- Image by The National Academy of Sciences via Flickr
There’s no better investment of your time than improving your job skills. This relates both to your current job, and to the job you’d like to have in the future.
Lifelong learning makes you more valuable – possibly even irreplaceable – in the job you now hold. And in the current state of the job market, that’s certainly important! Think about it: when times are tight, businesses are more likely to consider replacing long-time employees whose skills are rather outdated, in favor of fresh-from-school newcomers. Not incidentally, these newcomers will probably receive a lower salary due to their lack of experience, and thus they’ll save the company money.
But if the long-time employee has continued to hone his skills and kept up with developments in his field, suddenly the situation is a lot different. Now the existing employee has the same skills as the new college graduate, plus all the experience he’s gained with the company. It becomes much more economical to keep that employee even at a slightly higher salary.
Learning the Job You Really Want
Let’s say you’re in customer service and you really want to work in marketing. In that case, your best move is to learn everything you can about marketing.
Classes on marketing are a great beginning… but don’t stop there! Does your company have a marketing department? Pay them a visit and bring them bagels a few times. Pick their brains about what practical steps you can take to make yourself a good candidate for a marketing job.
You might even be able to talk your supervisor into letting you spend a few hours a week assisting the marketing team with projects, if your new friends support your request. Once you’ve done all this, the next time an opening appears in the marketing department you’re in an excellent position to get that job!
