Here are three digitally relevant and in-demand skills that you can learn without having to pay a cent – skills that will keep you competitive in the modern job market.
Thinking about your next professional move can be intimidating, especially if you feel like your CV is looking a little stale when it comes to skills and experience. We’ve highlighted three current skills that will help you reboot your CV and boost your future career options. The best part? All of these methods are entirely free, so the only investment you will need is time.
Social media skills
You could be forgiven for thinking that social media is all about updating statuses and being liberal with “likes” on Facebook. However, you may be surprised to learn that more and more businesses are employing social media as a vital tool in their marketing and sales campaigns. Some companies are using ‘social’ to lead their customer support offerings while others are amplifying content through their various social media platforms and utilising listening tools to discover what their target audience is talking about in the social space.
So what does this mean for you? Well, it means that if you can demonstrate to potential employers that you are social savvy, you could open yourself up to a whole new world of job opportunities. And there are plenty of possibilities available. So much so, that in 2015, social media was one of the top ten fastest growing job trends. There are plenty of websites dedicated to providing social media tips and tricks, as well as companies like Hootsuite, who provide free online resources. Hootsuite’s most recent offering, Podium, is a free online education platform designed to help individuals develop skills for leveraging social media for business. It even provides a certification once you have completed the course, just in case the 51 likes on your most recent status update isn’t proof enough for your boss that you do know about social.
Coding
Have you ever accidentally leaned on your keyboard, have a bunch of code appear on your computer screen and thought that it looks like an entirely foreign language? That’s because it is. But don’t let that put you off. Just like mastering a new language, you can learn to code in your spare time, with a whole host of apps and websites dedicated to helping you become more digitally literate. The computer languages HTML; CSS and Java might sound intimidating, but they are surprisingly easy to learn.
Learning to code can help you to expand your opportunities and may even open you up to a whole new career. There is currently a worldwide shortage of developers, which has led to a high demand for those with coding skills. Entry-level jobs in coding and development, on average, pay more than most other entry-level roles. Companies like General Assembly and Code Academy offer user-friendly online platforms that can teach you to code for free.
Google Analytics
Show me a business that isn’t focused on results and I’ll show you a company that isn’t doing too well. Regardless of industry or sector, virtually every organisation needs to know how well, or otherwise, they are performing. Google Analytics is a freemium web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Whether measuring site traffic, the success of a campaign or how many visitors have been converted into new leads, businesses can improve their digital offerings by analysing the data collected from this platform. All of this is great, of course, but it’s not much good if you don’t know how to use it. Google offers several free online analytics courses and who better to learn from than the masters themselves?
Even if a career change isn’t on the horizon this year, upskilling can be an excellent way to keep yourself motivated, take on extra responsibility in your current role – which could lead to financial rewards – and allow you to continue reaching your full professional potential.
Article by Niamh Linehan.
