Will The Rise in Demand for Big Data Skills Impact Talent Crunch in 2020

The dearth of talent in big data has been here since 2016. The last few years have witnessed a huge deficit of big data professionals. Research claims, the shortage of data engineers is much larger than the data scientists across the globe.

However, in the Dice 2020 Tech Job Report, data engineers were labeled as the fastest growing technology job in 2019. Data engineers and big data engineers more or less share the same job responsibilities. The only difference is, with the rise of big data, data engineers are now required to acquire skills such as big data frameworks. Big data engineers have been trained to understand real-time data processing and off-line data processing methods along with the implementation of machine learning algorithms.

The report says it generally takes about 46 days to fill in a data engineer job position, which may increase by the end of 2020.

Despite the havoc caused by the pandemic, some believed that jobs in technologies like big data, AI, machine learning, etc. will be available. According to expert analysis, data teams are yet to experience furloughs and layoffs.

The Burtch Works survey reports that workers from the data-oriented field such as data analysts, data engineers, big data engineers, and data scientists faced no difficulties in transitioning their work from the office to working from home.

Skills to keep data engineers in sync with the pandemic

Big data engineers must be adept in big data engineer skills such as:

• NoSQL: CouchDB and MongoDB have started replacing traditional SQL databases like DBs and Oracle. NoSQL databases are much more efficient in meeting the storage needs and big data success. Data crunching is better equipped complimenting Hadoop’s expertise. Another reason why big data engineers with NoSQL database skills are higher in demand for certain companies.

• Apache Hadoop: Hadoop’s components such as Pig, Hive, HDFS, and HBase are currently sought after by potential employers. Despite being an old technology, most companies still rely on their clusters due to the perfect delivery system.

• Apache Spark: Apache Spark plays a significant role in big data analytics. Moreover, the increase of Spark’s in-memory stick makes this job skill even more reliable by tech consulting firms.

• Machine Learning: data mining and machine learning make a significant contribution to the big data industry. Due to the scarcity of talents in machine learning, it even makes this job skill highly sought after. Companies like Amazon, Spotify, and Netflix are hiring engineers with machine learning skills.

• Setting up cloud clusters: organizations need to set up cloud clusters to accommodate large volumes of data. Not only is this method cost-effective but it also makes it easier for the big data professional to crunch data offering valuable insights.

To make an impact in the big data field, an aspiring data professional must possess the above required big data engineer skills.

As the famous quote from Google Cloud’s Training department mentions, “with the market for artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered solutions projected to grow to USD 1.2B by 2023, it’s important to consider business needs now and in the future. We’ve heard from our customers and have witnessed internally that the data engineering role has evolved and now requires a larger set of skills. In the past, data engineers worked with distributed systems and Java programming to use Hadoop Map Reduce in the data center but now, they need to leverage AI, machine learning, and business intelligence skills to efficiently manage and analyze data.”

Making a transition in the big data field

With data getting generated daily, the demand for big data professionals will only rise and not cease. The uncertainty caused by the pandemic has also open new avenues for workers to upskill while they’re on lockdown.

An ideal way to make a transition in this field is by enrolling in a credible big data engineer certification program. Professional certification programs in big data keep you relevant and updated with the ongoing trends in the industry. With the help of certifications, it gets easier for the employer to evaluate the candidate’s proficiency and ability to do the job.

Data is the livelihood of every business today. Getting the technology right is challenging, but hiring the right candidates with the right set of skills is even more difficult. This is one of the reasons why employers are keen to hire a certified big data engineer for their organization.

Job market

Data engineers and big data engineers are some of the most preferred job roles in recent times. An average starting salary of a big data engineer is USD 116,000 per year, statistics taken from Glassdoor.

The median salary of a data engineer is USD 102,472 and the average is USD 137,776 per year. The big data engineer salary could vary based on a different location, skills, and work experience.

On many accounts, it may appear that the demand for data engineers and big data engineers will not slow down. Hiring a talent-rich professional may be challenging, but make sure you evaluate the candidate’s skills based on the knowledge and skills expertise they possess.