Advancing Your Tech Skills

As you advance through your career, you will have the opportunity to grow your technical and leadership skills in an ever-evolving tech industry. Additional skills help your career development by staying current with emerging trends. Learning something new leads to new opportunities. When you refresh your skills, you get to consider your interests, what technologies excite you, and where to focus your efforts in a fast-paced environment. Still, with so many trends, buzzwords, and new technologies available, it can be challenging to focus on an achievable and career-relevant goal. 

As you reflect on where you want to put your efforts, consider the following steps to craft your plan.

Defining Your Goals and Motivations

Start by defining a goal and separating it from the skills you'll need. Getting clear on your long-term and short-term goals can help guide you to the proper steps to attain them through upskilling. Ask yourself these questions to align your plan, motivation, and expectations:

• What am I looking for? (Example: new skill for a promotion, a job opportunity, or to increase your salary capacity)

• Will this new skill help me stand out? (Example: current or new employer) 

• Am I looking to be a leading expert in my current field or transition to a new one? 

• Do I need to learn this skill for immediate application, or am I learning it because it excites me?

Asking yourself these questions will clarify your motivation and help further define your goals. Use research to understand your goals better and the process and tools you'll need to achieve them. 

In Hired's 2023 State of Software Engineering report, respondents stated that "the biggest motivator remains the simple joy of learning new things (40%). The second highest motivator was more practical: their current job requires it (25%)." Depending on what your motivation is, it might affect how you craft your learning plan as you decide: 

• Your timeline for learning this skill. 

• What resources do you need to learn this skill, e.g., courses or certifications, technical conferences to attend, and learning materials to purchase?

• What support do you need to learn this skill, e.g., a mentor, technical community, or perhaps a learning grant from your company? 

Research

Once you've defined your goals, it's time to research. The research will help you understand your next steps, give you relevant and up-to-date information about the process and industry standards, and confirm your motivation and expectations to be successful. 

Your individual goals will determine what areas you need to upskill- technical or soft skills. Your research will help guide your learning plan. There are many ways to do your research beyond searching online alone: 

• Attend tech events and watch talks to learn what other engineers are doing. In the Mobile and Web space, you can join the upcoming Women Who Code Dev Summit: Mobile & Web on Wednesday, May 24th. Registration is open now.

• Follow industry leaders and companies on social media. For example, the Women Who Code LinkedIn page shares stories on trends and developments in the industry.

• Asking fellow technologists in your digital communities like WWCode Slack channels what they are learning. 

• Read industry articles and newsletters like WWCode's Code Review for the latest news.

Create a Learning Plan

Once you decide on a skill, time, and end date, create a learning plan. A learning plan can be formal or informal, especially if you are learning independently. Whether in project management software, an empty document, or even a hand-written journal, writing down your goal with details will help you establish a timeline. 

Use this time and space to reflect on how you'll know you've achieved the goal. Continue documenting your thoughts and progress throughout the process. Eventually, this will become your brag book as you check off accomplishments and keep regular updates on all the steps taken to achieve them.

In your learning plan, you can also list what support you have and what additional help you need to ask for. For example, if you choose a skill directly related to your job, you may need to ask for financial support from your manager or company. You may also need to re-prioritize different daily tasks for a certain period. If you decide to learn a new skill motivated by your desire to learn outside of your work responsibilities, you'll need to think about what you might need to organize in your personal life to create more space for this learning. Will you need to explain to friends and family that you will be busier than usual? Will you need to ask your support network for extra support in your daily non-professional life?

Your upskilling plan is personal to you. When you detail and map out your plan, you can achieve realistic goals and set yourself up for success. 

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