These Are the Most In-Demand Skills for Remote Work Right Now

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Knowledge workers were sent home from the office in early 2020 as the pandemic took hold, but as things eased up, return to office mandates have entered the chat.

Now, many tech workers are back at their places of work, at least two or three days each week. Considerable numbers are back in the office for the full five days too, as companies such as Amazon pull the plug on remote working.

Dell also recently told its remote workers that they can continue working from home––but they will not be considered for promotions if that is the case.

Google and Microsoft are aiming for the middle ground. They are asking staff to comply with their current hybrid policies, and be in the office at least three days each week.

5 Roles to Discover Now

Many workers don’t have a choice about this, but in the on-going battle for maintaining remote working, software engineers are emerging as outliers, with one report indicating that almost 40% prefer remote-only jobs.

Additionally, they say if their employer mandated a return to the office, 21% indicated they would quit immediately, while another 49% said they would start looking for another job.

New data from LinkedIn on the most in-demand jobs on the platform in the third quarter of this year reveals that software engineering is in second place, and full stack engineers and application developers feature in the top ten in-demand roles at places eight and ten respectively.

That gives devs a lot of rope when it comes to negotiating with a current manager regarding their work status. It also offers a lever to pull if you’re actively looking for a new job.

Because so many software professionals are what’s known as sole contributors, or the people who do the work, without having to manage other employees, it is easier to make a case to stay at home to get the job done.

Remote worker skills to develop

But if you feel you need a bit more in your back pocket to bolster your appeal for remote work, or you’d like to move into a management or oversight position, a new report outlines the most in-demand skills for remote work in 2024.

The research was conducted by Search Logistics using data from LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Upwork, and found that the most in-demand skill for remote workers is teamwork. Analytical thinking comes in second as a requirement for 37.24% of jobs. Additionally, problem-solving is required by 29.04% of remote jobs.

These findings tally with other research from the World Economic Forum (WEF). In its most recent Future of Work report, the body identified soft skills as the ones that will be in top demand by 2027.

The WEF says that analytical thinking is considered to be a core skill by more companies than any other skill, and creative thinking comes second. The self-efficacy skills of resilience, flexibility and agility; motivation and self-awareness; and curiosity and lifelong learning are also important for workers to develop.

Saadia Zahidi, managing director of the WEF, says that “There’s more of a focus and an interest in having people with analytical thinking, people with creativity […] But it’s also become very important to have leadership skills and to have social influence, and the ability to work with other people. The traits that make us human, make us able to relate with each other and to get innovative, creative things done in the workplace.”

These human traits like communication, patience, adaptability, negotiation and self-awareness are only growing in importance as generative AI becomes mainstream. While AI is unlikely to take software development jobs, it may make them easier by automating repetitive tasks or handling software debugging, for example.

Software development and engineering roles may change as AI tools are incorporated into a company’s stack. Humans will remain top of the pile because they can understand and solve complex problems, design and implement solutions, and make ethical decisions that artificial intelligence simply cannot.

It’s just one more reason why developing soft skills is vital for software engineering pros who want to not only argue a case for remote work, but who want to maintain their competitive edge in a crowded job market.

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