7 Ways To Boost Your Career Skills
Guest blog by Gabrielle Sales
We may be passionate about a career that we promised ourselves to chase. We may have studied that specific field in college, and we may have devoted a lot of time to gain opportunities within our field. However, sometimes, we aren’t exactly where we want to be, and our careers are always evolving. There could be skills that we don’t feel competent enough to provide in our career because certain things take time and practice.
If you’re hunting for a job that you feel passionate towards, you could run into self-doubt and think you’re under qualified for a career in your field. And if you’ve just accepted a new job role, you might feel overwhelmed by the skills you need to possess.
There are tried and tested career solutions for expanding your skills or refining your existing skills to become well-rounded in future endeavors. Throughout our careers, we may simply learn on the job where our skills could be best used, but what if I told you that you can always learn on your own time to develop knowledge and apply your skills? If you’re serious about your career and are ready to take the next level or get a promotion or raise, you should never stop learning about what you can do and start taking action to boost those skills.
Here are seven ways on how to do that.
Take up a side hustle
Having a full-time job may keep your life busy enough, but if you can take some time to work on a side hustle while balancing your full-time job, be ready to grace yourself. Running a side business, taking up some freelance gigs, creating and running a blog, and adding more value to your own portfolio can all count as side hustles. This will not only prove your work ethic to be better, but it can help you touch upon sharpening your skills and adding more skills that you haven’t used in a career before.
Read or watch inspiring stories on those who are successful in your field
There are 24 hours in a day, as my former boss would always mention to me and my co-workers. A typical day would include working in your (perhaps) 8-hour work shift and catering to your responsibilities at home, in your social life, and/or in your school life. You could also be using a lot of your time to binge-watch on a couple of series on Netflix. But, did you know if you took some time in your day by reading inspiring and motivating articles or videos, you can learn a lot from it?
I like to read articles by people who are successful in my field and there is so much valuable information to take in from what they do in their career to how they’ve used their skills to how they got to where they are. Inspiration moves us. There is plenty of media out there written or spoken by these successful people that you can use as a muse and those can be found in online publications, blogs, magazines, TEDx talks, e-books, and anywhere on YouTube. Take note of what they do and their advice because this will be key to finding more skills or improving them.
Work on your communication skills
Communication skills do not only mean how you can speak but how you say things and how you write things. How you say things are powerful in delivering a message and it can impact how organizations, clients, bosses, and even co-workers can perceive you. To be a strong communicator, you need to learn how to not be so passive and appear unsure and unconfident thus setting a wishy-washy tone. Try to work on your skills by communicating more forward and more clear messages and practicing writing, especially if you are always required to respond to emails. These can improve those skills by a great distance. You can always ask your co-workers and peers on their feedback on how your communication skills are like and what they think you can improve on.
Challenge yourself to learn a new skill or program required in your field
If you feel like your skills are mundane and repetitious, then it’s time to take on a challenge to enhance conscientious skills. For example, you can take initiative on a project that hasn’t been executed yet or volunteer to work on a part of a project that requires a lot of time and effort by learning a new program or picking up on a new skill. It can impress your boss that you feel capable of taking on challenges and that you are ready to take your skills to new levels. You can gain recognition from work and can even be rewarded to a promotion or raise.
Take a course targeted at improving your skills
Many courses can be found on the world wide web. There are programs you can enroll to get certified in a certain skill set to help you become more marketable. There are e-courses that will introduce a lot of new knowledge and secrets to get ahead in your goals and career. Think going to school for a degree is the only way to boost your skills? Think again. You can include these new certifications and courses taken in your resume and LinkedIn. Employers may feel impressed because you’re interested in becoming certified for a skill, leaving an impression you’re motivated and passionate about your career. You can also impress future clients that you work with, especially if you’re self-employed because it shows credibility in your role.
Create a five-year plan
Have you ever thought about what you want to do and where you want to be in five years? Putting down skills that you want to master or achieve as goals down on paper (or on the computer, which ever serves convenient) can help organize what those are and the necessary steps to cross that goal. This will remind you to stay motivated and work efficiently, in hopes of enhancing skills. To create a five-year plan, follow these steps:
Write down what your long-term goals are and be specific.
Consider what you want to change within yourself and visualize how.
List the next five years.
Categorize each goal under a year and then write a couple of items down that can help you reach each goal. We can call these milestones.
Start working on the milestones within your goal and check up on your list every now and then.
See what worked, what didn’t work, and what needs to be improved on reaching a goal.
Get mentorship and learn from others
If you know someone who is a master in their trade using skills that you would like to learn about, try to reach out to them to see if they can mentor you in any way. If they offer courses or e-books on their website, do not hesitate to turn away from those. Sometimes the best way to become great in skills is to learn it from those who are familiar, knowledgeable, and experienced with them. You can also reach out to those people you look up to for feedback.
To boost your skills, it will take patience and dedication within yourself. If you can dedicate just an hour of your time each day to become better and practical in your field, you can use those skills to help you get by within your company. Or if you’re looking for a job, it’ll help you get by in the career you long dreamed about. Sharpening and expanding on your skill set is hands-on self-education for yourself. Good luck!
Author Bio:
Gabrielle Sales is an American travel blogger and marketer who has worked with hundreds of different brands, especially working for Facebook. Her passion for travel started at a young age through family road trips and watching National Geographic documentaries. When she's not planning her travels, she seeks her adventures from photographing and hiking once a week in one of Arizona's numerous mountains or finding any outdoorsy escape.