Top 5 Most Demanding Skills in Future and Which Career Is Best in 2026?

Which Career Is Best in 2026?

What are the five best tech jobs that I'd actually recommend in twenty twenty-six? Guys, I think most people choose the tech job that they want backwards. They look at a salary number, or they see, like, some TikToks that say, "Hey, cybersecurity is printing money." Or they hear, "Hey,

cloud is the future," and then they start chasing this job that they don't understand.

So in this video, I wanna give you my honest list of five tech jobs that I think are actually worth it in twenty twenty-six. Not because they're perfect or easy, and none of these are guaranteed, but because I think that these jobs are the perfect mix of skill, career upside and optionality, and in having an enjoyable life and, of course, making money.

Now, I'm gonna be honest about the downsides of each one too because every job can sound amazing in a job description, and every job has downsides.

Which Skills Are in Demand in Future?

Now, quickly, I'm gonna be ranking these by four things: transferable skills, realistic path, growth upside, and then whether this day-to-day is actually survivable long term.

Top 5 Most In-Demand Skills for the Future

IT Support or Helpdesk

Okay, so number five is actually IT support or helpdesk. And I know this is gonna sound weird because this is something that I've said people should not stay at forever.

Now, I still think that, but I still think that IT is one of the best entry points to tech if you use it correctly.

Now, the reason that I'm putting this on this list is that this job is something that teaches beginners something that they don't just naturally get, and that is how technology breaks in the real world.

It teaches you passwords, accounts, Microsoft three sixty-five, printers, VPNs, basic networking, permissions, remote support tools, ticket notes, escalation procedures, and then just generally how to talk to users who are really angry because things aren't working.

So helpdesk gives you reps, it gives you volume, and it gives you a bunch of exposure.

But the catch with helpdesk is that you cannot treat it like the destination. If you get into helpdesk and all you do is close out password reset tickets for two years, you're gonna get stuck.

Use it as a launchpad and learn from every ticket. When something gets escalated, ask why. When the sys admin fixes something, ask what changed. You have to try to understand what actually happened.

So who is helpdesk actually good for? This is good for somebody wanting to get into tech with no experience, maybe no degree, and maybe no idea what they actually wanna do in tech yet.

This gives you a great starting point. It gives you a paycheck. It gives you real stories for interviews. And if you're intentional, this can turn into system administrator, network engineer, cloud engineer, you know, DevOps, or basically anything else on this list.

Network Engineer

Now, number four is network engineer. I think that networking is one of the most underrated career paths in tech right now, especially for people who like hands-on troubleshooting, and they wanna have skills that aren't in danger of going out of style.

Everybody wants to talk about AI, everybody wants to talk about cloud, and everyone wants to talk about cybersecurity. But behind that, we still have a bunch of packets that need to move.

Users need to connect. Branches still need to be able to connect to other branches. VPNs still have to work. Firewalls block things. VLANs get misconfigured. DNS just breaks everything all the time. If you know, you know.

Networking is not the flashiest path, but it's one of the most foundational. And if you understand routing and switching, VLANs, subnets, VPNs, firewalls, wireless environments, and basic troubleshooting, you become useful in almost every environment.

And the reason that I love networking is because it builds this knowledge that kind of transfers everywhere.

You know, where is this traffic going? How is it getting there? How do people authenticate? You know, these are questions that you ask on DevOps jobs, on cloud security jobs, and it just helps you get into that frame of mindset.

Uh, you just become a really good troubleshooter.

Now, the downside of networking is that it can be intimidating at first. A lot of people don't like subnetting. Cisco Packet Tracer is gonna be somewhere that you're gonna live for a while.

And in some companies, many companies, it's also high pressure because when the network goes down, everybody knows immediately. That, to me, is also why it's super fun.

So who is this job good for? Well, if you like solving puzzles, if you like deeply understanding how things work, if you're okay being really patient and methodical, then network engineering could be a great path for you.

And if I was trying to break out of IT, I would take networking very seriously because, again, these transferable skills can make you a beast at any job.

System Administrator

Now, number three on this list is system administrator. And I'm probably biased here because I worked at this job for a long time, and I really loved this job.

I genuinely think it's the best job for somebody who wants broad and practical technology skills.

A sys admin is basically the person who keeps the environment running. That could mean Active Directory, Microsoft three sixty-five, printers, file servers, permissions, backups, patch management, vulnerability management, endpoint management and detection, networking issues, user escalations, security tools, having good documentation, vendors, crazy legacy software systems, and then whatever other random thing breaks five minutes before you're supposed to leave on Friday.

And that's why it's so valuable. I feel like sys admin, much like network engineering, really forces you to understand how all of these pieces connect.

So you can't just know one tool. You have to understand accounts and devices, servers, networks, policies, permissions, all of it.

From system administrator, much like network engineer, you can branch out to basically wherever you want to go.

You can move towards security. You could move towards DevOps. You could move towards network engineer. You could move towards cloud or more infrastructure platform team type positions.

It just opens up so many different areas for you.

Now, the downside is that system administration can be really stressful. You're responsible for things you didn't build. You're responsible for systems that nobody's explained to you, and you just gotta figure them out, and users get angry at you.

Now, at an MSP, this can be even more intense because you're dealing with multiple different environments, but you also learn to get really good at understanding environments.

But if you want to become dangerous in the best way, and that means, like, useful, practical, and able to solve real problems, I think system administrator could really open doors for you.

Now, it's not always glamorous, but it is real IT.

Cloud Engineer or Platform Engineer

Now, the number two best job is cloud engineer or platform engineer.

And I wanna be careful here because cloud engineer is one of those positions that makes beginners think like, "Oh, I really wanna do that. I can get an AWS cert and make six figures."

That's not really how it works.

I think cloud engineer is a really great job after you have some system administrator, some network engineering experience.

If you can understand Linux, networking, identity, scripting, troubleshooting, cloud can make a lot of sense as a next step.

Now, if you skip all of that and you don't understand it deeply, it becomes just a bunch of different services and a bunch of different GUIs that you just really don't understand.

But a good cloud or platform engineer can build out environments, and they can maintain things, and they can maintain things in a cost-effective way.

They think about reliability. They work with developers, and they understand the software development life cycle. This is really important for a cloud engineer.

Now, the downside of this is that the entry path to cloud engineer is a lot harder than people would think it is.

It's not just get the AZ one oh four or the AWS cloud practitioner and you get a six-figure job.

You have to have real projects and labs and be shipping real things and really deeply understand how things mix together.

But if you're willing to build that foundation, cloud and platform engineer can have a ton of upside.

It's one of the best places you can be if you like infrastructure, automation, and solving big problems at scale. And it's just really cool.

Solutions Engineer or Sales Engineer

Now, job number one, and this might surprise people, is the hidden cheat code that I think is solutions engineer or also sales engineer.

These are two titles that basically mean the same thing.

Now, I'm not saying that this is the job for everybody, but from what I've seen, I think that this is the job with some of the most underrated high upside that people just don't see.

Solutions engineers or sales engineers help explain things, they do demos, and they validate a product from a technical standpoint during the sales process.

So you're not cold calling people in this position. You understand the technology deep enough to explain it deeply to a technical customer.

Now, the reason I like this job so much is because, well, for a few reasons.

It rewards a weird mix of skills. You have to be really technical, and you have to have really good communication.

If you can understand infrastructure, security, cloud, identity, and also explain these things, that is extremely valuable.

Now, this role can also pay really well. It exposes you to a lot of companies, architectures, customer problems, and smart people.

And you get to see patterns across the industry instead of only in one internal environment.

Now, the downside is that this is not just pure engineering. If you hate talking to people, this job is probably not for you.

There can be some pressure around quotes. Uh, you're definitely gonna have to do some travel, go to conferences, which in my opinion is really fun, but it's part of the job.

And you're gonna have times where you have a demo that breaks five minutes before you have a call.

But if you're the kind of person that likes technology and likes explaining technology, this could be a serious path, especially if you came from IT, system administrator, cloud, security, DevOps, and you can talk about real problems because you've actually seen them.

Most Demanding Skills in Future for Freelancing

The transferable skills discussed throughout these career paths can also help people build broader technology experience. Networking, troubleshooting, cloud, infrastructure, communication, scripting, and technical problem-solving are all areas discussed in the article as people build their careers.

Which Tech Jobs Should Beginners Approach Carefully?

Now, a quick note on which jobs I would not chase blindly.

I'm not saying these jobs are bad. I would just say be careful.

The first is cybersecurity.

Beginners love cybersecurity. When-- Before I was in IT, I thought cybersecurity sounded sexy, and I wanted to do it too.

But this job is not truly entry-level, and when it is entry-level, you're oftentimes just, like, living in a dashboard and, like, resetting MFA. It's not super exciting.

If you want to get really good at cyber, I'd say you have to build the foundation of networking, sysadmin skills, troubleshooting like we talked about.

Next is software engineering.

Software engineering can be great. I love the software engineers that I work with, but it's extremely competitive right now.

You need real projects, fundamentals, and proof that you can build real stuff and build it super fast with AI, and that means that you have to deeply understand the systems that you're working with.

I feel like before you could just get a software engineering job if you could write like ten lines of Python. That's just not the case anymore.

You have to deeply understand software systems in order to just be a junior.

And be careful with these AI job titles where it's like, you know, AI X job, AI engineer, um, you know, forward whatever engineer.

I would just be, be wary of those jobs. Uh, I think that there's a lot of scams going around right now.

I would say just focus on getting really good at a domain. Use AI as much as you possibly can, and use AI to accelerate your ability in that domain.

The Five Tech Jobs in 2026

So if I had to rank the five jobs in twenty twenty-six, here's my list.

Number five, help desk support, but only as a launchpad.

Number four, network engineer, because networking fundamentals are valuable everywhere.

Number three, system administrator, because it's one of the best skill-building jobs you can possibly have.

Number two, cloud engineer, because the upside is huge if the work that you've put in and the foundation that you've built is beautiful.

And then number one, sales engineer or solutions engineer or solutions architect, because it's this beautiful mix of communication and technical ability, and you make good money.

How to Choose the Right Career Path in Tech

The big point is don't choose a job just because someone like me online said that it pays well and, uh, you can make a ton of money in six weeks.

Pick a path that fits how you think, what you're willing to learn, and really the kind of problems that you want to solve every day.

And if you're just starting out, your goal is not to pick the perfect job forever.

Your goal is to learn the skills in order to understand better the work that you actually want.

Be intentional, pick a direction, build the fundamentals, and from there, the world is your oyster.

Final Thoughts

Guys, that's my honest list. I hope that you found this useful.

Thank you so much for all of the support lately. We're almost at thirty thousand subscribers, which is crazy.

Appreciate everything. Be safe, be smart, make some good decisions, and good luck picking the highest ROI job you can possibly find.

Bye.

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