Always Be Learning: Boost Your CV

In the fight to stand out and be seen by the most desired employers, you have to be doing everything you can to gain a competitive advantage. To be desirable to employers you need to be able to demonstrate a skillset that is going to provide more value than other applicants. Whilst you might learn desirable skills during your academic education, the bulk of your value will be learnt in the real world. This knowledge can be broken down into two categories. The first is what you have learnt during any previous work experience, and the second is what you have learnt off of your own back, in your own time. This post will focus on the latter, as this is the category you can work on and improve today. Skills learnt this way are also often highly valued, as they show a dedication and an interest in your work outside of work.

We have an ‘always be learning’ culture here at Zealify and we think it’s an incredibly important part of becoming the best you can be. Times have changed since the days when you had to spend thousands and sacrifice years in order to learn anything beneficial. There is a wealth of knowledge and resources out there, all you have to do is take the opportunities available. In this post, I will discuss the reasons why you should always be learning, some resources for you to get started, and how you can apply your learning when in a new job search.

Stay Current & Relevant

It’s obvious that the more you know on your specific industry or job role the more respect you will get and the more you’ll be seen as an expert who would be difficult to replace. However, in the digital age, you can never stand still. Expertise that gives you a competitive advantage today will be old news tomorrow.

In this respect, you need to always be learning to stay current, relevant and alert to any changes or trends that you should be aware of. This way you can embrace changes happening in your industry; remember, growth = change.

UpSkill

Changing career paths has never been easier with the accessibility of resources to learn new skills both online and in-person. Whether you are just starting out in your career, exploring the different options available to you and finding out what makes you tick, or you are a seasoned professional looking for a change, you can now learn essential skills needed for different career paths quicker and cheaper than ever before.

It is also worth noting that up-skilling is not necessarily just for career changes, but also career growth in general. You can never know everything there is to know on a certain subject. If you think you do, that is a very dangerous place to be. There is always room for growth.

So what should you learn? Start with your own interests — you’re much more likely to stick with it if you actually enjoy learning more about a specific subject. Also, if you’re learning to increase your employability, check out this data from LinkedIn on the hottest skills that got people hired in 2014. Here, LinkedIn published the top 25 skills from over 330 million LinkedIn members. They broke it down into specific countries for your convenience. The data outlined four main trends that it could be worth bearing in mind:

1. The vast majority of skills were technical — engineering, computer programming, coding etc.
2. Data is in — skills in data retrieval, storage and analysis were in high demand.
3. Learn a foreign language — ‘Foreign language translation’ as a skill was ranked in the top 10 for both the UK and the US.
4. Technical marketing is growing — become an expert on digital, online, SEO & SEM marketing and you’re sure to be in demand!

Best resources

As I mentioned before there is an incredibly wide range of resources available for you to stay current in your industry. Below are just a few:

In Person Classroom Based Courses:

• General Assembly — offer full time and part time courses on technology, design and business skills.
• Startup Institute — an 8 week programme teaching you “the Skills, Mindset and Network to get a job at a startup”.
• Makers Academy — “Learn to code in 12 weeks.”
• UCL Advances — “UCL’s centre for entrepreneurship and business interaction, helps anyone who wants to learn about, start or grow a business.”
• Unrulyversity — “A free popup university in the heart of Tech City”, with events every Wednesday evening.

Online Learning & MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses):

• edX — “Free online courses from the world’s best universities.”
• Coursera — “Take the world’s best courses, online, for free.”
• Treehouse — “Learn how to build websites & apps, write code or start a business.” (free trial available)
• Udacity — “Stand out by learning in-demand tech skills from the best companies in Silicon Valley.”
• HubSpot Academy Inbound Certification — A free course of 11 classes teaching the fundamentals of ‘Inbound Marketing’.
• Google Partners Certifications — Get certified for Google Adwords, Google Analytics and Video Ads
• Digital Business Academy — 8 free courses on starting, running or joining a digital business. (Complete these courses and get rewards, from being fast tracked to interview stage for a paid internship, to free coworking space.

For more info on online learning, here’s a guidebook on the state of the industry, and also check out this great list of bite sized learning tools on Product Hunt.

Failing is Learning

Don’t be afraid to try something new, push the boundaries and stretch yourself. If it’s not for you or doesn’t work out for whatever reason, don’t see it as a failure. You can only learn so much if you always succeed. Learning that something doesn’t work is ok — it’s still learning.

This is especially relevant if changing career paths or trying to find your passion when starting out in your career.

Use your new knowledge

We’ve talked before about thinking beyond the CV in order to get a job. Part of this is going beyond the compulsory criteria of your university degree and experience, and standing out by going the extra mile.

Employers love to see that you have taken enough of an interest in a certain subject, job role or industry to read and learn more than your degree (and maybe even the role you’re applying for) stipulates. They also love to see that you have been proactive enough to further your own development off of your own back. If you can show this off in the right way, you’ll be standing head and shoulders above the competition. Here are just some of the ways you can show your learning.

Write About It!

The best way to show your learning is writing about it. Writing about what you learn before, during and after will show employers (and yourself) how much progress you have made. This can also be used as proof that you have done certain things, as well as showing your ability to write. You may not think that blogging is the best use of your time, but remember, blogging is the new CV.

There are many ways to publish your posts to the world. Depending how technical you are will dictate which platforms are most suitable for you, but some popular ones are WordPress and Medium. If writing isn’t your thing, you could start a video diary and publish it on your own Youtube channel.

Update Your LinkedIn

Another way to show your learning is updating your LinkedIn. We wrote about how to create a killer LinkedIn profile for your job search and showcasing your relevant skills is hugely important in getting found. You can also publish posts on LinkedIn’s ‘Pulse’ and start gaining a reputation as a thought leader.

Build Your Network

As we have noted before, your network is your net-worth, especially during a job search. Now that you have all of this new knowledge, go out and let people know! Go to events (try meetup or Eventbrite) relevant to your area of expertise and build your network of people in the industry. You never know what might come of the next conversation you have. These events and conferences can be a great source of learning in themselves.

If you really wanted to push the boat out, you could try and land a speaking slot as a ‘newbie’ to the subject / industry.

Learning is an incredibly important part of staying relevant, current and growing in your career. With the wealth of free and cheap resources now available, you have no excuse but to always be learning.

Have you had any experiences where learning something new helped you in your career, or where standing still was detrimental to it? Have I missed any great resources that I should have included? Let me know — comment below or tweet me @LiamNolan90.

Note: This post was originally published on 18th February 2015.