IT Market in 2022: Professions, Industries, Hiring

The IT market is developing rapidly, and the current trends are changing very quickly, so it is especially important for IT companies to understand what to expect in the coming year in order to plan their recruiting processes effectively. 

In our first article this year, we will talk about fields within the IT industry, which are currently developing particularly intensively, which specialists are in increasing demand. We'll also talk about which IT professions are in high demand and which are less popular.  

The fact is that the IT market is still a candidate market. The demand for IT specialists is as high as it was, and companies will continue to compete with each other in hiring candidates.

Recently, the demand for SRE engineers (site reliability engineering) continues to grow: IT specialists of this profile are responsible for the reliability of the site and the creation of functional and high-quality software. According to the international job search portal, Indeed, the average annual salary of an SRE engineer is $131,842.

Among the main soft skills that an SRE engineer should have, employers name the ability to work with a large amount of information and to be able to analyze it at a deep level. We share an inspiring fact for those who really want to try themselves in IT and especially love SRE. Jennifer Petoff, head of the SRE training department at Google and co-author of Google's SRE book, has no first education related to IT. Jennifer has a PhD in chemical sciences, but that didn't stop her from becoming a cool SRE specialist :) 

Therefore, if you are determined to conquer SRE horizons and ready to work hard — go ahead and master a new field. This profession in 2022 will be at the top of demand, so even junior specialists have good chances to build a career.

Data specialists are also in demand now — for example, data analytics. The demand for testers has also increased. In 2022, companies will need a lot of QA. 

It is impossible not to mention that Golang developers are still very popular, and there are still very few of them on the IT market today :) Programming languages such as Java, C++, and Python are not losing their top positions too. Python in 2022 rose from third to first place in the TIOBE ranking, while Java and C++ have 3rd and 4th places respectively, holding positions in the top five.

While certain IT specialties are getting more popular, there are also those for which demand is decreasing. You can observe a similar situation with PHP developers: this is due to the fact that this programming language is now being actively rewritten and changed to meet modern realities.

In the TIOBE rating, PHP dropped significantly lower when compared to last year. At the end of 2021, it already lost several positions. As of today, it did not enter the top 10 most popular programming languages, ending up in 11th place.

One of those areas that are actively developing and will continue to develop in 2022 is the biotech industry, which is based on medicine and IT. The biotechnology industry studies the issues of genetic engineering and also considers how biology can be used in solving various technological problems. Among the major biotech corporations are BIOCAD, Amgen, Ginko BioWorks, Bioniq, and others.

Biotech, again, primarily requires data specialists — data analysts, big data specialists, biostatistics specialists (biostatistics is applied in the development of statistical methods in biology and medicine). In addition, there is a great demand for cybersecurity engineers. Take into consideration the large amount of data that is currently stored in the digital space. One of the priorities for companies is to ensure their security and protection from cyber-attacks. 

The question that many IT companies are worried about today: What forecasts can we expect on salary forks of candidates? Despite the fact that it is difficult to name exact numbers, the level of salaries of IT specialists, in any case, will continue to increase. The CEO of Lucky Hunter Tatiana Melnichuk advises considering at least a 30% growth.

Another trend that has entered with us in 2022 and will not leave the IT market in the near future is the growth in the number of Russian IT specialists, for whom relocation is a high priority. 

This is partly due to the fact that Western companies have realized the high level of professionalism Russian developers have, and now they are hiring Russian-speaking candidates to strengthen their teams. The countries that most often hire IT specialists from Russia include the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. For example, we recently filled a job opening for a senior product designer for a London startup offering business solutions for the effective organization of a telephone support service.

In general, we can say with confidence that it will not be boring in 2022 for sure :) Our team wishes both candidates and IT companies a productive and interesting year!