How Modern Engineering Builds Careers for Non-Techies in Technology Job Roles

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically sped up the adoption of digital technologies by several years. It has significantly accelerated the pace at which digital transformation is fundamentally changing the way businesses operate nowadays. The imperative for a strategic approach to lead the pack in this era is to acquire skilled tech talent. Technology job roles are growing at a large scale in India with a slew of startups, increased automation in traditional organisations, a new world of user experiences, innovations in products, design engineering, and service-led diversifications.

Moreover, during the past three months, non-tech industries have created more than 1,00,000 active technology job roles, raising the demand for tech professionals by almost 35%. Even though India has the highest contribution from services, this segment saw its lowest count in the past year. Furthermore, the demand-supply gap of 21% is expected to widen by over 3.5X by 2030, while the demand for tech roles in non-tech is expected to rise by over 1 million by 2028.

As we deepen our ties to technological advancements in the coming years, there will be a huge skill gap within the workplace. Diversifying the pool of non-engineers in technology roles will enable us to bridge this gap. Students who graduate from BCA, BSC, Arts, or Mathematics are currently in high demand for roles in Business Analysis, Data Analysis, and Marketing. These roles require a variety of non-technical skills, including statistics, data manipulation, machine learning, programming, business acumen, and storytelling. In addition, disciplines such as Geography, Project Management, Law/Humanities and Surveillance are next-generation roles offered by many conglomerates across the globe.

Key roles in Analytics Translators, Product Managers, Strategy Consultants, Technical Project Managers, and Technical writers attract non-tech talent or aspiring tech talent to build their careers in the tech space. Similarly, workday consultants and salesforces Admins, and Business Analysts are also highly in demand. For someone who is an economics graduate and is interested to work as a Data Scientist or similar, the transition is tough, however, employees start the initial 3 to 4 years as analysts and then move to their respective specializations. This is one of the most considerable opportunities for Non-STEM graduates to be Techies.

For every 100 tech Roles, 30-35% of the roles are open to being filled by non-technically qualified incumbents depending on their experience, tools, and certifications. IT firms are looking to double their non-engineering hiring intake from 10% in the next 2 years given the impact of attrition and the talent crunch experienced, these applicants possess MCA, BSc, and other qualifications. The hire train and deploy model is best adapted for such hirings and organizations are making investments to create the Build, Operate & Transition model by using partners and consultants. Salaries for such roles are lesser by 20-30% in the initial career stages and this gap is mitigated as the experience on projects increases.

For instance, if a worker is looking to get into the tech world and have those skills in their specialty, they can take data science or computer programming classes to acquire those skills, those without a technical-based specialization are now interested in joining the tech world and getting the skills needed for jobs like that. Functional capability in data science, automation, and robotics usually takes between one to four years to complete. Today’s workforce realizes that it's not just being a hardware designer or being a developer but being able to equip yourself with additional basic tech skills that can help you stay competitive in the job market while also mitigating the increasing demand for tech roles overall.

Demand for data scientists and data analysts are growing rapidly. With the unique skillsets that these individuals possess, applicants can learn how to use basic reporting software to generate insight that can allow them to begin their journey toward technical roles.

Those considering tech positions should work on improving their knowledge of engineering, governance, security, and architecture. As the need for cloud computing, data engineering, and machine learning will not diminish soon, people are increasingly opting for IT support roles, which are gateways to many technical careers.

The hiring of technical people will undergo a significant change by 2023, as many organizations are convinced that human skills are essential to creativity and integrity, which are crucial to building great tech solutions that create value for customers and businesses. Due to similar developments in low-code applications, customer experience design and problem-solving would become a must-have skill rather than technical programming for many technology roles.

A new entrant to the tech industry can also opt for roles including Digital Strategist, Web Developer, Data Analyst, Digital Analyst, Content Marketer and Web Editor, none of which need traditional tech skills. The paradigm shift from science, engineering, and technology to mathematics, statistics, and probability is essential for both tech and non-tech workers to build careers ahead. As organizations face a war between skills and qualifications, the former is increasingly taking precedence.

The article has been written by Munira Loliwala, Business Head-Specialized Staffing, TeamLease Digital