‘Upskill or perish’ is now the norm for software engineers

Software services firms may be forced to lay off more staff – as IBM’s recent decision to sack 300 employees shows – if IT professionals fail to upskill in a rapidly transforming technology landscape, experts say. The decision, however, is not going to be easy for companies, they point out.

Pure-play skill sets such as Java and DotNare no longer enough, the need of the hour is for software engineers skilled in technologies like Python, robotic process automation (RPA), big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things, blockchain, augmented reality and UI/UX design.

There are around 3 million software engineers in the IT services industry, not including business process management firms. About 600,000 of those are skilled in digital technologies.