If you want to take your career to the next level, learn a high-income skill. High-income skills are skill sets that are in increasingly high demand, and provide specialized, valuable expertise. Due to their uniqueness, urgent need, and scarcity, high-income skills tend to command greater compensation in the job market and in the business world if you are venturing out on your own as an entrepreneur.
When your abilities and expertise are in demand, you will experience a rewarding career, because you will be able to see how the fruits of your hard-earned skills drive business success for others and deliver value. In this way you can improve the world while simultaneously boosting your income.
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What Are Some High-Income Skills?
Some examples of high-income skills include:
- Data analytics
- Software development and programming
- Digital marketing
- Project management
- Leadership
- Proficiency in two or more languages
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One of the most important characteristics of these skills is that not only are they well-compensated, but they are extremely transferable across multiple industries. This further enhances your earning potential because if you dislike working in one specific sector, it's easier to make a career pivot and shift your skill set to an industry that pays more for you skills. For instance, data analysis is needed in every organization, regardless of the industry or market it operates in.
But pay might vary significantly depending on the location, company, and industry.
For example, working as a project manager at a non-profit, and being a project manager in a tech firm would be at two entirely different ends of the pay range.
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Now that you're aware of what high-income skills are, the next question is, where do you go to learn them?
Below is a list of helpful tools and resources that can kickstart your career journey into these fields if you're not already familiar with them, or at the very least, refresh and expand your existing knowledge:
1. Project Management Institute
PMI (Project Management Institute) is the leading body on project management, with a membership organization for ongoing professional development, that has regular and annual events, and chapters all over the world. The institute has a range of online and in-person project management courses that are PMI-certified, and are widely recognized by employers globally.
2. Toastmasters
Toastmasters is another membership organization that is dedicated specifically to improving the practice of public speaking and delivering presentations effectively. They have chapters located all around the world and you can attend their local meet-ups to practice your public speaking skills and gain confidence presenting to people in a more relaxed setting. It also allows you to receive and deliver presentation feedback.
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Not only will developing your public speaking skills help you become more efficient at communicating clearly as a leader, project manager, or any other profession, it can help significantly with forging a new career as a public speaker. You could be invited to speak at conferences and events, or conduct training courses within your area of expertise as an industry thought leader, which pays significantly.
3. HubSpot Academy
To build your digital marketing, social media engagement, business analytics, or customer engagement skills, HubSpot Academy has a library of hundreds of online courses. These courses include a variety of in-demand topics, such as LinkedIn for business, advertizing on Instagram, HubSpot fundamentals and tools for developers, web and app design, and even content strategy creation and sales training.
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4. GitHub
On GitHub, you can practice your coding skills; the platform allows you to create new code and store it, and learn and collaborate with others at different levels of their software development journeys. GitHub also has specific learning pathways to help you gain practical technical skills, and to learn about automation and security.
5. LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn has a library of thousands of short courses and learning pathways on its LinkedIn Learning platform, which are conducted as on-screen walkthrough tutorials, or videos led by experts passionate about their subject matter, who have been verified by LinkedIn. LinkedIn Learning can help you gain a wide range of career skills such as sales, customer engagement and relationships, marketing, and leadership skills.
6. Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Creative Cloud is to design what Microsoft Office is to workplace productivity. You can use the Cloud's comprehensive suite of apps for practice, to sharpen the design skills necessary for all creative projects such as video editing, interior design, prototyping, and social media marketing graphics. The apps included in Adobe Creative Cloud include InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, to name a few. There is also a plethora of courses available online to help you learn how to use these tools effectively.
7. Google Analytics Academy
If you're seeking to learn data analysis, Google Analytics Academy has a selection of Google Analytics courses which you can take online, appropriate to different experience levels, from entry level beginners to what they term "power users". They also have course playlists that you can look up on YouTube.
8. Coursera
Of course, when considering tools and resources to further one's career development and skills, one of the first that come to mind is Coursera. Coursera's platform provides easily accessible online courses and even offers degree courses from leading recognized universities, some at a more affordable cost than pursuing the traditional degree route. Coursera has also partnered with Google to provide courses such as in project management, cybersecurity, and IT support.
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Here are eight other tools and resources to further develop your skills into high-income skills, in a relatively short time:
- Udemy—for video courses on almost every topic
- Codeacademy—to learn coding for free
- Kaggle—a data science competition platform and online community
- Google Ads Certification—for digital marketing across Google
- Duolingo—for learning new languages
- Facebook (Meta) Blueprint—to learn digital skills for social media advertizing
- Asana Academy—for learning about team workflow and project management
- Harvard University (free courses)—for leadership development
As you persistently learn and update yourself on industry trends, you will be able to maintain and enhance your high-income skills, and reach your financial and career goals even sooner than you initially thought possible. Before embarking on any of the above platforms, set yourself some goals and a roadmap, and get a coach or the support of a mentor to guide, support, and provide you with accountability in your skills-building journey.
