Everything You Need to Know About Today’s Fast Job Market
Let’s start with a fact that you should know: some of the most in-demand jobs today, such as big data scientist and blockchain developer, didn’t exist a decade ago.
If you are surprised at this, then what follows next will blow your mind. Top companies such as Google now accept candidates from non-STEM fields in tech roles. Businesses are increasingly interested in hiring freshers with domain-relevant skills.
It is no surprise that the jobs landscape is evolving with these shifting trends. Professional degrees are rapidly becoming inconsequential. Work experience is no longer a guarantee of competency. Most jobs now just need skillsets relevant to the role.
The message is clear: what you can do now matters more than what you did before.
What you, as a professional, must keep in mind is that these roles and skills are not static; they evolve in line with market requirements and tech developments. For instance, being a marketing expert ten years ago primarily required the knowledge of tools such as PR, OOH, broadcast, ATL/BTL, print, media buying, etc. Today, the role also includes online channels, SEO/SEM/SMM, and digital activation, amongst other things – with new items constantly added to the mix.
In essence, to be successful in today’s fast job market, you must constantly upskill yourself in line with evolving business needs. But that is not the only thing you must bear in mind.
What is a 'fast job' market?
If ‘fast job’ is a relatively new term for you, then, as the name implies, it is a job market characterized by the quick availability of relevant talent. The demand for unique or new skills in a fast job market increases at an unprecedented rate.
A prime example of this is the rapid rise in the demand for Machine Learning, AI, and Data Science skills. A 2019 Gartner report estimated that 40% of businesses planned to implement AI projects by 2020. By 2020, in the aftermath of the pandemic, the number of companies exploring or piloting AI projects had increased to 79%.
The jobs market has reflected this shift. In India, according to estimates from Glassdoor, the average base pay of Machine Learning engineers is ₹8 lakh per annum. Lead Data Scientists with more than five years of experience are currently earning well over ₹20 lakh per annum.
This booming skills demand has also transformed talent acquisition. Instead of manually sifting through hundreds of job applications to shortlist prospective candidates, HR teams now use career-tech platforms such as Epitome.ai to decrease the turnaround time to profile and hire candidates. Using cutting-edge AI, NLP, and analytics capabilities, these platforms enable recruiters to screen thousands of resumes within minutes. Then, they compile a list of ‘actionable candidates’ that can be assessed and interviewed.
As a job seeker, you may wonder why this information is important to you. It is because the shift to a ‘fast job’ has changed the way hiring is done – and, to succeed, you need to change your approach to career progression.
Enhancing your job search: How to upskill and switch jobs in the fast job market?
The process of identifying and acquiring new skills for contemporary and emerging market needs can be exhausting.
In other words, how do you gauge what job roles complement your upskilling strategy or your job search? What profile will not make it past the screening stage? Or, what kind of salary to expect or skills to acquire to achieve your dream job? How do you identify the skills that are most in-demand, the career path open to you once you upskill or the role it plays in your long-term career progression?
Here, career-tech platforms like Epitome.ai step into the picture to answer the questions and help you keep pace with the fast job market by enabling you to:
Identify the right skills for the best ‘next job’, quickly
The success of any upskilling endeavor depends on the impact it has on your professional growth – and Epitome Career Builder is designed for just this goal. Once you upload your resume and define your ideal job role, the tool contextualizes your query with thousands of similar profiles and millions of data points. Ultimately, it curates the jobs and upskilling courses that support your continuous learning based on your current skills and future goals.
Through its unified dashboard, you can evaluate market trends such as peer movement, in-demand roles, and top companies while comparing metrics such as remuneration and skills for different jobs. You can also gauge how well-suited you are for each job, as well as the learning and development milestones that can help you acquire the required skills. With each item also assigned a ‘Relevance Score’, you can choose the right upskilling course to help you secure the best ‘next job’, swiftly and seamlessly.
Make more informed decisions through planned career progression
It goes without saying that you should only invest your time, effort, energy, and money in something that complements your career progression. Professional growth happens best when your career is planned – and doing so requires you, as a jobseeker, to visualize your growth journey.
Epitome Career Builder helps you go through guided career progression that allows you to explore different career paths and understand their expected responsibilities, skills, and growth potential. As mentioned above, you can also analyze deep market insights such as ideal roles/companies to switch to, salary packages to expect, and your suitability for each role. All of this is complemented by personalized upskilling recommendations for each career path, curated from a database of over 43,000 courses.
Such in-depth access to vital information at your fingertips can help you plan your career better and prepare for the fast job market by making the most optimal decisions based on your short-term and long-term goals.
Build a resume that will catch recruiters’ eye
Getting hired for a job requires you to put your best foot forward from the very beginning – which makes resume building a non-negotiable skill to remain competitive in the current fast job market. The days of generic resumes and CVs are gone; today, if the application does not highlight why a candidate is suited for a job role, the profile will not make it past the screening stage.
This is why, when applying for a job, you must personalize your resume for the role that you are applying for by highlighting key skills. This allows platforms such as Epitome.ai to extract and match your skillsets with the job requirements specified by recruiters, making the process from search to discovery and shortlisting quick and seamless. You can also employ top hacks for resume building to help your resume always stand out from the crowd.
Conclusion
Continuous learning is necessary for today’s ever-changing ‘fast job’ market to remain relevant, marketable, and employable in a highly competitive space. Adopting a robust career strategy can help you stay ahead of the curve – ensuring your long-term growth and success!
Why not check out how Epitome Career Builder can help you prepare yourself for the fast job market of today?