Last year was not particularly interesting as regards career advancement. The year started with partial subsidy removal which led to general inflation and increased cost of running business. In addition, budget approval and implementation by the federal government did not happen on time.

All this necessitated very careful cost management approach by most companies. Hence hiring new employees was kind of secondary as most companies battled to keep operational cost low.

But this year has promising indices already. At least things are a bit stable in the polity, budget is at the last stage of being approved, electricity seems to be improving, etc. Hence career opportunities are bound to be better.

In Information and Communications Technology (ICT), the most promising opportunities will be in the following areas:

1. Sales and Marketing

Sales and marketing in ICT sector is more like solution selling and requires good knowledge of technology products or services being sold. There is increasing need for sales people who are passionate about technology and there is pressure for people who already know technology to transform to sales or business development roles.

As the ICT sector in Nigeria continues to develop this year and new technologies emerge globally, there are enormous career opportunities almost in every organization for people who can effectively assess opportunities, communicate the benefits of these technologies to potential business clients, follow up, and close deals.

Relevant Skills: Good understanding of Information and Communication Technology, Communication and interpersonal skills, need and opportunity identification and assessment, persistence, and ability to handle rejection.

2. Software Development

To minimize IT support cost, companies are increasingly using web-based applications that will be expected to work smoothly, be self-evident, and require very little training or intervention from IT support.

These applications cut across multiple platforms like mobile, tablets, and desktops. With this trend, having a multi-platform application strategy will become the standard procedure for new companies the way having a website is today.

The implication is that the area where the largest number of IT jobs is going to move is into developer, programmer, and coder jobs. What will also drive this is the change of focus from managing and deploying hardware and software to building of applications. It’s then obvious that we’re in the era of the developers.

Good developers have tremendous opportunities for independence and creativity. It is one area where an individual or a small team can start generating income with their laptops and internet access as the only required monetary investment. Yet application development has high barrier-to-entry based on skills.

Learning application development skills requires serious commitment, hard work, and patience. This probably explains why in Nigeria, even as this opportunity beckons, young school leavers fail to take advantage of it. This is mainly because our value system has changed - people want to get good jobs or make big money with little or no patience to learn the requisite skills.

Nevertheless, those who are diligent enough to develop their skills in programming will be in demand this year and beyond.

Relevant Skills: Programming skills – mastering a particular programming language of your choice, high analytical skills, attention to details, problem solving skills, project management skills, and communication skills.

3. Business Analysis

This area is tied to the opportunities in software development and sometimes goes hand in hand with project management. Business analysts are required in order to get complex software development right. They work between the programmers and the business executives translating the business requirements of organizations to the language the programmers easily understand.

Organizations can work directly with programmers and still get good results but not when complex business requirements are involved. Hence there will be a lot opportunities for business analysts as businesses go beyond doing mere web design and simple task automation.

Business analysts also help business leaders and managers to make good technology decisions. They gather business requirements and communicate with stakeholders about the technology solutions they need.

Relevant Skills: Good understanding of both technology and business, excellent communication skills, and project management skills.

4. Telecommunication Engineering

With capacity expansion and technology upgrade going on continuously in the telecoms sector, there is increased demand for telecoms Engineers who understand radio frequency transmission, base station installations, optic fibre installation and termination, and radio cell optimization, and IP network integration.

These opportunities will not be directly with the big telecoms operators. Most will be with telecoms service providers to whom the big telcos outsource to.

Relevant Skills: Good knowledge of the principles, applications, and physics of analog and digital electronics, antennas, transmission lines, radio frequencies, microwave, multiplexing, data circuits, and systems, problem solving skills, project management, and knowledge of power systems.

http://www.bit.com.ng/Article.aspx?aid=1