Key Tech & Transformation market trends in 2020

Recruitment trend has reversed compared to 2019. Hiring of popular in-house roles such as application developers, infrastructure engineer and service support specialist has slowed down. On the other hand, data and security specialists remain steady in demand. Also, IT services providers and telecom companies are aggressively expanding amidst economic stagnation.

HIRING OF DEVELOPERS SLOWED DOWN WITH FOCUS ON BETTER SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTATION

In past few years, companies struggled with hiring and retention of software engineers (Java, JavaScript frameworks, .NET, etc).
However, the urgency on bringing onboard new developers has significantly softened in the past few months.
Hiring managers are more selective on profiles and the interview process has lengthened.

WEB MEETING TOOLS AND CLOUD PLATFORMS USAGE SPIKED

With working from home commonplace, video conferencing tools such as Teams, Blue Jeans, Webex and Skype for Business are widely used by enterprises to maintain communication and operational efficiency.
With work mobility being more important than ever, virtualized platforms and cloud storage is the solution to enabling seamless working from home.

IT SERVICES PROVIDERS AGGRESSIVELY BOLSTERING THEIR SCALE

To save cost, companies are outsourcing their infrastructure operation to external services provider.
These vendors, ranging from less than 10 staff to hundreds of people in scale, have dominated different recruitment job boards in the past couple of months.
They are eager to grow their teams to cope with the overflowing business needs from SMEs, conglomerates and MNCs.

TELECOM COMPANIES GETTING READY FOR 5G KICK OFF

Top telecom leaders in Hong Kong are paving the way for the 5G network by bringing in network engineers on IP network design, mobile network, transmissions, messaging services and project management.
Emerging telecom companies from Mainland China are also looking to gain market shares in Hong Kong by offering solutions e.g. data center hosting, cloud or mobile services.
As the industry is known to work long hours, they typically reward high performers with handsome bonus payout.

DATA SPECIALIST BEING JOB MARKET WINNERS IN 2020 H1

Data utilization now plays a big part in corporate decision making process.
Corporations are increasingly relying on data findings to be competitively preemptive on their respective market.
Fresh graduates from data science can easily land on a job with almost the highest salary band comparing with all 1st year roles.

KEY HIRING IN FINANCIAL SECTOR

Despite market uncertainties, banking and financial services sector still manage to outperform other industries.
Workspace Technology, network engineering (particularly those with Python, Ruby and Perl scripting) and business continuity planning (BCP) are going hand in hand to ensure trading and other critical activities up and running.
Consumer banking sector continues to invest highly in UI/UX and transformation roles to capture revenue from digital channels.

SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE REMAIN HIGHLY IMPORTANT

Companies, especially financial institutions, are setting up cyber intelligence division to research and stay on top of potential threats.
Security function has gradually grown and set up its own department with red (penetration testing) and blue (identifying potential threats) units as well as personnel specialising in compliance regulations.
Apart from Big 4, security consultancies have become the new nurturing ground to groom young professionals as security subject matter experts.

ROLES IN DEMAND

You should now have more of an idea as to what direction you are heading in - but it’s important to make your personal goals more manageable by asking yourself the questions below:

Business analyst with strong technical background helps identify automation opportunities and ensure seamless solutions deployment and integration.
Server administrator for both Windows and Linux.
Network engineer proficient in equipment from Cisco, Huawei and Juniper or Firewalls from Fortinet, Juniper or Palo Alto.
Helpdesk officers for Windows desktop and Office 365.

SKILLS IN DEMAND

SQL for handling data upstream.
Business communication through configuring dashboards and visualizing data with Cognos, Hyperion or Tableau.
Advanced machine learning techniques for drawing correlations from data.
HKMA frameworks (TM-G-1, TM-E-1, CDP, C-RAF & iCAST), experience in Security Operations Center, Application/Cloud Security.

Looking for market update of other disciplines? Read our Salary Survey 2020.