7 Steps to Build Skills and Get Hired

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Jason Myers had been working in marketing and public relations for more than two decades. But just before the pandemic, in his role working at the Manchester, New Hampshire-based marketing

firm The Content Factory, he noticed some changes in how his business was being done in his field.  Myers knew he needed to catch up to stay competitive.

“I saw that the tactics that had worked previously were not yielding the same results, and that if I wanted to keep my reputation as a professional who could deliver … I needed to convince

these large, well-established brands to try a new approach,” Myers says. But for him to convince his clients to change their business models and use new tools, Myers needed to learn some new

skills himself first.

According to research from LinkedIn, employers are focusing more on applicants’ specific skills when they hire. For example, 45 percent of hiring managers said they explicitly used skills

data when deciding who to hire in 2022, a 12 percent increase over the previous year. That emphasis on skills can be particularly important for older adults.

“A shift to skills-first may also mean that older workers will have to adapt to a world where more fluid career paths and less conventional job transitions are the norm, or else risk getting

left behind,” the LinkedIn report says. “Governments and business leaders should develop programs to ensure that older workers not only learn the relevant and rapidly changing skills they

need for the future, but that they also learn how to signal those skills to employers who are increasingly adopting a skills-first approach.”

The pace of change is fast. One 2023 poll by online learning company edX found that the executives surveyed estimate that nearly half (49 percent) of the skills that exist in their workforce

today won’t be relevant in 2025.

Angie Kamath, dean of New York University’s School of Professional Studies, says that people who don’t devote time to upskilling (updating or adding skills to address changes in their jobs)

  or reskilling (learning entirely new skill sets for changing jobs or careers) may find that their options for job opportunities or advancement become more limited.

If you’re ready for a skills upgrade or overhaul, here are some steps to help you create a plan to achieve it. If you already have an idea of what skills you would like to learn, you might

start by looking at courses on AARP Skills Builder for Work, which offers free and low-cost online courses that are self-paced.