Have You Taken Inventory Lately?

Take the time to inventory your current skill set at least every 6 months. Then make a plan to upgrade and/or learn new skills. Here’s a few suggestions to help.

What skill set do you currently have a designer or design manager? Are your skills up-to-date with the latest Adobe Creative Suite? Do you have skills with Flash and other multimedia applications? What about presentation skills?

In my opinion, you really need to be *constantly* updating (and upgrading) your skill set.

Best way to do this is to make a written list of all the skills you currently possess. Then make a list of the skills you would like to learn/improve in the next 6 months.

It could be learning/improving in any number of areas including: presentations, public speaking, persuasion, video, advanced Photoshop, CSS, mobile design or others.

I believe it is important to give yourself a time frame to complete. It really helps to focus and increases your motivation.

Most importantly do something TODAY to start moving in that direction. Whether it is calling a local college for a course schedule, ordering a book from Amazon.com, taking some online training modules from Lynda.com or something else. Movement is key.

I always like to think that you get somewhere in 6 months anyway so why not improve/learn along the way.

You’ll look back 6 months from now and be pleasantly surprised at the progress you’ve made.