You don’t have to leave Barrhaven for skills training – in fact, you don’t even need to leave home!

Job interviews can be nerve racking affairs, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Today I want to share two key strategies that will greatly enhance your chances of landing your dream job.

The first piece of advice is to perform in depth research on the company to which you’re applying to. Read their company webpage, parse their Facebook and Twitter feeds and perform a Google search to find any recent news stories related to their activities. Armed with this knowledge, weave this information into your interview answers if the opportunity presents itself. Let the employer know that you understand their business and want to contribute to their ongoing success.

The second ingredient you need to ace a job interview is confidence. You need to walk into the interview knowing that you’re the very best person for the job, and have the evidence to back it up. And the best way to acquire a high level of confidence is to invest in your skills. As an example, while many people know how to use Microsoft Office, very few know how to use it’s advanced functions. When (not if) an employer enquires about your skills, be ready to answer that not only do you have the skills required to do the job, but that you’ve invested time into mastering them at an advanced level. This can make all the difference and set you apart from other candidates.

Which leads to the question – where can I acquire relevant and in demand technical skills in a manner that works around my schedule and within my budget? Today, I’m going to share where I turn to for my technical training needs. It’s served me well over the years, and it’ll work for you as well.

The secret recipe for success

Let’s start with some criteria:

• I wanted access to training that is relevant to today’s job market
• I wanted access to the very best teachers
• I wanted the flexibility to learn on my scheduled, in my spare time
• Continuing education can get expensive – I wanted a low cost, high return solution

Example:

You’re reading my blog right now. This blog was created, and is maintained here in Barrhaven using a content management platform called WordPress. You may have heard of this software, but are not quite sure what it’s all about. I was in the same boat. So I followed a 6 hour course on Lynda.com and within a few days had my first blog up and running.

You might be a writer who, like myself, might be interested in starting your own niche website or blog. Or maybe you want to learn how to sell arts and crafts on Etsy. Regardless of what your end goal is, more often than not, you’ll need to invest in the skills necessary to make your dreams a reality. And that’s where Lynda.com comes into play.

Lynda.com is an online training website that features some of the best teachers in the world. I’ve attended many conventional training classes, mostly continuing education classes held in the evening hours. Some were good, others were not. When you sign up for a class, you really have no idea how good the teacher will be, or if the course will even meet your needs. And they all tend to be somewhat expensive.

That’s not a problem with Lynda.com. The service has a strict vetting process and only the very best classes, taught by the very best teachers make the grade. New courses are added every month, with an eye on skills that are relevant and in demand in today’s job market.

But what I really like about Lynda.com is that the service lets me learn new skills when it’s convenient for me. I make a point of setting aside a few hours every week to learn a new skill, whether at my computer or using their excellent iPad app. And with so many classes to choose from, you’ll be armed with industry leading skills in no time.

You might think that access to quality education equals expensive tuition costs. Lynda.com turns that notion on it’s head. The service offers what I feel is the very best online training available on the internet today for only $25 per month. And that’s not per course – $25 gets you all you can eat, unlimited access to ALL the courses on Lynda.com. It’s simply the most cost effective way to acquire in demand skills from home.

Let’s learn a new skill right now

Let’s say your boss asks you to embed an online video into a Word document. Not a task that you come across every day. Most people would not know how to do this, but after following the Lynda.com Microsoft Word training, you would have the task completed in minutes.

How to embed an online video into an MS Word document:

(click on video to view it full screen in Youtube)

As you can see from the video above, it’s very easy to learn new and relevant skills using online training.

A FREE offer – the 1 week skill challenge

I want to issue a special challenge to readers of the Barrhaven Blog. Using the following link, you can get one FREE week of unlimited access to Lynda.com. You will need an email address and credit card to activate your free account, but no worries – before the week is up, the service will email you to ask if you wish to stay on, or cancel. So it’s 100% risk free.

I would like to challenge you to learn a new skill in the next week by completing a single Lynda.com online class. I would then ask you to post a review of your class in the comment section of this post and let us all know what you’ve learned. I think it will be interesting to see the different skill sets Barrhaven residents feel are required for either their existing or planned employment.

Get 7 days of free unlimited access to lynda.com