Every job necessitates some combination of interpersonal and technical skills, and chances are you already have an impressive skill set derived from your education or previous work experience.
7 high-income skills to learn
In this article, we’ll take you through seven high-income skills that you can feature on your resume to help stand out to potential employers. To build this list, we looked at reports forecasting the most in-demand skills through 2030 from the World Economic Forum, Pearson, Future Learn, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Coursera.
1. Data analysis
Analytical thinking and innovation is the top skill forecasted in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report [1]. As businesses across industries increasingly rely on data to make informed decisions, they require more employees with the ability to collect, interpret, and share data that can solve their business problems.
People skilled in data analysis may use a range of tools including Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, SQL, Tableau, R, or Python.
Here are some careers that use data analysis, along with average total pay (base salary and bonus) in the United States as of August 2022, according to Glassdoor:
| Job title | Average total pay |
|---|---|
| Business analyst | $97,720 |
| Data analyst | $98,360 |
| Data engineer | $119,218 |
| Data scientist | $121,952 |
Google Data Analytics
This is your path to a career in data analytics. In this program, you’ll learn in-demand skills that will have you job-ready in less than 6 months. No degree or experience required.
Skills you’ll build:
Spreadsheet, Data Cleansing, Data Analysis, Data Visualization (DataViz), SQL, Questioning, Decision-Making, Problem Solving, Metadata, Data Collection, Data Ethics, Sample Size Determination, Data Integrity, Data Calculations, Data Aggregation, Tableau Software, Presentation, R Programming, R Markdown, Rstudio, Job portfolio, case study
2. Software development
Increasingly, industries are turning toward technology to advance their business capabilities, and they need people skilled in developing, maintaining, and improving their technological systems. People who work in DevOps or software engineering build, monitor, and control an organization’s technology.
People skilled in DevOps or software engineering may use tools like Git, Docker, Jenkins, or Kubernetes, and may know coding languages like Python, Java, or C++.
Here are some careers that use software development, along with average total pay (base salary and bonus) in the United States as of August 2022, according to Glassdoor:
| Job title | Average total pay |
|---|---|
| Applications Engineer | $108,765 |
| Systems developer | $114,769 |
| Software engineer | $119,530 |
| DevOps Engineer | $121,380 |
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Skills you’ll build:
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3. Grant Writing
Grant writing is another high-paying skill that’s in high demand. If you want a job working at the leading edge of a nonprofit, research institution, or other high-impact organization, learning to write grants can pay off big time! For these organizations, grant writing literally pays the bills, and therefore will be super valuable.
How to learn grant writing skills
- You can take a grant writing course online, for example, Teresa Huff’s course on SkillShare (which I’ve linked to below).
- If you have a non-profit job now, reach out to your boss and ask them if you can be involved in grant writing–even as an editor or proofreader initially. Study winning grand proposals to see what they did well. OR, if you’re a student, apply for every scholarship and grant you can find for your research. It’s a great way to get some hands-on experience.
How to use grant writing at work
If you’re already at a non-profit job and want some career advancement opportunities (or if there are any openings), this is the high quality, high demand skill you’ll need. Like I said above, look for opportunities to jump in on projects that have a grant writing component, and study past successful grants to see what they did well!
4. Affiliate Marketing
If you want to have a more diverse income stream or build your own website empire, this high-quality skill will help! I use it here with Roostervane. But affiliate marketing is increasingly factoring in companies’ marketing strategies, as they form relationships with influencers and thought leaders to build their affiliate profiles.
Affiliate marketing is a win-win, since companies get new clients, and influencers get paid to put products they love in front of their existing audience!
How to learn affiliate marketing skills
- There’s a lot of knowledge about affiliate marketing online since it’s become one of the key ways the internet is monetized. Look for blogs and podcasts about it.
- I took a great course from Michelle-Schroeder Gardner, who runs the blog Making Sense of Cents (and famously earns up to $50,000/month from affiliate marketing).
How to use affiliate marketing skills at work
If you have a job right now where they run affiliate marketing campaigns with influencers, a good understanding of affiliate marketing will help you manage relationships and understand how to make sure your campaign is successful.
5. Account management
While project management typically has an internal focus, account management taps into a similar subset of skills to work with people outside of your organization. Often highly valued in sales positions, account management skills enable you to confidently position your company and its products to customers.
Account management skills incorporate both the organizational aspects required to close a business deal as well as the interpersonal skills required to productively negotiate and maintain relationships.
They often work with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool like Salesforce.
Here are some careers that use account management and sales skills, along with average total pay (base salary and bonus) in the United States as of August 2022, according to Glassdoor:
| Job title | Average total pay |
|---|---|
| Account manager | $83,999 |
| Business development associate | $88,601 |
| Business development manager | $98,861 |
| Sales representative | $100,310 |
6. Content creation and management
Content creation and management skills involve storytelling and are often crucial for marketing careers.
This skill set incorporates creativity, originality, social perceptiveness, and emotional intelligence.
Taking these skills a step further can also mean adding data analysis to your toolbox, specifically honing in on marketing analytics so that you can assess how well an audience is connecting with your content.
Here are some careers that use content creation and management skills, along with average total pay (base salary and bonus) in the United States as of August 2022, according to Glassdoor:
| Job title | Average total pay |
|---|---|
| Social media manager | $76,325 |
| Digital marketing manager | $96,206 |
| Content marketing manager | $107,777 |
| Brand marketing manager | $109,952 |
7. UX Design
UX designers ensure products, services and devices offer a seamless and pleasant user experience. They focus on the experience of the end-user and their work is critical to a product or device’s commercial success.
UX design incorporates aspects of psychology and design, bound together with commercial awareness and market research. Good UX designers are easily earning in excess of $100k per annum and there’s a great choice of training available online.
Conclusion
If you feel like you’re stuck in your career, especially if you have a degree that feels useless, why not learn one of these in-demand skills and level up? They’ll help you define the value you offer in the marketplace, and get paid more! Good luck!