Top Skills to Grow Your Career in IoT

By FOSSlife Team, 20 October, 2021

The Internet of Things (IoT) term was coined back in 1999 to describe the proliferation of network-connected smart devices, and the industry has been expanding pretty much ever since. For example, a ZDNet article cited Cisco data saying that 127 new IoT devices are connected to the Internet every second, and that, by 2025, more than 75 billion IoT devices could be online.

As Eric Brown explained in a recent IoT series for FOSSlife, “IoT node devices collect sensor data, in some cases including audio and video, and send it to IoT gateways, other devices, or directly to the cloud. Most people encounter IoT in the form of smart home hubs and home automation devices like smart locks, thermometers, and sprinkling systems. Yet, industrial, infrastructure, and government expenditures for IoT devices are already greater than the consumer segment.”

To keep pace with this explosive growth and the corresponding demand in areas such as data management, information security, and application development, IoT careers are expanding as well.

In this article, we’ll provide a list of general skills for growing your IoT career and provide resources to help you get started.

Must-Have Skills

This TechTarget article lists the following categories of must-have skills for IoT professionals:

Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Node.js development
Mobile app development
API automation and testing
Information security
UI/UX design
Cloud computing

This CIO article offers a slightly different list of in-demand IoT skills to consider:

Machine learning
AutoCAD
Node.js
Security infrastructure
Security engineering
Big Data
GPS development
Electrical engineering
Circuit design
Microcontroller programming

And, in this article from The New Stack, Boris Shiklo aligns necessary IoT skills to the various layers in a typical IoT architecture, which include the following:

Device layer
Communication layer
Data management layer
Data analytics layer
User communication layer

For example, for developing embedded software at the device layer, Shiklo recommends learning C and C++. At the user communication layer, however, you should understand how to develop high-performing, user-friendly web and mobile applications (using Java, .NET, or PHP for the back end and HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the front end).

To learn more about building a career in IoT, check out the following courses, certifications, and other resources.