As leading specialist recruiters in digital, Experis is uniquely placed to help our candidates to understand where the market is going and help them prepare themselves for the future. In our related blog, we looked at recent trends that we’ve seen in digital technology employment – here are our predictions for the coming months, based on what we’ve seen and heard from our clients and candidates:

• Projects are coming back online after being put on ice due to Covid, so there are a lot of roles to be filled, and candidates have more choice. To get the people they need, businesses will need to put candidates through the recruitment process much more quickly, or face losing valuable talent. For instance, technical tests will increasingly become a thing of the past, while the candidate’s interaction with the business will grow in importance.
• Specialisation is becoming increasingly important in digital. While there will continue to be more scope for a broader range of skills in the perm market, contractors need to add specific and great value for projects with particular technologies, so generalists are becoming less marketable.
• React has been continuing as the dominant JavaScript framework, so it’s a good area for developers to explore, as well as open source technologies
• Coinbase has gone public, showing that blockchain technology is here to stay. We anticipate these skills becoming increasingly desirable – already we’ve seen more candidates doing personal projects to prepare themselves.
• Low-code / no-code makes developers’ lives easier, so we believe that companies will increasingly adopt this more efficient approach to development.

How to stand out in the marketThe job market is very different now compared with the pre-Covid landscape: homeworking will last long after lockdown (if not forever), judging from the number of our clients who are moving to a more ‘hot desk’ approach to their office layout. As a result, digital candidates can now go for jobs much further afield, which opens up great new opportunities.

However, since employers can now also benefit from a much wider pool of potential candidates, they are demanding more from successful candidates and can drill down to find the exact set of skills for their needs. Because you’re now competing with many more jobseekers, it’s now critical for employers and recruiters alike to find you among the sea of applicants.Specialist experience and expertise is king!We can’t overestimate the importance of specialisation: be it .NET, front-end vs back-end vs full-stack… it’s important to know your niche and demonstrate it:

• Your LinkedIn profile, CV and job applications / need to be very targeted from the start: use specific keywords that are in line with what recruiters and employers are likely to search for.
• To ensure your key skills stand out, don’t bloat your LinkedIn profile with a lot of ‘generalist’ skills, experience and attributes – and avoid broad statements like ‘Experienced Developer’ in your title and professional summary as you will likely be passed over. Lengthy, non-specific summaries and profiles make it harder for you to emerge prominently when employers are searching and sifting for specific technologies and experience.
• Employers are now looking for evidence of more of the CX/UX soft skills and experience as well, so make sure to highlight these if you can.

Finally, in this evolving and challenging market, don’t go it alone. The best thing you can do to get the edge on the competition is to partner with a recruiter who will work to get you the best result. Take time to find the right consultant for your career development, make an effort to communicate your value to them. If they are confident in putting you in front of clients and enjoy working with you, they will go the extra mile for your success.