As in every industry, different skills are sometimes more or less in demand. There are resources on the internet listing the skills in demand for different time frames. Every member of the group initially defined an ideal job in the IT industry. To understand how our current skill set as individuals and a group compare to these demands, we have compared our skillset to data provided by Burning Glass Technologies (Labour Insight Jobs 2018).
Burning Glass Technologies hosts the world’s largest and most sophisticated database of labour market data and can deliver real-time data tools that inform careers, define academic programs, and shape workforces. It does so by utilising artificial intelligence technology that analyses hundreds of millions of job postings and real-life career transitions to provide insight into labour market patterns.
Therefore, it offers crucial insights, such as which jobs are most in-demand, the specific skills employers need, and the career directions that offer the highest potential for workers. Hence, Burning Glass’ data-driven applications for workers and students help them choose career goals and build the skills they need to get ahead.
The group was provided by RMIT with such data from 24.03.2017 to 23.03.2018. In this timeframe, Burning Glass Technologies looked at 120,353 job postings around Australia and New Zealand and assembled the skills in demand for IT-specific skills and general skills (Labour Insight Jobs 2018).
The following tables list how the individual group member’s desired job skills rank in terms of demand among this data on both IT-specific and general skills.
The first table shows how skills rank that are unique to the individual group member compared to data from Burning Glass Technologies (Labour Insight Jobs 2018). Skills that are common across group members have been omitted here and are listed in the following table.
| Adam | Ranking | Alexander | Ranking | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Job Title | Project Manager/Team Leader | Programmer (Games) | |||
| Demand Ranking | 13 (478 jobs out of 120,353 total) | 19 (337 jobs out of 120,353 total) | |||
| Unique skills (with overall demand) |
Leadership | #33 | Unity-specific Coding | n/a | |
| Mentoring | #41 | Third-Party Implementation | n/a | ||
| Docker | n/a | ||||
| Open Source | n/a |
| Ashley | Ranking | Jessica | Ranking | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Job Title | Mobile App Developer | Infrastructure Engineer | |||
| Demand Ranking | 96 (92 jobs out of 120,353 total) | 9 (666 jobs out of 120,353 total) | |||
| Unique skills (with overall demand) |
Swift | #236 | TCP/IP | #143 | |
| Objective-C | #250 | LAN/WAN | #99 | ||
| Troubleshooting | #10 | ||||
| ITIL Certification | #23 |
| Karsten | Ranking | Paul | Ranking | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Job Title | IT Systems Analyst | IT Support Officer | |||
| Demand Ranking | 34 (221 jobs out of 120,353 total) | 35 (209 jobs out of 120,353 total) | |||
| Unique skills (with overall demand) |
.NET Experience | #21 | Web Design | #40 | |
| System Security | #95 | ||||
| VOIP Implementation | n/a |
The table below shows the skills that are common to the requirements of the group’s ideal jobs. They are not listed in the above table to avoid duplicates and to compare each skill’s popularity within the group. It also shows the highest ranked skills, both technical and general, that are not required by any of the group’s job listings. The bars indicate popularity among group members.
| Technical Skills | Ranking | General skills | Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS/Cloud Computing (4/6) | #198 | Communication (5/6) | #1 |
| Git or similar (4/6) | #29 | Problem Solving (4/6) | #3 |
| Network Services (3/6) | #53 | Teamwork (3/6) | #7 |
| App Development (3/6) | #193 | Planning (3/6) | #11 |
| C# Coding (2/6) | #13 | Time Management (2/6) | #33 |
| Java (2/6) | #9 | Writing (2/6) | #5 |
| X-Code (2/6) | #322 | ||
| Linux (2/6) | #17 | ||
| SQL/MySQL/MSSQL (2/6) | #2 |
The last table lists the three highest-ranked skills which are not part of the group’s required skill set.
| Technical Skills | Ranking | General skills | Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Javascript | #6 | Research | #20 |
| Microsoft Windows | #8 | Quality Assurance | #44 |
| Microsoft Office | #24 | Multitasking | #83 |
While the jobs desired across the group are quite diverse, the skills required are much more similar. 15 of our required skills are shared across the group, while there are no more than four unique skills to a particular job, five of which are not listed in the Burning Glass data. What is of particular interest is that the general skills are far more universal than the technical ones; in particular, communication is the most in demand skill both in Burning Glass data and our ideal jobs list. JavaScript, on the other hand, is the sixth most in demand skill overall and second most when looking only at technical skills – but is not required by any of our ideal jobs. However, we had to go down to research, only the 20th most in demand general skill to find one that was not at least obliquely referenced or required.
This suggests that, while it might be prudent to target technical skills to a particular career path, working on the most common soft skills (communication, problem solving, writing, teamwork) will be important no matter the job.
No group member has expressed any desire to change their career path based on this information.
Labour Insight Jobs 2018, ‘Skills in Greatest Demand (Baseline Skills)’ PDF, COSC2196, RMIT University, Melbourne
Labour Insight Jobs 2018, ‘Skills in Greatest Demand (Specialised Skills)’ PDF, COSC2196, RMIT University, Melbourne
Labour Insight Jobs 2018, ‘Top Titles’ PDF, COSC2196, RMIT University, Melbourne