As technology continues to integrate itself into more business areas and becomes the core of more critical functions, keeping your skills up to date is a requirement in order to stay competitive within the ever-evolving information technology field. Innovations come at a pace that practically requires a continuous learning approach, as it is not acceptable to simply rest on the skills of yesterday to help you progress into tomorrow.
If you aren’t convinced that your IT skills need to evolve, consider the following.
Your Old Skills May Not Be Relevant
Certain IT skills that used to be considered the gold standard have since been rendered obsolete by changing technology and increases in the general skill levels of other IT professionals and regular users. Older coding languages may not be widely in use within the business world.
In order to remain competitive, update your skills to reflect the marketplace. This can include introducing yourself to newer technologies that are becoming replacements for areas that used to be a core skills area within your resume. In cases where some demand still exists for your current skills, cross training into other areas that perform similar functions can help broaden your appeal as you not only understand the legacy systems but can work with newer technologies as well.
Additional Education Can Demonstrate Your Passion for the Work
Keeping your skills current, whether through on-the-job training or traditional educational opportunities, demonstrates you are willing to move along with the changing field. This shows that you are dedicated to the subject matter, but are not afraid to change with the times. It also gives you the opportunity to expand your horizons by educating yourself in areas that are in demand, allowing you to shift between a wider variety of duties or responsibilities in the workplace.
Who knows? It can even be fun to learn those new skills especially if you are able to choose the direction of your training. As a person of influence at your job, proactively finding new training opportunities will show that you are eager and willing to stay on top of your game.
New Trends Produce New Needs
The idea of having a mobile strategy would have been met with raised eyebrows just 15 years ago, and cloud computing was hardly a thought. As these technologies become everyday parts of doing business, having the technology experts available to support them has become increasingly important, especially as many of the areas are not currently educational specialties in a collegiate sense.
Along with the newer technologies come new security concerns. Vulnerabilities have to be considered in a world where the access point for sensitive data is not as centralized as it was when everything was simply contained within a business’ network.
IT professionals who take the time to educate themselves in these growth areas give themselves a higher chance of finding suitable opportunities for advancement within their current places of employment, or with others. Staying ahead of the technology curve also increases your level of job security when compared to those with less applicable skills in regards to today’s IT environment.
If you want help making sure your IT skills fit the current market, the professionals at ESP can help you keep your career moving in the right direction. Submit your resume today!
ESP IN THE NEWS
