Looking for a job in the IT sector? Consider big data, analytics and cloud computing – hot areas that IT companies may recruit people for in 2014, say HR experts.

There is a growing demand of skills on big data and analytics mixed with business and management education. Consulting firm McKinsey estimates that India would need two lakh data scientists in the next few years.

Data explosion Analytics professionals and data scientists will be most sought after as digital data is growing exponentially. The rate of explosion of data from India will be double that of the world average in coming years.

With the rising popularity of big data, firms are banking on analytics professionals and data scientists to create a competitive edge, said Moorthy K. Uppaluri, CEO, Randstad India.

Cloud computing, big data and analytics will be the hot areas as these are the one’s that directly brings the revenue for the organisations, said Sunil Goel, Managing Director, GlobalHunt, an executive search company. India will remain the preferred destination for analytics outsourcing compared with the Philippines and China. Unlike BPOs, analytics requires are not easily available in those countries. India’s analytics talent pool will be in high demand because of their process expertise and English language proficiency, according to Gaurav Vohra, CEO, Jigsaw Academy, an online analytics training academy.

Salaries in the analytics industry have been increasing faster than the average for the last 10 years. This trend will continue in 2014 as well.

Entry level salaries will grow by 5-0 per cent and for those with five years of experience, it will grow by 10-15 per cent.

Entry level salary The entry level annual salary for data analytics professional is Rs 6-9 lakh while it is Rs 5-8 lakh for big data professionals. These could be higher depending on experience and skills, the academy said.

Online job portals like HeadHonchos.com and Naukri.com too feel that data analytics and cloud computing will be the top picks in 2014.

While big data and analytics have been talked about extensively in the past one year, an area that will see high traction will be data analytics, data security and safety, said V. Suresh, Executive Vice-President and National Head of Sales, Naukri.com.

India is poised to surpass US in terms of number of Internet users and with a rapid penetration of mobile devices, we can expect huge demand in the sectors such as Internet, mobile application development, social and digital media experts, he said.

Many companies are adopting cloud to achieve operational efficiencies. This paves way for appropriate security, enterprise and infrastructure architect to ensure a secured computing environment, said Uday Sodhi, CEO, HeadHonchos.com.

Top picks Many businesses thrive on data and the demand for IT professionals specialising in data sciences will grow. Extracting knowledge and valuable insights from data requires knowledge of variety of fields, including mathematics, statistics, data engineering, pattern recognition and learning, advanced computing, visualisation, uncertainty modelling, data warehousing, and high performance computing with the goal of extracting meaning from data and creating data products, he said.

Solutions architects, chief technology officers and program managers will be top picks in 2014, According to E. Balaji, a HR consultant.

Solution architects play the bridge role between customers and developers. CTOs will be key ally to the CEOs. They need to have a strong appreciation of customer behaviour and devise appropriate strategies to address segments effectively. Program Managers with prior experience in running huge programs will be in great demand, he said.

>raja.simhan@thehindu.co.in

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