Let’s say you’ve done the whole resume-preparing, job interview thing and it hasn’t worked. For whatever reason, people aren’t biting. One thing you can do while you are waiting for people to call is to improve your resume by adding new skills.
One way you can do this is to take online courses. Let’s say you want to add a programming language, or want to become more proficient in a particular application (i.e. Excel, Quicken). You can do this for under $10 if you are a crafty shopper! You will likely be watching a lot of videos and/or listening to audio recordings, so you may want to invest in a good pair of headphones as earbuds or poor quality headphones can get very uncomfortable if you are using them for long periods of time.
One such website is Udemy. They are probably the most popular of online class websites. And, if you shop around for a coupon, you can take their courses for as little as $10. It’s not free, but for the cost of a couple lattes you can add a new skill to your resume. And that may be the difference between finding employment in a couple of weeks or a few months.
Another one? Amazon.com. While they haven’t started streaming courses a la Udemy or Lynda.com just yet, there are tons of courses available for purchase on CD’s and DVD’s. They have helpful customer reviews. Plus if you’re a Prime member, you can use a coupon and it’ll get to you within 24 hours.
Other sites include Coursera, Udacity and Lynda.com. these websites all differ in the type of courses offered. Lynda.com is geared towards tech applications, so if you want to learn Microsoft office applications or Photoshop, this site will probably have the greatest selection of courses available to you.
Udacity also offers a wide selection of free courses. Not only that, they offer a nanodegree credential in various web development fields.
These types of courses also look good if you mention them in job interviews. You can mention the fact that you are taking courses to increase your skills and competencies in certain areas. It demonstrates to potential employers that you are a self-starter that’s capable of self-directed work, and that you want to learn and grow.
This is one thing that potential employers look for in new employees.
All in all, this is a quick, cheap, low-to-no risk strategy for increasing your attractiveness to new potential employers!
Not only that, but you may find that you like a particular subject more than you thought it would, and it could leaed you down a new career path that you hadn’t previously anticipated.