How to Keep Yourself Hot in a Hot Job Market
You have a plum job assignment and you are working hard to make an impact that will serve you well for the future. Good for you. Nothing beats dedicated focus and commitment to your job.
Well, almost nothing.
As technology advances, there’s always going to be somebody who has more up-to-date skills with the latest and greatest tools and platforms. And no matter how hard you work, you’re always going to be a little behind on X, Y or Z.
That’s why we advocate for our consultants to think about continuously upskilling their abilities.
We have many consultants taking advantage of LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, Coursera and other sites for free or inexpensive technical training. Soft skills training around topics like active listening, EQ and others are also great for technologists who are being asked more and more to interact with the business and business leaders.
One of our consultants had this to say about skills training. “It started when I was reviewing job descriptions of jobs I was applying for that I really wanted. I looked for keywords of what they were looking for in who they were hiring and it was all data science related words. I realized I didn’t have the skills or really know how to look at data. I’ve been in the field for a long time, but times have changed and everything is being captured – the roles I’ve been going after for years are changing with technology, so I had no choice but to update my skillset if I wanted to keep up.”
Hiring managers often seek professionals who are versatile. In many cases, we have been able to retain or redeploy a consultant when they take training in a new area of expertise. One consultant even told us that during the interview, the hiring managers figured out she wasn’t qualified for the job. However, once they realized she was taking classes to better herself, they offered her the job on the spot. Pretty impressive!
A growing number of business leaders see the value of upskilling. In PwC’s 22nd Annual Global CEO Survey, 79 percent of the respondents said a shortage of skilled talent was one of their top three worries, and 46 percent said upskilling was their preferred solution.
Forbes reinforces this opinion, writing about AT&T: “Since 2013, the company has spent $250 million on employee education and professional development programs. They have also spent $30 million on tuition assistance annually. However, AT&T estimates 140,000 employees are actively engaged in acquiring skills for new roles. And from January to May 2016, the employees retrained filled half of all tech management jobs and received almost half of the promotions offered. By turning their focus to retraining, AT&T has reduced its product-development life cycle by 40%, accelerated time to revenue by 32% and cut developing and rollout time by half.”
So step out of your comfort zone and go for it! When you open yourselves up to learning new skills, you might stumble upon things that could excite you at a whole new level. Good luck!