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Accomplish December 3, 2018
What you didn't know you needed to know.
The world is changing. 10 years ago, Instagram hadn’t even existed. Now it’s practically essential!
Largely thanks to the Internet, American society— and its businesses—have rapidly evolved. These businesses have a new set of standards for entry-level jobs. Here are the three skills every entry-level job wants you to have now.
This is kind of a no-brainer. Social media is ingrained in our society, so why wouldn’t businesses take part in it? These platforms basically allow companies to advertise themselves for free.
It’s important to understand the connection between young people and technology. I remember getting Instagram in eighth grade. I’ve grown up with the app for almost seven years. Since then, I’ve also absorbed media culture from Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube and Twitter.
I’m not the only one. If anyone knows these apps from a consumer’s perspective, it’s my generation. It was a part of our upbringing. While I’ve met many adults who also have an impressive hold on these programs, most social media workers (at least for Instagram) are fairly young. And, naturally, many entry-level workers are straight out of college— right in that generational sweet spot.
Therefore, asking for social media skills from entry-level workers is pretty common. So even if you’re not super into those platforms, I’d suggest getting a little more familiar with them. Look into business analytics, which allows users to measure who responds to their content. Start analyzing which posts do well and which don’t. Try to keep up with memes.
And have fun! Social media can be entertaining, as long as you don’t spiral down any rabbit holes. I’m still recovering from binge-watching Instagram nail videos.
I’ve only worked a couple of internships, but each one demanded some knowledge of graphic design. Even if you’re not an artist, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are necessities in the business world. Otherwise, how could you create professional flyers? Social media content? Logos?
If you have graphic design experience, your resume will immediately get more notice. While it’s not essential for landing entry-level jobs, it’s definitely a huge plus.
This is especially true for start-ups or non-profits. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked to do graphic design work, even though I was hired for a different field.
Any company with online articles or blogs wants employees who know SEO.
SEO, or search engine optimization, describes “growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results.” In other words, it’s a way to maximize your chances of getting a URL to the front page of Google searches.
So if your company was writing a post on vegetable gardens, knowing SEO could help you snag the top spot for “how to grow a vegetable garden in the desert.” It’s a way to direct Internet traffic to your business.
With the Internet’s influence growing every day, SEO is naturally a huge point of interest to most companies. They want their website in those top spots so they can grow their reach.
Digital marketing has been around longer than social media has, but younger generations also have an advantage in this skill set. According to Clay Cazier, VP of Search Strategy for an integrated marking agency, seniority doesn’t hold too much value in this industry. So companies could hire anyone to work SEO. No matter how young you are, if you know it, you’ve got the advantage.
Luckily, all these skills can be self-taught. You can discover articles on social media analytics, download Adobe Photoshop for a free trial and check out SEO tutorials.
And if you’re willing to spend a summer with us, you can also learn these skills at ENTITY Academy! Check out applications here to see what else is in store.
