The Value of Professional Development: Learning new skills to enhance your future career
Before receiving my master’s degree, I thought all my money problems would soon be over. I thought that once I obtained that golden degree, a wave of job opportunities would cascade down upon me with future employers waiting with baited breath for my application.
As it turned out, that wasn’t the case.
In the end, while my fellow classmates hitched up their big girl pants and strutted out into the workforce, I took a year-long, low-paying position, but one that will eventually look great on my résumé later down the line. I thought this was a great idea at the time; I had the job lined up months before I graduated, therefore I was not filled with the same panic-induced terror that overcame my classmates near the end of the program. However, once I started the job and realized I wasn’t earning as much as I could be with my master’s degree, I determined that there are many things I could do right this moment to strive toward my dream career.
What I learned is this: even if you are not currently content with your job position or economic standing, there are many things you can do right now to build up your skill set to make yourself more valuable to companies down the line.
Here are the steps that I took to spend my time wisely in preparation for the future.
Step 1. Research
Do you know what skills are required and desired for your dream career? What are the things you need to master if you were entering the job market right now? Where is the field going; are there trends that you need to recognize to ensure job stability and flexibility in the future?
The answers to all of these questions can easily be discovered with a little, old-fashioned research. Here are some of the best ways that I used to find this valuable information:
Job postings:
Even if you are not actively applying for positions at the moment, keep track of job boards and note the most important qualifications for the jobs that appeal to you. Does the job require expertise of Excel? Take note of it. Does the job require mastery of statistics with tools such as R or SPSS? Take note of it. Is the company looking for someone with a publishing history? Take note of it. All of these things should be added to a list of future skills that you can learn before entering the field.
Blogs:
A great way to note current research or skill trends is through blogs or other such content produced by the people working in your desired field. Blogs are often written with the intent to teach or inform, so learn and become informed, you shall. Navigate through the links they post for more information and be sure to let them know the value you receive from their efforts (trust me, they appreciate it.)
Twitter:
There are many things wrong with Twitter. Filter bubbles, Nazis, memes that your aging brain struggles to decipher. However, one thing Twitter is great for is following valuable people in your field and noting trends, ideas, reflections, problems, and needs. Twitter allows you the inside scoop of the nature of working in these positions, typically updated daily and in reference to the most current scholarship or publications about your area of interest. If you are feeling daring, strike up a conversation with one of these professionals, though it may behoove you to know some of the lingo — which you can also learn through your research — before jumping right in.
Networking:
Following professionals on Twitter is a form of networking. So is liking their posts or tagging them in an interesting thread you believe they will value. But the networking I am really talking about here is the down-and-dirty in-person interactions that our parents always told us we will need to be better at one day. Contact professionals in your field and ask to meet up for coffee to hear about their work and how they got to where they are. Join networking groups through sites such as Meetup (but like, actually GO to the group meets) or LinkedIn. You don’t see a group that fits your needs? Make one. There is a big wide world out there and more likely than not, you will find people in your same situation that would benefit from social learning and engagement with others in the field.
Read, Read, Read:
From blog posts and Twitter feeds to research studies, books, magazines, and academic publications, there is a wide variety of work produced about the ongoings in the field. Read as much of it as you can. Not only will you learn about the trends in the job market or in your area of interest, it will help you learn the lingo and become educated enough to riff about the topic at the water-cooler with coworkers. The more you read about the topic, the more informed you will become, and the more likely you will be able to adapt to new information or sell yourself in a future job interview.
Step 2. Take advantage of skill developing courses, online and IRL
There are a ton of courses out there designed to help emerging professionals build up their résumé and learn new technical skills, no matter the area you want to gain a deeper knowledge base for. While a million articles out there list the best sites for taking online courses, here are the ways that I specifically use to increase my technical skills*.
*While I used all of these sources to enhance my technical skills, most of them can be used for skills for a wide range of professions, technical and creative (or both!)
Lynda:
One of the best sites that I’ve found for building new skills from working professionals is Lynda. From database management, to software developer, to photography and website design, the site has over 13,000 courses created and led by experts. It tells you what software to download (if needed) and provides course documents for you to follow along with their tutorials. I have used Lynda for learning XML, XPath, and XSLT — requirements for my work in the data science industry. While Lynda is a bit pricey (at $29.99 per month), many employers purchase Lynda to support professional development for their employees. Check with your current boss or HR to see if this, or something else like it, is offered by the company. Your company doesn’t offer it? Unemployed with a thin wallet? Don’t you worry, I have many of other great ideas that are (generally) free of charge.
Codecademy:
I found Codecademy several years ago when I was young and naïve and thought I could learn to code in a weekend. I definitely gave it my best shot- Codecademy teaches many of the programming languages in a way that is interesting, engaging, and fun. Many of my weekends before graduate school was spent dabbling in many of the language before focusing heavily on Python as my drug of choice. Why Codecademy is not perfect, and it is very easy to cheat by looking up the questions and answers online, it provided an excellent base understanding of the logic behind programming, as well as the basic syntax of how to create a line of script. While the basic lessons are free, there is the option to go pro with a variety of payment plans. I recommend checking it out, dabble in the classes and get a general idea of the benefits behind Codecademy, before biting the bullet and purchasing the complete package.
Stack Overflow:
Stack Overflow is extremely useful for developers, beginner and advanced, alike. This site is especially useful if you are stuck on a specific programming task and want to see if someone else found an answer to the same problem. It is also extremely valuable for seeing what the hot topics are or generally how to go about completing a task through code or markup languages. I use Stack Overflow on the daily and highly recommend it for all of you [future] tech wizards out there.
YouTube:
Not surprisingly, YouTube has accumulated a vast number of tutorials and how-to’s for anyone wanting to develop their skill set, achieve goals, or complete specific tasks. The key here is to learn to navigate from amateur videos offering incorrect information to those made by experts in the area in which they teach. This is not saying that a non-professional is unable to demonstrate accurate information in a useful way. I suggest that you turn to YouTube when you have enough of a knowledge basis to determine fact from bunk, or if you know that the person offering tutorials has a well-developed background in the field and has the ability to teach. A great value of YouTube are the video demonstrations of how a specific tool works. I turned to YouTube when I wanted to learn how to transform an XLS document into XML using the Developer tab on Excel. The ability to watch someone else perform, via screen capture, the task that I desperately needed to perform for work is the major benefit for turning to YouTube for skill development.
Skill-share Talks at Work:
My employer calls them ‘Brown Bag Lunches’. These talks, usually over lunch, allow for a workplace expert to share what they are working on, whether a project or a new tool that they believe may be useful for their coworkers. In addition, many companies offer professional development presentations that help their employees improve or become expert in a range of skills, including public speaking or citation management software. I highly recommend attending as many of these talks as possible. Not only does it allow you to leave your desk for a while, you can discover new ideas or topics that you may not have known existed. It will also help you to network with your fellow coworkers; who knows, they may be your key to landing that better job over the course of the year.
Open Events at Colleges or Universities:
Unless you attended the university and have not yet removed yourself from the listserv constantly spitting out emails about events happening on campus — even though you moved across the country in 2014 and are happily married and in no way should still be receiving invites to the singles networking event your alumni office puts on every year — you may not be aware of the many events that are open to the public on campus. I received an email just last week about a GIS event at my previous university that was open to the public and would offer a great deal of insight into data maps and visualizations that may benefit any emerging professional. Keep an eye out for these events that are put on by students, faculty, or other scholars; these are the people who know what’s up with emerging trends in your line of work.
Step 3. Practice, in fact, DOES make perfect
Don’t let Malcolm Gladwell scare you off. While it may not take you 10,000 hours to master a skill, you should still be putting a ton of effort into skill development to gain expertise in order to flaunt it on your next job application. Here are two recommendations I have for nailing these skills and retaining the knowledge long down the line.
Take Notes:
Many of these online courses allow you to work through and solve each of the tasks as presented, however it is very likely that the second you close out of the instructional video, you are going to forget exactly how you went about it. You are not a superhuman who can absorb and retain information immediately (unless you are) so make sure you take notes that you can reference later down the line. When I was learning to code, I meticulously wrote the code by hand in my notebook so I could pull it out for later projects as needed. Yes, that sounds insane, and no, it wasn’t the best way to learn to code, but it worked for me. No matter what skill you want to learn, take notes, and make sure the time and energy you spend in learning a new skill is worthwhile.
Expand to your own projects:
Don’t be afraid to take what you are learning, through online courses or from skill talks, and put it into practice in your own work immediately. I ran into this problem very quickly when I was learning to code: I would spend hours working through the tasks as presented through Codecademy, but I would be completely unable to redirect what I learned into a project separate from those courses. You won’t break the internet, your camera, your friend, or your colleagues by practicing what you learned so get out there and practice what you learned. The ability to absorb information and reflect it onto new tasks is the ultimate goal in learning a new skill.
Some Final Tips:
I know you are really excited to jump right in to professional development in order to increase your overall earning potential, but please hold off for just one moment while I offer some tips on how to best proceed.
Don’t Panic:
There were many instances this year that I went into full panic: “Why did I choose this position? I should be making so much more than I am, right? All of my friends are making more money than I am. Am I doing this all wrong?” Does any of this sound familiar? Try to nip it in the bud ASAP. Of course you are still going to have these panic moments, but that is the only way you are going to get better at your job and move forward in your career path. If you weren’t panicking, you probably would be content to sit back and take whatever job comes your way. But that’s not us, we have goals and a direction. Calmly look to the future and figure out the best path to go about achieving your goals.
Be methodological:
Make a plan for how you want to go about skill development and keep track of any progress you make. Write a journal where you give yourself goals and a specific time frame for completing the tasks you set for yourself. If you want, make your journal public, in the form of a blog, in order to help keep you on track and be more motivated for sprinting toward your goals. If for some reason you don’t meet your goal or you get off track, no worries. Restructure your calendar and begin again. You will get there in the end.
Focus on the future:
You already decided you want to better your career through skill development. That’s step one. Think about all the ways your life will benefit from all the hard work you are putting into your career right now. If you find yourself unhappy with your current job position or earning capabilities, focus on enhancing your skills and overall knowledge base to achieve the career you want in the future.
