Role of self-learning in career growth

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We all have been living a lie. The notion that decorated degrees on resumes attract prestigious jobs has plagued our minds to the extent that we have forgotten the importance of self-development and innovation.

The recent news exemplifies this perfectly. Upto 6,00,000 Engineers are likely to lose their jobs in the next 3 years in India. If we analyse the reasons behind this mass exodus, lack of skills and being unable to cope up with global innovation is at the core of this turmoil. Our skills and knowledge are being outdated to the point of obsolescence.

Companies are finding it more profitable to invest in young talents who are updated with the market norms rather than investing in training their current employees. At the same time, technological innovation in the form of artificial intelligence and automation are disrupting markets overnight.

Understanding the Current Scenario

Imagine a sales department of a company with a 100 sales executives. The jobs of these executives require them to create extensive contact lists of business prospects, reach out to them over emails, and convert them into leads.

Now what if the company decides to introduce sales automation in the procedure? Upto 90% of these executives can end up losing their jobs overnight.

Hence, this scenario portrays a paradigm shift of skill requirement from sales to computer science. There are many similar examples being seen in the job space today.

So how can we address this predicament of outdated competence?

Creating a Habit of Self Learning

Before, we get into "how" we can build a habit of self-learning, let's talk about the "why" first.

The habit of learning every day is one of the keystone habits which procure so many benefits that it could change our life.

Nonetheless, let’s discuss some of the most significant benefits our career will get from self-learning:

Makes us a creative thinker

When we learn new things, our neurons tries to connect the dots while experiencing the real work, which let us apply our learning to our work with a new angle and that encourages us to think differently at our daily job.

Austin Kleon is someone who immediately comes to mind whenever the topic of connections comes up. Kleon is the author of Steal Like An Artist, a book about using the work of others to inspire and inform your own.

Hence, the more we will learn, the more we will connect the dots and the more creative person we will become at our workspace.

Helps us outperform the competition

Knowledge is the potential of power. To be impactful at our work, we have to keep our knowledge fresh and up to date.

Currently, the whole work culture has become agile which requires employees to change their approach to deliver successful work and who are not able to do so, soon will be left behind.

Daily learning fixes this problem by feeding our mind with new insights which keep us up to the game in the daily work and especially aids in making us a better candidate for our dream job or promotion by outperforming others in front of the employers.

Aid us in building real confidence

According to authors of Learning, Remembering, Believing: Enhancing Human Performance:

“A growing body of evidence suggests that one’s perception of ability or self-confidence is the central mediating construct of achievement strivings.

Without self-confidence, you will always be walking a thin line. When we invest time in learning every day, we start knowing exactly the extent of our capabilities. Which majorly contributes to our career growth. Most importantly, by learning how to acquire knowledge about our own skills and positive traits, we will become much more confident.

This brings us to the important point that how can we infuse self-learning in our daily routine.

How to make self-learning a habit?

Since it is not feasible to attend colleges for skill upgradation every few years, one needs to delve into a habit of lifelong self learning to break cognitive barriers.

The future only cares whether you are an expert, not how you became one.

So what is the best way to go forward here? As you might already know, there are tons of educational resources available on the Internet today about any topic that you can think of. They exist in various forms like niche blogs, dedicated online courses, youtube videos, infographics, etc. Creating a habit of consuming focused knowledge through these resources is the perfect way to keep your skills under continuous check.

But using varied sources to gather knowledge in one field often poses to be a problem for self learners. There is a need to make the learning process more effective and organised. At the same time, since newly learned skills can easily overpower and become more relevant than your actual resumes today.

Therefore, it is imperative that the world should know how much efforts you invest in self-learning, which showcase your true value. This was not possible before.

But, it is possible with Engrip; a powerful tool that captures all your online learnings by documenting them and creating a record that reflects your expertise better than your usual resume ever will.