We all felt this way before; what’s the point of learning something that’s completely outside your scope of work or studies? If you had to take language or science classes as a history major in college, you probably feel strongly about this. And on the surface, it makes sense. Why does someone specializing in Shakespeare need to learn about physics? Or why does someone studying biology need to learn Spanish?
While we’ll hear your arguments on those two questions, tech is a completely different story altogether. After the pandemic and due to fast-moving innovation, technologies have been evolving incredibly fast and almost every sector and industry is relying on tech to continue advancing and keep up with the competition.
What does this mean? Well, we’re not saying that you need to learn every programming language known to man for your marketing job, but learning about UX/UI design and data analysis would certainly give you a leg up. And that’s not even mentioning the virtues of being aware of cyber threats.
Tech in 2023
You might think of tech professionals as nerds who sit behind their computer screens all day, typing away at confusing looking codes or reading endless pages of data. And we’re not going to lie–there’s certainly a few like that. But the advance of tech means that tech is infiltrating almost every single sector; whether you work in sales, real estate, marketing, education, or healthcare, tech is probably becoming an increasingly present part of your day to day.
Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and automation are the main trends we’re seeing, but it’s not going to stop there. So even if you’re completely against the idea of learning any kind of tech, we promise it can be quite helpful. We know deciding what to learn can be a challenge in and of itself, so keep reading and discover the best tech skills for non-tech professionals and why taking on these skills is so crucial.
Why are tech skills important for me?
No matter your industry or career focus, tech skills are absolutely crucial for success. Don’t believe us? Take a look:
More job opportunities: we mentioned it above and we’ll say it once again: tech is growing and advancing and more and more companies are seeking out skilled professionals who know how to use new technologies. Adding these key skills to your resume can help you stand out from the crowd.
Increased productivity and problem-solving skills: technology is here to help us and by taking advantage of all the tools at our disposal, not just the ones with which we’re familiar, we can reach never before seen levels of productivity and problem-solving.
Better time management and efficiency: you can forget about spending hours inputting data into a spreadsheet; learning how to use time saving tools can help you get more work done in less time.
Improved cybersecurity: as tech advances, so do cybersecurity threats and between phishing, malware, data breaches, and identity theft, threats are all around us. As you become more comfortable with technology, you’ll be better equipped to handle any possible threat before it becomes an issue.
Tech Skills (for non-techies)
We’ve chosen five skills that, even if you’re technologically challenged, can be mastered with a bit of study and focus. These skills, once understood, will help you in your role (no matter where you work!)
Programming
A lot of project lifecycles live and breathe coding and if you’re woefully lost about the basics of programming, it can be easy to lose track of progress or catch problems before they cause issues. Learning some programming can help you not only better understand your own websites and apps, but also develop your abstract and concept-level thinking skills.
Low-code platforms
Complicated programming systems aren’t the only option; in fact, Gartner predicts that 65% of all software development activity will be low code by 2024. These platforms serve as an alternative to modern software development tools and require only a basic knowledge of programming and tech; this skill will allow you to take on lots more tasks without dedicating too much time to studying the new skill.
UX/UI design
This frequently underestimated branch of tech is actually quite crucial and manifests in a number of ways; understanding what users want and what works for them is the basis of selling basically any product or service. After all, marketing and social media strategies are fully based in understanding the user and creating content specifically for a particular group.
Data analysis
Collecting data, such as what users want more of or what they don’t like, is essential only if that data can then be used and understood. Data analysis includes data collection and organization, using different storage and analysis methods to read and determine what message the data sends. This skill is again incredibly important for a wide range of jobs and sectors.
Data visualization
Analyzing and collecting data is great–if you know how to communicate that data to the rest of your team. If you work on a generally not-number focused team, showing them lots of numbers with no further information could result in a complete waste of time; data visualization is the practice of displaying data and results in a way that allows everyone, not just data scientists, to understand what it shows.
The benefits of learning new tech skills are simply unmatched, no matter your current role or career goals. In fact, new tech skills may let you reach heights you never even thought were possible. If you’re ready to take on the challenge and dedicate time to learning new skills, Ironhack’s bootcamps are the best place to start. We can’t wait to see you soon!
