en

Services

Korea' leading employers trust us to deliver fast, efficient hiring solutions that are tailored to their exact requirements. Browse our range of bespoke services and resources

Read more

About Robert Walters Korea

For us, recruitment is more than just a job. We understand that behind every opportunity is the chance to make a difference to people’s lives.

Learn more

Work for us

Our people are the difference. Hear stories from our people to learn more about a career at Robert Walters Korea.

Learn more
Jobs

Our industry specialists will listen to your aspirations and share your story with the most prestigious organisations in South Korea. Together, let’s write the next chapter of your career.

See all jobs

Internal vacancies

Ever considered a career in recruitment?

Learn more
Candidates

Together, we’ll map out career-defining, life-changing pathways to achieve your ambitions. Browse our range of services, advice, and resources.

Learn more
Services

Korea' leading employers trust us to deliver fast, efficient hiring solutions that are tailored to their exact requirements. Browse our range of bespoke services and resources

Read more
About Robert Walters Korea

For us, recruitment is more than just a job. We understand that behind every opportunity is the chance to make a difference to people’s lives.

Learn more

Work for us

Our people are the difference. Hear stories from our people to learn more about a career at Robert Walters Korea.

Learn more

5 questions to help you identify areas for upskilling

Working from home can be a good opportunity to not only re-evaluate your current career direction, but also implement concrete actions to upskill yourself. Doing so will not only ensure you emerge from this crisis better equipped with necessary skills to make the most of any opportunity, it will allow you to take further steps on your overall career trajectory. Keeping your long-term career goals in mind, here are five questions to help you identify relevant areas for upskilling during this period of uncertainty.

1. What am I interested in learning more about?

Getting started can be the toughest part of any journey, so it’s good to begin with something you have always been interested in. Perhaps you’re a HR professional with a strong interest in coding but never had the opportunity to learn it; or you might be interested in public speaking even though your job doesn’t require you to do so. List all the areas you have an interest in and do an online search to find resources you can tap into. Start with something that calls out to you—this can be a course, workshop, webinar, or podcast. Again, this doesn’t have to be directly related to your work; you’ll never know when these additional professional skills will come in handy.

2. What will make me shine at work?

Now that you’ve gotten started, keep the momentum going. For many, the best way to do so is to learn something directly relevant to your work, so you can easily see the immediate payoffs of your learning efforts. Identify areas of your work you’re already good at, explore what will make you stand out further, and focus your efforts on improving yourself within these areas. For a content marketer, this could be brushing up and keeping updated on the latest SEO and SEM trends to make sure your content is not only engaging but is also reaching out to the right audiences. While you may not become a specialist in just a few months, these skills will broaden your perspective and allow you to consider wider aspects of your work.

3. What will make me less frustrated at work?

Upskilling doesn’t just have to be about learning new things—it can be about re-learning the basics too. Tackle aspects of your work you struggle with by taking some time to think about what frustrates you the most every day. Is it your overflowing inbox, or your ever-growing to-do list? Is it spending large amounts of time on tedious administrative tasks, or perhaps communicating effectively with others? Once you’ve identified the ’weak links’ in your daily work, find ways to improve these areas. This could include reaching out to a colleague to find out how they complete their administrative tasks quickly (they may have secret shortcuts!) or reading recommended articles on how you can manage your time more effectively.

4. What will help me develop a competitive advantage outside my job?

Even if you see yourself staying at your current role for the long-term, your career goals should not be tied to your job and company. In the long-run, what do you see yourself doing—and what are the skills needed for you to work towards your goals? If you’re a developer but have plans to become a manager in future, you will need more than technical skills to land the desired role. For instance, you will need to possess leadership skills, the ability to communicate across teams and stakeholders, as well as manage multiple project timelines. By developing these soft skills that many companies perceive are lacking in technical professionals, you’ll eventually find yourself with an advantage over your competitors, be it for a promotion for an internal role, or for a role in a different company.

5. Am I thinking holistically?

While it’s good to have specific upskilling areas to work on, also make sure you’re considering the bigger picture, and you’re not leaving out any other opportunities for improvement. Evaluate whether you are too focused on the soft skills and not enough on the hard skills, or vice versa. Are you exploring all the resources that you can be tapping into, or mostly just relying on a single approach, such as webinars? Are you challenging yourself enough—or perhaps challenging yourself too much such that it’s unsustainable in the long run? Upskilling yourself is a long and continuous journey, so it’s best to make sure it’s sustainable, personally interesting, and provides growth in various aspects of your professional life.

Share this article
Useful links

Sign up for job alerts

Salary Survey

Career Advice

Get in touch

Find out more by contacting one of our specialist recruitment consultants

Related content

View All
The ultimate guide to working from home

The world has changed — in just a few short months, the global coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the ways that we live and work. While working from home is by no means a new concept, it’s one that we’ve all had to suddenly come to terms with. In these challenging times, we find ourselve

Read More
A guide to rediscovering and upskilling yourself

As the COVID-19 outbreak continues, businesses have acted quickly, requiring employees to work from home to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus. While we don’t yet know the full impact of COVID-19, companies not only face the sudden need to effectively manage business-wide remote working arrang

Read More
Six ways to turn a job rejection to your advantage

No one enjoys getting turned down for a job, and if you’ve done a lot of preparation for a role that you really wanted, job rejection can be even harder to accept. But with the right mindset, you can turn the experience into a career development opportunity. Here’s how… Ask for detailed feedback The

Read More