The combination of a rapidly changing world economy, greater competition in the workplace, and a deeper understanding of what drives productivity has resulted in a greater demand for a diverse skill set.

Because of this, you need to consistently be working to improve your own skill set to both broaden and deepen your capability.woman-working-laptop-living-room

Every craft, industry, and business is different. However, there are certain career skills that are valued over all overs. The only problem is, the skills that are valued most now are completely different to what was valued even a few short years ago.

That’s why we’ve gathered a list of the most valuable career skills for 2018, an up-to-date recap of what employers and executives value the most — these will place you in a position to achieve maximum success and earning power.

Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.

– A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

The Most Valuable Career Skills of 2018

Based on a LinkedIn survey of 2,000 business leaders, here are the most sought-after career skills:

Soft skills

The way we approach productivity and efficiency in the workplace has evolved, and soft skills are more sought after than ever.

There are only a few really key soft skills you’ll want to develop, however, each one of them can offer a lot of value with respect to your career:

1. Leadership

Leadership is arguably the most important skill on this list for career growth and advancement. It not only has to do with improving your ability to work in a group setting, but also how to produce results and take action.

Learn to be a better leader

I can think of few people better to learn about leadership than Seth Godin. Over the past several years, high-level experts in various subjects have begun jumping into the online course industry and, as a result, we get to benefit by learning from the masters.

And that’s exactly what you get with Seth Godin’s Leadership Workshop, presented by Acumen.

Learn how to improve your leadership skills on Udemy

2. Communication

Communication is one of the most fundamental career skills. Communication skills include listening, speaking more intentionally, public speaking, and communicating big ideas (among many others), all skills that are highly valued in the workplace.

Learn to improve your communication

Our understanding of what it means to communicate effectively has evolved quite a bit over the past decade, and the Advanced Communication Skills for 21st Century Leaders online class does a great job of illustrating those changes as well as teaching you what you need to know to put those advanced communication skills into action.

Learn how to improve your communication skills on Udemy

3. Collaboration

Collaboration is a bit of a vague term. However, no one can argue that learning to work with others better is a critical skill in the workplace. Like each of the other soft skills on this list, collaboration includes several different skills baked into one master skill, but covers things like collaborative workflows and bouncing and developing ideas.

Learn to collaborate more effectively

As we just spoke about, collaboration is a bit nebulous. However, Learn How to Survive in the Open Workspace Environment is the ideal resource for learning everything you need, including how to deal with toxic colleagues and understanding energy.

Learn to collaborate more effectively on Udemy

4. Time management

Time management is one of the quintessential productivity skills. And, the great part about putting some thought into improving your time management skills is that if you’re effective with your time, people will take notice quickly.

Learn time management

Time management includes a large umbrella of potential productivity and efficiency techniques. One great course that does this is Learn Time Management, Get Organized & Get Everything Done on Udemy. If time management is something you believe you could use some work on, it’s a great place to start.

Learn time-management on Udemy

Hard skills

leader-working-computer

Photo Credit: LinkedIn Sales Navigator on Unsplash

Hard skills are both straightforward in their nature while also being much more diverse.

If you’re in college still trying to figure out your direction or are considering a career change, the list below can help inform your next career decision.

Data from LinkedIn’s over 500 million members shed light on the most valuable hard skills for 2018:

1. Cloud and Distributed Computing

Associated jobs include:

  1. Platform Engineer – $120,000
  2. Cloud Architect – $135,000

Course recommendations:

2. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining

Associated jobs include:

  1. Business Analyst – $72,000
  2. Data Analyst – $62,000
  3. Statistician – $90,200

Course recommendation:

3. Middleware and Integration Software

Associated jobs include:

  1. IT Manager – $95,000
  2. Systems Integration Engineer – $98,000

Course recommendation:

4. Web Architecture and Development Framework

Associated jobs include:

  1. Web developer – $65,000
  2. Full Stack Web Developer – $77,000

Course recommendation:

5. User Interface Design

Associated jobs include:

  1. UX Designer – $85,000
  2. Web Developer – $65,000
  3. UI Designer – $72,000

Course recommendation:

6. Software Revision Control Systems

Associated jobs include:

  1. Web Developer – $65,000
  2. Software Programmer – $64,000

Course recommendation:

7. Data Presentation

Associated jobs include:

  1. Graphic Designer – $45,000
  2. Data Scientist – $113,000
  3. Business Consultant – $83,000

Course recommendations:

8. SEO/SEM Marketing

Associated jobs include:

  1. Marketing Specialist – $49,000
  2. Online Marketing Manager – $80,000
  3. Advertising Manager – $61,200

Course recommendations:

9. Mobile Development

Associated jobs include:

  1. Mobile Engineer – $95,000
  2. Mobile Application Developer – $83,800

Course recommendation:

10. Network and Information Security

Associated jobs include:

  1. Information Security Specialist – $96,000
  2. Cyber Security Specialist – $92,500

Course recommendation:

11. Marketing Campaign Management

Associated jobs include:

  1. Online Marketing Manager – $80,000
  2. Digital Marketing Specialist – $52,000
  3. Digital Marketing Manager – $77,000

Course recommendation:

12. Data Engineering and Data Warehousing

Associated jobs include:

  1. Software Engineer – $95,000
  2. Database Developer – $85,000
  3. Data Analyst – $62,000

Course recommendations:

13. Storage Systems and Management

Associated jobs include:

  1. Database Administrator – $91,000
  2. System Administrator – $68,800

Course recommendation:

14. Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Associated jobs include:

  1. Electrical Engineer – $81,000
  2. Electronic Engineer – $88,400

Course recommendation:

15. Algorithm Design

Associated jobs include:

  1. Software Engineer – $95,000
  2. Lead Software Engineer – $120,000
  3. Lead Developer – $109,000

Course recommendation:

16. Perl/Python/Ruby

Associated jobs include:

  1. Software Engineer – $95,000
  2. Data Scientist – $113,000

Course recommendations:

17. Shell Scripting Languages

Associated jobs include:

  1. Linux System Administrator – $75,000
  2. System Engineer – $90,000
  3. Java Developer – $80,000

Course recommendation:

18. Mac, Linux and Unix Systems

Associated jobs include:

  1. System Administrator – $68,800
  2. Linux System Administrator – $75,000

Course recommendation:

19. Java Development

Associated jobs include:

  1. Java Developer – $80,000
  2. Web Developer – $65,000

Course recommendation:

20. Business Intelligence

Associated jobs include:

  1. Business Intelligence Analyst – $73,000
  2. Forecast Analyst – $64,000

Course recommendation:

21. Software QA and User Testing

Associated jobs include:

  1. User Experience Engineer – $85,000
  2. Software Test Engineer – $80,000
  3. Quality Assurance Engineer – $77,000

Course recommendation:

22. Virtualization

Associated jobs include:

  1. Network Engineer – $82,000
  2. Network Administrator – $65,000

Course recommendation:

23. Automotive Services, Parts and Design

Associated jobs include:

  1. Vehicle Engineer – $96,500
  2. Industrial Designer – $63,600

Course recommendations:

24. Economics

Associated jobs include:

  1. Business Development Manager – $99,000
  2. Auditor – $56,000
  3. Research Analyst – $56,400

Course recommendation:

25. Database Management and Software

Associated jobs include:

  1. Database Specialist – $53,000
  2. Database Administrator – $91,000

Course recommendation:


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