The 5 top tech skills companies want in new hires right now

By Anne Fisher

It's worth noting that the top two, software engineer and senior software engineer, are the biggest categories by far, accounting for almost 11% of total job openings (including non-IT jobs) posted on Indeed. 

Software engineers now need to be expert in "at least one, or preferably several, programming languages," says Flowers, adding that "the most useful language to know depends greatly on the specific job in question." The six languages most mentioned in recent software-engineer job postings : Java, C++, Python, JavaScript, C#, C, and NET.
Even if you have all the right skills at the moment, what employers need can change fast, Flowers says, so "people who want these jobs must be quick and agile" about spotting trends and picking up new skills as they go along.

Tim Tully agrees. Chief technology officer at data giant Splunk—whose clients number 92 of the Fortune 100—Tully says that the most important trait IT job candidates need now is "a strong desire to learn." It might be too broad of a requirement, but consider Tully's own list of the five most essential tech skills now:

3. App development

"You need a mobile version of every website now."

4. A.I. and machine learning

They both "power everything, or soon will."

5. A composite of the first four skills

That is, "it's important to be at least fairly conversant with all of them." 

If that sounds like a tall order, it is. "You need to be like a Swiss Army knife," he explains. To shine in tech, "you used to be able to pigeonhole yourself as an expert in one area of IT, or maybe two. Not anymore."

See Skills 1,2, and the complete Fortune article