Learning New Skills

Last week in the discussion on building financial resilience, I mentioned the importance of learning alternative skills.  In an environment of uncertainty, one of the best protections anyone can have against becoming obsolete, is to have a diversity of skills.  I am aware that this is much easier said than done.  In today’s world, people are encouraged, and incentivized, to become increasingly specialized.  Generally speaking, the more specialized you are, the more indespensible, and the higher the compensation, until that area becomes out of date.  In order to continually update your on skillset and remain current, I’d recommend the following:

–If you are in school, study a lot of things outside of your major– school is one of the rare times that you get to experiment with mostly upside to show for it.  Sign up for classes in an area that you’ve been intrigued with, go for a internship or spend the summer in a far away location or join a club that works in a really different field.  Not only do you learn a different set of skills, you’ll probably meet people that are quite interesting.

–Sign up for skills building training on the job, if possible — in my first job out of school, the place that I worked for made available various skills building 1 or 2 day workshops.  The intent was to help people learn management skills and to build a layer of middle management.  The workshops that I attended on public speaking and presenation skills were some of the most informative that I’ve ever seen.  Webmaster skills and extra computer training are available at a lot of places as are foreign language classes at some organizations.

–Raise your hand for new client relationships — if your workplace services a wide range of clients, one of the best ways to learn about new industry areas or to explore a different company is to go on site yourself.  When opportunities arise to learn about a new client, don’t be shy.

–Volunteer at an organization that you like — with the recession, volunteerism has taken a new turn with more and more high-skilled people spending time with non-profit and community organizations.  Find a cause you’re passionate about and dedicate a few hours a week to see how you can help out. Most likely, the learning will be invaluable.

–Continue with self-education — the best webmasters and digital photographers that I know are entirely self taught. From a skills building standpoint, there is no greater substitute than curiosity and determination.  Continue to read about new areas and dabble in different medium.  Many things that start out as a hobby become a marketable skill.

shared at this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance