For the Candidate

Jump on this opportunity, and FAST. Though IT jobs are always growing, jobs working with and analyzing data are the hottest jobs right now. If this is something you want to cash in on, here are a few particular skills sets to focus to qualify for these in-demand Big Data jobs.

Some of the tops skill-sets needed to fill the top 5 jobs above:

• NoSQL (Know how to work with: MongoDB, Couchbase)
• Data Visualization (Know how to work with: Tableau, QlikView)
• Programming (Know how to work with: C, Java, Scala, Python)
• Statistical and quantitative analysis (Know how to work with: R, SAS, SPSS, Matlab, or Stata)
• Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark (Know how to work with: HDFS, MapReduce, Flume, Oozie, Hive, Pig, HBase, and YARN) 

For the Hiring Managers

According to business.com, Big Data & Analytics is the most wanted expertise of IoT Providers right now. But with a significant demand and little supply, finding the right candidate is a challenge. One of the most effective ways to find this high-demand talent is to pay attention to the top colleges and universities that are producing these candidates, as noted in the infographic above. As the number of Data Science programs continue to rise in colleges and universities, so does the need for these positions.  It's important to keep your finger on the pulse of where you can scoop up these candidates straight out of school and focus on the best ways to make your company attractive to those young candidates. 

Big Data and the careers that come with it aren't going away any time soon.  Eventually, all organizations will need high-quality, skilled candidates to help organize and analyze this influx of data in order function in this data-driven world. So as an IT professional or a hiring manager, even if you don't think this is affecting you now, it will be soon. Jump on the opportunity to be involved in this industry now or be left in the dust.