The 10 Most In-Demand IT Skills and Certifications of 2019

The job market today is very tough, and the best way to enhance your credibility is getting a few strategic certifications behind your name.

Project Management Certifications:

Project Management certifications are having an huge demand in the IT market.It is considered to be one of the most important task across industries. It requires special skills for delivering a successful project not as an individual but as an organisation. To Judge your expertise there are wide range of project management certifications are available in the market. They are Certified Scrum Master, Six Sigma Green Belt, Project management Professional, PRINCE2. To acquire these certifications there are some prerequisites.

Prerequisites:

• Secondary or Associates Degree is mandatory
• You must have at least 3 years of work experience in the project management field.
• Good Leadership and communication skills

These certifications can help you in beating up your resume and give you good boost in the salary. The average salary of certified project management specialist is ranges between $100,000 to $150,000 per annum. And here is the list of some companies paying highest pay to the certified persons are IBM, LOREAL, intel, Microsoft, Dell and so on.

Artificial Intelligence Certification:

Today the IT world is looking towards Artificial Intelligence, because of its unique features. In a nutshell AI is basically creating smart machines. As we know that technology sounds really complex. But the salary of an AI architect might compel you to learn this technology. According to Stephen Hawking, “Success in creating Artificial Intelligence would be the biggest advent in the human history”, that’s very well said and true enough.

AI architect role is to develop an advice complex AI solutions to meet the client requirements. For that you should be pretty good with mathematics and statistics background. And good hands-on knowledge on AI related technologies like Deep Learning and Machine learning is must. On an average salary for someone who is certified with this certification is ranges between $140,000 to $150,000 per annum.

Prerequisites:

• Development of AI Solutions
• Developing Complex AI Architectures
• Advice Clients on Best AI Solutions
• Knowledge on Analysation of Algorithms
• 2–4 years of real-time experience is mandatory.

Data Science Certification:

The role of Data Science Engineer is to construct, install, test and monitor data management system. Data science is a very popular career choice for a while. To become a Data Scientist expert, one must master in the following six essential and broad components of data science. They are — Statistics, Programming, Big Data, Data Visualization, Machine Learning and Domain Expertise.

If you are one of those IT professionals that always look for next big things to master in your career, then Data Science is the best technology. Here are some important certifications Applied AI & Deep Learning, Big Data Certification, Machine Learning Engineer, Data Analyst.

And some of the job profiles that are available are Data Engineer, Data Scientist, Data Analyst, Data Architect. And the average salary of someone certified in these certifications is $140,000 per annum. Here are some of the top companies that are paying the highest pay to the certified persons, IBM, Google, Microsoft, J.P.Morgan, ABB and so on.

Prerequisites:

• Should possess knowledge of SAS.
• It is necessary to have good programming skills.
• Ability to design, develop and execute solutions to business problems.
• Ability to clean, manipulate and organize data and visualize the results.
• Should possess the fundamentals of machine learning algorithms and how to implement them.
• Predict, forecast and drive data driven business decisions.

Cloud Computing Certification:

Since from the past few years, Cloud Computing has reached an exponential level, and it becomes a significant source for many IT companies throughout the world. Cloud Computing has unique features, due to this every IT company is willing to shift to this technology. Currently, IT Professionals with proven Cloud Computing Skills are high in demand. And 40% of companies are struggling to get qualified employees. It is a brilliant opportunity for professionals who can prove their knowledge with recognised certifications. Some of the best certifications for this year are AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Microsoft Certified Solution Expert, Google Professional Cloud Architect, Cloud Security Certification.

Prerequisites:

• Good understanding of cloud solutions offered by AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.
• Hands on experience in Designing, error-free, and affordable systems on AWS Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.
• Expertise in deploying and maintaining cloud solutions
• Expertise in Networking, Databases, Computing and storage services

Here are some of the job opportunities that are available, Cloud Engineer, Cloud Architect, Cloud System Administrator, Cloud Software Developer. The Average salary for someone certified with these certifications is about $142,000 per annum. And the top most companies like IBM, Microsoft, VMware, AMAZON are looking for these Certified employees with the highest pay.

DevOps Certification:

DevOps is a generally new thought in the IT space with more organizations taking a gander at utilizing DevOps procedures and practices. There is a noteworthy hole between the interest for DevOps Certified experts and the accessibility of the required DevOps experts. IT experts can exploit this enormous opportunity by completing certification in DevOps for approval of DevOps ranges of abilities. This will guarantee and ensure much better employment alternatives.

DevOps is a continuous method which involves many popular tools like Docker, Puppet, Chef, Jenkins, Salt Stack, Kubernetes and Git. Apart from these which is new AWS DevOps Certification. DevOps is the most demanding technology in the IT market with the highest annual pay. An average salary of a DevOps engineer is around $130k-$150k per annum. The responsibilities for DevOps engineer are designing & setting up infrastructure, shell scripting in PHP/Python/Ruby/Perl, integration cloud services for automation and etc.

Prerequisites:

• 1–3 years of industry experience.
• Knowledge on DevOps Lifecycle and major DevOps tools.
• Strong Technical Skills in IT Administration
• Experience in cloud automation
• Programming Knowledge
• Expertise in DevOps and real-time experience in Cloud Platforms

Also once you become a DevOps Certified Engineer, you may have a good chance to grab a job in one of these MNCs IBM, DELL, CISCO, Wipro and so on. Here are the job profiles that are available for DevOps are DevOps Engineer, DevOps Systems Administrator, DevOps manager, and DevOps Architect.

Big Data Certification:

Big Data refers to a huge volume of data, that cannot be stored or processed using the traditional approach, within the given time frame. It is very much important to choose Big Data Certification, which suits your career desires. And the available career paths in big data are Data Architect, Business Analyst, Data Engineer, Developer, Data Scientist, Database Administrator and so on.

The target audience of Big Data is IT professionals in a background of, data mining, business intelligence, analytics, data management. An average salary of Big Data certified individuals is $95,000 or more based on experience criteria it may range between $130,000 to $175,000 for senior data scientists.

Here are some of the certifications that are available

Cloudera: 1.CCA Data Analyst

2.CCA Administrator

3.CCA Spark and Hadoop Developer

HORTONWORKS: 1.HDP Apache Spark Developer

2.Hortonworks Certified Associates

3.HDP Certified Developer Big Data Hadoop

Prerequisites:

• Should have knowledge in developing the Hadoop data engineering solutions on & related platforms.
• Should be familiar in understanding the Fundamentals of Hortonworks Data Platform and Hadoop systems, Cloudera’s and CDH.
• Should posses Work knowledge of Hadoop HDFS, Sqoop, MapReduce; Hive, YARN, impala with along Apache Spark and its related technologies.
• SQL knowledge and ETL will be added as an advantage

CRM Certification:

CRM or Customer Relationship Management is a strategic methodology that recognizes the customer as a core of the business. Since customer relationship is such an indispensable aspect of business, people want to figure out the best way to do it. Firstly, there are 3 certifications provided by Salesforce. They are:

1. Salesforce Administrator

2. Salesforce Platform Developer

3. Salesforce Platform App Builder

And also you have the SAP CRM certification, which is provided by the company SAP. This is the kind of certification, which is recommended combined educational courses and hands-on experience to help you prepare for a certification exam. And Microsoft Dynamics CRM is designed to ensure that you learn and master the concepts of being a Salesforce administrator & Salesforce platform Developer.

Prerequisites:

• Strong Knowledge of Java, & frontend technologies Html5 & JavaScript is required.
• One should master C# and .NET Programming
• Good understanding of MySQL, Rest & Soap APIS
• Knowledge about customer relationship management tools.

The Average salary for someone certified with these certifications is $135,000 per annum.

CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker):

Ethical Hacking, also called as White Hat Hacking, used to explain hacking performed by an individual or a company to identify the occurrences of possible errors,vulnerabilities and threats in system’s security that can be used by illegal hackers, also called as Black Hat Hackers.

Offered through the EC-Council, the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) assignment demonstrates you have what it takes and learning to discover vulnerabilities in PC frameworks and to avert hacking. A “moral programmer” is somebody who utilizes indistinguishable abilities and learning from a vindictive programmer to create safety efforts to forestall potential assaults. Commonly, organizations will request that you adopt the thought process of a programmer to discover shortcomings in PC frameworks and systems and with that learning, it’s less demanding to fix security holes and counteract potential dangers.

If we are not securing our system form black hat hackers, there could be huge loss to an organization or an individual. In Order to get rid of this organizations are looking for certified ethical hackers, with highest pay of $87,315 and $106,375 per annum.

The ethical hacking course is extremely popular among IT Professionals and has got a myriad of benefits or advantages associated with it.

Network Certification:

Demand for Network Engineers is never-ending. Here are the 4 certifications in all major areas from entry to expert level. The Cisco Certified Network Associate, Cisco Certified Network Professional, Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert makes you an expert level network engineer.

1.CCNA(Cisco Certified Network Associate): Is a Associate beginner level certification, which has a various fields like CCNA cloud, collaboration, data center, industrial, design and so on.

2.CCNP(Cisco Certified Network Professional): Which is the professional level certification. The individuals who accomplish CCNP Routing and Switching have shown the aptitudes required in big business jobs, for example, support engineer, network technician or systems engineer, network engineer or system professional.

3.CCIE : Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE confirmation) is a progression of specialized affirmations for senior systems administration experts who configure, assemble, execute, keep up and investigate complex endeavor organizing foundations. The CCIE certification program is partitioned into six separate arrangement, or tracks, and incorporates the accompanying: collaboration, data center, design, security, wireless and service provider.

4.Wireshark Certified Network Analyst: Turning into a Wireshark Certified Network Analyst approves your capacity to utilize Wireshark to perform network analysis for forensics and communications troubleshooting. Accomplishing Wireshark accreditation likewise exhibits that you have experience investigating, streamlining, and verifying a system dependent on proof found by breaking down traffic caught with Wireshark. It demonstrates your inclination in TCP/IP arrange interchanges and is a perfect supplement to CISSP, CCIE, CompTIA Network+, and other industry Certifications.

Prerequisites:

• Knowledge of system and cloud networks and their installation, working and maintenance.
• Ensuring the integrity of high availability network infrastructure to provide maximum performance.
• Designing system configuration, directing system installation and enforcing system standards.
• You need to also understand on how to perform disaster recovery operations and protecting data, hardware/software from threats.

The job profiles that are to network professionals are Network Administrator, Network Specialist, Network Architect and Network Engineer. After the completion of certification, the average salary ranges between $100,000- $112,000 per annum. The companies like Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, AWS, Oracle and so on are eagerly looking for a people with such certifications.

Number 10:

BI Certification:

Business Intelligence is about delivering relevant & reliable information to the right people at the right time with the goal of achieving better decisions faster. To achieve this appropriately, BI requires methods and programs to collect data, structure data, and convert that into information thus presenting it to improve business decisions. Decision makers at all levels of an organisation require accurate queries of business information to clean actionable business intelligence and insights to make effective and strategic decisions. Tableau, Business Intelligence, Qliksense, SAS are the certifications that are ideal for anybody from a business analyst to business executives. Be a professional on an average salary of BI professional is around $100K — $130K per annum. At this point,any company hires in this domain are Deloitte, IQVIA, ORACLE, IBM, & Accenture about to name a few.

Prerequisites for Certification:

• Good knowledge of BI tools such as Tableau, PowerBI, QlikView and SAS.
• Analysing and manipulating data items with SAS visual Analytics.
• Sound understanding of Database-related topics.
• Good Hands on Query Languages
• Data Warehousing, ETL and Front end development skills.
• Specific domain knowledge and industry of 1–3 years.

The 10 Most In-Demand IT Skills and Certifications of 2019 was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.