Skills required to build career in SaaS industry

A plurality of experts predicts that the future will work in the tele-everything mode where workplaces, health care, or even social experiences could be accessed online. As we step into a new year, companies have begun their journey to become future-ready by innovating IT services that are redefining the workplace as per new age requirements. One such trend is hybrid multi-cloud services. The Software as a Service (SaaS) industry is playing a distinguishing role in the adoption of these cloud-based computing services and other important integrations. The present digital world calls for the implementation and usage of SaaS in almost every sector. As a result, the SaaS industry is on the boom and so are job opportunities in this sector.

However, mastering this technology-driven industry is not a cakewalk. Some crucial SaaS-focused skills are required to adopt in order to build a growing career in this industry.

But before that let's see the career options in the SaaS domain.

Career paths

There are many career options for a candidate looking to kick start their journey in the world of SaaS. Here are the top five of them: -

Software engineer and quality analyst

The SaaS software engineering acclimates to candidates who will create as well as test the SaaS software. They will be in charge of product coding and quality assurance so that they can track down the bugs and fix them.

Product manager

The SaaS product management team is in charge of monitoring the creation and maintenance process of the SaaS software. Broadly speaking, they make sure that the software is working at its best during development, launch, and its whole lifespan.

Project manager

Just like most people, you might have mistaken product manager and project manager for the same role. However, the job responsibilities in these two domains are entirely different. Where the product manager manages just the product, the project manager oversees the functions of the whole organization and the resources involved.

Marketing expert

Just like every other domain, the SaaS industry also needs a team of experts that can popularize or create awareness of the product. The inbound marketing experts play an essential role in elevating the growth of the company and optimizing its visibility so that more customers come on board in the sales funnel.

Sales expert

The roles of marketing expert and sales expert are closely related. Once the customers come onboard, it is the responsibility of the sales team to extract revenue.

The constant growth in this industry provides plenty of job opportunities. However, to get started in the SaaS domain abruptly getting your foot in the door would not be enough.

As I see it, these are the key skills that are essential to be SaaS ready: -

Database management

The foremost skill that SaaS job seekers need to focus on is Database Management. To make an excellent career in this domain, there is a need for the candidates to be well versed with languages like MySQL and Hadoop. Also, you should be able to manage security hassles, storage limitations, database performance, etc.

Cloud computing

The SaaS industry revolves majorly around cloud computing applications. Hence, recruiters also look for cloud computing skill sets in the job seekers. Particularly, the data migration skills which will aid in migrating data from onsite server to the public or private cloud is abundantly asked for. Moreover, individuals deeply familiar with cloud services like Microsoft Azure, AWS, OpenStack are preferred.

Programming languages

You are required to be proficient in programming languages like Java, PHP, Python in order to work effectively in the SaaS industry. Employers abundantly request candidates who are well acquainted with building, managing, and sustaining Linux servers.

Design, development and analytics

These skills are often overlooked; however, they are extremely important for building a stable career in SaaS. Particularly the workload and cost estimation abilities in the analytics domain help abundantly in contract framing. A job seeker in the SaaS industry should be capable of estimating data limits, computing power, and other analytical abilities in order to support recipients. Moreover, a handful of Design and Development knowledge like resources assembling, system performance monitoring, and forecasting is extremely crucial for analysing the different components of services and data models.

Jump-start your career

Each and every skill described above will prove to be a stepping stone to your SaaS expertise. Apart from these, soft skills like relationship building, communication skills, situational awareness, organizational skills, and adaptability are also essential to be successful in SaaS. I hope the new generation will bring more productivity, innovation, and breakthroughs onboard by brushing up their skills with the tips given above and be great SaaS-izens.

(The author is CTO, Innovana Think Labs)