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Elizabeth Garone
What happens when new technology rattles the tectonic plates of your career?
For Jerusalem-based graphic designer, Dalia Ben-Moshe, the earthshaking changes
in design tools meant she needed to quickly go back to school. The freelance
designer, who used to work exclusively in print, found she needed to understand
and delve into web-based design to stay abreast of client demands.
The very definition of graphic design is changing so rapidly, said Ben-Moshe.
As the world becomes more and more screen-based, employers seek designers with
excellent technical skills as well as good old-fashioned, artistic flair. So it
is essential to constantly build on [your] existing skill set.
Ben-Moshe knew she needed to learn design languages Flash and HTML, among
others. She enrolled in a yearlong night course at a local technical studies
school. And now, to brush up in advance of interviews, she uses Skillfeed.com,
a subscription service, which offers short online video courses.
Graphic designers are not alone in the need to develop new skills and update
current ones. Rapidly-changing job requirements have become commonplace in
almost every field. In order to stay in their jobs and to put their best foot
forward for possible advancement workers need to stay current with these
changes. For some, it means going back to school. Others should focus on
improving one or two vital job requirements such as communication skills or
commercial awareness that is, understanding the competitive realities for
your company or industry.
Few jobs are secure these days, said Bruce Woodcock, a careers adviser at
University of Kent in Canterbury, England. You need to develop new skills to
gain promotion or to widen and develop your role.
Not just technical prowess
If your position doesn t require constantly updating technical prowess, hone in
on other employability talents, said Woodcock. He and his staff combed through
a handful of UK-based studies and have compiled a list of the top 10
employability skills. They are (in order of most to least important): verbal
communication, teamwork, commercial awareness, analysing and investigating,
initiative/self motivation, drive, written communication, planning and
organising, flexibility and time management.
Woodcock advises making a list of what you would really like to do in your
career and asking yourself what new abilities you should develop to make that
happen. Set yourself goals that are stretching but not unattainable,
challenging but realistic, he said. Set big goals and break these down into
smaller goals.
Back to school
For some people, learning new skills may involve going back to school. One
option is a Master of Business Administration degree, according to Doreen
Amorosa, associate dean and managing director at Georgetown University s
McDonough MBA Career Center in Washington, DC. The MBA often allows [students]
to change the direction and trajectory of their careers where they come out of
the program with significantly higher pay and go into more senior roles, she
said.
But, at a top school, an MBA can cost $100,000 or more, plus lost salary during
the program. There are faster and cheaper options, however, depending on your
needs. Some workers look to online courses. Newer options, like Skillfeed, the
subscription service used by Ben-Moshe, allow members an all you can eat
approach. At Skillfeed, members pay a monthly fee and can choose from more than
1,200 short video classes in all things digital and creative, from Microsoft
Excel to photo restoration.
If you had to get a degree for all of the skills today s employers are
demanding, you d be in school all the time, said David Fraga, general manager
and vice-president of Skillfeed, which is based in New York and owned by
Shutterstock, a global stock photography agency. Instead, folks are looking
for things they can do in a few hours.
Short, online courses offer possibilities for studying anywhere, anytime and
quickly, he said, adding that the majority of Skillfeed s customers are based
outside the US.
Some workers are even turning to free sites like YouTube for quick, on-the-go
courses. After taking on an intranet project for a company, Nicola Henderson,
president of Atlanta-based public relations firm Selsi Enterprises, realised
she needed a refresher course in HTML. She found one on YouTube and
supplemented it with a course from Lynda.com, which, like Skillfeed, offers
video tutorials for a fee.
I can review some of the information from my phone or even during my commute,
said Henderson. I think this is the way of the future."
One thing you should not do: decide to do nothing. If you don t advance your
skills, you re going to get left behind, according to the experts.
The world is dynamic and those people who don t learn new skills and adapt
along the way will undoubtedly face a major upheaval at some point, like
tectonic plates shifting as a series of uncomfortable tremors, or as a
devastating earthquake, said David Foster, director of Rally Strategic
Management, a change management company in Brighton, UK.
You also run the risk of no longer being considered mission critical or top
talent, according to Georgetown s Amorosa. These designations are especially
important in economic downturns, where redundancies and restructuring are most
likely to occur.