Upskill refers to adding or learning a new skill that will help you in your continuous growth and handle new technology better. As a web developer, it's important to learn new technologies so that you can land better Opportunites or bid for projects that need diverse qualifications.
I am currently working as a Digital Developer, mainly focusing on Front End and WordPress. As WordPress Developer, I have several years of experience in the local market. But I knew from the beginning to get best opportunities, I always had to add some skill besides WordPress and Front End Development to stand out of crowd.
When I started as a WordPress Developer, Organic SEO was a really big thing. Good old days when organic SEO had lot of priorities and Paid Ads took less space over the fold of web design. As WordPress Developer, I knew being SEO was hard work, instead I learned On-Page SEO. This was major skill that stood me out of other developers and always helped me get better opportunities.
At the point of writing, I am starting to learn React and Vanilla JS. Personally, I think that’s the next big thing. SO that’s what is my current upskill plan. Now lets come to point. Why we need to upskill.
Get better opportunities
Learning new technologies always helps to land better roles. Rather than having a limited set of skills, and the ones that are being outdated, with a new set of skills, you are likely to land new job opportunities. It will also give you better negotiation power as the skills you have might be hard to find on other candidates fighting for same role.
Have a better future
One of the major risks in any workforce is the chance of losing a job or being redundant. This primarily happens when your skillset isn’t needed by company or your job responsibilities are no longer matched with company’s goals.
When you lose your job, either you are being replaced by someone cheaper or someone who is more suited to the current demand for the job market. When you do upskill, either you can minimize risk of redundancy by fitting into current market or easily find a role and move on.
Make work-life more fun
Personally, I found that learning new skills can be fun. And you can push your to the next level with your skills too.
When I started learning On-Page SEO, I enjoyed it so much. Seeing website ranking higher is SEO just because of good On-Page Optimisation helped me improve the quality of my front end development. So I benefited from being a good developer as well as ranking my sites higher.