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The Australian tech industry is booming, with the sector making $182 billion in revenue in 2022. There are now over 930,000 people employed in the tech industry in Australia, and this number is expected to continue growing in the coming years. For those that want to get started in this highly lucrative industry, however, the same question is often asked: which skills are truly in demand in the tech sector?
We’ll be answering this question today, alongside breaking down all the top skills you can start developing to help set you on your ideal career pathway.
We’ll be providing answers to age-old questions like “what is UX design?”, and “can anybody learn data analytics?”. Or better still, “Why are cybersecurity classes so popular, and do we all need to understand AI?” And most importantly, what will the future of tech look like for its employees, and what can you expect to earn once you gain your qualifications?
Continue reading to learn what skills you need to acquire to succeed in today’s fast-paced and incredibly exciting tech industry landscape.
UI-UX Design
intuitive and highly usable software solutions that solve real-world problems. As a tech student, you have easy access to both UI and UX design fundamentals. Unlike some of your peers who attend boot camps or gain work experience in other areas, you can learn the basics of user interface design with minimal effort and time commitment. Once you have the right software and build up your portfolio, you can receive feedback from employers and expand your design knowledge simultaneously.
One of the top reasons to get into UX design is that the market grew by 70% last year alone. An increasing number of tech-adjacent industries are also realising the importance of user-friendly design in all aspects of the business. Aside from being in high demand, the UI-UX work process forces you to constantly alter, iterate, hypothesise and improve upon the work you create. Simply put, embracing the endlessness of the design thinking process ultimately makes you a better and more adaptable designer over time. Maintaining this approach of continuous self-development can be a major asset to other fields or disciplines within the tech sector, like data analysis and software development.
Cybersecurity Skills
Cybersecurity analysts possess a range of technical skills, making them highly efficient and an undeniable hot commodity, especially given sharp increases in the rates of everyday and corporate cybercrime. Cybersecurity specialists also often receive significantly higher than average compensation, making this professional pathway just that much more attractive for many tech students.
Cybersecurity specialists use their many different skill sets to perform a wide range of tasks in their day-to-day professional life. They develop programs for private networks and design and implement cybersecurity protocols for companies. They are expected to maintain a strong “jack-of-all-trades” approach to professional learning and skills development, primarily to stay one step ahead of black-hat hackers and keep their clients or wider company safe from online threats.
In addition to network and systems security, there is also a growing demand for data analytics skills in the field of cybersecurity. Data harvesting can be a valuable method for identifying major online risks and developing risk mitigation strategies. If you have an appetite for information and learning, a career in cybersecurity could be your dream role.
Data And Analytics
Data analytics is a highly valuable skill set in our rapidly digitizing world. The growing role of data in various industries has generated a buzz around data and analytics over the last few years. This field is constantly evolving and developing, making it fascinating to enter, especially for young students with an eye for problem-solving and pattern identification. However, data analysis demands a high level of technological proficiency, and some roles may require coding or programming experience to design and develop databases for companies.
But don’t let these demands discourage you from pursuing a career in data analytics, as not all roles require such high technological proficiency. The highly technical roles in data analytics can be challenging, but they can also be highly rewarding.
The Australian tech market alone made $167 billion last year, with around 870,000 employees working in the sector currently. For those that want to get started in this highly lucrative industry, which skills are truly in demand in the tech sector?Click To TweetArtificial Intelligence (AI) & Automation
There’s a high chance that many people reading this are considering learning or already know at least one programming language. With the potential applications for AI growing all the time, professional roles that require a proficiency with this particular technological advancement are unlikely to become exhausted anytime soon. In fact, many transnational corporations are investing in AI tech professionals specifically because of this technology’s potential to help create highly adaptable business automation processes.
If you want to forge ahead with building your own understanding of AI, machine learning, and automation, continue to grow your data knowledge and your confidence in using and developing algorithms and frameworks. All of this can easily be achieved by simply enrolling in some online courses and seeking out academic or professional opportunities that will allow you to put your new professional skills to the test.
With an increasing need for both machine learning engineers for automation and robotic scientists for improving on organisational operations and production processes, you can quite literally take an interest in building for tomorrow.
Software development
Software development has become ubiquitous, permeating almost every sector, and offering graduates with a software development background a vast array of potential career pathways. Some pathways are industry-specific, such as software development, testing, and object-oriented design work, which together form the role of a software engineer. Others may require a basic understanding of software development, with this discipline comprising most of the daily responsibilities in that role.
Digital marketing is a good example here. Although digital marketing specialists aren’t expected to learn how to code themselves, a basic understanding of HTML and CSS alongside JavaScript can help web marketing specialists maintain greater control and autonomy over designing digital campaigns that use site landing pages.
Regardless of where you’d like to see yourself within the tech sector, it’s a universally excellent idea to start flexing your coding and programming skills without having to push for specialisation or advanced certification in newer coding languages, as Java and Python are still the most prominently used. You don’t need to be the best. You just need to be capable. And that’s the fantastic thing about coding.
Start Building The Skills You Need Today To Ensure Success Moving Forward
If you are interested in pursuing a career in the tech world, you need to start developing your skills now. As we’ve demonstrated, there are countless different areas that you can get into. The first step, however, is acquiring the skills, knowledge, and expertise to get started. Dedicating yourself to your goals and remaining committed to learning the skills required for a career in the tech industry, will help set you up for professional success in the long term.
This book is not a comprehensive guide on how to pursue the career paths that are mentioned here. It includes several career names, and basic information related to pursuing each career path, as a starting career in information technology.
