It has become a well-worn fact that technology is gushing into offices throughout the country and the world, modernizing business processes, bringing new workforces up to speed, and generating far higher profits for a range of industries. It’s an inevitability that the more we move into the digital and data-driven age, the more jobs will become automated, with only the tech-savvy remaining in the workplace to help administer digital processes.
Until then, though, this article focuses on the ways in which you can train and become digitally savvy to the extent that your career surfs the wave of technology that’s slowly saturating the business world.
Specialize Early.
The first piece of advice is to recognize the fact that you’re going to be working hand-in-hand with technology all your life. You already have a smartphone that you don’t go anywhere without and a laptop that you take to school, to friends’ houses, and even on holiday. Technology is an extension of ourselves, but being well-acquainted with such technologies is a huge asset in business.
As such, it is advised that you take a special interest in technology as soon as you can in your career. Try to take training sessions that show you the ropes in using complex software and programs, but also look online for tutorials and courses that’ll help you determine how to best use the software that you currently have installed on your computer. The more you learn, the more employable you’ll be.
Gain Basic Skills.
Brushing up on the most basic skills in IT might seem a little pointless, but it’s imperative that you’re able to do all simple tasks so that you don’t appear naïve and poorly-adjusted to the digital age in front on your employer.
These simple tasks might include:
- Exporting documents in different formats.
- Putting together a dynamic slideshow to present to your bosses.
- Being able to run complex formulae in Excel programs.
- Word processing like a pro – including speedy touch-typing.
- Being able to navigate the web with ease to find relevant information.
- Using email and other centralized workplace software routinely.
With all of these basic skills under your belt, it’s time for you to start experimenting with more complex layers of digital technology and longer lines of that all-important digital code.
Learning to Code.
Coding might seem like a different language – and quite often that’s exactly how it feels in your first weeks of learning – but you’ll be surprised how quickly you can pick this one up. It’s not a case of spending heart-wrenching hours reading huge tomes of books with the syntax of previous coding languages translated for you – it’s actually fairly easy.
All you’re going to need to concentrate on is a course online – usually the paid ones are better – that shows you the basics and the slightly more complex format of the coding world. Advanced coding is often simply learned through experience and extra knowledge you glean from courses, forums and conferences. But, the coding that can help you in your career is more basic, and the language you learn when you are younger will serve you throughout the duration of your career, whichever industry you choose to work in.
Studying Something Special.
We now come to the exciting sharp end – the cutting edge of what you can do to ride that tidal wave of tech right through to the higher echelons of a company’s hierarchy. If you want to make something of yourself in business, you need to be talented at handling the world’s new, most expensive and valuable resource. You know what that is – it’s data.
Being able to understand the power of data and manipulate it to serve various purposes is one of the most employable and exciting characteristics of people entering the job market for advanced digital age jobs. There’s no doubt that training as a data scientist or analyst will provide you with a job for life, so look into a Data Science Masters online studied at UNSW Sydney Online in order to get the requisite skills and gain the knowhow and confidence to waltz into a new company, rattle through their data banks, and start drawing out exciting and valuable insights from their data reservoirs.
Become a Digital Strategist.
The other way you can go about studying and training to be a digital age worker is to take a broader approach. This involves subscribing to technology magazines and journals, heading to workshops, seminars and classes, and generally keeping up to date at the cutting edge of all technology that can be related to your industry. In this way, you’ll have a valuable overview that your company can fall back on to explain complex phenomena in the digital world.
More than that, you can actually start connecting the dots to such an extent that you’ll be able to become a full-on digital strategist, helping navigate your company through the shape-shifting landscape of the digital world, pointing out potential assets and dangers on the road ahead. With your wide-ranging knowledge, you’ll be able to hop from company to company, too, providing your knowledge to multiple businesses across your career.
Acknowledge the Limits.
Finally, it is important to understand limits of technology for business and society. While we’re striving to make tech that works towards convenience and automation, technology that can improve our lives in ways we couldn’t even have imagine a decade ago. We’re also realizing that a life filled with tech can be unfulfilling. People are choosing increasingly to ‘switch off’ or to have a ‘digital detox’ in order to reconnect with the real world.
As someone aiming to ride the wave of technology as it rushes into every nook of the business world, ensure that you’re not overpowered the current. Those same old rules, such as not taking mobile devices into bed or spending all day looking at a screen, apply the most for people working all day in tech. Ensure you’re striking the right balance to lead a healthy and fulfilled life with your family.
These tips are all designed to help you get ahead in business by realizing the awesome capacity of tech to make our lives better. Hopefully, you’ll emerge from this article with a new zeal for studying, learning and applying your knowledge to businesses throughout your career.
