Stanger advocates cross-skilling, practice-based mentoring, and pathway-based learning, tactics that focus on building competency rather than checking qualification boxes.
“Instead of the old, pedigree-based, well-worn lens of, ‘Where did your four-year degree come from?’ the most progressive hiring agencies are now asking, ‘What is your skill set and where will it take you?’” Stanger says.
Chasing the latest positions comes with risks. “The immediate hiring wave of engineers in 2023 saw their roles eliminated in 18 months, and those who filled those roles are now reskilling,” Sample says. “Hiring for role rather than ability has a short lifespan. That lesson is already being repeated in some places with agent AI. It doesn’t get better the second time.”
Soft market, hard issues
Uncertainty about job losses to AI, economic conditions and what Nicolaisen characterizes as “almost everything in our lives” has depressed the technology hiring market. But when it comes to the most important skills, competition remains fierce.
“The next two years are critical,” says Kanitkar. “This is the time to say goodbye.” The frontier is changing every day, which means the gulf between IT organizations that master the change and those that resist it will only widen.
