05- How And Why You Should Always Be Learning
Summary
This episode explains why it is crucial to continue learning all throughout your career. We discuss how learning will help you advance and offers tips on great ways to continue learning and impress your management.
Episode Transcribed
One time at work I was approached by a senior managing director at the bank I work for and he told me that he wants me to apply for a position on his team that just opened up. I asked him if there is anything I need to know and he said I need to know how hedge funds work and what strategies the different ones use. Luckily, I had just finished reading a book about a hedge fund and I had also just finished a free online Coursera training on advanced trading strategies. Because of this, although I have little experience with Hedge Funds, I was able to talk about the topic and propose a few things right on the spot.
That brings us to this week's smartcut. Always be Learning. Your career growth is directly correlated to your knowledge growth.
There are many ways to ensure you are always learning. Reading books, listening to podcasts, doing online training courses, taking classes. And you don't only gain knowledge by taking trainings, but also through experience doing things. Whenever you raise your hand to take on new responsibilities or try to do something a new way, you are learning from that new experience and growing your knowledge.
As you can tell from my story, the fact that I had been learning about the topic was crucial for getting me an advantage in this random position that had popped up when someone else resigned. Honestly, I hadn't even been looking specifically for a job that required knowledge of hedge funds, it was a bit of luck and good timing, mixed with preparedness. Because of my drive to always learn new things, I was prepared for an opportunity that could potentially lead to career growth. This is only one recent example, but there are many situations where learning new things related to your job or not can directly help you.
A friend of mine told me recently that the head of his business had learned to code in Python even though he wasn't trained in computer science. (Python is a coding language which is extremely common and useful for a multitude of applications). The reason he did this was so that he could convince the hundreds of people underneath him that if he can learn how to code in Python, they can all learn it too and start using it. Therefore, his employees will now all adopt Python (which will increase productivity) and he will better understand the inner workings of his business, (resulting in him being a better manager). The fact that he is always learning will benefit him in his career and probably lead to a promotion because of how his personal growth will help his business grow.
As Benjamin Franklin said, an investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. According to a study from the National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce (EQW), a 10% increase in education level increases productivity by 8.6%. Trust me, your management will notice if you have an 8.6% increase in productivity. And learning new skills or gaining more knowledge in something doesn't just make you a more valuable employee because of your increased productivity, it also makes you more marketable to other companies, which of course can be a great career move.
In order to actually learn things, I recommend reading business books, or apps with summaries of business books like Blinklist. Also there are so many free training videos out there like Khan academy or youtube. Also you can look into Coursera, or skillshare. And look at what your company offers, since more and more companies provide development opportunities like in-person trainings and online training courses like Pluralsight, Udacity. You could even take a night class at a local college and check if your company offers tuition reimbursement. If you want to learn to code, Codecademy is a great website where you can learn tons of coding languages all for free. Or there are others that incorporate games to help you learn. Just go on google and search for courses on the subject you want or need. There really are no excuses why you shouldn't always be learning.
Conclusion
To summarize this week's smartcut, you should always be learning, because your career growth is directly correlated to your knowledge growth. For me, increasing my knowledge of hedge funds helped me to sound qualified when someone came to me with a job opportunity. For the head of a business my friend told me about, increasing his knowledge of technology and coding, helped him to transition his people to a uniform code language and helped him to better understand the future of his business.
Thank you so much for joining us in this week’s episode of career smartcuts. I hope you all can apply this smartcut to your career ASAP. There is nothing preventing you from always learning more, especially when there are so many free and easy resources available to everyone these days.