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MyStartr Skills Ladder: Technical Skills
February 06, 2023 .4 minute read
What is it?
These are the practical skills — technology-related, or mathematical, or mechanical — that you’ll need to perform the day-to-day tasks of your role. Whether technical skills are job-specific or apply across an entire industry, a huge part of your future success depends on how quickly and effectively you can expand these capabilities. Identifying the specific requirements of a position and connecting them to skills you’ve already developed will help you stand out in an interview.
What does it mean in the workplace?
Technical skills can range from operating a cash register or multi-line phone to knowing how to use Excel or a video editing app. Often these are skills you’ll have to learn and/or improve on the job. Employers understand this — hiring managers look for someone who’s ready and willing to learn. This is where having confidence and a growth mindset can really make a difference. You may have never taken inventory before, for example, or created an email promo, but showing that you’re eager to tackle these kinds of challenges is the key first step.
As a younger employee, you’re ideally positioned to pick up new technical skills. After all, your generation has grown up with digital technology. Also, you can take advantage of the many free learning tools that are readily available online. Here are a few resources for gaining valuable career-building skills:
LinkedIn Learning
Harvard Free Courses
Grow with Google
Coursera
How do employers talk about creativity?
• “Fast learner”
• “Tech-savvy”
• “Quick, accurate keyboarding”
Video Review:
Reflection
Take some time: Think of an experience at school or elsewhere in your life when you’ve had to learn something that was not totally familiar or in fact completely new to you — and maybe even a bit intimidating at first. What steps did you take to break the subject down and learn it step by step?
