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Analyzing LinkedIn’s 2017 Emerging Jobs Report
2017 is winding down, and LinkedIn has heralded the New Year with its 2017 Emerging Jobs Report. This report combined LinkedIn data from the past five years along with survey data to help identify which jobs will be in demand and which are fading from relevancy.
Read on for our rundown of LinkedIn’s findings, as well as our suggestions for how candidates can prepare themselves for the job hunt in 2018.
Which Jobs Have the Highest Growth?
LinkedIn’s report offered a list of the top 20 emerging jobs on the market, as measured by growth between 2012 and 2017. The five jobs with the best growth include the following:
- Machine Learning Engineer
- Data Scientist
- Sales Development Representative
- Customer Success Manager
- Big Data Developer
It’s worth noting that, despite the seemingly specialized nature of these job titles, software engineering applies to nearly every job listed. While it’s not a catch-all for landing any gig you want, software engineering skills are highly adaptable and can put technology candidates in good stead, no matter what position they’re applying for.
Which Skills Will Help You Land In-Demand Jobs?
In general, comprehensive skillsets are becoming highly desirable traits for upcoming candidates. Companies are looking more favorably on candidates who can diversify their abilities and meet varied challenges rather than those who limit themselves to one or two specialties.
But beyond this trend, LinkedIn’s data detailed several of the most common skills needed for these fast-growing jobs:
- Management
- Sales
- Communication
- Marketing
- Start-Ups
- Python
- Software Development
- Analytics
- Cloud Computing
- Retail
While several of these skills unquestionably require advanced education, the good news is that the skills are quite varied across the board. Most applicants these days will have one or more of these skills, so job seekers should make sure to identify their strengths and highlight their capabilities on their résumés.
Soft Skills Are Your Secret Weapon
Even if the above roles don’t sound appealing, candidates can find great success in upcoming job hunts by prioritizing their soft skills. LinkedIn surveyed over 1,200 hiring managers and found that several of these skills were in particular demand:
- Adaptability
- Culture Fit
- Collaboration
- Leadership
- Growth Potential
- Prioritization
Naturally, hiring managers look for these skills in every candidate they view, regardless of industry. All candidates should practice their soft skills alongside building their “hard” qualifications to develop a well-rounded skill set.
Which Skills Are Losing Relevance?
Of course, the prognosis isn’t positive for every job seeker. With multidisciplinary skill sets becoming favored, the report showed that highly specialized job skills were on the decline—logistics specialists, legal specialists, and specialized developer roles chief among them. This also applies to generalized skills, such as “marketing” or “strategic planning.”
In addition, expect legacy technology skills to fall by the wayside, such as Flash or Java. Technology is changing fast, and hiring managers are moving past these outdated skillsets. Candidates can avoid losing their relevancy by diversifying their abilities. This means working on their soft skills, educating themselves on emerging technologies in their niches, and broadening their capabilities to encompass a wider range of roles.
Where Is the Growth Occurring?
LinkedIn also reviewed which sectors were experiencing the most growth. The largest growth by a large margin is occurring in the freelance sector—more and more candidates are taking a variable approach to work rather than teaming up with a single company. In terms of the industries themselves, LinkedIn’s data highlighted the following sectors:
- Healthcare
- Retail & Consumer Products
- Staffing
- Oil & Energy
- Professional Services
In terms of these industries, we’re most excited to see the growth of professional services. As digital enterprise continues to expand and more candidates enter the talent pipeline, we expect the market for professional logistics providers to increase exponentially. This is particularly true for hiring. Job seeking has always been a balance of “who you know” vs. “what you know”, and professional recruiters provide a much-needed bridge between the two.
Summarizing the Findings
In summary, LinkedIn’s Emerging Jobs report has some promising news for tech-oriented candidates:
- Tech is still king: To nobody’s surprise, tech skills are in high demand. This is particularly true for data scientists, analysts, and machine learning/artificial intelligence engineers.
- Hard qualifications haven’t replaced soft skills: Communication and management skills are just as essential as ever, with many emerging roles (such as sales development representatives or brand partners) relying on candidates who work well with people.
- There are plenty of top jobs to go around: Particularly for in-demand roles like data scientist, the demand for these top jobs far outstrips the available talent pool.
- Future-proofing skills pay off: Many professionals are not confident their current roles will even exist in several years’ time; as such, candidates must diversify their skills as much as possible and make themselves essential, no matter what the future holds.
Urgenci is committed to your success in the coming year. For more insights into the state of emerging jobs in 2018, or for an assessment of your hiring practices, give us a call and we’ll be there to help.
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