Not only developers. 8 IT professions that will be in demand for a long time

Product managers

Product managers are responsible for analyzing the market, metrics and customer requests, decide which products are the most relevant and competitive, and choose a monetization model. "Products" manage the creation and promotion of sites, applications or software, and also control each stage of the "assembly" of the final product: set tasks for the department development, “polish” the design, approve the marketing strategy, use the results of testers wisely and make sure that competitors do not have unambiguous benefits. Product managers are leaders who are ready to make independent decisions, find priorities and be responsible not only for their own actions, but also for the work of the entire team.

Soft skills are keywords in a product manager resume. In different companies, the tasks of product specialists may differ, but it is necessary to build communication with the team everywhere. The results of the finished product on the market largely depend on how effective this communication will be. Therefore, it is important for product developers to know the principles of Agile project management, to know Kanban tools, to understand what sprints are and how to optimize processes using SCRUM methods.

The question arises: since this is an IT profession, does a product manager need to be able to program? No, not necessarily - the developers are responsible for the coding and architecture of the project. But basic technical knowledge is still useful for a top product. To bring to market and promote digital products, you need to have a good idea of ​​how they work, and be able to present their advantages not only to the consumer.

UX designers

Another area in which empathy and analytics are indispensable. But without an art education, it is easy to enter the profession, because a UX designer does not deal with graphic design and does not draw anything. Such specialists design user behavior when interacting with a site or application. Let's say a person enters an online store. Most likely, he will first drive the product into the search, then compare similar products, add something to favorites or to the cart, and at the end he will choose delivery and payment options. All these actions are combined into user routes that the UX designer anticipates and adapts for comfortable use. Like to anticipate the actions of others - welcome to the user experience designers.

profession already in demandThe UK: Building Tomorrow's Digital Powerhouse / Hired in all areas of online services. In addition, the services market is developing and growing, so there is no shortage of UX designer vacancies in the near future. Think over a tag system, get into a client request, make navigation simple and understandable - each of these small steps on the user's route can become profitable for a business. And if there are bugs in the project in the form of poorly configured search filters or non-clickable buttons, the site will receive an outflow of users, low views and a decline in sales.

It is important for such specialists to accurately see their target audience. Age, place of residence, employment - all these details add up to a single picture and help create popular sites and applications among users.

Big Data specialists

There are two ways to enter Big Data: through analytics or engineering. In the first case, you have to look for bits of data from the unstructured information flow that will be useful to the business. The data analyst must see the chains of motivations and cause-and-effect relationships. For example, figuring out how a bookstore could compose cool collections of recommendations for customers using the available information. A Big Data Analyst is a researcher, mathematician, and a very patient person who also has programming skills. Knowledge of Python, Java or C++ will be a competitive advantage, but the key tool for an analyst is the SQL query language. You also need to be ready for experiments and learning: it will not always work effectively according to a template in Data Analytics. Some cases will require new solutions and tools.

The data engineer is the pillar and support of the analyst. To find patterns in a vast array of raw information, the data must be stored somewhere, accessible and easy to use. This is what professionals are responsible for. In data engineering, superficial knowledge of programming is no longer enough: the profession is completely technical and requires immersion in the theory of cloud servers and storage.

VUI designers

Sending money to a tutor, ordering dinner, booking a manicure - all this can be done without interrupting work. It is enough to call a voice assistant, and everyday problems are solved by themselves. Behind each completed user task is the work of voice interface developers.

Virtual assistants are now being introduced into many business areas - banks, retail, music services, smart homes. The main task of a VUI designer is to find specific requests for assistants and teach them new skills. Each additional skill is another feature and technology, so it's easier to come up with something unique in the field of smart assistants than in many others.

The professions of VUI and UX designers are similar: both work on interfaces, which means they predict user requests and model their behavior in different situations. One of the main tools for both specialties is Miro, an editor for creating flowcharts that add up to a user's route on the site or into a skill map. But VUI designers go further. Each assistant is a virtual person with their own voice and character. The creators have to take into account the "psychology" of artificial wards. Patience is essential for a future digital assistant mentor - mistakes, tests and repetitions are inevitable.

IoT architects

Smart watches, smart alarm clocks, controlled sockets - the number of devices connected to the network is already several times moreInternet of Things - what is it and how to apply IoT in real business / RBthan the population of the earth. And IoT technologies help turn reality into a continuous dialogue of devices.
A typical morning in the near future might look like this. You wake up, and the fitness bracelet has already counted your health indicators, the coffee machine has made a cappuccino, the navigator has calculated the best route to work.

The global idea of ​​the Internet of Things is that devices should be in contact with a person and with each other, optimizing any process. Smart devices should be able to analyze what is happening around, draw conclusions, make decisions and implement them, removing some of the usual duties from people. The concept of a smart apartment is pleasant, and on a global scale, IoT can solve problems much more serious than the morning routine. For example, if smart services are implemented in the on-board computers of cars and motorcycles, artificial intelligence will automatically call an ambulance in case of an accident.

It is important for IoT architects to understand special network platforms, cloud services, and how communication technologies work: Wi-Fi, BT, LoRa. Typically, smart device applications are handled by individuals, but an IoT developer must be able to write code and be proficient in programming languages. In addition, this area intersects with cybersecurity and Big Data. An IoT architect is a practical profession, but it will be difficult at the start of a career without a serious theoretical base.

Cyber ​​Security Specialists

For 2020 hackers hacked twitter accounts of American politicians and stole the personal data of five million Marriott hotel customers. According to a study by Check Point, which deals with cybersecurity issues, in 2021 the number of attacks on corporate systems increased2022 Cyber ​​Security Report / Check Point by 50%. Online threats have tangible consequences in reality, which is why cybersecurity specialists are one of the most sought-after professions today. Companies are willing to pay well for such employees, because every hacker raid costs the business a round sum.

The main qualities in this area are technical savvy, attentiveness and the ability to think outside the box. Network crimes are sometimes investigated in advance: experts read the code, see vulnerabilities in it, conduct test hacks and use the knowledge gained to protect. The profession is suitable for those who do not tolerate routine, because hackers and network scammers are constantly improving. To comfortably enter the field of cybersecurity, you will need knowledge of Python, experience with Linux, and an understanding of the features of different browsers. Familiarity with vulnerability detection tools and basic knowledge of cryptography and reverse engineering will be a plus.

Digital fashion designers

One of the studies in 2018 showedFashion on climate / McKinseythat the fashion industry annually generates as much greenhouse gas as the entire economy of France or the UK. Unsold items from boutiques and mass market stores go to landfills by the ton - conscious shopping, capsule wardrobes and clothing customization solve the problem of waste disposal only partially. And this is one of the reasons why digital fashion designers will have something to do in the next decade: a VR outfit bought for a one-time photo shoot will not have to be thrown away. The second reason is the growing interest of mankind in virtual realities. The metaverses are being actively built up and populated with avatars, so designer clothes in VR space are also likely to be valuable. Digital bows also have less futuristic applications. They can help in the development of virtual fitting technology - it will become much easier to buy clothes online.

It is not enough for a digital fashion designer to have a developed imagination. You will need design and 3D modeling skills, as well as knowledge of materials and tailoring techniques - digital clothes should reflect the density and texture of real fabrics. You will have to work not only in graphic editors familiar to designers, but also with complex equipment like a human body scanner. As in any young IT profession, here you need to quickly adapt to innovative ideas and always be ready to learn new things.

Dialogue scripts for bots and assistants

An ideal profession for those who are used to replaying upcoming conversations in their heads. Anticipating other people's answers, reading motives and subtexts, being able to build communication with different interlocutors - the work is much more difficult than it might seem. Dialogue scripters are needed both in game development, and for the development of chatbots, and for the creation of virtual assistants. The profession is developing at the intersection of linguistics and IT, so it will be an excellent elevator for those who want to work in technology, but feel more confident in the humanities.

The scriptwriters of bots and assistants need to keep a balance: on the one hand, communication is a person whose remarks you need predict and reduce to general models, on the other hand, an algorithm that does not understand jokes and is likely to come to a standstill from the phrase “yes, no, maybe". Interaction with machines obeys its own laws, and the specialist must be ready to immerse himself in the intricacies of digital communication. For example, it is important to understand why the "live" side of the wire does not like phrases like "to listen again, say 'Repeat'". People don't like being manipulated, and bots are often expected to be human. It's much more elegant to program the same command like this: "Repeat message or move on?" Similar subtleties in there will be many dialogues, and most of them will have to be found in countless tests, experiments and user reviews.