The world today is heavily dependent on IT. No matter which industry you work in, you will have to be skilled in certain IT related aspects to help you get your work done on time and with finesse. People who are less experienced in IT related departments may think of taking up an IT skills training subscription, while those more apt in the ways of technology usually go for the free material available online. Either way, you simply cannot afford to be behind on your tech skills if you want to make it in the modern workplace.
No matter how old-school you are, there are certain IT skills that have become necessary for all people looking to work in the mainstream employment industry. What are these skills and can you attain them easily? Since it has become necessary to have these skills, learning them has also become easier as there are numerous places that have programs that will help you check items off your personal development skills list. If you do not have such a list, here are 5 necessary skills that you need to learn irrespective of your occupation:
1. Handling Emails
Everyone knows how to send and receive emails. However, very few people know how to handle emails effectively. We all know of that coworker who never replies to your emails, or that coworker who’s always late to the party, or that coworker who never chimes in on an email conversation that is focused on their domain…the list goes on.
When we say ‘handling emails’ we mean coming up with a system that no important email ever goes unanswered or unaddressed by you.
Communication is key is something that we have heard a lot throughout our life. Whether it is used to patch a broken relationship, or for inter organizational on goings, having a good understanding of how things are communicated to different departments is key to effective communications.
No matter which email platform your organization uses, you should get yourself acquainted with different options such as setting signatures, formatting emails in a formal manner, creating a separate folder for your boss’s or an important customer’s emails and so on.
2. Document Preparation
All organizations require their employees to be well experienced in creating documents that have to be circulated to other departments within the organization. For this, a person must have a command over different sorts of software that can help them create and edit these documents.
When creating documents, you have to keep in mind that the format should be such that it is easily readable by another person, plus everything essential must be portrayed effectively through it. The better the document looks visually, the easier it will be for another person to read it.
3. Making Presentations
If you work in a department that must constantly pitch projects and ideas to people, it is essential that you have a good grip on making presentations through MS PowerPoint or a similar software. People have a general perception that making presentations is easy. It is, but making good presentations is far from it.
A presentation, just like an advertisement, has to look good to make the product or project that you’re pitching sellable. A good presentation has the following qualities:
- Readable text
- Good contrast between background and foreground objects (images and text)
- Images of high quality
- Good effects transitions between slides
- Effective way of presenting everything on the slide
- Less text
For the presenter, half the job is done when their slides have the information presented well, all they have to do is talk through the presentation like having a conversation afterwards.
4. Understanding Networking
Now don’t get too intimidated by the subtitle here, we’re just talking about understanding how networking works, not for you to set up a net framework for the entire organization. By understanding networking, we mean here that there are certain ways an organization does all its data sharing. May be there’s a folder for every specific department on SharePoint, may be the organization has its own database on an on-premises server where everything is stored. Either way, you will have to train yourself to understand how to access different systems that are on the same network, how to protect data, and how to use your access to the system responsibly.
5. Data Formats
There are different ways of executing things, sometimes just to show a sample of something you can present it in a lower quality format and the final version can be in a higher quality format. In the same way, there are different formats used for document creation, some have a higher security so that content isn’t stolen or edited, and others can have editing options available for all.
People who need to learn about these 5 essential IT skills and more should use an IT skills training subscription to become ready for any sort of work the organization throws at them.