Building Career Skills While Stuck At Home [Video]

So, you’ve been stuck at home for weeks now. You have already binged watched your favorite shows, caught up on sleep, chatted with your friends, and still have tons of free time in your day. Take advantage of this downtime to build new skills that not only look good on your resume, but can help you land a job.

Customer Service

Providing excellent customer service is an essential skill for any job. Whether you work as a cashier at a grocery store or you run your own business, honing your customer service skills is a must. Sign up for a free Foundations of Customer Service course on EDGE, a customer service training platform developed in partnership with Arizona State University and made especially for young adults. If you complete this one hour training (and answer all the questions correctly) you will receive a certificate of completion from Arizona State University, which you can add to your resume and LinkedIn profile.

Communication skills

Being able to communicate effectively is a vital skill to have in your personal and professional life, and how you communicate with people can have a positive (or negative) impact on your relationships and career. Learn how to communicate with your boss and coworkers, understand techniques for communicating with different audiences, and practice how to have tough conversations by taking the Communication in the 21st Century Workplace class offered by Coursera. Upon completion of this free 5 hour course, you will receive a certificate of completion from Coursera and the University of California at Irvine.

Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets

You probably feel comfortable using Microsoft Word and Google Docs to type up homework assignments, but how are your spreadsheet skills? Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets have thousands of functions and learning a few of them can help set you apart from other candidates in the job search process. Learn how to analyze data, run calculations, make charts, graphs, schedules, forms and so much more. Udemy offers a free Excel kickstart course where you can learn the basics in just 36 minutes! GCFGlobal has a free Google Sheets course and each lesson takes less than three minutes to complete.

Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign allows you to create anything from flyers, posters, and magazines to ebooks, apps, interactive documents and more. Every company and organization needs a way to visually communicate with their audiences in print and online and InDesign is the industry-standard software for design professionals. Now's the perfect time to be creative and learn new skills because Adobe is providing free access to their design software (so no need to pay), and Udemy’s Adobe InDesign Made Easy course, provides step by step video instructions on how to use InDesign.

Google Career Certificates

More than ever, digital skills are necessary to land a job and grow in your career. Interested in IT, help desk support, coding, or project management? Check out the free courses  on Coursera taught by experts at Google. In a few short months you can learn the key skills you need to apply for entry level jobs at Google and other tech companies. No college degree or previous work experience needed to take these course. Click here to learn more. 

Ready to put your new skills to work, check out these companies that are hiring right now and these jobs you can do from home.