How I used upskilling to level up my design career and pivot to marketing
Ever felt a bit unsure about how to grow in your role or, in the long term, your career? I'm a person who loves learning new things, but I still find it challenging to figure out how to upskill at times. Hearing things like conceptualize campaign materials, create a marketing strategy, and develop tone of voice guidelines used to make me feel like I had no idea what I was doing, but let me tell you, most of these things seem more complex than they actually are.
I’ve been working on marketing teams for the past 6 years as a designer, and I’ve learned a lot along the way both about design and marketing. Some of it was intentional and some of it was more passive. Here's how I went from junior designer to senior brand designer, and how I'm using upskilling now to pivot my career.
What does it mean to upskill?
For me, to upskill, just means to learn new things and to gain knowledge related to your current job and or desired career path. Some common goals with upskilling are to gain seniority, niche down, or transition into an adjacent role. Upskilling can come in many forms. It can be passive knowledge you gain from a coworker or manager, articles, books, videos, or tutorials you’ve consumed, or a structured course.
How to decide what skills to learn
I choose to upskill because I love to learn new things, but I have also had times in my career where I’ve specifically sought out skills to gain seniority or stand out in a job search. For example, once when I was between jobs I found that most design job listings were looking for people who also had motion and video skills. So I invested in learning those skills to set myself apart—more on that later. First let’s touch on how to figure out what skills to learn.
If you are unsure where to start ask yourself these questions:
- What am I interested in learning related to my role?
- What could I be better at in my current role?
- What do I need to learn or do to get a promotion?
- Are there any skill gaps or needs on the team that I could fill?
- Are there any high demand skills in my industry that I could learn?
I would also recommend that you talk to your manager to identify areas of growth or to come up with a plan to get you to the next level. If you are lucky, your company might even have already defined career plans and education budgets for you to use.
How upskilling has helped me
When I saw that there was a demand for motion and video skills in the job market, I was worried at first. I had dabbled a bit in After Effects, but I did not feel confident at all in those skills. In fact, using After Effects and learning motion design was something I really struggled to learn on the job. I had been trying to teach myself through various YouTube tutorials and work projects, but it wasn’t coming together for me. That is when I decided to enroll in the School of Motion Animation Bootcamp.
It has been one of the best things I have done for my career yet. With this new skill set, I was able to land a great job, as a Digital Designer on the global brand team at Hello Fresh, and I was able to use these skills nearly every day on the job which really helped solidify them. Ultimately this led to me standing out as a candidate in my new two jobs as well.
Using upskilling to kickstart a career pivot
Most recently I’ve decided to pivot my career away from design to move into a marketing role. I would say I’ve already upskilled a lot by being engaged in conversations with my marketing teammates, asking questions, and learning how the assets I create play into the greater marketing strategy and business goals.
Now I’ve taken it two steps further. First I asked to take on other work and actually help with marketing tasks such as social media posts and the company newsletter. This has given me hands-on experience, which is not only good practice but also leads me to seek even more knowledge and information.
In the past few months, I’ve been researching how to make a social media strategy, refining our brand tone of voice, creating personas, and utilizing ChatGPT and other AI tools to enhance my work. All things I wouldn’t have normally done as a brand designer.
The second thing I’ve done is enroll in a Digital Marketing Program with Career Foundry. I knew I really wanted to commit to learning these skills and going down this new path, so I wanted to somewhat guarantee I would learn certain skills in a specific time frame. For me, going down the bootcamp route was the best way to do that.
Upskilling without taking a paid course
A paid course might be a surefire way to get new skills, but it is definitely not the only way. Maybe you are just exploring some new skills and don’t want to invest a lot of time or money. Maybe your workplace doesn’t have an eduction budget and maybe you don’t want to spend a ton of money on a course. I totally get that. Here are 4 ways you can upskill at little to no cost.
Ask questions and join meetings
Ask your manager and coworkers questions about how they do tasks or how they would approach a problem. Be active in team conversations and ask join meetings that you may not usually join (even if you are just listening in the corner). You might just pick up on some valuable information passively, or find yourself being a part of the conversation more than you expected.
Get out of your comfort zone
Try to take on tasks that you are a little unsure about and learn along the way. Partner up with a coworker or use Google, YouTube, and Reddit to work your way through the problem. You’ll probably get further along than you think! For example, if you are a designer who wants to learn more about social media marketing, try writing your own post copy, or plan and pitch a campaign concept to your team.
Read books and articles
This one almost goes without saying, but just a reminder that you can learn so much from reading. Start your mornings by reading up on industry news, following thought leaders in the space, or reading blogs from the tools your company is using (like Semrush or Hubspot). I’ve found that books are usually better for learning soft skills than hard skills, but that might be just my learning style. There is so much free (or low-cost) information out there.
Join a community
Connect with like-minded people and thought leaders in your industry by joining or participating in a community. These communities often share free resources, tips and advice, and industry news. You can pick up so much about what is happening in other companies once you are tuned in.
When I say community, I mean you can join a group that has a closed community that you need to sign up for like Design Buddies, or Girls in Marketing, but you can also participate in open online communities. This could mean lurking or being active in a subreddit, joining in on the conversation on Linkedin, or following content creators in your industry. Some examples of open communities I consider myself to be a part of are:
- Watching Charli Marie on Youtube, and learning new design tips
- Lurking on r/DigitalMarketing and other subreddits
- Being active on Linkedin, and connecting and following people who post interesting content. Feel free to connect with me to see who I am engaging with.
Take free courses
There are many free courses online that you can take. They definitely vary in quality so I would advise taking courses that have good reviews or that come from a reputable source before you invest a lot of time into one. This is exactly what I did before signing up for the Digital Marketing Bootcamp. I took some marketing courses from Hubspot’s Academy, and recently I discovered Semrush also has an academy. Semrush's courses are short and easy to fit into your day. There are many other resources out there too, so do some research on what you want to learn and you'll surely find something
Wrapping it up
Upskilling is essential whether you're aiming to climb the corporate ladder, build a career you love, or keep your work fresh and exciting. While having company support can make the journey smoother, don't be discouraged if that's not the case—you're not alone! There are many ways to identify what skills you need to learn, to get to that next level, and most likely you can learn those skills for free.
The path to growing your career and learning new skills is unique for everyone. Embrace the opportunities to learn, whether through online courses, books, or simply by asking questions and seeking new challenges at work. The key is to stay curious and proactive—your next career milestone could be just one new skill away.