Updating Your Skill Set
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Are you keeping your skills current? The American workforce is more mobile than ever before: the average employee changes jobs every 4.6 years and contract workers, consultants, and part time employees have become commonplace.

What this means is that most of us are in a continuous job search broken up by periods of employment rather than the other way around. On the other hand employees who stay with one employer for longer periods of time can be at a disadvantage when entering the job market because employees with continuous employment may not be continuously updating their skill set. Even if you work for a stable employer and are satisfied with your job you need to make sure that you keep your skills up-to-date in case you need or want to enter the job market.

How do we keep our skills up to date?

1. Take advantage of any employer subsidized training or education that you can. Does your employer offer tuition reimbursement? If so, take advantage of it and get another degree. Sign up for any and all technical training courses that you can even if it means that you have to stay later to finish your work. Technical training enables you to stay abreast of new terminology and new ideas in an ever evolving technical world.

2. Read business journals relevant to your field of work. It’s important to hear what is going on in your industry outside of your immediate job – you never know what someone might ask you in an interview. Keeping current in your field also prepares you for impromptu conversations that may present themselves to you when you find yourself in the elevator with the CEO or a potential client. People who are able to converse about current events in their field appear intelligent and well informed to others.

3. Follow current economic and global news. No country is an island unto itself anymore – we are all interconnected in ways we weren’t 20 years ago. It’s important to watch the news and read newspapers (either paper copy or internet) to stay abreast of our continuously evolving world and economic affairs. For one thing, you will give the appearance of being an informed and intelligent citizen if you can carry on a brief conversation about genocide in Darfur, US Presidential candidates, the economic impact of the blizzard in China, or the continuing conflict in Israel. On the other hand, following the news should also give you some sense for how world events or the local economy will affect your job and your industry. Forewarned is forearmed.

4. Take advantage of opportunities to hear interesting speakers, take community college courses, or attend low cost seminars on topics of interest to you. Pay attention to the offerings in your community and take advantage of any opportunity you can find to learn something relevant to your field of interest. Never stop learning.

5. Network continuously. Networking is another way to keep learning about what is going on in the world around us. Friends, colleagues, and fellow students are a great source of information and perspective on new opportunities. When you attend a training course, seminar, or social event make sure you try to meet and have a meaningful conversation with at least one new person. By doing that, I’ll bet that you will learn about at least one useful new concept, idea, or opportunity.

6. Review your resume. Look critically at your resume and see if the skills (technical and non-technical) are current. Read your resume and the terminology that you use to describe your skills to make sure that you are using cutting edge terms rather than outdated ones to describe what you can do. Using terms that aren’t up to date can cost you the chance at an interview so make sure you are phrasing things properly.

If you read this article and subsequently dust off your resume and realize that you haven’t stayed up to date with regards to your skills, don’t despair. It’s an easy fix – get out of your house and take advantage of a training course, seminar, or networking event. And update that resume to make it appropriate for today’s job market.