Whether you’re a technologist looking to take your career to the next level or someone trying to figure out which direction is best, open-source skills can serve you well as a tech professional. Companies are increasingly seeking out candidates with open-source expertise. Additionally, they’re willing to pay a premium to secure a talented technologist with the right capabilities.

If you’re curious about what hiring managers are trying to find and why open-source could be a great foundation for a career, here’s what you need to know.

Open-source Skills: Rising Demand, Limited Supply

Like many other technology niches, demand for open-source skills outpaces supply. There simply aren’t enough professionals with prior experience to fill all of the available positions. As a result, pay rates are skyrocketing as companies compete for the limited number of candidates with open-source expertise.

In some cases, employers are even enticing other technologists with related skills by offering them training to boost their open-source expertise. Others have turned to cross-training, pairing employees who possess the right capabilities with those who want to learn about open-source, using the program to close the existing gap.

In any of these cases, technologists interested in open-source software and technologies stand to gain. Acquiring the necessary experience on the job may be getting easier. Plus, once you possess the knowledge, you often have an easier time keeping your career headed in a beneficial and lucrative direction. Couple that with a reasonable amount of job security, and it’s clear why open-source is an attractive option for technologists seeking out long, stable careers.

Open-source Skills Hiring Managers Want

When a hiring manager seeks out a technologist for an open-source position, much of the job ad discusses “open-source” in fairly broad terms. This tech niche is less structured than some other roles, such as those that require experience with specific programming languages or platforms. Instead, they tend to be a bit more conceptual, aiming to find candidates that have prior experience in the world of open-source development.

Essentially, hiring managers are looking less for individual technical capabilities and more for familiarity with open-source technologies and related systems. As a result, many software development and architecture capabilities can fall into the open-source skills category, including, but not limited to, commonly associated capabilities like:

• Linux
• Cloud Technologies
• Kubernetes
• Open-source Development Tools
• Networking Technologies
• Security
• Data Analytics
• DevOps

Many open-source skills transfer to a range of other technologist roles. Additionally, the capabilities can be developed through non-open-source projects and positions. However, gaining experience with open-source software and systems can be a differentiator, allowing technologists to take their careers into new, exciting, and lucrative directions.

Looking For Career Management Expertise?

If you’d like to learn more about how you can acquire and leverage open-source skills to boost your career, the skilled team at VB wants to hear from you. Contact us to speak with one of our recruiters today and see how our career management expertise can benefit you.