The UK’s Most In-Demand Tech Jobs
In short, all of them!
As I’m sure most people are aware, there is a massive skills shortage across almost all Engineering disciplines and Technology is no exception. Some of the most in-demand jobs we’re working on across the UK at the moment are:
· Data Engineers
· DevOps
· IT Support
· Data Scientists
· Sales Engineers
· Business Analysts
· Software Developers (all languages)
· Automation Testers
We’re experiencing massive growth across several tech markets in the UK right now. The amount of vacancies in the UK has been at record highs for prolonged periods of time, and with unemployment forecast to be at record lows soon, it begs the question – where will we find these people?
Something we’ve been advocating for the last 17 years is looking past the lists of skillsets on CVs and evaluating the person based on their values and abilities. Skills and knowledge are taught – we all started somewhere.
However, there are some quick wins when it comes to recruiting technical staff:
1) Training: Look at which skillsets can be taught – this is not only great for attracting candidates in the first place, but provides an opportunity to your current team to take on some extra responsibility.
2) Progression: Know what the short and long term prospects are for the right person. This not only helps with attracting the right personality type, but will help retain top talent for longer.
3) Location: We’ve all gotten used to the stresses of the pandemic and working from home (us included!). The days of working 5 days in an office for a lot of positions are over. Some of the ‘harder-to-fill’ roles don’t give many options to work remotely and failure to move with that trend will leave you behind! Be realistic about how often someone needs to be in, but give them the autonomy to make decisions – we’re all adults!
4) Salary: Cost of living is rising, average salaries have increased, and housing is at a premium. We’re not saying you need to increase your salary by £10,000 for every role and your existing teams – instead, talk to your recruiter about what the market rates look like. We offer free-of-charge salary surveys for specific job titles in your region. Knowing is half the battle!
5) Junior Talent: There isn’t anyone alive who didn’t know what they were doing at the beginning. There’s a skills shortage across the globe for most tech positions but there’s superb talent coming out of the education system. They may not walk in with industry knowledge but instead with new ideas, enthusiasm, and a drive to learn.
Tommy’s top tips:
· People with 1-3 years’ experience are the hardest to find. They’re either in employment and receiving the training and development they’re looking for, or they’re out to interview for 6 of your competitors already! Use some of the quick wins above to combat that common problem.
· Know your interview process! Candidates out to interview for multiple things will suffer from tech-test burnout. If you are including a tech-test as part of your interview process, DO NOT have that as your first stage. Having a conversation with someone is a much better starting point, and a tech-test as a second stage is a better way to go if you are including one.
· Interviews are a two-way street. With candidates out to more interviews than ever, you need to make sure they’re leaving with the right impression of the business. It’s easy to only ask technical questions for 30 minutes but if you can “sell” your company culture and why you love to work there, you stand a much better chance of securing the right person at the end.
· Move quickly. Time is the biggest killer in recruitment. Work with your recruitment consultant to establish realistic timescales for CV turnaround and interview feedback. Candidates would rather know what’s going on, even if it’s not the news they want to hear.
Hopefully this can help you when looking to recruit! We firmly believe in working with our clients to make recruitment a smoother, and hopefully easier process at every turn. If you’re interested in finding out more about how we do that, or even if you’d just like some advice on what the market looks like, please reach out to us!
