If IT company leaders were Secret Santas for their colleagues, what would they give them? Useful gift ideas from the leaders of Ciklum, DataArt, Pingle Game Studio, Capgemini Engineering, ZONE3000 and Railsware

Bohdan Pogasiy, Global Head of Modern Development at Ciklum

If I were choosing a gift as Secret Santa, it would definitely be a course on AI and machine learning for engineers or specialists in other fields.

By the way, we at Ciklum have created our own internal course in these disciplines.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the IT industry, automating routine processes and opening up new horizons for optimizing work. So understanding the principles of AI, integrating it into products, or even using it to improve our own productivity can create many benefits for any of us.

If we talk in general about must-have skills for modern professionals, I would highlight the following:

1. Critical thinking and adaptability — that is, the ability to analyze information, ask the right questions, and find solutions in conditions of uncertainty.
2. Data engineering and working with AI — basic data skills and understanding artificial intelligence are super important for any professional.
3. Communication and collaboration — the ability to work effectively in a team and convey ideas both verbally and in writing — are skills that AI cannot replace.

Accordingly, the top 3 areas worth developing and studying in 2025 are:

• Artificial intelligence and generative AI technologies, because understanding and integrating AI into work processes is becoming a key factor in competitiveness.
• Cloud engineering and architecture — knowing the basics of working with AWS, Azure, or GCP is important for every modern engineer.
• And, of course, Soft Skills, because leadership, empathy, and negotiation skills are important even for technical professionals.

Yuriy Yurchenko, Leader of Global People Development at DataArt

A tip from Secret Santa would be this.

Dear colleague, I look at you, so pre-New Year’s, modern and talented, and I see a professional in your field: you have years of experience and serious projects behind you, you open your own businesses and create new technologies. You have your own view and opinion on everything. What useful thing can I give you for your professional development?

Perhaps Alan Alexander Milne’s training book will be useful to you. It teaches:

• Think creatively and solve atypical problems.
• Work in a complementary multicultural team.
• Don’t be afraid of the unknown, no matter how scary it may seem at first. And most importantly, always, under any circumstances, remain yourself!

In my opinion, these skills will be useful to everyone. Personally, I regularly reread and get inspired by my favorite quotes, here is one of them: «You are walking down the stairs of life following your friend, head down, and counting the steps with the back of your head: boom, boom, boom! You don’t know any other way to climb the stairs yet. True, sometimes it seems to you that if you would stop rambling for a moment and think carefully, you could find some other way. But you, unfortunately, never think about it.»

The relevance of this quote is confirmed by research presented at the main event of the year in the Ukrainian IT industry, Synergy IT Business & IT Education — 2024.

It recognized the following as the main topics of today:

1. Concentration skills, analysis of large amounts of information, and the ability to draw conclusions.
2. Collaboration in teams whose members belong to different socio-historical generations.

In conclusion, I am giving you the opportunity to participate in the DataArt Winter IT Camp 2025, which will last from February 10 to 16, 2025, where we will work on these very skills! Announcement and registration for the event will open in January 2025 and be announced on DataArt social networks.

Dmytro Myroshnychenko, Head of Project Management Office at Pingle Game Studio

I would give Leading in the Digital Era | Executive Education from Harvard Business School. This course is about new analytical tools and digital technologies (such as AI) that are raising the expectations of customers, employees, and stakeholders. Many operational (non-technical — COO, Head of PMO, Operations Director, etc.) leaders lack the technical expertise to effectively leverage these opportunities.

HBS’s Leading in the Digital Era program helps develop the skills and strategies needed to achieve digital maturity in organizations and combine soft + hard skills in powerful synergy.

Vlad Shimov, Managing Director of Capgemini Engineering

I would definitely choose prompt engineering. It is no longer just a trend, but a necessity in the modern world. AI skills are what will become the basis of many professions in the future, and such knowledge can significantly increase the competitiveness and productivity of a specialist.

Sergey Korolev, Managing Partner, Railsware

I will never tire of repeating that everyone, even if you are not related to software development, will benefit from software engineering skills — at least some skills in automation and working with no-code solutions and understanding the logic of how it works. Therefore, in Railsware, everyone, even if At a basic level, they can configure automation for themselves and don’t wait for a «good engineer» to come and do everything.

Why is this important for everyone? The work of most specialists can be reduced to the following scheme: receiving data at the input — processing it — issuing data at the output or making decisions based on the information received. And in general, data processing is the essence of what the IT industry does. For example, Our recruiters automatically receive notifications when someone sends a referral, and once a week, a summary of the status of working with candidates, so that no one waits long for a response or update.

Also, to speed up the hiring process, as soon as a specialist applies for our vacancy, a folder with the necessary templates is automatically created for them. In addition, our financiers and accountants automate the creation and signing of invoices, their subsequent distribution based on spreadsheet data, PnL analysis, etc.

Sergey Skurikhin, CEO of ZONE3000

I’m not very familiar with modern courses. I think I would look for something on the practical use of AI in business processes — these skills are relevant now. Definitely with laboratory work.

In my opinion, the ability to see a problem through the eyes of the client is the best skill a specialist in our industry can have. It is also important to develop communication skills, because business is always about communicating with people and finding joint solutions. I advise you to focus next year on learning how to use AI in your work and put this knowledge into practice. Next year, this skill will be required by default, so I advise you not to delay and master AI tools.