European Tech Hiring Trends (2021)

The Computing Technology Industry Association's (CompTIA) report 'European Tech Hiring Trends' provides an in-depth look at hiring trends across 10 markets: Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain. The publication is designed as a resource for employers, job candidates, workforce and economic developers, policy-makers, media outlets and more. CompTIA developed it from analysis of employer job posting data aggregated by Burning Glass Technologies Labour Insights.

The findings show that when hiring, employers frequently expect some level of cybersecurity, data, cloud, project management, and related technical skills. And, because of the intersection of technology and business (aka the business of technology), technologists must possess a solid foundation of soft skills in areas such as communications, emotional intelligence, collaboration, problem resolution and more.

At the skills level, summary analysis across all job postings for all tech job roles suggests employers tend to seek well-rounded candidates. This also reflects the ever-expanding nature of innovation, whereby new platforms, new coding languages, new hardware and devices, new data streams and new combinations of technology building blocks (think IoT) are a de facto part of the job for any technology professional. In the leading technical skills table, there is representation across these areas, including software, infrastructure, data and business applications. While cybersecurity is not specifically listed in these top 10 skills, it is becoming increasingly common for employers to expect baseline cybersecurity expertise for all IT professionals.