Staying relevant in today’s job market requires more than having the education and skill set required for the advertised position. Companies want employees who have hands-on skills, soft skills, and the ability to handle tasks outside their exact job scope.
Businesses value employees like this because they know they can count on them to hold the business together during a crisis. Besides, the nature of the workplace is ever-changing. New technologies fuel the creation of new positions that can only be filled by adaptable and creative people.
Evaluate the job you want to have and note down the skills that can make you good at it and help you grow past it. Businesses now seek people who are capable of adapting to changing job environments. Singapore SEO experts and social media managers have not existed past the last decade, but these are people who can make a significant difference in the way people seek out services.
Learn By Doing
The most important development that online learning has brought to the world of education is to allow people to learn at their own pace and in their own way. You may not have the time commitment necessary to attend classes at a formal teaching facility to learn your new skills.
Therefore, challenge yourself and learn faster by simply practicing the skills you want to learn. If you want to learn how to grow a social media following or code, then find out what software or basic steps you need by utilizing Google. Then apply these by working on your own projects.
Coding
This is one of the easiest skills to learn by doing. Coding is learning a new language and then using it to direct actions. People passionate about coding and have made it their life’s work have created and offered free, open-source platforms where you can learn to code for free.
These platforms are a good place to network and make connections that would help pick up work in the field once you are proficient enough. Coding is also so versatile and in-demand that you could work from home, freelance, or on a contract basis.
Microsoft Office
There was a time when knowing how to use just a few of the programs from the full Microsoft Office Suite was enough to land you a job as a highly-skilled person. Today, your employability is still improved by having an in-depth knowledge of using the Microsoft suite.
Take an online course to unlock the programs’ full functionality and utilize them in different situations. You may even find yourself hired as the person who helps everyone else improve their familiarity with the programs.
Writing
There are so many writing types, but people seem to get stuck on only thinking of writing in terms of fiction. There is a huge market for skilled technical writers. These are the people who will provide instruction manuals, proposals, training guides, operational guidelines, and many more.
As long as there is a technical field, there will be a need for people to write for it. Technological innovations also require an easy to read and comprehensible instruction guide before the product can reach the end-user. Companies can have quotas for engineers or lawyers, but there will always be room for a skilled technical writer.
A New Language
Learning a new language might seem like a passion project, but it makes you much more employable than someone with your same skill set but has more experience than you. Expanding past national boundaries used to be the provenance of large corporations, but social media and technology have made it possible for mid-size companies to explore those same income channels.
Speaking a language increases the likelihood that a company expanding into that company will hire you. You would be a valuable liaison and could find yourself with many benefits like corporate-funded travel and performance bonuses.
Most online courses take into account that the students have busy lives and can accommodate various work schedules. Therefore, you can upskill for a better job while working. It is worth giving up a few weekends to improve your career prospects and keep yourself a relevant and valuable employee.
You may even be able to get any paid courses subsidized by your company if you are looking to learn a skill the company values. Discuss your intentions with a manager or trusted supervisor and explore your options. It costs much more to hire and train new staff than to retain a skilled employee. Thus, companies are more likely to support their staff and invest in adding skills that make them better employees.
