What IT skills and roles could be well-known this year? Recruiters share the inside track.

Sorry, IT job-hunters: If you are hoping for startling predictions about what 2014 has in store, you’re probably going to return away dissatisfied. That’s because it’s unlikely there’ll be any seismic shifts that totally upend the technology skills, roles, and titles that employers want.

“There’s nothing that i’d say is the recent ‘hottest thing ever’ ” coming in 2014, said Jack Cullen, president of IT staffing firm Modis, in an interview.

Indeed, much of what follows should sound familiar. This might be an even thing. Earth-shattering predictions have a knack for missing the mark. (Apocalypse 2012, anyone?) So the job-market calls that Cullen and other industry experts shared with InformationWeek are more realistic and more useful in case you are in quest of a brand new position in 2014. Here they’re, in no particular order:

1. Big data experts. Yesterday’s buzzword is tomorrow’s hot job market. While the hype around big data isn’t new, Cullen thinks actual hiring within the category will begin to gain tangible ground in 2014. “The realm where i feel we’ll see some pickup, that folks are still seeking to decide, is that this whole world around big data — whether it’s products like Hadoop or big data analytics” or other relevant skills, Cullen told us.

2. Business intelligence (BI) designers. Tom Hart, CMO of staffing firm Eliassen, offered another specific example in the big data universe: the facility to show all of that information into stuff the chief suite, marketing, and other non-technical business units can actually understand and use. (PowerPoint achieved popularity for a reason, people.) Enter BI designers.

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“There are many companies that may assist you to store data, build redundancy into storage, and normalize the info for efficient storage and access,” Hart said via email. “But there’s clearly a shortfall of talented developers which could allow you to to interpret and present the information in a meaningful way, within the type of executive-level or business-level dashboards, guiding the choice-making process in the course of the intelligent discerning and representation of that stored data.”

3. DevOps experts with cloud and mobility skills. We’re cheating somewhat here. IT pros with serious DevOps chops are in high demand right away, in accordance with Kevin Gorham, recruiting manager at Hollister. That’s going to continue in 2014; DevOps experts who build and maintain cloud infrastructure and mobile apps are sitting pretty inside the labor market.

“If i’ve got those with this skill set, i will call my clients and simply get several interviews installation for these candidates. They are surely a walking placement,” Gorham told us in an email. “They are able to command higher salaries, and I’ll often get right into a bidding war with my clients over these potential hires. Developers who’re more of an engineer and might program and script in Linux — not your just your run-of-mill admins — are highly marketable, too.”

4. Linux pros. Indeed, while “Linux” and “hot” don’t often appear within the same breath, IT pros with Linux expertise will remain well known within the coming year. In 2013, the “Linux Jobs Report” — produced by Dice.com and the Linux Foundation — found that three out of 4 Linux pros had received calls from headhunters within the previous six months. Meanwhile, 90% of hiring managers reported difficulties filling Linux positions.

Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, expects much more favorable conditions for Linux job seekers in 2014.

“Demand for Linux professionals continues to move up and represents a multi-year trend that’s the results of Linux becoming increasingly ubiquitous. It’s the software that runs our lives, and we want more systems administrators and developers to take care of with the expansion,” Zemlin said via email. He attributes much of the demand to wider business adoption of open-source technologies usually, and added that the Linux Foundation will ramp up online learning and advanced training opportunities within the coming year to assist meet demand. “In case you are an IT professional searching for long-term career growth, there is not any better place to be than working with open-source.”

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