Deciding on your career, what skills to focus on, what is in the market now and all that jazz can be very daunting. The unprecedented pandemic, the alarming unemployment rates in India and the rising competition has only caused more anguish and indecisiveness. Let’s take some help from the popular Ideal Job Venn Diagram by David Hamill to make better career decisions.

Here’s a variant of it that essentially asks us three important questions:

1. What do you love doing?

– Find out what your passion and interests are.

2. What are you good at?

– Weigh your pros and cons, figure out your skillset.

3. What is in demand? Go on and read this blog!

– There lies our sweet spot colored in gray, at the intersection of the 3 questions. The first two are something that you should figure out and this blog will give you insight into the third essential question.

What is in demand?

According to LinkedIn’s latest workplace report on India in the year 2018, the software industry was the most sought after, followed by the Manufacturing industry, Finance industry, Corporate services, and finally the Education sector. This was the trend before COVID entered our lives. The unexpected pandemic has been a loss for many and a boon for few.

According to the Monster Employment Index, the hospitality and travel sector’s revenue took a huge hit causing the hiring to go down by 43% whereas the revenue of companies like Zoom skyrocketed. It is clear that the pandemic favors some sectors more than others for various reasons and it has become incredibly crucial for us to keep that in mind when we look for jobs and learn new skills.

The Naukri JobSpeak report gives us the increase in hiring percentage based on the job listings and hiring trends which shows us what industries are in-demand and we will look at each industry along with the skills required for them!

IT-Software (Technology)

During the pandemic, technology has undoubtedly been the game-changer. The virtual functioning of schools, colleges, offices, hiring and so many other things have increased our appetite for digitization. Naturally, the IT sector has been one of the least impacted sectors backed by the data shown above. IT becomes imminent with more sectors taking the route of digital transformation. The IT-Software sector, one of the fastest sectors to recover, has a 31% increase in hiring.

Artificial Intelligence

In the tech industry, Artificial Intelligence has seen a significant rise considering the growing need for automation and the variety of industries that AI is permeating. India stands third in penetration of AI skills, according to an analysis by finances online. An emerging job report from LinkedIn for the year 2020 states that Artificial Intelligence, as usual, is on the list of emerging jobs pushing everyone to learn new skills.

Data Science

According to the annual Data never sleeps 8.0’s infographic, on average, every human created at least 1.7 MB of data per second in 2020 and this is only increasing exponentially with the advent of technology. A lot of this data is unstructured which is not very helpful. According to a Forbes article, 80% of the enterprises have very little visibility of their data, let alone manage it. This eventually increases the employability of data experts. The big data industry is expected to grow from $73.26 billion in 2020 to $76.1 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9%, according to a report by Global News Wire. Here are the top technologies used for data analysis listed by companies is given below:

Healthcare Industry

According to IBEF, the healthcare market is expected to reach US $372 billion by 2022 compared to US $193.83 billion in 2020. The healthcare industry showed a 29% increase in hiring. As per the RGF International Recruitment’s Salary Watch 2021, the hike for healthcare services and pharmaceutical products has caused a rise in hiring skilled professionals in:

• Regulatory affairs (increments up to 8%)
• Medical areas (7%)
• Production & operations (7%)
• Research and Development (7%)

There’s almost an 80% rise in consumption of digital healthcare services after Covid-19 according to a report by The Economic Times. Apart from the traditional methods of healthcare, there is an increasing demand to digitize the healthcare industry, which again increases employment opportunities.

Management & Administration/HR

The role of managerial and HR positions has been constantly evolving. Recruitment, training, payroll, performance management, performance management, a safe and healthy workplace, retention are all responsibilities of an HR personnel or a manager. These require steady learning of the advancements to keep up with the increasing globalization, economic challenges (which are even harder to face, thanks to COVID), tougher competition, new structures, and technologies. To keep everything in place, with the increase in any job, HR or managerial positions will increase as well to manage the organization and its workforce.

According to an article by India Today, some of the key technologies used in the HR industry are:

• Employer branding
• Social Media hiring
• AI and ML
• Big data

Knowledge of these skills and how they are used in HR management are crucial.

Marketing/Advertising

Marketing is an important aspect of any business now more than ever. We are far gone from the age of just traditional marketing. We have millions of people on social media and other digital mediums. Digital marketing helps us leverage these mediums for businesses. This chart representing the number of social media users in India as of February 2021 shows us millions of people. With a rise in big data, as we’ve already seen, unused unstructured data can be a loss for any company. The data after analysis can be used to market a product to prospective customers and the marketing team does just that. The unprecedented economic situation has caused losses in businesses which means that most companies are expected to focus primarily on increasing revenue this year. Since marketing, advertising and sales directly affect the revenue of a company; a huge increase in hiring is expected and there has already been a 20% increase in hiring.

Banking/Insurance

India has a diversified financial sector undergoing rapid expansion. The sector comprises commercial banks, insurance companies, non-banking financial companies, co-operatives, pension funds, mutual funds, and other smaller financial entities. A rise is seen in investment and insurance in rural areas according to a report by IBEF. The health insurance industry in India is the fastest-growing segment in the non-life insurance sector. The market witnessed a robust double-digit growth of 24% in FY 17 and has only been increasing, especially with the onset of COVID. This growing penetration and rising demand for financial services only increases the requirement for more skilled professionals in the finance sector

Are hard skills enough?

Soft skills are equally or sometimes even more important than hard skills. With the right soft skills, it is easier to leverage your hard skills. A report by LinkedIn states that soft skills can make or break a hire—and they can also make or break a company.

Due to the widespread and ever-increasing use of automation; soft skills like communication, leadership, creativity, and collaboration will definitely be in demand as it is nearly impossible to recreate these skills virtually.
No one can communicate the way you do. No one can think the way you do. No one can lead the way you do. No machine can replace those skills!

Learn like our very own Hermione Granger! Happy learning!