A marketable skill-set is not just a matter of maintaining the skills you’ve developed, but consistently cultivating new key job skills to keep you competitive for jobs and any entrepreneurial projects you may decide to pursue.

You’ve heard it before, “You have the skills you need to do jobs in many sectors whether inside or beyond the academy.” Even I’ve provided training to shine light on the transferable skills you already possess.

Still, there may be times you need to enhance the tools in your toolkit. At Beyond the Tenure Track, we believe that you should focus your skills-building. Time and money are precious so you want to invest in building skills that support your personal and professional development goals.

There are a few skills that you should have whatever career path you pursue. These skills are valuable and necessary in order for you to stand out as a leader in your department as well as to be competitive for non-academic jobs. 

  •  Financial understanding, budget management
  •  Presentations and Public speaking (especially for broad audiences)
  •  Project management
  •  Self assessment and career planning (important for every level of your work and career from  deciding on your first job to evaluating future offers later in your career)
  •  Networking, relationship development
  •  Written communications, especially across sectors, job functions and disciplines
  •  Business acumen and entrepreneurialism
  •  Excel
  •  Powerpoint/Keynote
  •  Social media creation management

Here are a few resources especially curated for you where you can brush up on new, relevant skills. Did I mention that many of these resources are free or low cost? You’re welcome 🙂 

General Assembly 

Skillcrush

Lynda.com 

StartUp Institute 

Data Incubator 

Coursera

iTunesU

Udemy

Options for Success 

Kellogg University Management Course for Scientists and Engineers

Helpful Tip: Don’t forget to look into the valuable resources available at your local community college, where you can take non credit courses such as Excel, Access, project management certification.

What skills do you have that may need sharpening? Knowing where to go to keep yourself competitive in whatever job field you’d like is key to continued career development. Which of the resources above look interesting to you? Feel free to add your favorite skills-building resources to the comments below. Someone in the BTTT community may benefit from your insights. 

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