Trying to find out which RPA tool has more jobs makes a lot of sense as this can help decide which RPA tool is better to learn. Whether learning UIPath, Blue Prism or Automation Anywhere makes a better choice for getting a job.
Which RPA tool is in demand and has more jobs? The RPA tool which is in demand and has more more jobs is UIPath as this is the leading RPA tool with more companies around the world using this tool. The job boards have more jobs for UIPath than their rivals Blue Prism or Automation Anywhere.
Gartner research conducted in 2019, showed in their Magic Quadrant that UIPath were leading Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere. With all three of these RPA tools classed has leaders in Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
With UIPath being ahead of BluePrism and Automation Anywhere trailing in third place, it is a safe to assume UIPath is the tool in demand amongst these three RPA tools. The majority of other RPA tools were classed as niche players, so there is little point in trying to get a job with these tools.
To find out which of these leading RPA tools has more job opportunities can be easily done using the methods highlighted below.
1. Check the RPA jobs on the job boards
I used the online job boards, as they can be good indicators of the popularity of different technologies. The more jobs advertised about a particular RPA tool, the more popular the RPA tool is, well that’s the theory.
There are many different job boards out there with some more reputable than others, so I spoke with a few friends who regularly used job boards as part of their career advancement.
They came up with the following job boards as worth trying:
- Careerbuilder.com
- Indeed.com
- Jobserve.com
- Totaljobs.com
I went to each of these job boards and searched by using the name of the RPA tool.
So if I was trying to compare whether UI Path had more jobs available than Blue Prism, then searching for UI Path would bring up the number of jobs looking for UI Path skills and searching for Blue Prism, would bring up the number of jobs looking for Blue Prism skills.
A simple comparison between the number of results returned for UI Path and for Blue Prism made it easy to see which RPA tools skills are sought after. This could indicate the particular RPA tool is more widely used, however, it’s important to bear in mind this might not be an accurate indication.
Fake jobs
It’s important to choose a job board wisely, as sometimes the job board has lax controls and allows anyone to post jobs. Leading to a higher likelihood of fake jobs appearing which don’t accurately reflect the demand for a particular RPA tool.
Many recruitment agencies are guilty of posting fake jobs so they can harvest people who have the skills they’re asking for in their fake job. They use the names they harvest to build up a database and try to contact the companies these people have worked at before.
By getting this information from their resumes (CVs) and then contact their previous employers to try to get their own candidates into potential opportunities.
Training companies masquerading as companies looking to hire, who are instead just trying to lure unsuspecting individuals into buying expensive courses and training they offer. They have no jobs on offer, just empty promises.
Duplicate jobs
Sometimes the roles are through an intermediary like a recruitment agency and the same role could be advertised by a couple of different recruitment agencies. This will skew the number of jobs available, so a role that appears several times is actually only one role.
Multi-Skilled jobs
Some roles will ask for skills in more than one RPA tool, so the RPA tool may appear with other RPA tools. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just something to be wary off, as sometimes those companies hiring will have an unrealistic wishlist of what they need and this will not be a true reflection of the popularity of a particular RPA tool.
They could just think RPA is RPA, so any RPA tool is good to mention even though they may not use the RPA tool in question. They may also try to make themselves look more advanced than competitors also recruiting, by making it look like they are more into RPA.
So working for them would be a better choice. Even though they may have not even embraced RPA at the time of recruiting and are only testing the recruitment market out.
Regional differences
Some RPA tools may be more popular in specific regions and job boards could be able to pick this up, just by showing more jobs for a specific RPA tool.
I would normally try to check globally first and then narrow the search down to my local area, just to make sure the local search isn’t skewed too much, indicating a false result.
2. Look at RPA Contracting roles for different tools
Not all jobs out there are permanent type jobs with some companies electing to find temporary workers such as contractors. The more contractor roles being advertised could indicate higher popularity for a particular RPA tool.
Companies could elect to hire contract staff because:
- There are not enough people who want to work on a permanent RPA role available;
- They need to hire for RPA based project work were hiring a person on a permanent basis is not cost-effective;
- They need advanced RPA skills.
3. RPA Industry reports
Information technology (IT) research and consultancy companies such as Gartner, Forrester and many others, research the popularity (market trends), strengths, maturity to the direction in which the technology company is moving towards.
Gartner will then periodically produce reports, called the ‘Gartner Report’ which industry leaders can use to make their decisions on which technologies to use.
The Gartner report provides a detailed analysis of the findings and represents the technology pictorially in the Garner Report using what it calls the ‘Magic Quadrant’.
The Magic Quadrant is designed to represent the following based on their ability to execute and their completeness of vision:
- Leaders
- Challengers
- Visionaries
- Niche Players
Companies who appear in the ‘Leaders’ section of the Magic Quadrant have a higher ability to execute, that is, they are more than capable of dealing with the demands of the market.
They also have a higher ‘completeness of vision’ implying they understand the current market for their technology, that is what the customers want and also they are in a position to deal with the market in the near future.
RPA tools that appear in the ‘Leaders’ section of the Gartner Magic Quadrant would be the ones worth investing time and effort in learning, as these RPA tools would be sought after by many companies.
Generally, RPA tools from UI Path, Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere appear regularly in the ‘Leaders’ part of the Gartner’s Magic Quadrant.
4. RPA press releases
The RPA tool companies themselves can provide information about the popularity of their RPA tools through press releases.
Whilst it always to wiser to take these press releases ‘with a pinch of salt’, they do provide useful information into some market trends. They also provide a sort of boasting platform for the RPA tool companies to showcase the customers they are dealing with.
The more companies using particular companies RPA tools could mean their RPA tool is increasing in popularity and may be worth exploring to learn more about.
The customers can be grouped into their respective industries and this is also a good indicator of how well the RPA tool has penetrated into the market.
With RPA tools being used by many larger companies across many different industry sectors would generally mean the widespread use of the RPA tool.
It’s important to bear in mind, some of the RPA tool companies may have carved themselves into a niche market, so they may not be getting the bigger company deals as the other RPA tool providers.
5. RPA Social media popularity
Popularity is trended on social media, with tools like Twitter trending topics by interest. The popularity of RPA tools can also be trended by the likes of Twitter to give some indication to their popularity.
Meaningful popularity
Meaningful trends on how many customers have elected to choose one RPA tool company against competitors provide the right information on the popularity of the tool.
This could be expanded to include trending down to an increase in sales figures, an increase in profits, acquisitions to acquiring bigger customers. All possible indicators to the popularity of a particular RPA tool.
Meaningless popularity
For the average person finding out a particular RPA tool is trending on social media because there’s been good financial news about the RPA companies profit figures doesn’t translate into the RPA companies tool being a popular choice.
They could be the market leader and have a board change, where one of the executives decides to leave. This wouldn’t mean they are not the leaders anymore, it just means the news is normal news and any RPA news will trend.
Subscribers
I also looked at YouTube and the number of subscribers the YouTube channel for the particular RPA tool had. The RPA tool I was looking into learning had the most subscribers by far, so this could indicate the RPA tool was a popular choice with customers.
I also looked at how many videos there were from people who didn’t work for the RPA tool vendor, just to see what the interest was overall in the tool. I looked at the last month, then last six months to see how the popularity had changed (if it had) and also what was trending in YouTube about RPA tools.
Conclusion
Choosing the right RPA tool based on its market popularity is a good idea, as it gives an indication of the number of potential job opportunities when compared with other RPA tools.
Getting accurate data on an RPA tool’s popularity can be done from looking at the number of roles advertised on the job boards for a particular RPA tool to looking at Research and Intelligence reports from the likes of Gartner.
