Freelance tech skills are the future, and the future is here. Web-based tech enables us to work from anywhere, a trend facilitating the gig economy. Moreover, the rise of tech has brought about a massive plea for multiple tech skills. Consequently, the freelance market is thriving unprecedentedly.
While demand for tech skills continues to rise, the supply needs to catch up. Therefore, freelancers are motivated to go the extra mile to acquire hot skills and set themselves apart.
Any freelancer would naturally wonder which skills they should dedicate their limited resources, energy, and time to. Refrain from fretting if this is your current situation, as this detailed piece will guide you aptly.
The Top Five Tech Skills Every Freelancer Needs
Here are the must-have tech skills for successful freelancing:
Cybersecurity and Ethical Hacking
All businesses, from small and medium-sized companies to established corporate entities, face the risk of cyberattacks. Today’s savvy hackers are getting more creative by the day, and their sophisticated schemes sometimes beat their targeted technology.
So companies are doing everything to stay safe, including investing in advanced cybersecurity solutions and talent. They need specialists to protect their systems and data, identify vulnerabilities, train staff and create effective protocols to counter breaches.
Somewhat counterintuitively, the need for qualified hackers is at an all-time high. Ethical hacking entails the “good guys” imitating threat actors and trying to breach systems. After gaining their on-the-job insights, they can advise organizations on how to patch loopholes within their systems.
Yet, with everyone looking to hire these specialists, the market needs more full-time talent. So if you have meticulous attention to detail and enjoy fiddling with software, consider gaining some freelance cybersecurity skills like:
● Penetration testing
● Threat analysis and monitoring
● Network Administration
● Threat hunting
While there’re lots of professional certification programs and boot camps to enhance your knowledge, you can leverage Apprentice Now’s intensive cybersecurity course.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Development
If machine operations, machine learning (ML), and how these tools interact with people fascinate you, you’re in luck. AI roles now form most of the leading emerging positions as more companies create AI development plans.
Nearly half of all businesses already leverage ML technology, yet the artificial intelligence concept remains relatively new and with great potential. We use AI to simplify our day-to-day lives, with each line of code and algorithm designed to address a real-life problem. The field is vast, requiring freelancers to know how to program functional facial or voice recognition software, create algorithms, and even design working robots.
By gaining some AI knowledge as a freelancer, you’ll be able to serve top-level entities. Furthermore, you’ll be able to create your scripts for home-automation devices and sell them on the Google Home app or Amazon Alexa store.
To become an Artificial Intelligence specialist, you must be good at intricate math problems, know different aspects of computer science, and have a comprehension of algorithms. You must also ensure you’re up to date with all the tech trends and news to find and keep clients.
Cloud Engineering
Cloud computing continues to form a more significant percentage of corporate budgets. Gartner anticipates companies will direct two-thirds of their app budget toward cloud technologies. Moreover, they’ll shift about half of their IT spending from customary software tools to the public cloud by the same year.
This means cloud computing will continue to be a top freelance skill in the foreseeable future. Freelancers who already know their way around GCP, Azure, or AWZ have multiple lucrative freelance opportunities to explore. These include:
● Cloud cost optimization consultancy – As organizations send more data to the cloud, they’re increasingly concerned with the rapidly increasing total cost of ownership (TCO). So if you can boost a cloud deployment’s cost-effectiveness, you can find well-paying clients.
● DevOps engineering or consultancy – Your skillset is potentially lucrative if you can set up CI/CD and automate cloud application deployments.
● Cloud solution architecture – This line of work entails identifying the best architecture patterns for individual applications and cloud infrastructure. It’s suitable for experienced cloud engineers.
Don’t despair if you’re an entry-level coding enthusiast. There’re plenty of cloud engineering remote jobs, most comprising on-the-job training.
Website Development
There are many attractions to studying web development, including a relatively high earning potential, flexibility, and growth opportunity. The main drawback is even the most passionate web developers struggle to find an edge in the competitive field. Therefore, it’s crucial to upskill if you want to be a competitive freelancer.
This potentially lucrative field has three areas of specialization:
● Front-end web development – This entails creating online items enabling direct user interactions like user forms or click buttons.
● Back-end web development – Here, you’ll handle the core of each website or the areas visitors can’t see, including servers or databases.
● Full stack specialist – This comprises both back-end and front-end web development operations.
Whichever path you pick, you’ll enjoy high remuneration and bonuses. Web development is among the skills where clients are likely to compete for you instead of vice versa.
Data Science
Human beings and organizations release massive chunks of data every day. In the middle of this data boom sits the savvy data scientist knowledgeable in combing through scattered data sets to uncover valuable insights.
The role involves collecting, sorting, and pre-cleansing data. You’ll also create cutting-edge statistical and predictive models for intel operationalization and present crucial findings like areas with room for improvement and insights on trends. Generally, organizations won’t be able to make the right decisions without data science, explaining the rapid increase in demand for data specialists.
Besides the numerous job opportunities, data science skills expose you to a potentially lucrative field with immense flexibility and room for growth. Data science, big data visualization, and data mining are among the highest-paying and most in-demand skills. You also get to network, a valuable aspect of successful freelancing.
Fortunately, You Don’t Have to Go Back to School
All the skills mentioned above are vital for every freelancer, and the good news is you can skip a three- or four-year program and still gain valuable knowledge. Instead, you can learn them via an apprenticeship program covering pre-training and opportunity placement-a great way to kick-start your career.
This is what you get with Apprentice Now. We’re here to provide valuable skills and link you with an employer so you can learn on the job. With numerous skills-matching opportunities, you may even begin your tech journey today! So don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
