5 Critical Remote Workplace Skills You Can Learn in College

Sometimes it can be difficult to see how college courses directly translate to the real world. While there are transferable skills that benefit you in the classroom and on the job, much of what is learned within a degree program may be obsolete by the time you graduate. There’s also a rapidly growing virtual jobs market that isn’t a focus in higher education. (You may have already heard of remote workers and digital nomads, and are hoping to join their ranks.)

Currently there aren’t any college degrees that specifically aim to prepare you for the remote workforce—despite its increasing popularity and potential in many countries. However, there are a number of remote workplace skills and experiences that could get you on the right track for a successful virtual career before the ink dries on your diploma.

Yes, those long hours spent in a lecture hall, reviewing course material at home, uploading assignments, or submitting questions to your TA could indeed have value long after you’ve forgotten the subject matter.

Here are five critical remote workplace skills you can learn in college:

1. Digital Collaboration

The dashboards of today’s popular remote collaboration tools look a lot like Learning Management Systems. Whether they’re on your smartphone, tablet, or PC, the applications used by universities involve similar purposes and intuitive interfaces that you’ll encounter as a remote worker. Imagine how much smoother onboarding for your first job will go when you’ve already been acclimated to the right tools!

2. Self-Directed Learning

Online learning and blended courses get you ready to take initiative and proactively acquire new skills and competencies throughout your career. You may know that the world of work is changing at an exceedingly rapid pace, and will continue to evolve while you’re in it. If you’re going to succeed while working outside of a traditional office environment, you’ll need to be adaptable and proactive about your own professional development.

3. Interpersonal Communication

Communicating succinctly and clearly via email, web-based chat, and VoIP solutions happens in face-to-face and online courses as well as on the job. In a remote setting, written communication is critical, as it is the main vehicle that distributed teams use to share progress, build rapport, discuss ideas, offer feedback, and promote their brands to the world. If you nail effective, empathetic, and eloquent messaging via text and voice while still studying, you’ll be ahead of the game.

4. Time Management

Knowing how to effectively manage your time matters whether your focus is on getting good grades or hitting key work milestones. Being proactive about setting deadlines, chunking studies and tasks into feasible amounts, and checking your work to ensure quality are habits you can start building now. Another note about time as a remote worker: in addition to getting more sleep, you’ll also have more time to do things that interest (and benefit) you.

5. Strategic Planning

When it comes to your degree or your career, no one is going to chart a path for you. Reflecting on your goals and desires and determining how you’ll acquire the experience necessary to move forward will be invaluable throughout your adult life. You can begin in college by looking ahead to the kind of life you want to live, and then reverse-engineering the steps involved to get there, starting with your first job after graduation. (You might consider getting started with a remote internship!)

Start your search for a remote job!

Photo Credit: bigstockphoto.com

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By Kristi DePaul | Categories: Work Remotely

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