that deals with recruitment activities, has highlighted that these tech skills such as data scientists, full-stack developers, machine learning, etc, were and will be a topic of demand as the supply pool is seemingly limited.

According to this sought individual, hirings for freshers may see a negative graph as the company now wants to invest in resources that are already a little bit skilled. Even if you walk towards the door of a startup and assure them that your resume is proficient with tech skills, there are definitely chances that you will return home with a job offer in your hand.

The subject concerns Salary Expectations.

Since May, the softening of the inflated talent market has resulted in a correction in wage and pay structures across top talents in tech businesses, as employers competing for talent shifted the balance in favor of job hunters. The transition from the Battle for Talent into a Wage War raised offer expectations and wage packages. This fiscal year has seen a decline in market confidence and hiring volume. Enterprises that built capacity in anticipation of increased commercial activity are now coping with the consequences of over-hiring.

There is a gap between what candidates want in terms of a raise and what companies are willing to pay, and therefore candidates’ expectations in the next year are going to moderate in comparison to FY22. The consequence of these adjustments is mostly apparent in less talent stepping out, although offer expectations remain high. As the market progresses through the rest of the fiscal year, anticipated rises from candidates will moderate further.

The expansion of technical jobs in non-tech firms.

According to several stakeholders, the banking and financial services industry is making an initiative to invest in technology and employ professionals aggressively and is witnessing the highest growth. Non-tech firms have also created a plan for what they intend to achieve with the technology section. Companies may outsource to service providers since the requirement may be little.

Companies have realized that in order to remain relevant and survive in this neck-wrenching competition in the market, they must improve the customer experience and supply chain, switch to the cloud, integrate analytics, and more. Customers require a digital touchpoint, and many businesses that previously did not have one are now implementing the things that require personnel to be an expert in tech skills.

The penultimate approach.

The market, like everything else in the universe, spins in cycles. When the market is down, it’s a great moment to study. When the market is terrible, it will quickly turn around. It’s an excellent opportunity to study and prepare before it returns. 

Also, recognizing talents that are in demand will rescue you if you are impacted. When the market is terrible, it makes sense from both viewpoints to invest in skill development. So instead of facing a heart-wrenching moment of layoff, get up and invest your time in upgrading your existing skillset.

edited and proofread by nikita sharma