Future-Proof Your Career: Five Skills to Boost Your Resume

Flexible work environments, evolving technologies, and a more connected world have changed the job market significantly in recent years. New opportunities have opened up in budding industries, but we’ve also seen increased layoffs.

If you’re wondering what to do when you lose your job or if you’re looking to make your next career move, one of the best steps you can take is to invest in building new skills.

Whether you’re seeking a new job, striving for a promotion, or just trying to make yourself more valuable to employers, this article explores five high-demand skills to boost your resume.

1. Sales and Persuasion

Sales and persuasion are not just for salespeople or related professionals. At their core, these skills are about understanding people’s goals and problems and then demonstrating how you can help fix those problems and reach them.

This can help you in any field with the following:

• Interviews: Good sales skills help you sell yourself to employers, increasing your success and landing new roles.
• Promotions and raises: You may have to make your case for a raise or promotion to your boss. Being good at persuasion can be a huge help here.
• Networking: Soft-selling yourself at networking events can lead to future career or business opportunities.

2. Digital Literacy

Digital literacy represents your ability to access, analyze, and communicate info with digital tools and technologies.

More professions require these skills by the day, whether using internal office software, handling social media platforms, or navigating cloud software tools.

For example, financial professionals often need several tools to properly manage and streamline financial planning. Learning to navigate these tools makes them more efficient and effective at their jobs.

Part of digital literacy is also staying on top of new technologies. If you can demonstrate abilities to adapt to new tools and trends as applicable to your field, such as AI and machine learning, you may have an easier time finding great career opportunities.

3. Leadership and People Management

Leadership and management skills could offer you senior-level or management opportunities at a company. People management is more than just overseeing tasks. Great managers know how to guide and motivate their teams to do their best while balancing strengths, weaknesses, and work styles. They can make a team more than the sum of its members.

Employers may find you invaluable if you foster a work environment that employees love to be in, strengthening productivity and employee retention.

4. Presentation and Public Speaking Skills

Professionals in most fields can benefit greatly from strong presentation and public speaking skills. They come in handy for client pitches, meetings, business conferences, and even job interviews.

Effective presentations and public speaking are not just about conveying the information well, either. The best public speakers understand how to engage their particular audience, answer questions confidently, and stay calm and composed when the stakes are high.

Practicing these skills at home or by joining public-speaking focused organizations could make you a valuable asset to many employers.

5. Languages

Learning another language can open up many new career opportunities. This is because knowing more languages allows you to communicate with more customers, clients, and teams at organizations. Plus, you could relocate more easily to countries where that language is spoken.

For example, if you have a solid grasp of the German language, you could move into a position that has you interact with employees based out of Germany or travel there for business.

Some of the most in-demand languages besides English include:

• Mandarin Chinese
• German
• Spanish
• Arabic

Acquire These Skills for More Career Opportunities

Investing in your skillset can be an excellent way to secure your future career. The good news is you don’t need to learn them all at once. Developing just a few skills at a time, alongside your industry-specific knowledge, will help you stay competitive in the job market and open up amazing career opportunities.

Media Contact Information

Source: Northwestern Mutual

Contact: Don Klein, 1-800-323-7033

Country: USA