Looking to recession-proof your career in uncertain times?
With economic uncertainty at the forefront of news cycles lately, the state of the job market often comes into question. While certain sectors are less likely to face cuts due to a recession, there are specific skills that tend to be more in-demand, marketable, and transferable than others.
To avoid the fear of job insecurity in a time of economic turmoil, here are 5 recession-proof job skills that you may want to consider adding to your resume!
Project Management
Even during the height of the pandemic, companies were seeking people to identify problems and offer creative and realistic solutions.
Patrick Petitti, an economist and the CEO of Catalant, emphasized that project management is one of the top skills companies across all sectors are always hiring for, even during times of uncertainty.
Platforms like LinkedIn and Coursera offer free project management courses, however, highlighting any existing project management skills or roles on your resume will also be key to getting noticed by hiring managers.
Data Analytics
Data roles are in high demand, consistently ranking on LinkedIn's Jobs in Demand reports. In Canada, the data sector is reported to have a labour shortage over the next 10 years — meaning there will be more job vacancies than people to fill them, giving those seeking data-focused roles the ability to pick and choose where they’d prefer to work.
The need for data-driven roles doesn't diminish within a recession — in fact, turning a profit can become more difficult for some industries during economic uncertainty, meaning many start turning to data-driven solutions.
This is where learning data analytics can come in handy, even just at a beginner level! Whether you're working in retail, marketing, tech, or another industry, chances are you're sitting on heaps of data just waiting to be harnessed.
Digital Marketing
With many companies from retail to healthcare shifting to online platforms, the demand for workers with digital marketing abilities has been consistently high. Skills in social media management, Google AdWords, SEO, and SEM are guaranteed to stand out to employers on a resume.
Digital Marketers also frequently assist in data-driven decision-making within organizations, making them valuable members of any team. Courses in digital marketing are available through many platforms including LinkedIn, Google Academy, and Coursera.
Coding
Whether you’re a coding newbie or you already have an extensive knowledge of a few languages, you won't regret expanding your coding skills!
As online companies, apps, and solutions become increasingly popular, so will hiring workers with coding skill sets. Like roles in data, computer programmers and related fields will be facing a labour shortage in Canada, meaning these skills will be in high demand.
Whether you're looking to learn the basics so you can code simple websites, level up your pre-existing coding chops, or you're ready to pivot careers altogether, part-time coding courses and Coding Bootcamps make it easy to learn the most in-demand coding languages quickly, from HTML and CSS, to JavaScript, and more.
Cyber Security
Despite many companies bracing for the impacts of a recession, business leaders continue to have IT security as a high priority. Recruitment specialist Robert Half states that cybersecurity professionals have been identified as the employees companies are most focused on hiring in the year ahead.
Specifically, knowledge of cybersecurity across several platforms, an understanding of hacking, and computer forensic abilities are all skills that employers are seeking when hiring someone for a cyber security role.
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