Learning about hybrid jobs
Today, because of the large amounts of data we produce and collect, companies from every industry are looking for new types of employees. Nowadays, an increasing number of professionals are developing IT skills that make them the perfect candidates for many companies that have invested in digital transformation. This interesting factor occurs in any field: financial, medical, engineering, hospitality, and so on.
I would like you to understand this concept because if you would like to apply for a new job, you probably would have a better chance if you have learned some coding or data science skills! This is why. People working in HR call them hybrid jobs. According to Burning Glass Technologies, a company that specializes in analyzing trends, skills demand, and job growth, one of every eight job postings asks for candidates with hybrid skills, no matter the field.
Employers indeed are requesting coding and data analysis skills, other than a degree in their business area. Here, we are talking about a mix of skills from different domains. For example, marketers rely on big data or data science abilities to coordinate their advertisement campaigns. At the same time, increasing numbers of architects and engineers need to work with data systems and robotics. Take the engineering field as another example; it is a common practice that students take computer science classes. So, we see a significant increase in the computer science skills demand from employers in various industries and sectors.
Figure 1.9 – A woman with hybrid skills!
Some of those hybrid jobs are as follows:
- Data scientists
- Business intelligence managers
- Virtual reality architects
- Visual data scientists
- Web analytics managers
These roles are just a few among all of the new jobs that our digital economy is demanding. We also, as professionals in the AEC industry, have seen the spread of new roles in the last few years, such as design technology professionals, computational design specialists, developers with an architectural or engineering background, and so on.
Anyhow, we can say without any doubt that every company, no matter what the field is, is becoming little by little closer to a tech company. That's the reason why we will have to adapt to this change, and we all have to learn computer science by learning the logic of how software is created. You can't merely learn how to use a few pieces of software and use them your whole life! In our ever-changing world, we should learn the logic underneath the tools, and not the tools themselves.
Machines and algorithms will be our next best friends/colleagues! Nevertheless, we, as professionals in the AEC industry, have to do the same as other colleagues in other sectors are already doing. We're doing nothing special here. We need to increase our knowledge and work hard to overcome our next challenges, which will let us better understand, manage, and analyze our processes and model's data!
We just learned what hybrid jobs are and why IT and computer science skills are becoming more and more critical for all types of businesses. If you aren't yet, get ready to acquire new hybrid skills in the upcoming months or years. And, by the way, by the end of the book, you'll already have started that path. So, stick with me and follow the book without skipping any parts! You know the saying, "No pain, no gain!"