Unlock Your Next Job by Upskilling

By Brandi Fowler

Acquiring additional skills can help advance your career and keep you competitive amid the economic downturn.?

Job seekers are paying attention.?

More U.S. workers plan to focus on learning new skills over the next six months instead of changing jobs, according to LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index survey . Women are leading the trend at 59%, compared to 54% of men who said the same.?

Career coach and employer branding expert Sarena Tseng told LinkedIn News upskilling is valuable “because the market is always changing and companies are always asking for new types of skills.”?

“It's really important to stay on top of it,” Tseng said. “It’s helpful to not only be a specialist in your field, but also a generalist and know other types of skills that are parallel to the job description or the job duties that you have now. That way, you can think more strategically about how your work might affect other departments in the company.”

Speaking of strategy, crafting a game plan is key to ensuring your new skills take you to the next level. Start by determining the next step in your career and the skills you need to get there.

It also helps to enter a new job with your exit strategy already in mind, Jennifer Tardy Consulting founder and CEO Jennifer Tardy told LinkedIn News in an e-mail interview.?

“To do this, you would ask [yourself]: ‘Now that I have secured this role, what do I desire as a next step in my career (and by when)?’" Tardy said. “Your next step can be one year down the road or five or more years later.?

“Having a sense of what you desire next as a part of your career path and getting as clear about it as looking at an actual job description will help you determine additional actions to take today to be ready for tomorrow.” Think of it as reverse engineering your career, Tseng said. As you identify roles you want to have in the future, think about how you can obtain the skills listed in the job descriptions for those roles.?

Tardy said if you want to be a manager but have no management experience, for example, you should look for opportunities to gain management experience in your current role. She recommended having an intern report to you to help build that skill set.

You can also ask your manager what steps you can take to get to the next level, Tseng said.?

“[Ask] ‘are there certain skill sets that I should have or certain mentalities that I need to have to be thinking at the next level? Are there things that I'm currently not doing that I should be doing? Can I start the training on that and learn how to do that, and be on projects where I think more strategically?’"

Tseng also suggested following industry leaders on LinkedIn who talk about industry trends and happenings to stay up to date, as well as talking to mentors about skills they think would be beneficial for you to gain.

Next, develop a plan of action to acquire those skills. Explore online learning platforms like? LinkedIn Learning where you can take classes to upskill.

“Build a list that you are checking off today and tomorrow,” Tardy said. “You are leveraging what you have available to you now through your current role so that you can demonstrate that you have the right skills for the next role.”?

The best way to upskill is through experience, Tseng said. Taking a class or obtaining a certification is great, but it isn’t always enough to impress a recruiter. Consider that as your first step, then acquire real-world experience to enhance that new skillset.?

“A lot of recruiters don't really care about the certifications as much as they care about the experience,” Tseng said. “So you want to figure out ‘how can I gain the experience that uses these skills, whether that's in my current job or outside of my current job?’ And being able to incorporate those skills into new projects or collaborating with boundary partners at work. Those are some great ways to see if you can incorporate those new skills and practice them.”

One skill that everyone should be working on no matter the industry is communication, Tseng said. That includes written communication, verbal communication, and even your body language when speaking on Zoom.?

To learn more about what LinkedIn community members have to say about how to upskill for career growth, read on here .

What's going on in labor markets around the world?

LinkedIn 's Chief Economist?Karin Kimbrough ?recently sat down with?me?to talk about the latest data about the?#economy ,?#hiring ?and?#unemployment ?around the globe. You can catch conversations between Karin and myself every month on?#GetHired ?Live and in this newsletter.

You can also find the latest data and insights from LinkedIn's Economic Graph team in their newsletter - State of the Labor Market .

Confidence is a powerful tool in many areas of life, including job searches and careers. Selena Rezvani is a sought-after speaker and the author of the upcoming book Quick Confidence: Be Authentic, Boost Connections, and Make Bold Bets on Yourself . She joined the latest episode of #GetHired with Andrew Seaman to talk with me about what job seekers can do to build and maintain their confidence during the process.

You can read a transcript of the conversation or listen to the discussion by clicking here .

Selena also joined my LinkedIn News colleague Brandi Fowler on Monday to answer LinkedIn members' questions about confidence. You can catch a replay by clicking here .

COMING UP: LinkedIn recently released its annual Future of Recruiting report . We're talking with one of its contributors on the next episode of my #GetHired podcast. Dan Schawbel , who is a New York Times bestselling author and an expert on everything work, chatted with me about what job seekers should know about looking for work over the next year. Follow my podcast wherever you like to listen, including Apple Podcasts , so you don't miss the episode.?

Dan will then join Brandi on Monday, April 3, at noon ET on #GetHired Live to answer your questions about job searching in modern times. You can RSVP for that live conversation by clicking here or the accompanying image .

• How do you remember your self-worth after a layoff? (By Todd Dybas ) The connection between self-worth and work success can make a layoff a potent blow to how we perceive ourselves. Harvard Business Review contributor Vivek Gulati writes he was ashamed when laid off in the past. His most-recent layoff, via email from Google, made him invoke the lessons learned from prior layoffs. Gulati likes to keep a daily routine when unemployed, find a way to help someone else and work to understand what happened and how to move on. He says that self-care can shift your perspective of a layoff, so it appears as an opportunity to change or grow. Click here to learn more.
• Is the work-from-home era ending? (By Ben Cousins ) The work-from-home era for millions of employees may have ended. A new report from the United States Department of Labor found that 72.5% of establishments were working remotely "rarely or never" in 2022, a 12.4% increase from 2021. This comes amid recent news that major companies such as Disney, Meta, and Starbucks are expecting employees to come into the office more frequently. Flexible work isn't completely ending, however, as staffing firm ManpowerGroup reports that 13% of current job postings are for remote positions. Click here to see what people are saying about the trend .
• Is demand for tech talent over? (By Cate Chapman ) The most tech layoffs since the dot-com crash more than two decades ago has yet to affect demand for talent . Contract workers often still command $120 an hour and employees in the sector earn almost twice the average pay in the U.S. The reason: Tech is so heavily embedded in the U.S. economy now, accounting for the biggest share of market value in the S&P 500 (25%), that the need “to deliver the next new thing” remains. And even after 300,000 job losses in the industry, the contraction is largely seen as a resetting after the pandemic-fueled hiring binge. Here's what people are saying about it .

The LinkedIn News team is fortunate to chat with leaders from all over the world about their careers and what they've learned during their work. I want to share this LinkedIn Learning course with you, featuring many of the best tidbits from those conversations. You can watch below or by clicking here .