3 Career Skills You Can Develop During Quarantine

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people all over the world have been forced to stay inside their homes.

So what do you now with all the time you’ve never had before? Being stuck indoors may feel restricting, but what you have now is the perfect opportunity to learn and master new skills that will make you more valuable as a professional.

With access to many resources like workshops, webinars, and online universities, it’s never been this easy to develop career skills at home.

Here are the most useful ones you can learn during the lockdown:

Coding

Whether you’re a freelance writer, a website designer, a blogger, or in any job that requires you to build your own website, having coding skills will make you more marketable.

Since it’s still rare for non-technical professionals to have coding skills, expertise in coding can help you earn more money down the road.

According to a survey conducted by Codecademy in 2017, nearly 30 percent of respondents said learning to code helped them make more money in their careers.

Given this, what coding languages should you learn? When building your own website, you’ll have to learn the two most dominant computer languages used – HTML and CSS.

• HTML (HyperText Markup Language) – This allows you to create and structure sections, paragraphs, headings, links, and blockquotes in your website.
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) – This is the presentation language used to style the appearance of your content — using, for example, fonts or colors.

With the ability to create websites from scratch, you can brand your content based on the exact format and style you — or your boss — want.

A second language

According to language recruitment agency Euro London, being fluent in a second language in jobs like sales, marketing or technical support can add between 10 to 15 percent in wages. 

This shows that learning a second language is a wise investment for you, whether you’re a graduating student or already in the workforce.

According to Lifehack, these are five of the most useful languages to learn if you want to make more money and improve your career.

• German – In the US, a bilingual who speaks German tends to earn more because fluency in German is a relatively rare skill. More American companies are now working with German companies, and are thus in a position to hire more individuals who are fluent in German.
• French – After English, French is the most widely learned language worldwide. Learning French will open doors to many French companies in not only France but in other French-speaking countries like Canada, Belgium and Switzerland.
• Mandarin – It’s no secret that China is becoming one of the world’s top economies. According to Ascentator, a search firm based in London, the demand for executive positions by American and multinational companies in China has risen by 35 percent compared to the previous years.

What’s more, The Economist reported that you can earn varying annual salary bonuses depending on the exact second language you’re proficient in. Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Spanish – Up to 1.5 percent more annual bonus
• French – Up to 2.3 percent more annual bonus
• German – Up to 3.8 percent more annual bonus

Project management

Even if you’re not aiming to become a full-fledged project manager, you’d be amazed by the many uses of basic project management skills in your life.

From learning how to budget effectively to accomplishing deadlines faster, here are ways a project management course could be beneficial.

• Learning how to budget – Did you know that up to one-third of Americans have absolutely zero savings? Project managers are able to track costs at all times throughout their projects. No expenditure is left unaccounted for. This helps them better track where they are at with the budget. Imagine if you’re able to apply these same project management skills to your personal budget, how much money would you save?
• Accomplish goals faster – Effective project managers know that no business is taken on without effective planning. Project management courses allow you to not only examine your goals but come up with actionable steps toward achieving them.
• Meet your deadlines on time – Up to 40 percent of people have experienced some kind of financial loss due to procrastination. Project management courses will allow you to create strategies, like creating effective to-do lists, to keep you on track with your tasks.
• Spot problems sooner – One of the key traits of a good project manager is being able to spot problems before they even snowball. Even if you don’t aim at becoming a full-time project manager, the ability to address issues before they even happen will be very useful.

Take advantage of this period to update your resume and learn new skills that will surely benefit your career.

These are just some of the things that you can learn at home, so you can come out of the lockdown as an improved professional.