Investing In Yourself: A Practical Guide

There’s been a lot of talk about how in down-times like these when you might be having a hard time finding work, that investing in yourself is the best thing you can do. Which I say is absolutely true. I want to try and take the idea a step further with a practical resource on how people can go about doing that. By no means will this be a thorough guide, but instead a starting point. This can even become a live resource.

I want you to contribute if you can: ideas, books, blogs, people, tools, and technologies that might be important or that someone else could find useful.

There’s a few different categories of investing in yourself we can define, I’m going to initially break it up into three sections: Your billable and employable skills, your personal network and the community of people you have around you, and the processes you have in your life that you use to manage your time and be productive.  These turn into your skills, your personal network, and your productive habits.

Skills

You can have a better chance of finding work, and be able to charge more by increasing your expertise in a particular field or a skill.

Update: I should note that the skills I refer to are largely focused on technical and web skill, if you have ideas on other skills people will find useful add some in the comments.

Programming

10 Most Sought-after Skills in Web Development

How great is it to know what skills are most likely to find you work? The order of the skills in this article don’t matter nearly as much as having an idea of what people are asking for and then going to work to improve.

The list basically breaks down like this:

• Web frameworks (Django , Rails, CakePHP , Code Igniter )
• Widgets
• Custom CMS themes
• CMS Customizations and plugin development
• PSD to XHTML services
• Javascript Plugin creation
• Facebook/MySpace applications
• iPhone applications
• Ecommerce integration
• Flash and Actionscript Knowledge

Again the order of the list doesn’t matter so much, if your current expertise is in ecommerce systems, don’t think that you need to re-invent yourself as a CMS theme designer.  Although if you’re expertise is not on that list, and you see trends that your skills will eventually be obsolete or not in demand, its important to evaluate when the best time to switch might be.

Web Analytics

Web Analytics 101 + Career Advice (Presentation)

Web analytics is an in demand profession. This article is a great resource that walks you through all the different steps needed to take your first steps in web analytics and looking for jobs.

The steps outlined are:

• Read the recommended web analytics books
• Start a blog or an online business if you don’t have one already, then get practice in measuring and analysing
• Join the community by attend web analytics events, reading analytics blogs, and participating on message boards
• Attend analytics training courses and conferences
• Look for opportunities to speak/teach

If you’re interested in web analytics, it’s important to have some knowledge of related topics too like SEO, SEM, Email Marketing and Landing Pages.

Social Media

If you want to learn more about social media it’s a good idea to read the “must reads” and to follow the “must follows”.

Must Read Books

• The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual – Rick Levine, Chris Locke, Doc Searles, Dave Weinberger
• Groundswell – Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff
• Naked Conversations – Robert Scoble, Shel Israel
• Here Comes Everybody – Clay Shirky
• Join the Conversation – Joseph Jaffe
• Tribes – Seth Godin
• The Wisdom of Crowds – James Surowiecki

Must Follow Blogs

• Seth Godin
• Chris Brogan
• How to Change The World – Guy Kawasaki
• Web Strategist – Jeremiah Owyang

A relative easy way to get some experience in social media and web analytics is to volunteer to help a small business.

Your Personal Network

You’ll have a much harder time trying to survive on your own in this time… Invest where you can to build up your personal brand, your professional network, and your personal community.

Books & Blogs

• Never Eat Alone – Keith Ferrazzi
• ‘Branding’ is an Overrated Buzzword – This article breaks down the idea of “personal brand” into something much more relevant and actionable.

Social Networks

Find more people you should be following on Twitter by using Mr.Tweet

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job – Guy Kawasaki

Meetups and Unconferences

• Toronto Dev Events
• BarCamp.org
• Meetup.com

Productive Habits

Books

• The Power of Less - Leo Babauta of Zen Habits
• Getting Things Done - David Allen
• The Four Hour Work Week - Timothy Ferriss

Blogs

• 43 Folders
• Zen Habits

Reader Contributions

Skills: (Thanks to Josh Davey):

• Madeam PHP Framework

Personal Development: *(Thanks to Will Lam, Puleen Patel, Alex Cohen, Marianne O’Connor, Milo)

• What Smart Students Know - Adam Robinson
• 80/20 Principle - Richard Koch
• Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
• Career Renegade - Jonathan Fields
• The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
• How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
• How to Stop Worrying and Start Living - Dale Carnegie
• Getting Rich Slowly

Help me to expand this list! What would be other useful resources or categories? What are some fast methods, or shortcuts you can think of?