In past generations, Microsoft Office was considered an essential business skill. You couldn’t get an office job without knowing Word and Excel. And you won all sorts of bonus points for making the boss’s PowerPoint presentation look less… terrible.
While Office is still an important technical skill for cube dwellers, WordPress is rapidly emerging an important and high-demand job skill.
I’m not talking about job skills for web designers. I’m talking about job skills for otherwise non-technical administrative workers.
You don’t need to be a coder or a web designer to use WordPress at work. That’s just the thing. WordPress is for everyone.
Over 37% of all websites are built with WordPress. And that number is growing rapidly. There’s a good chance you’ll be expected to know something about WordPress in the future. Whether it’s updating a post on the company blog, installing a new plugin, or even changing the theme.
In the 21st century WordPress has emerged as a core business skill.
There are several ways knowing WordPress will help with your career development:
- Finding a new job. As noted, a huge number of websites use WordPress. Someone needs to maintain those sites by posting new content, updating old content, and performing basic maintenance. In the past, this sort of work would have been considered highly technical. Thanks to WordPress you don’t need to have a computer science degree to maintain the company website. As a result, these sorts of tasks are increasingly assigned to administrative support staff. The kind of people who excel at Excel.
- Getting a promotion at your current job. Your boss is looking for someone to update the company website. You volunteer because you have some WordPress skills. Your boss thinks you’re a genius when you go above and beyond by making some impressive improvements to the site. She doesn’t need to know that all you did was install a free plugin. It’s the results that matter.
- Becoming a freelancer. With WordPress skills, you’re equipped to help site owners anywhere — and there are a lot of them. And you don’t even need to quit your day job to try this. Most WordPress freelancers work remotely. Your skills allow you to take work on the side while you figure out if the freelance lifestyle is right for you.
In a competitive job market adding WordPress to your resume is a sure way to stand out. It might even be the difference between going to work or staying home and sending out more resumes.
Knowing more about WordPress will empower you, improve your career opportunities, and improve your life.
Are you ready to learn more about WordPress? WP Apprentice offers the most comprehensive library of WordPress tutorials around. Signup for the free WordPress Quick Start course.