Dive Brief:
- Novel Aspect, a cloud hosting firm, has released an infographic titled "Seeking Software Skills" detailing the top in demand software skills for today's professionals, which skills offer the best compensation and where high paying jobs are to be found in the US. For this survey, Novel Aspect gathered job listings from Indeed for the top 50 largest cities and analyzed 200 business software platforms to identify the most desired skills.
- Per the research, the most desired software skill is Microsoft Excel, followed by fellow Microsoft applications Outlook and PowerPoint. iLife, and Microsoft Access round out the top five. Amazon Web Services applications held 10 out of the 12 highest paying software skills; DynamoDB experts should expect to make over $140,000 on average.
- Software skills draw the highest demand in these cities, listed in descending order: San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York City and Phoenix.
Dive Insight:
The infographic did have a few surprises for us; it highlighted how two companies, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, practically dominate the software market.
However, the skills needed to compete as a job seeker are not all that shocking since the business world has become increasingly dependent on database and information management. There is no gender, education level or ethnicity data presented within these findings. The cities where jobs are most plentiful span mostly the Western half of the US, with the exception of NYC.
However, one cannot conclude that this infographic data is 100% a representation of the entire software market, only for the actual jobs advertised on Indeed.com. There are many other ways that software companies are attracting and hiring software talent, such as direct employee referrals and internship programs. Learning is a key component for those involved in software careers, as many employees hone their skills on the job.
