The practice of keeping up to date with trends and changes in your industry is a necessity in our modern working world. It’s an important ingredient to stay competitive and be successful.
Here are 5 basic ways to stay in the know.
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Subscribe to top industry magazines or/and online blogs
An industry magazine or trade paper is the most traditional way to keep your knowledge up to date. Additionally, you can find blogs covering many industries and niche topics. You just need to do some digging. The process of searching for your go-to sources will be well worth the effort helping you to obtain a fresh perspective.
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Follow industry experts and influencers on social media
This may be an obvious one. Social media is the best way to be instantly informed. It provides headlines and perspectives that you can then research more deeply if you find them relevant and interesting. Consider following your favorite blogs, trade papers, companies, and their prominent followers.
As LinkedIn is a professional network, it is a fantastic place to find and follow knowledgeable people and influential companies. But don’t discount Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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Attend conferences
Attending a conference is an immersive way of keeping up to date. You will not only learn what is going on in your industry by going to a conference, but you can also really develop new ideas and speak to interesting people. They are also the best places to grow your professional network in your field. Just watch out, conferences can be expensive, so make sure you are selective.
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Network
Find and maintain contacts in your industry and keep in touch with them. These may be people you have worked with, want to work with, or have met at a conference. There are also social media groups that you can join for every different industry imaginable, within which you can access a wealth of information and perspectives from a vast range of experience levels and locations.
Whether you keep in touch with people by email, social media messages, or (the best way) by meeting in person – perhaps for a coffee or a working lunch; you can learn so much about what is happening in your industry from networking on a personal level like this.
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Take an online course
Sometimes, keeping up to date with what you learn from reading and speaking to people is not enough, as the level of detail and understanding you require to stay relevant and progress is greater. The best way to improve your expertise in a situation like this is to take an online course. This could range from following a course to taking a full certifying program. As well as keeping up to date, further education always increases your value, be it directly or indirectly.
There are many advantages to studying online and the programs at OpenClassrooms are reverse engineered to ensure you obtain the most relevant and up-to-date competencies and skill-set that you find and need in the real world.
Summary
Ongoing education is career long. The moment you think you know it all, that should be your signal that it’s time to learn something new. It is easy to keep up with the latest trends in your industry once you know how.
