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The 20 Most Sought-After IT Skills
InsideTech
The 10 Most Sought-After IT Skills
This latest Foote Partners release identifies three groups of non-certified IT skills that have experienced significant growth in pay: Enterprise Applications Development (up 25.8% over the past two years); Management, Process and Methodology (up 16% over the past two years), and Systems/Networking and Communication (up 7% over the past year).
Among the individual skills, one trend stands out: Employees with SAP skills and experience are in high demand.
According to CEO and Chief Research Officer David Foote, “What’s new this time is that a large vendor with a particularly popular set of products has been aggressively expanding and transitioning its product lines and moving its customer base down market, where the battle for skills and people is fought with a different set of rules and requirements. It’s caused skills and labor shortages that have gripped sizable segments of the employment market in North America and around the world… That vendor is SAP.”
As SAP creates new clients in the small to medium-sized business market, demand for SAP experience has been accelerating. In fact, SAP, Enterprise Resource Planning, and Customer Relationship Management account for 1/3 of the top 28 non-certified IT skills Foote Partners identified as experiencing the sharpest pay increases over the past six months.
Here are the top 10:
| Fastest Rising Pay for Noncertified IT skills | % change last 6 months | % change last year |
| Network security management | 25.0% | 37.0% |
| Wireless network management (LANs, GSM) | 22.2% | 22.2% |
| Business intelligence | 20.0% | 33.3% |
| PHP | 20.0% | 20.0% |
| SAP MDM (Master Data Management) | 20.0% | 20.0% |
| Oracle DB / 8i/9i/10g/11i | 18.2% | 30.0% |
| SAP ERP | 18.0% | na |
| NetWeaver BI (SAP BW) | 16.7% | 16.7% |
| SAN/Storage Area Net Networking | 14.3% | 23.1% |
| Oracle Workflow | 12.5% | na |
Other highlights include:
- XML, with a 12.5% increase over the past 6 months and a 23% increase over the previous year.
- Database Management, with an 11.1% increase over the past 6 months and a 22% increase over the previous year.
- AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) Programming, with a 9.1% increase over the past 6 months and a 20% increase over the previous year.
GuyCox
5 months ago
2 comments
I would like to have a in depth discription of these IT skills?
bozcopcspecialist
8 months ago
6 comments
I am currently back in school working on my CCNA and will be finished soon. Looking back, it was the best thing I have done for my career for the past 10 years or so. I am a mid career professional and needed the skills to make more income or perhaps get more contract work.
Education and certifications are the silver bullet and one of the keys to making positive changes.
Account Removed
9 months ago
WGAS the most unknown !!
ncartledge
9 months ago
6 comments
Isn't it true that the CISSP is the most difficult and expensive?
subhro
11 months ago
6 comments
I am surprized to find that Foote Partner's research forgot to do any research on the most sought after IT certification on today's date - i.e. ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) certification. This certification is meant for the managers or to aspire as a manager for IT infrastructure support. - SG
Jay_610
about 1 year ago
6 comments
Anyone have any feedback on an ITIL certification? Is it worth getting as a first certificate?
mnaveedarshad
about 1 year ago
2 comments
Informative article indeed!
oraclemanconsulting
about 1 year ago
2 comments
Oracle certification is a hot topic. Some says its just book and memorization skills. Others say it is a good overview of the technology. Some employers think it is helpful. Others have found certified people who cant do day-to-day work or anything "not on the test". I think it is an overused requirements by managers who themselves are not Oracle experts.
TR3NDSETR
about 1 year ago
2 comments
Interesting article. In 2001 when we all lost our jobs, Unemployment services advised Techies to chnage their field and go into health. Someone of us, including myself, strengthened our skills, taking key classes that were originally part of our degrees over. Sure enough when the market picked up again, there was an abundance of tech jobs again. Technology jobs will always be there. At times like this, its a good opportunity to strenthen your skills, or deversify yourself with some hardware, software and business.
tech_girl
about 1 year ago
2 comments
This question is for rigracemo67: what area did you specialize in that employers are saying is now dead?
rigracemo67
about 1 year ago
2 comments
This is probably great information for students polishing off their degrees. But I'm sure there are many of us who are transitioning, from other disciplines, may not have full college degrees, but have years of experience. I've personally been out of work for several months now, & have been told that my area is dead & will be dead for a number of years.
houndbb
about 1 year ago
2 comments
Nice article as I try to sculpt my academics!
Ikenna
about 1 year ago
4 comments
This sure is a promising information. Thanks!
vicmontana
about 1 year ago
42 comments
Great information for all of us in these good ol day's.
imran_asghar
about 1 year ago
2 comments
Valuable information for changing/finding job, thanks!