Self-development
Accelerate Your Professional Growth: Timeless High-Value Skills Worth Investing in
Learn what are some of the most useful skills that will help you take your career to the next level
We are fortunate to live in an era where we can learn almost everything from home and for free.
Have you ever stopped to think how amazing this is?
Think about people in the past centuries, the only way they had to learn was by going to specific universities and cities ( just a very few could afford this luxury). Besides, the only tool to learn from home was reading books. Books are great, however, it is not so easy to learn practical things from them.
Nowadays we have awesome interactive and fun ways to learn from home; video tutorials, webinars, apps, online platforms that provide feedback, online mentoring programs, etc.
This is an incredible opportunity and we all should make the most of it!
However, sometimes I feel there is an overload of information and skills to learn. Everything seems valuable and useful but you do not have the time to learn all of them.
This is the main issue I face all the time I decide to learn something new; what.
At the end of the day, our time is super valuable, scarce and limited, so we want to ensure we are investing in the right skills.
What to learn will depend a lot on what your ultimate goal is; is it getting a promotion? Is it getting your first job? Is it changing careers? Is it just learning something new?
You could upgrade your existing skills in a certain area you already know. This would be great if it relates to your job, as you could get a promotion or take more responsibility. For example, I usually read a lot of articles on interviewing techniques, how to assess software engineers, sourcing techniques, human resources planning, etc. And once I even learned the basics of software engineering in order to be better prepared for assessing these specific professionals.
You could take your hobby to the next level and become proficient or teach others (and start a side hustle!). Some years ago, after many years of practicing yoga, I decided to take my hobby further and I did a YTT 200 hours. I became a yoga teacher, and it was a great learning experience. I learned so many things from this initiative, not just how to teach yoga.
You could learn life skills (as I like to call them!), and these will help you improve your quality of life and the ones of those who surround yourself. For example; cooking skills, paternity skills, massage therapy (your beloved ones would LOVE this one!), DIY skills, and so on.
Or, you could also learn something totally new and in high demand these days.
This is usually the most fun thing to do but also the one that will take more effort. I suggest at least once per year to learn something totally new.
Next, I am going to list the skills I believe are extremely important and useful these days focusing on market value, meaning job opportunities.
If you learn some of these skills, you will have a big edge over other people, no matter what role you are applying for.
On the other side, if you are thinking of creating something of your own, by learning some of these skills you would be able to get things done by yourself, saving money on hiring freelancers or external help.
I recommend platforms like Coursera, Udemy, or Skillshare to find courses in these fields without breaking the account.
Let’s dive into it!
Table of Contents
· Emotional intelligence
· Digital Marketing
· Communication
· Public speaking and Storytelling
· Project Management
· Software Development Life Cycle
· Persuasion (selling skills)
· Blogging and copy-writing
Emotional intelligence
The ability to understand and manage your emotions in positive ways is critical.
I can see how this skill is pretty common in highly successful people.
Being able to understand how you feel and based on this make choices/decisions is an extremely important skill we all need and unfortunately, we may not learn as much as we should when we are younger.
Let people go from your life, end relationships, end jobs, and lifestyles that do not make you happy or do not get you where you want to be is crucial.
Emotional intelligence involves self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. I recommend everyone to read and learn more about these 5 different skills. It could be a game changer in your life and career.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is the marketing of services, products and others using online channels. In the digital era, understanding how digital marketing works seems a must. You’d be able to promote your own product/services and so understand how others try to sell you.
It is a very interesting and broad field that includes specific areas such as Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-Click, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Marketing Analytics, and Affiliate Marketing.
You can pick one of those and start digging into it or take a generic course to learn the basics of all and then decide what interests you better.
Communication
Effective communication is extremely important for a message to go through, and even more in a remote work environment.
The art of communicating is so interesting and involves much more than just written and verbal communication. Skills such as non-verbal and visual communication, active listening, contextual communication, and body language, make big a difference in how someone communicates.
Good communication skills will allow you to move forward in life and career-wise.
Public speaking and Storytelling
Being able to speak live in front of an audience comfortably is a valuable skill. This includes ceremonial speaking, demonstrative, informative and persuasive speaking.
With strong communication skills, you will be able to connect deeper with your audience, motivate them and influence change.
Strong public speaking skills will allow you to speak at events, and conferences, and this is an excellent way of building credibility and authority.
Project Management
To me, this is one of the most valuable skills listed in this article. Being able to organize the work in a team in order to meet targets is crucial. Project managers plan and manage, they are great communicators and problem solvers.
Mastering this skill will allow you to be better at whatever else you do as it will help you to plan better, work better and achieve more.
This skill is super relevant if you want to start your own business.
Software Development Life Cycle
Understanding how software is built will help you be a much better candidate for any role within a tech company.
No matter what the role is if you can truly understand the steps towards building software you will be able to add more value to your role, as you will be able to have deeper conversations and interact in a more meaningful way with your teams.
Besides, I think it is a very interesting field to understand better considering we spend a big part of our days using software.
Why not know more about how it works and how it is built?
Persuasion (selling skills)
The process of convincing others to carry out an action or agree on an idea happens on daily basis. Think about your life, how many times do you need to convince your partner or friend to go on that specific vacation? Or buy that apartment? Or move to another city? Or adopt a pet? That is why you need to be good at persuading.
At work, you often need to convenience others to go with your idea and buy into your approach!
If one day you have your own business, this could be the most critical skill you need as you will need to sell your product/services yourself until you are able to hire salespeople.
Blogging and copy-writing
We are all writers somehow.
I believe most of us need to write emails and messages on daily basis. Knowing how to write better will leverage your written communication skills massively. People will understand you faster and easier and they will appreciate your nice, clear, concise, and easy-reading emails.
On the other hand, writing content is a great way to make extra income. There is a huge demand for content and many of these jobs are fully remote!
If you manage to write content that is high quality, engaging, and valuable, you could definitely work as a professional content writer.
These are in my opinion the skills I am always looking to improve myself and the ones I suggest to my friends.
I know we could mention many others but I wanted to focus on the most powerful ones to keep it concise.
What do you think? Leave a comment!
Thanks for reading.
