Career Resource Center

What Is the Importance of Learning Computer Skills?

In today’s technology-driven world, having valuable computer skills is becoming much more necessary.  Computer skills have become a key resource for every professional looking to have a successful career, you will need to have them to keep up with all of the latest jobs and trends in today’s society.  If you are unfamiliar with computers and the internet, you will face a lot of difficulty when starting to use a computer, but once you get the hang of it, you will realize that using a computer is actually really intuitive.  There can be a lot of initial time invested in learning how to use a computer, but the payoff is well worth it.

Can help with your Career

Whichever industry you’re in, whether it is IT, business, law, or medicine, you must know some sort of computer skills. With this in mind, it’s easy to understand why people who lack essential computer literacy are unable to expand and build upon their career.  These people are now experiencing serious problems performing even the most basic workplace tasks, and this has many employers looking for more qualified candidates.

With any position, being productive is the key to earning more money.  If you can get twice as much accomplished as your colleague, you can reasonably expect to earn twice as much.  Boosting your productivity in a technology-focused environment means interacting with a computer and software efficiently.  This can enable you to perform tasks more quickly and solve problems that may stump others.

Make Your Life Easier

Using a computer efficiently can even improve your life outside of the workplace.  With online shopping, smartphones, and apps to manage everything from your finances to your grocery list, using a computer has become an essential aspect of every-day life.

 

You can make a living off of certain skills

If you know a computer skill such as typing, you can easily make a career out of it.  The average typing speed is 45 words per minutes, but if you’re faster than this, you may find yourself able to command a well-paying position simply based on your speed alone.  Typing jobs are in high demand, and these jobs consist of data entry, freelance writing (any sort of writing for anyone around the world) and scribing (takes notes for someone when they are doing interviews, or any sort of thing that is needed transcribed into typing from speaking).  These jobs can be found all around the world and will never be in short supply.

But, even if you’re not interested in becoming a professional typist, it never hurts to improve your typing speed and brush up on your skills.  Luckily, there are multiple online resources to practice your typing.

Help with common computer tasks

If you have already learned many different computer skills. then you will find it easy to perform common tasks on the computer.  These common tasks can include everything from creating Excel spreadsheets, writing reports in Word, or even something as simple as drafting an email.  Although these may seem like common tasks, many employees struggle to perform them.  Learning basic skills like these can help differentiate you from others who are less computer literate.

Make communication easier

With a recent boom in remote work, communication with technology has become an essential part of most daily work activities.  To excel in your career, you’ll want to be able to use the most common communication tools: Zoom, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Trello, and Nifty to name a few.

Learning how to use these tools effectively can even help you when you’re interviewing for a new job.  Remember, if you’re looking for remote work, chances are the interview process will also be conducted remotely through a conferencing software like Zoom.

You will know how to protect yourself on the internet

In the 21st century, computer and data security is essential to everyone and every company.  Knowing how to safely use the internet and maintain your privacy won’t just help you in your personal life, it will also help you in the workplace.  Online privacy is a major issue and people who do not know basic computer skills easily fall victim to cyber-attacks and scams.  There are many scams on the internet, so it is important to learn how to spot them when using your computer.  Having the right set of knowledge and skills will help you stay safe on the internet and protect your sensitive information.

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