Know thy skills, and grow them
We’ve all got a few skill tags on our LinkedIn profile, our internal intranet, and on our evergreen resume…
Now it’s time to assess and grow! By regularly evaluating your skill set, you can identify areas for improvement and focus on developing those that will help your professional growth, and we hope – personal fulfillment. Our industries demand a lot. We give a lot. Skill expansion and honing are tools you control to ensure future responsibilities, and maybe even new roles, find you as you seek them.
So, we put together a quick-scroll blog of six skill-building resources (and one bonus) to help you discover the resources out there to help you do just that: Know thy skills and grow them. Your command of it puts you in demand.
Structured learning: Microsoft Learn | Spark possibility.
Build skills that open doors. And benefit from curriculum experts to do the knowing for you. From awareness of documentation to skill-building hands-on training, through to industry-leading certifications – Microsoft Learn helps you get the most from Microsoft products.
Microsoft Learn, accessible at learn.microsoft.com, is a dynamic platform designed to provide structured, interactive learning experiences for individuals at all levels of expertise. It offers a wealth of resources, including hands-on labs, tutorials, and certification paths, empowering the Microsoft tech community to discover the latest technologies and advance their professional skills.
Microsoft Learn (home page screenshot) | Discover and use documentation, hands-on training, and certifications to help you get the most from Microsoft products. Learn.microsoft.com
Review the AI learning hub as a great, recent example.
And visit Microsoft Learn to discover more. And follow @MicrosoftLearn on social.
User enablement learning: adoption.microsoft.com
The Microsoft Adoption Center at adoption.microsoft.com offers invaluable resources for technologists, providing comprehensive guides, best practices, and community support essential for the successful deployment and adoption of Microsoft technologies. By leveraging these tools, professionals can stay ahead of the curve, ensuring seamless integration and maximizing the potential of their Microsoft solutions.
Microsoft Learn helps you understand how to use technology. The Adoption center provides tools and materials to ensure durable deployment and use of your technology investments.
Visit adoption.microsoft.com and drive value with Microsoft 365 user enablement tools.
Review the Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption hub as a great example of what to expect.
One unique skill-building offering you can use from adoption.microsoft.com is the Microsoft 365 Learning Pathways solution. It is a customizable, on-demand learning solution designed to increase usage and adoption of Microsoft 365 services – from within your organization. At the end of the day, the solution is a fully customizable SharePoint communication site within your Microsoft 365 tenant – a training portal to house your organization’s help, support, and community content, to help build digital skills in bite-sized trainings.
Microsoft 365 Learning Pathways is a free and customizable on-demand training solution for your organization, deployed into your own tenant.
Learn more about the Microsoft 365 Learning Pathways solution and how to deploy it into your own tenant.
Discover and use proven user enablement resources: https://adoption.microsoft.com. And follow @MSFTAdoption on social.
Learning within Microsoft 365: Viva Learning
Where Learning pathways focuses on Microsoft technology, Microsoft Viva Learning is an invaluable tool for fostering skill development within an organization – giving you the ability to aggregate various learning services, like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, and Skillsoft.
By integrating learning directly into the flow of work, it empowers employees to continuously upskill, driving both personal growth and enhancing organizational value. Viva Learning not only supports individual professional development, it cultivates a culture of continuous improvement and innovation with the ability to track assignments, recommendations, completions, and learning collections.
Microsoft Viva Learning | Empower employees to grow and develop their professional skills in the flow of work.
Learn more about Microsoft Viva Learning and try it today. It’s a great skill-building resource you can deploy directly within Microsoft Teams. Stay connected with Microsoft Viva in the Microsoft Tech Community. And follow @MicrosoftViva on social.
support.microsoft.com supports you
The Microsoft Support website at support.microsoft.com offers a wealth of help and how-to content, empowering you to efficiently accomplish tasks with Microsoft products. It provides step-by-step guides and videos, troubleshooting tips, and comprehensive resources that cater to both novices and advanced users, ensuring everyone can leverage Microsoft tools to their fullest potential.
Microsoft Support | Find what you need to build, run, and grow your business with help and learning content about Microsoft 365.
The authors and producers of Microsoft Support content work closely with our product makers, giving you both accurate and timely information when new features launch and as changes come to production.
Visit https://support.microsoft.com to get “help and how to” across all Microsoft products. And check out the Microsoft Teams ‘help and how to’ page as a great example of what you can expect to find; and one of my biased favorites, the Microsoft Lists ‘help and how to’ page.
Microsoft Tech Community
The Microsoft Tech Community site is a vibrant hub for the best community in tech, offering a treasure trove of technical blogs, engaging events, webinars, AMAs, and lively discussion forums. In my opinion, it should be a near requirement to sign up and establish an MTC user profile, not only to search and consume, but to engage and share. It is an essential platform where members can exchange ideas, seek expert advice, and stay updated on the latest technological advancements, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous learning. Being a learn-it-all is a two-way street.
Microsoft Tech Community (Blogs page screenshot) | Visit TechCommunity.microsoft.com.
Check out some of the main site locations to discover what the Tech Community offers:
Plus a sampling of the nearly 100 communities:
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft Viva
SharePoint
Azure Data
Community News Desk
Create your own profile and join the community; sign up and sign in today. And follow @MSTCommunity on social.
Find your next event: CommunityDays.org
Events, big and small, all offer opportunities big and small. The opportunity to learn. The opportunity to share. The opportunity to engage at a much deeper level – having the kind of conversations that offer follow up, back and forth, and grounded understanding.
CommunityDays.org is a phenomenal platform for discovering upcoming in-person and online events tailored to your interests. Whether you’re looking to learn from industry experts, network with like-minded professionals, or promote your own webinars and calls, CommunityDays.org gives you an evergreen map to decide where and where to connect.
“Events” page on the CommunityDays.org site.
wanted to call out a few upcoming events as examples, to give you a sense of what you’ll find as you peruse CommunityDays.org:
Low Code No Code – Power Platform Conference | Nov. 9-10, 2024 | Online
CollabDays Hungary 2024 | Nov. 27-28, 2024 | Budapest, Hungary
ESPC 2024 | European SharePoint Conference | Dec 2-5, 2024 in Stockholm, Sweden
CollabCon 2024 + CollabCruise | Dec. 12, 2024 in Orlando, FL
Note: CollabCruise is Dec.13-16, 2024
M365 Community Days – Phoenix | Jan. 17, 2025 | Phoenix, AZ
BONUS SKILL | Invite someone to coffee (or tea)
Sharing is caring. Sharing coffee (or tea) with others is caring a lot. Sip responsibly.
Ask questions and share what you know. It’s a two-way street and caffeine paves the way for great connections; maybe a sweet or two – as they say, “Two birds, one scone.” Open up the possibility to sync with another Microsoft 365 community member to discuss the latest features and updates, share tips and tricks for maximizing productivity, or exchange ideas on best practices for collaboration and communication.
Sharing insights in a relaxed setting over a cup of coffee fosters a more open and engaging conversation, allowing for the free flow of ideas and the building of long-term professional relationships. And hey, share your “what to do in this city” with each other to promote a work/life balance that’s balanced with lasting memories.
Three artisanal coffees in a row | Grab a new friend or old and steal away a coffee (or tea) chat during an event.
We hope all the above helps navigate where and how you want your skillset to grow. You know thyself. Now, grow thyself.
Cheers, Mark “Skill building until the end” Kashman
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