You know how we had career plans in high school, but they didn’t come to pass because life is as uncertain as it can be? Even with good grades, a high-paying job is still far from guaranteed. If you live in a country like Nigeria, you can expect to have it worse due to poor governance and lack of jobs.
I assume you’ve managed to get a good-paying job but still do not find fulfillment and need a career change. Or maybe you are one of those rich kids, and these problems do not apply to you. Please show your girl love😜
Anyway, this post is for you if you’re looking to learn a new monetizable skill for a better career path or income. I’ve put together some of the best digital skills you can learn from home, so follow along;
Coding
Coding, also known as computer programming, means writing a set of instructions that tells the computer what to do in a language the computer understands. It’s our way of communicating with a machine so that it carries out an action exactly the way we want it. This language that the computer understands varies and if you plan on becoming a computer programmer, you have to be able to write in at least one of these languages fluently; C++, JavaScript, Python, Rust, Go, PHP, Java, Flutter, and so on.
There are different career paths associated with coding, remember, coding is just the action, not the career path. So, before you choose the language to learn, you must have decided on the career path that is best for you in computer programming. Let’s talk about some of them briefly;
Top Career Paths in Computer Programming that you can learn from Home
- Data Science
Have you ever wondered how your experiences on Instagram, Spotify, or Netflix are personalized? You turn on Netflix, and it suggests movies trending in your country or movies you’ve previously watched. These all happen as a result of data previously collected and analyzed by a Data Scientist. They are responsible for analyzing, mining, cleaning, and translating data into solutions that help organizations make better decisions.
They use their high-level technical skills to develop machine-learning models and write complex algorithms that synthesize the large amount of unstructured data they’ve collected.
A good data scientist must be skilled in one or more of the following; Data visualization, Data entry, Data cleansing, Machine learning, mathematics, deep learning, etc.
Skills Needed: R, Python, SQL, Data visualization, machine learning, MATLAB
Where to start: https://www.datacamp.com/data-courses/python, https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn/machine-learning-with-python/
- Backend Development
When you log in to a website and click on a button that sends or gives back a particular information, do you ever wonder where the data came from? Or what went on underground before the data got to you? Well, backend developers make the magic. They create, manage and store data in databases. They write codes that allow an application and the database to communicate with one another. They also take care of how secure your app is, and other important functions that we cannot see as users.
Skills Needed: You can learn one or two of these languages: Python, Golang, JavaScript, Ruby, .Net, SQL, C#, PHP, Java
Where to Start: Python-https://youtu.be/sxTmJE4k0ho,
SQL-https://youtu.be/HXV3zeQKqGY,
Ruby- https://youtu.be/HMotb6naTe0,
C#- https://youtu.be/wfWxdh-_k_4,
Nodejs- https://youtu.be/xZI-jGngBTE
- Frontend Development
Frontend development involves taking design concepts from clients or designers and implementing them through code. Everything you see while visiting a website is coded by a front-end developer. From the buttons, forms, and links to the animations, text field, and they also make sure they perform properly. When you enter a form on a website and you click a submit button, the front end validates the data for errors (like wrong password, empty field) and sends that data you just filled to the backend, and the backend on the other hand also performs it own validation and stores the data in a database.
A frontend developer guarantees a website’s good performance and also ensures it’s compatible across all platforms (desktop, mobile, and iPad).
Skill Needed: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Typescript, Python. Frameworks-React/Angular/Vue, Jquery.
Where to Start: https://frontendmasters.com/bootcamp/, https://www.freecodecamp.org/learn/2022/responsive-web-design/
- Mobile App Development
As the name implies, mobile app developers are responsible for developing the apps that we use on phones daily. They build apps for Apple IOS, Google Android, and Microsoft windows phone platforms.
Skills Needed: Java, Kotlin, JavaScript (React native), Swift, C#, Dart (Flutter)
Where to Start: Android- https://www.udacity.com/course/new-android-fundamentals–ud851, Flutter- https://www.appbrewery.co/p/flutter-development-bootcamp-with-dart,
IOS- https://www.edx.org/course/build-your-very-first-ios-app,
ReactNative- https://www.udemy.com/course/complete-react-native-mobile-development-zero-to-mastery-with-hooks/
Product Design
Remember the designer the frontend developer takes design concepts from? Here he is, let’s call him Clinton. For Clinton to achieve a good result as a designer, the first thing he does is conduct UX research. UX research involves gathering relevant information about a market, and the user, understanding the user’s needs, and pain, discovering new features and how creating the new product can help solve the user’s problem.
When this has been rightfully done, he designs a clean interactive product that appeals to the users using tools like Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, and many others. This design is interactive but it’s not real and will not work as it should until it’s coded. So, product designers work closely with the engineering team to get this done.
Skills Needed: Figma/Adobe Xd/sketch, critical thinking
Where to Start: https://www.udacity.com/course/product-design–ud509
https://www.udemy.com/course/master-digital-product-design-ux-research-ui-design/
Website Design
Website design involves designing a website’s overall layouts and feel by creating elements that make up that website, from the color, fonts, and structure to the images and layouts. You might be wondering, didn’t we just say the same about a Frontend Web Developer? While both professionals might be more concerned about making a website look good and work perfectly, their major roles are quite different. A website designer uses tools like WordPress, web flow, and Shopify to get their work done. Sometimes, they make use of already-made plugins or design templates to get work done faster. So, if you have no interest in learning to code, then this is for you. While a front-end web developer develops an entire website using codes. They write algorithms to create unique functionalities and also test these functionalities and make regular changes based on the company’s needs.
Skills Needed: HTML, CSS, wordpress, webflow, photoshop, figma
Where to Start: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-responsive-web-design-in-the-browser
Webflow- https://university.webflow.com/courses
WordPress- https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-wordpress-using-wordpress-to-make-6-figures-online/
Digital Marketing
Let me ask you a question. When you sit in a car while someone else drives, which do you concentrate on more? Your phone or the billboards on the road? Chances are, you look at your phone more. Over the years, the use of print advertising has declined and a higher percentage of brands customers are now online. If the brands want to reach these people, digital or online marketing is a must.
Digital marketing is simply helping brands reach their potential customers through digital channels like social media, apps, emails, and so on. It gives brands insight into what their customers want and how they are making their purchases.
Where to Start: https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/course/digital-marketing
There are different types of digital marketing;
Types of Digital Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When you launch a food blog about African food, you expect that your blog comes up high on google when someone searches “African food blog”. It might not be easy to achieve that but that’s what SEO is all about.
It’s the process of making websites or digital content rank higher on google, and those that ensure that this happens are known as SEO specialists.
Skills Needed: Marketing, keyword research, content marketing
Where to Start: https://www.coursera.org/learn/search-engine-optimization
https://www.coursera.org/learn/seo-strategies
https://www.coursera.org/specializations/seo
- Content Marketing
Content marketing is simply creating quality content that’s relevant to a brand’s audience for the purpose of generating brand awareness through a predefined process. To create relevant content, a content marketer must first understand what the customers want and then provide solutions to those problems in the form of content. As a content marketer, you must be able to connect with your customers in order to build a loyal audience. Content marketing could be in form of blogs, videos, podcasts, and infographics and can also be grouped into two parts;
Copywriting: Copywriting is an important part of digital marketing. It’s an act of writing to a brand’s target audience for the purpose of motivating them to take an action immediately. The action could be to buy something, download a book, register for a class, and so on. As a copywriter, you must be versatile and be able to connect to a brand’s audience with words. Examples of copywriting include sales pages, direct mail, etc.
Where to Start: https://www.udemy.com/course/the-complete-copywriting-course/
Content Writing: This form of writing seeks to engage, inform or educate a brand’s target audience about its product or services. Here, you are not trying to persuade your audience to buy anything, you are simply creating content to help them gain understanding in certain areas. These contents could be in the form of blog posts, e-books, newsletters, and white papers.
Where to Start: https://www.udemy.com/course/secret-sauce-of-great-writing/
https://www.udemy.com/course/travel-writing-class/
- Social Media Marketing
This simply involves creating brand awareness, driving traffic, and generating leads for businesses through social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and so on. One crucial part of social media marketing is analytics. As a social media marketer, it’s important to always analyze the performance of every piece of content you put on social media to know which works best or when to implement new strategies.
Where to Start: https://www.coursera.org/learn/social-media-management
https://www.udemy.com/course/social-marketing-media-masterclass/
- Pay-Per-Click Advertising
PPC Advertising is a model of advertising that involves driving traffic to a brand’s website or platform by placing ads on search engines, and social media platforms. Your publisher publishes your ad to the news feed of people who match your audience and every time your ad is clicked, you have to pay your publisher. This publisher could be Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. It’s one of the best ways to approach marketing in my opinion, but only if approached the right way. I’ve lost count of how many profiles I’ve followed and patronized on Instagram just because I saw their sponsored ads.
As a PPC Specialist, you have to be able to figure out your budget, set campaign goals, and figure out what campaign to run and what platform to use.
Where to Start: https://www.semrush.com/academy/courses/ppc-fundamentals-course-with-joel-bondorowsky/
Technical Writing
Technical writing is a type of writing that involves sharing technical knowledge with a brand’s target audience either for the purpose of educating the audience about the product, instructing them on how to use it, or persuading them to use the brand’s services.
It can also involve writing about technical topics that the writer understands in a straightforward way just for the sole purpose of educating the readers. This form of technical writing is mostly common among software engineers.
To become a good technical writer, it is important to have a good understanding of what you’re writing about and be able to do a lot of research. Technical writers don’t know it all like a lot of people like to believe. As a technical writer myself, I make sure to do a lot of research for every technical article I write or talk to people that are experts in that field. This is to provide me with a deeper knowledge of what I’m writing about and to be sure the solutions I’m providing are not outdated.
Technical writing could be in the form of articles, documentation, product descriptions, etc.
Skills Needed: Writing, research skill
Where to Start: https://www.udemy.com/course/technical-writing/
https://www.udemy.com/course/technical-writing-and-editing/
Brand and Identity Design
What do brand identity designers do? They are creative professionals that understand the ideas and vision of a brand and strategically convey those visions or a particular feeling to its ideal customers. To make a good brand designer, you need to be good with words, creative and have excellent design skills.
As a brand designer, your job will also include creating marketing materials and elements of the brand such as logos, brochures, typography, etc. If you love art, design, and the creative process that comes with it, then this is for you.
Skills Needed: Graphics design, logo design, creative thinking
Where to Start: https://www.udemy.com/course/the-branding-masterclass-the-entire-brand-design-process/
https://www.coursera.org/specializations/branding-the-creative-journey
Motion Graphics Designer
Think about some of your favorite movie trailers or advertisements from the past. Something probably stood out for you right? From the good sound and graphics to an excellent copy. Everything just seems to be in coherence with each other. That’s what a good motion design is.
Motion graphics design involves using visual effects and animations to bring graphics or artwork to life. It’s one of the best ways to tell a story, create brand awareness or explain a concept. A motion designer can work almost anywhere. From tech, and media to advertising Agencies. If you love art, story-telling, or filmmaking, then this is for you.
Skills Needed: 3d-modeling, graphics design, animation, typography
Where to Start: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-motion-graphics-2
https://www.udemy.com/course/after-effects-kinetic-typography/
Wrap Up
If you have dreams of becoming one of the professions listed above, you will need to acquire the necessary skills. But first, you have to know what you want, give yourself time to learn, hone your skill and be patient. Wish you good luck.
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