Data Snapshot:
Skills Top Tech
Companies
Want
As the competition for technical talent heats up,
organizations are relying more heavily on L&D’s ability
to upskill and reskill employees as quickly and effectively
as possible. But where should L&D start?
The most progressive L&D functions are
diversifying their skills identification inputs,
monitoring the pulse of external data that
indicates skill trends and changes. L&D teams
can use this report to inform their skills-
identification process for 11 critical tech roles.
For each critical role, we report the top 15
technical skills tech leaders are requesting.
We then compare the percentage change in
demand over the past year for each skill between
tech leaders — who have decades of experience
identifying and developing technical skills —
and all other companies.
A snapshot of our findings follows.
IT Project Managers
The IT project manager role includes job
titles such as technical program manager, IT
development manager, network project manager
and head of implementation (see Figure 1).
While tech leaders and all other organizations
have similar future development strategies for
many skills among their IT project managers,
tech leaders have begun to decrease
investments in four key skills for which most
other organizations are still increasing their
investments: agile software development,
cloud computing, Java and web services.
Computer and Information
Systems Managers
The computer and information systems manager
role includes job titles such as software asset
manager, security and architecture director,
network services director and IT manager
(see Figure 2).
Compared with other critical tech roles, there
are relatively large differences between the
skills tech leaders and other organizations are
looking for in computer and information systems
managers. While most organizations are not
seeking web services, TOGAF, Transmission
Control Protocol (TCP) and architecture
framework skills at all, tech leaders’ demand
Learning Quarterly | Fourth Quarter 2018  10
Figure 1: IT Project Managers
Percentage of Percentage of
Change Change Job Postings Job Postings
(Tech (All Requiring Skill Requiring Skill
Skill Leaders) Others) (Tech Leaders) (All Others)
IT Project Managers
Machine Learning Techniques 32.6% 124.2% 11.6% 0.9%
Technical Recruiting -35.3% N/A 15.0% <0.8%
Amazon Web Services 3.9% 29.1% 30.4% 2.4%
Linux -20.1% -2.2% 9.4% 1.6%
C/C++ -12.2% N/A 10.9% <0.8%
Distributed Systems -7.7% N/A 16.5% <0.8%
Scrum Agile Methodology 17.5% 25.4% 13.0% 13.5%
Functional Specifications -3.6% -9.5% 8.5% 0.8%
Structured Query Language (SQL) -6.2% -9.6% 9.8% 4.0%
Quality Assurance 1.0% -0.8% 8.7% 9.5%
Systems Development Life Cycle -5.2% -4.9% 13.4% 12.9% Tech leaders have
Agile Software Development -16.3% 28.8% 14.4% 11.6% begun to decrease
investment in four
Cloud Computing -4.6% 29.0% 12.2% 3.3% key skills, while most
other organizations
Java -9.1% 4.3% 14.3% 4.0%
are still increasing
Web Services -2.4% 4.4% 17.9% 1.9% investment.

Figure 2: Computer and Information Systems Managers

Computer and Information Systems Managers
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) 74.5% N/A 5.7% <0.9%
Web Services 0.2% -30.0% 30.5% 1.3%
Architecture Frameworks 8.8% N/A 5.1% <0.9%
TOGAF 6.6% N/A 5.7% <0.9% The difference
Amazon Web Services 13.3% 465.2% 6.5% 1.1% in the skills tech
leaders and other
Machine Learning Techniques 16.0% 116.6% 7.2% 2.0% organizations
-55.1% N/A 5.2% <0.9% are looking for
Technical Recruiting
in computer and
Cloud Computing 10.4% 25.3% 20.0% 5.5% information systems
managers is very
System on Chip 10.6% 25.4% 5.5% 0.9% large compared
Linux 15.7% 19.6% 8.7% 3.2% to other roles we
looked at.
Distributed Systems -16.8% 114.9% 6.7% 1.5%
Six Sigma -14.7% 106.2% 5.1% 4.1%
Virtualization -26.5% 27.5% 5.9% 3.1%
Enterprise Architecture -9.2% 26.9% 7.6% 3.4%
Structured Query Language (SQL) -20.2% 10.9% 12.1% 4.6%

• Increasing demand for tech leaders • Increasing, decreasing or stagnant • Decreasing demand for tech
and demand for both tech leaders and leaders and
• No demand, stagnant or decreasing all other organizations or • Stagnant or increasing demand
demand for all other organizations • Decreasing demand for tech for all other organizations
leaders, but no demand for all other
organizations
n = 470,431 job postings (IT Project Managers); 470,431 job postings (Computer and Information Systems Managers)
Source: Gartner TalentNeuron analysis

Learning Quarterly | Fourth Quarter 2018  11

is growing, suggesting potential and future
value. On the other hand, tech leaders’ demand
for certain skills is decreasing while other
organizations’ demand is still increasing; these
skills include Structured Query Language (SQL),
enterprise architecture, distributed systems,
visualization and Six Sigma.
Web Developers
The web developer role includes job titles such as
full stack developer, web production specialist,
front-end developer and Java developer.
Tech leaders and all other organizations are
decreasing demand for the same nine skills
among web developers (See Figure 3). However,
while most companies are decreasing demand
for SQL and C#, tech leaders are increasing
demand. Conversely, where most companies are
increasing demand for information architecture
and Amazon Web Services, tech leaders are
decreasing demand, suggesting these skills
are becoming less critical to the evolving web
developer role.
See our report, “The Skills Top Tech Companies
Want,” on the Gartner website to learn more.

Figure 3: Web Developers

Percentage of Percentage of
Change Change Job Postings Job Postings
(Tech (All Requiring Skill Requiring Skill
Skill Leaders) Others) (Tech Leaders) (All Others)
Web Developers
Structured Query Language (SQL) 29.3% -12.0% 16.0% 19.8%
C# 17.7% -11.7% 12.0% 15.1%
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) -37.6% -8.7% 31.5% 37.4%
User Experience (UX) Design -35.6% -7.2% 33.2% 15.4%
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) -34.2% -10.1% 38.4% 36.7% Tech leaders and all
-25.0% -2.2% 16.8% 17.6% other organizations
Graphical User Interface (GUI) Design
are decreasing
C/C++ -24.5% -5.7% 12.7% 2.9% demand for the
same nine skills
Ruby -18.2% N/A 13.4% <2.8% among web
JavaScript -23.1% -8.9% 45.7% 51.8% developers.

Java -15.1% -2.3% 30.5% 42.1%

Web Services -15.2% -7.9% 23.1% 24.5%
Python 5.1% 10.4% 20.3% 7.1%
HTML5 -9.3% -8.6% 12.9% 19.6%
Information Architecture -54.7% 10.7% 12.9% 3.0%
Amazon Web Services -14.9% 37.2% 33.8% 8.4%
• Increasing demand for tech leaders • Increasing, decreasing or stagnant • Decreasing demand for tech
and demand for both tech leaders and leaders and
• No demand, stagnant or decreasing all other organizations or • Stagnant or increasing demand
demand for all other organizations • Decreasing demand for tech for all other organizations
leaders, but no demand for all other
organizations
n = 406,468 job postings
Source: Gartner TalentNeuron analysis

Learning Quarterly | Fourth Quarter 2018  12