SINGAPORE- Media OutReach - 17 May 2019 - Think you are all set to ride the new wave of technologydisruption? Think again!

Shortage of ITprofessionals as well as the high wages offered have been hitting the headlinesin Singapore and other developed countries. However, even IT professionals arenot immune to disruption.

Technology skills are constantlychanging. Look towards the market for advice.

Digitaldisruption is not homogenous where only repetitive and mundane tasks will beautomated. Digital jobs are also being disrupted. Buried in the day-to-dayoperations at work, it is easy to miss out on up-and-coming developments thatare critical to future-proofing one's careers.

The hottesttechnology skills are changing at an increasing pace. The same job role now,for instance, a database administrator could involve different tasks, and hencerequire different skills, than a database administrator three to five years ago.

A relativelynewer database, MongoDB has been steadily on the rise since its inception. Inrecent years, it is gaining popularity in the Singapore market with growthpredicted to remain buoyant in the near future. Moreover, its demand is notconcentrated on only a few large companies.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XRIhF9t3VamHNkxzzoHK6wUGlzNKesgu

Since January2018, there are more than 2,700 jobs posted that require MongoDB and the top 10companies hiring for this skill only contributed to 21% of these jobs. Demandis relatively scattered throughout other companies rather than a handful ofcompanies.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HF4APE2AZz2fwSO4oxarnd61x9Z7hCBF

In addition, databaseadministrators are increasingly tasked with data engineering responsibilitiessuch as Extract, Transform and Load, database monitoring and Hypertable. ITprofessionals will have to constantly adapt to the changing work scopes and newtechnology stacks in their workplace.

One source ITprofessionals can derive inspiration from is the general market trends in theeconomy. As can be seenfrom the headlines, big data analytics and artificial intelligence has been onthe rise. The number of data analytics jobs posted has increased by more than40% from more than 2,700 in 2017 to close to 4,000 in 2018. To live up to itshype, the foundations has to be laid first and foremost. Consequently, this hasexerted an important influence on the responsibilities of databaseadministrators. It is becoming increasingly necessary for them to possess theknow-how to maintain data pipelines to fuel downstream tasks such as machinelearning and visualizations.

Anotherimportant source of information is through labour market insights. Job descriptions are a useful sourceof gleaning emerging technology skills in demand by employers. For instance,from JobTech's data sources, Redis, an in-memory database for optimising dataaccess, has been experiencing strong growth in the Singapore market. Accordingto JobTech's econometric models, Redis is predicted to continue growing rapidlyinto the near future.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=14G7j0ISDjrU1iFaLCf6DgMY-otnQ39Km

Soft skills becoming ever more vital

The hottesttechnologies are constantly changing. This is why nimble learners who are ableto learn fast are highly sought after by employers. To deal with the demandingpace of change, learning to learn is essential. There are even online courses onneuroscience techniques to help one learn. However, this is not limited to deeptechnical skills but also to 'less technical' tasks such as consulting,presales, product management etc.

Other thandemonstrating your ability to learn, communication skills are also crucial. Itmay sound cliché but many still experience inertia putting in the time to honetheir communication skills. These skills are not limited to just writing andpresentations but also listening skills -- to practice active listening wheninteracting with clients and team members.

A combinatorial approach to future-proofingoneself

Professionalswho can successfully combine their domain knowledge and technical skills acrossdiverse fields will be able to be more resilient in the face of disruption. Bringinga different set of domain knowledge introduces a unique value one might bringto his/her team. By tapping into other domains, it provides one with additionalperspectives and create innovation from gaps between different verticals.

For example, anInternet-of-Things (IoT) engineer with knowledge of urban farming technologieswould be able to provide digitisation solutions for urban farming management. Agri-techrequires expertise in both fields and requires the engineer to be able todesign and develop urban farming products, and lead and manage urbanagriculture projects. The engineer who possesses this combination becomes a valuablemember of the team making him/her a rarer find compared to his/her other peers.

Similarly, afinance professional who picked up deep skills in data analytics would bebetter positioned to adapt to the evolving nature of quantitative analystroles. For instance, an investment analyst has to employ newer machine learningtechniques to model and forecast financial instruments and learn to wrangledatasets that are increasingly larger in today's data-rich world.

The idea of acombinatorial approach is that one can improve the value he/she brings to thetable not just by acquiring unique and niche technical skills but also throughunique combination of domain knowledge and technical skills to result in creativeand novel applications.

JobTechData API

In order to provide real-time access to Online Jobs Censusdata, JobTech has developed 2 data APIs (Application Programming Interface) forits strategic government and industry partners to acquire up-to-date andstructured jobs market data automatically. The 2 APIs will allow users toobtain sectoral data for both the de-duplicated job counts as well as the topskills demanded in real time, from the JobTech database which has more than 50million data points.

JobTech will continue to provide flash reportscovering different sectors in Singapore, with a focus on highly sought-afterskills and labor market trends. In this regard, JobTech is using its Big DataAnalytics and Artificial Intelligence capabilities to provide visibility andanalysis of the online jobs market in Singapore to support companies anddecision makers there.

For more information on the full version of JobTechAnalytics Reports (Quarterly Sector Reports) and Real Time Analytics, pleasevisit https://analytics.jobtech.co/

About JobTech™

JobTech is driven by adesire to change the labour market for the better. We have made it our missionto find the right match between people and jobs more efficiently, andcontinually build products and solutions that enhance human resource productivity.

We are Singapore'sleading Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics start-up that providesoptimised job matching tools and real-time labour market intelligence. Our coretechnology is the result of 10 years of research and development by top machinelearning experts and data scientists. This drives our ability to analyse morethan 1 million job postings every day, providing complete and accuratevisibility of online jobs markets around the world.

We serve a multitude ofcustomers. For employers, we provide candidates that have been vetted forquality and interest. For job seekers, we provide a platform where they canfind jobs across thousands of sources. For businesses, financial institutions,the government, recruiters and consultancy firms, we provide information onhiring trends that they use to inform policies and guide business decisions.