3 Easy Ways to Build Your Professional Skills

The average person will change jobs 10-12 times throughout their life- I think that for the large majority of us in the workforce (or shortly heading into it), we know that we will not be in the exact same position for all of our career. Things change, we grow and flex as people, and the needs of both us and our employers can change. Something that I have found makes a big difference when you are applying for a job is having additional skills than are strictly requested, especially if you have gained that skill on your own. You are always going to need something to set you apart from the other candidates, and a wider skill set is the perfect way to do that. These are 3 easy ways to build your professional skills without going back to school!

Whether it is to get a new job in the near future, to prepare yourself for something a bit further down the road, or just for interest’s sake, developing your professional skills can only help you. Yes, it is nice to make more money but there is also a feeling of accomplishment when you know that you have improved and grown on your own. Some people do go back to school for a diploma, certificate, or degree, but there are smaller and potentially more manageable ways of building up your skill base without fulling committing to a new program and several years of your life. These can all be done at your own pace to suit your current life and are also free!

1. Online Courses and Skill Building

I’ve already chatted about Massive Online Open Courses (also known as “MOOC”s)- they are a fantastic way educate yourself and learn more. I wouldn’t classify this as going back to school, as you can do individual courses and they are all on your own time. I have stuck with history and literature courses but you can take courses in virtually any subject- a language, management, international law, hospitality, the options are endless. You can pay a minimal fee to receive a certificate for the course if needed, as well, if you need it for work (or personal satisfaction).

There are also great resources for building tech skills. Code Academy is a wonderful site for learning basic coding. You can learn coding for HTML, Python, JavaScript, or Java, which are going to be the most common scripts used in a lot of jobs. I loved being able to learn it in short chunks (as opposed to needing to work through several hours at a time), and there are so many exercises to do so that you can actually see what the coding does to a page. It is also a free program, so there is no reason not to take advantage of it!

2. Volunteering

I am a big fan of volunteering for a number of reasons. I think we all know that when you volunteer you can make a massive difference in the lives of countless people, animals, and places (depending on the type of volunteering that you do). Volunteering can also do a lot for you. It is the perfect way to meet people and make new friends that you have something in common with. it gives you a reason to get out, and crucially, it can help you build professional skills that you might not otherwise have.

For anyone who is new, I am an advisor for my sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta. While I love being able to stay involved and stay connected, it is giving me the opportunity to work on my management and supervision skills. I do supervise people occasionally at work, but building a consistent skill will go a long way when I am looking to apply to supervisory positions later in my career. I also volunteer with a few different organisations at larger events (like performances, cocktail events, and galas). While it doesn’t have any bearing on my current position, in 10 years I might be working in a different job that has a more public role where I will have to be able to plan and execute larger events. If I hadn’t worked to find those opportunities, I wouldn’t have those skills now!

3. Blogging/ Podcasting/ Content Creation

This may be a self-plug, but blogging is the perfect way to learn a variety of skills at your own pace! When you have a blog, you are your own scheduler, content creator, social media marketer, reviewer, and any other number of things. You certainly don’t need to start everything at once, but the longer you plug away at it, the more skills that you build. And being able to say that I create 5 new posts a week, I currently have over 1,100 published posts, and I have over 4,000 followers across my blog and social media is an accomplishment unto itself.

Podcasting, YouTubing, or any sort of other outlet will give you a different range of skills, also! Audio and video editing is a useful skill that can be applied in a number of ways! And something that people outside of blogging/ podcasting/ YouTubing, etc, don’t always recognise that marketing yourself to blog followers vs to Instagram followers vs Youtube subscribers and on and on; it’s like each is it’s own language and you have to understand the nuances and quirks of it (which takes time and effort to do).

For those people who are starting out in your career, what skills do you feel like you need to build right now? And for those people who are later in their career, what would you recommend younger employees focus on for growth?

Cheers,
The Historian
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