Not only is the entire world of work undergoing a fundamental transformation – it is also changing the labour market. This change is also associated with opportunities. In order to be able to use them, however, the crucial question arises: Which technical expertise and skills will be particularly in demand in the future?
When it comes to successfully positioning themselves on the job market, self-employed people and freelancers in particular must regularly ask themselves whether they have the right skills and abilities.
Especially for them, the investment in the relevant expertise and their own visibility on the market is crucial in order to be able to survive successfully on the project market in the long term. So what counts in 2022?
Top Software, Framework and Platform Skills
When it comes to special software, framework or platform skills or programming knowledge, the credo is: always stay on the ball. Only those who are constantly interested in the latest trends on the market can certainly identify those expertise’s that should be acquired in the long term due to the continuing demand. Future trends can also be identified at an early stage.
On the project market, skills and abilities for back-end and front-end programming are currently in demand. For programmers and developers, languages such as Python, Java, JavaScript, SQL and PHP as well as the C languages C# and C++ are particularly relevant.
In addition to mastering these highly sought-after programming languages, filling a professional niche for freelancers in the IT environment can also be a promising option. Examples include new, emerging languages such as Swift or Rust.
Methods like SCRUM or REST make the difference
In addition to technical knowledge such as the one just mentioned, qualifications and skills in the field of working methodology are increasingly gaining ground on the project market. Above all, methods such as SCRUM and REST often make the decisive difference when it comes to staffing.
Since agility and optimal cooperation are becoming increasingly important from the point of view of companies, freelancers and self-employed people should position themselves accordingly well in this regard.
Still in high demand: data science, AI and cloud skills
In recent years, the digital transformation has led to a continuously increasing demand for certain specialist expertise. These included above all data science, knowledge of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud applications. Even during the Corona crisis, data scientists were sought after in numerous tenders.
There is another reason, closely linked to the pandemic, why continued demand for this knowledge is expected in 2022. Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, numerous projects were frozen and postponed into the future in order to realize short-term savings potential.
However, since the consequences and the possible end of the pandemic can now be estimated much more precisely, these projects are now being reactivated and implemented.
New opportunities through flexibility and remote work
The past year and a half has clearly shown something else: The prejudices against home office and remote work that many companies have long harbored were largely incorrect. The often feared slump in productivity did not materialize. Rather, the positive experiences with the digital collaboration tools led to new perspectives in the companies.
In addition to the elimination of travel and a more flexible organization of working hours for permanent employees, this also means a new opportunity for the self-employed. Before the pandemic, the local proximity to the clients was often a decisive factor for the applicants.
Since the transition of many companies to remote work, this tendency has decreased significantly. So if you position yourself broadly in this regard and familiarize yourself with the different software suites and tools, you also increase your chances on the market.
Boom in IT security and cyber security
The topics of IT security and cyber security are becoming increasingly important for the economic success of companies. The economic damage caused year after year by data theft, espionage, sabotage or other forms of cybercrime such as ransomware attacks is increasing drastically.
For the year 2020, a representative survey by the industry association Bitkom showed that the German economy has suffered a loss of 223.5 billion euros. The number of unreported cases is likely to be significantly higher, as affected companies often do not publicly report cases.
For the self-employed and freelancers, this means that in addition to their professional specialization, they should have knowledge in this critical area in the future. IT security has numerous facets and is very difficult to address separately from other aspects. That’s why IT security has to play a role in more and more departments.
Visibility in the network
When it comes to professional skills and expertise, an important aspect must not be forgotten: this opportunity to acquire specialist knowledge is available to the entire market. This means that even the competition does not sleep and the challenge of positioning oneself professionally can increase. An indispensable part of this is visibility in your own network.
A successful positioning on the project market includes continuously maintaining and expanding one’s own network in order to ensure one’s own visibility on the net. Anyone who invests time and money in further training should ultimately also ensure that this becomes clear to the outside world. Only in this way can the acquisition of the right knowledge also contribute to actual success.
Top Skill: Lifelong Learning
For an entire generation, the certainty was that the professional specialization chosen at the beginning of the career lasts a lifetime. However, due to the ever faster pace of technological development, the half-life of knowledge is also decreasing.
IT freelancers in particular are therefore faced with the challenge of having to acquire the latest skills and abilities again and again in order to be permanently successful on the market. Lifelong learning is therefore perhaps the most important skill for the sustainable success of freelancers.
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