Everyone is equipped with a unique skill set made up of hard and soft skills. People gain skills from formal education, professional environments, and different experiences. Learning a new skill can be challenging but is often rewarding. I spoke with Kevin O’Connell about how to learn new skills and sharpen up old ones. This blog post aims to help you expand your skill set and evaluate what skills are worth expanding upon.
What Skills Should Everyone Have Under Their belt?
Copywriting
In the digital age of today, most jobs expect you to have adequate knowledge of Microsoft and Google Suite. In order to separate yourself from the crowd, it’s important to have proficient skills in other areas, specifically writing. Being a skillful writer is valuable across the board. No matter your industry or position you are going to be writing, so it’s a good idea to invest in your abilities.
Writing comes in many forms, whether it’s an Instagram caption, an email, a slide deck, or a report for your supervisor. You don’t need to be skillful in every form of writing, but knowing what type of writing is appropriate for different situations is crucial.
Kevin explained that professionals today aren’t satisfied with recent graduates' writing abilities. Although many young professionals out of college are ambitious, their writing and proofing abilities fall short. Ensuring that your writing and editing skills are up to par is critical. Although it may seem trivial, making sure your work is free of typos and grammar mistakes is important, it differentiates professional work from unprofessional.
Similarly, being able to communicate and synthesize something in a succinct way through writing is another key skill. At work you may be asked to present complex research and communicate that information in a slide-deck. Being able to take to the important parts of research and display it in a succinct, appropriate way is a skill that will set you apart. As mentioned before writing has many forms and being able to use the right tone and communicate the proper information is useful in the workplace.
Any copywriting or editing courses you can take (Coursera or Khan Academy offers some) would be useful. Here’s an article that explains the importance of copywriting as well as more resources that may help you improve your skills.
Design
Like writing, having some knowledge of design can really help you transform your work. Whether it be creating infographics, slide decks, or social media posts, these creative skills are important things to bring to the table.
“When you are brought on in a generalist position in a company, you may be asked to do a little bit of everything,” Kevin says. “I would say that if you can bring your digital savviness and creativity and say ‘I’ll do this report and turn it into an infographic…or I’ll take this slidedeck and add a creative theme to it…or I will help make the company Zoom happy-hour flyer.’ If you have something to do with graphic design and/or can teach yourself that would be good.”
You can use sites like Canva to teach yourself the basics, but if you’re really looking to step up your game, invest in Adobe Photoshop or other Adobe applications. Adobe offers online courses that serve as walkthroughs for their various applications. Additionally, Udemy offers courses on Photoshop and other design programs.
There are plenty of other online sources that will help teach you the skills necessary for graphic design (check out this list).
Audio and Video Editing
Now that we’re moving our work more and more online, along with the rise in video and podcast consumption, having audio and video editing skills might be more useful than you think. These skills are more industry specific, but if expanding on these skills interests you or you already have a background in these areas, learning more would look impressive on a resume. If you are looking to up your editing skills, these applications may come in handy: GarageBand, Adobe Audition, Audacity, and Final Cut Pro.
These skills are more technical and will require more time spent learning, but are well sought out by employers. Similarly to design skills, these skills can be learned through Udemy, YouTube Videos, or directly from their developers.
Analytics, Data, and Coding
Learning how to interpret, analyze, and work with data is another very desirable skill. Being skillful with complex data sets and then telling a story with them is becoming very important in today’s digital age. It’s the ability to understand information and turn it into a quick, informative blurb. Whether it’s turning data into an infographic, presenting on a new development, or turning an interview into a blog post (!), synthesizing information is a powerful tool.
Although it may not be for everyone, it’s worth having a basic understanding of things like SEO or Google Analytics. SEO, search engine optimization, helps you get more website traffic and clicks. You want your website to be one of the first things that show up on Google--and improving your SEO will get you there.
There are plenty of courses offered to help understand and expand your knowledge of SEO; here’s a list of Coursera’s top courses. There are also plenty of Google Certification Courses, some of which are completely free! If you are a student, make sure to check out your university's resources because a lot of schools offer free courses and certifications.
Understanding and being able to work with coding software is another increasingly relevant skill. As we know our world is moving more and more online and knowing the language behind our online world can be a desirable skill. Although it may not be necessary in all industries, knowing how to operate coding languages like Python and R can be a great way to set yourself apart from other candidates.
What Skills Can You Take from the Pandemic?
The pandemic has changed alot about how we live our lives. For example, we’ve all been developing new soft skills, like working independently. You may not have realized it, but on some level your responsibilities and independence have grown.
Maybe you’ve had to become more organized in order to follow deadlines with no supervision. Or maybe you’ve had to step up and take on more responsibilities than pre pandemic. Being able to articulate how you handle independence in the workplace will be useful for future employers to understand your individual workflow.
Another valuable skill many have gained from the pandemic is multitasking. Kevin explains:
“Professionals set themselves apart when, during a check-in, you’re able to cover four things and you can get all four things done or recognize that the second task takes priority or you're able to ask the right questions to get the tasks done efficiently.”
It is important to not only be able to work in a fast-paced environment, but to also ask the right questions to make sure you’re correctly prioritizing tasks.
Although working from home has led to more independence, it may have also led to a drop in morale. Employers and companies will be looking for people that can “lead inclusively,” meaning boosting morale, bringing colleagues together, and initiating teamwork over Zoom.
The more comfortable you are creating energy and grabbing people’s attention on their eight video call of the day, the more confident you and your team will be. These soft skills are equally as important as hard skills so make sure you know how to communicate and market your assets.
Where to learn new skills:
Throughout this article we’ve covered a few online resources that you can use to learn new skills and brush up old ones:
Your school’s or workplaces’ resources–even if you don’t get a certification, workshops are still a great addition to your resume!
U.S. News & World Report has a great list of 10 free courses in diverse skill areas
There are always new things you can learn and improve upon. Whether it's a completely new area to dive into, or brushing up on an old skill, you can always be your own teacher and go after it. Challenging yourself by learning new things can be difficult, but it will pay off when you have the reward of successfully accomplishing something and adding it to your resume.
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