Image Source
By Sophia Anderson
As a homeschooling student, you have all the chances to benefit from having individual schedules and the unique opportunity to study at your own pace, paying attention to what really makes a difference to your personal and professional growth.
The truth is that homeschooling means a very balanced and unrestricted space for your development, whereas college studying is about harmonizing many activities within the limited time: classes, learning sessions, exams, extracurricular activities, college assignments, socializing with peers etc.
And if you tailor your schedule in a way that all these activities get easily accommodated, you shouldn’t have any problems graduating. The real question is what is going to happen once you’ve graduated. Will your college degree and the marks you’ve obtained be enough for a good career? As a rule, an employer is more concerned about the skills you have that might turn out to be helpful for his company.
So, apart from the specific skills needed in each industry, there are some common skills for every job out there to help you land a job. Let’s take a look at some essential skills you might learn online for better career prospects.
1. Speaking
Practicing professional communication and confident public speaking is what you actually lack while being a homeschooler. During your entire professional activity, you will have to present your concepts, give professional presentations or take part in negotiations and meetings. You should be able to have a coherent speech; you should be able to highlight its most important aspects by changing your timbre and tempo and sound persuasive to your listeners.
During college, this skill is being practiced quite intensively because there are a lot of projects and presentations to give. But why waiting until that moment if you can start mastering it right now with a public speaking course for high schoolers.
2. Investigative Research Skills
These are the skills that young people develop gradually while searching for knowledge and information for their projects, essays or other assignments that require the use of additional sources and facts. The core idea in improving your analytical skills is learning how to seek, study and analyze large amounts of information and then arrange and present this information accurately and comprehensibly, understand difficult matters and offer coherent solutions to them. Your effort to convince your audience should be based on strong assertions, never assumptions.
Therefore, you should take it seriously and start developing your research and analytical skills not just for the sake of coming up with excellent research papers, but also to develop your critical and strategic thinking and make data-driven solutions, which will be of real benefit to your career advancement.
3. Proper Writing Skills
It sounds frustrating, but because modern students are using gadgets most of the time, they lack the appropriate writing skills. They tend to take it easy, and don’t understand that an unfounded idea or multiple mistakes in their writing will never be accepted by colleagues and superiors.
Soon after students graduate from college, they find themselves at not knowing how to write resumes properly, or how to write professional e-mails to a potential employer and so on. They have problems when they have to come up with some work-related compositions or documents, or present their ideas comprehensively in written form.
So, practicing different writing skills is essential for every student, and this goes way beyond writing effective essays. Learning how to write winning resumes and cover letters, or professional emails and memos is a must for your career prospects.
4. Advanced Computer Skills
Advanced computer skills are sought after because every business out there has contact with technology. Whether it is your ordinary computer or the latest Mac, all jobs use some sort of computer. Let’s take accounting as an example, some 30 years ago everything was done by hand. You had these massive books you had to fill, but nowadays everything is done using computers. An accountant without computer skills will find it hard to land a job in this professional area.
Taking into account the field of your desired career, you can come up with the most relevant skills you need to acquire and practice to stand out among other candidates. To narrow down your search, look at top computer skills that can help you get hired.
5. Interview Skills
Whenever you want to land a dream job, you will have to go through some sort of examination, an interview, tests, etc. Your chances to go through the interviewing session successfully depend greatly on how well you can present yourself and your advantages over other candidates. The more you learn about how to ace interviews with help of tons of information available online, the more confident you become knowing the ins and outs of the matter.
6. Leadership Qualities
Becoming a true leader, who can inspire and influence people around positively, is what you should opt for. Undoubtedly, not every person can be an indigenous leader and for many of us, it’s preferable to be led by others. However, with help of the right practices and activities, it’s very likely you can awaken your leadership potential.
When looking for a job, a recruiter will definitely evaluate your leadership abilities to make sure you will be able to cope with difficulties, find best solutions and act accordingly to solve issues on your own. Taking small steps to growing your leadership skills while a student will do you good later in your job.
7. Collaboration Skills
The way a person collaborates with team members and colleagues is vital. Even if you work in an actual office or you work remotely, it is crucial to have the right skills set in order to keep a high-quality co-working standard. Group projects are essential in developing such skills. To practice effective team-working skills you can try volunteering or begin an interest-based project with your peers to help you all develop and master your collaboration skills.
Apart from learning for your exams and having fun with your peers, you should also develop certain skills that will help you during your professional career. If you master these universal skills, you will definitely improve your employability chances.