What skills do you need as an IT professional in 2020

Today, the skills of an ICT professional must go further than simply carrying out a well-defined set of tasks. Especially when you are in direct contact with customers, the communicative and empathic aspect becomes increasingly important.

1. Willing to learn

If you have just finished school, everything is still fresh in your mind and you are normally fully prepared to start working. But don’t be mistaken! The moment you leave school, it’s up to you. In 2020, ICT is one of the fastest changing sectors and you have to continuously retrain yourself so that you don’t start running behind the facts.

2. Patience Keep your cool.

Not everyone speaks the ‘computer language’. So be prepared for a flood of questions from frustrated colleagues, customers or family members who have a computer problem. Staying calm when you have to explain something for a tenth time is therefore not always easy.

3. Improvise That's one of your specialities.

When a problem arises, all eyes are on you. On top of that, they also want a solution quickly… Yet this is not always so obvious and the academic knowledge often falls short here. In such situations, you call on your sixth sense and come up with a creative solution. In other words, an ICT professional is also a creative jack-of-all-trades.

4. You are a social butterfly

As mentioned above, you will be the point of contact for countless ICT-related problems. Different types of people will call on your services and you must speak to each of them in a correct way. Just think of customers, colleagues, bosses or family members.

5. Put yourself in other people's shoes

In addition to being social, you should also be empathetic. You can put yourself in others’ shoes and you don’t always want to be right. Customers will often have a different vision than you or will not always be satisfied as quickly. Whatever solution you think is best, it won’t always be good enough. Of course this is not always the case, but prepare for resistance and learn to deal with it!

Can you find yourself in this and are you looking for a new challenge? Then be sure to contact us. We are always looking for motivated talent to complete our team!