How to Level Up in Your Career [EdSurge Tips]

As you dream of your next career move, it may benefit you to understand the trends in professional learning. The need to continue honing one’s skills shows no sign of stopping as technology trends change at a rate that can be hard to keep up with.

We want to share a few resources that you can use to continue building your professional skills.

1. MOOCs

Chances are you’ve been following all the buzz around Massive Open Online Courses. The business model is still shaking out, but the trend is moving towards offering professional learning courses. Need a resume boost to transfer your skills to a new career? Demonstrating that you’ve done a MOOC in the new area can help tip the scales.

Here are a few front-runners:

Coursera & edX - Professional learning and traditionally academic courses by top universities around the world. Freemium offerings (including certificates)
Udacity - Nanodegree programs around specific role types for a hefty fee, but a handful of stand-alone free courses
Udemy - Marketplace of online courses covering any topic under the sun.
LinkedIn Learning - Professionally-focused courses by Lynda.com. Included with a LinkedIn premium membership

2. Bootcamps

If you’re looking to go from 0 to software engineer, UX/UI designer, data scientist, or digital marketer in 12 weeks, a bootcamp could be right for you. Bootcamps come in all shapes and sizes—from an online 2-week program in your free time to a 30-week in-person full-time program. Bootcamps can be a great crash course into your new technical career, but beware - they can’t *guarantee* a job on the other end of it. You’ll still need to work your butt off since it’s an accelerated learning process and compete with the increasing number of bootcamp grads applying to sought-after roles.

There are tons of bootcamps out there, and you’ll need to do research to find what’s best for you.

Here are a few popular programs that come to mind:

3. Social Media

While many people think of sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest as being solely places to look at cat videos and connect with long-lost friends, they can also be great for learning from industry experts and getting helpful resources that can excel your career from peers or influencers. Twitter and LinkedIn, in particular, can be the best places to see what influencers and thought leaders are posting about, who they are following, and what groups they belong to.

Looking for edtech influencers? Check out who @EdSurge and @edtech_jobs are following.

4. In-person Events

Events are great for networking, but they can also be great for professional learning. Participating in meetups and conference sessions or doing in-person short master classes can be an awesome way to learn from peers and industry experts in a more traditional fashion. Check out events in your local Meetup community and/or places like local Facebook groups, universities and community centers.