Technology trends for new graduates to master

CEBU, Philippines — It’s graduation time these days.

Which can mean two things: the long years at school

have finally come to an end, and the search for a job

now begins. The new graduate, therefore,

has to be equipped with the skills that industries actually need, on top of good scholastic records.

The ever-rising number of graduates that the school system turns up year after year has made the competition for jobs naturally stiffer. True, there have also been a number of new industries that open, but these do not seen to fully absorb the bloating available workforce. For all intents and purposes, it remains ‘survival of the fittest’ in the jobs arena.

The competition for jobs is basically the same now as it has always been. However, emerging technologies are changing the way people work and interact with others. For example, things like machine learning and touch commerce are becoming increasingly popular across every industry – from banking to healthcare.

Indeed, technology is revolutionizing the way people do business as well as introducing high-tech approaches to the way they go about their everyday lives. New entrants to the jobs arena, in whatever industry, need to be fully ready to adapt to the changing times. The website www.wayup.com cites key technology trends that industries are adopting:

1. Internet of Things (IOT). Simply put, the Internet of Things is the idea that all technological devices can be connected to the internet and to each other creating the perfect marriage between the physical and digital worlds. For those who work in the fields of marketing, advertising, media or business management, IOT could provide a wealth of information on how consumers engage with products by tracking their interactions with digital devices. In turn, this data could be used to optimize marketing campaigns and user experiences.

The IOT is not only changing the way to do business but also the business models used to do it. For example, flexible consumption models (also known as pay-per-use models) are going to become increasingly more popular across all industries as new customer data becomes available.

2. Machine Learning. Another exciting emerging technology is machine learning, which is essentially a computer’s ability to learn on its own by analyzing data and tracking repeating patterns. For example, social media platforms use machine learning to get a better understanding of how people are connected with those in their social network. This is done by analyzing people’s likes, shares and comments and then prioritizing content from their closest connections, serving them that content first.

In addition to how it works on social media, machine learning is also changing the way companies do business with customers. Companies like Google are using machine learning on mobile devices which can continue learning even when offline. The result is that machine learning is reshaping the way businesses interact with their customers in a big way by helping them anticipate and meet customer needs more easily.

3. Virtual Reality (VR). While it used to be merely the stuff of sci-fi movies, VR is about now becoming reality. Although the technology has been around since the 1950s, the technology hadn’t been able to deliver a fully immersive digital experience… until recently. Video games are an example.

With recent improvements to both hardware and programming, technological ‘reality’ is now being experienced across almost every industry, from retail to education. VR is likely to affect companies across the board as they adopt the technology to help them engage customers more effectively and optimize their sales and marketing efforts.

4. Touch Commerce. Being able to buy anything people want with the touch of a finger may have seemed like a fantasy a few years ago, but it’s now a reality. Merging touchscreen technology with one-click shopping, touch commerce allows consumers to buy products easily from their phones. Customers are now able to buy everything from clothes to furniture with just a fingerprint using their phones.

This is one of the biggest things to hit eCommerce in recent years with purchases of this type expected to increase continuously and retailers in almost every industry anticipating an increase in sales directly related to this new technology.

5. Cognitive Technology. Cognitive technology is in the same vein as machine learning and virtual reality, except that it’s a broader concept. For example, the cognitive technology umbrella includes things like natural language processing (NLP) and speech recognition. Combined, these different technologies are able to automate and optimize a lot of tasks that were previously done by people, including certain aspects of accounting and analytics.

Although cognitive technologies have a broad range of applications, it is predicted that the industry sector most affected by this trend initially will be the software sector with 95 percent of enterprise software companies projected to adopt these technologies by 2020.

Keeping up with the latest technological trends will give new graduates a better understanding of their chosen industry. Of course, as job seekers, it gives them an edge over the competition. Best of all, this knowledge might open up new doors within their professional fields, and even present new other fields.