The 5 Skills Trending at LinkedIn Top Companies (and Courses to Learn Them for Free)

The 5 Skills Trending at LinkedIn Top Companies (and Courses to Learn Them for Free)

On the Content Strategy team at LinkedIn Learning, one of the great joys of what we do is how we get to harness the power of LinkedIn to build a better library. Not just better for better’s sake -- but a more impactful and relevant library that can help people and organizations shape their futures. One of the ways we do this is with insights that help us prioritize, based on data from LinkedIn's Economic Graph.

LinkedIn Learning is built on top of the world’s largest professional network, which includes over 740 million members, 57 million companies, millions of open jobs, and 120,000 schools. All of this helps us better understand the skills that people, organizations, and companies need today and going forward. Skills are the currency of our world of work, and we believe we can have a direct and immediate impact by addressing the pressing need to help people upskill and reskill to get in-demand jobs. 

LinkedIn just launched our annual Top Companies list, where we identified 50 companies that may be a great fit for folks looking to get back on their feet or take the next step in their career journey after an unprecedented year. 

Today, we’re taking it a step further. We looked at the top 5 trending skills employees working at the LinkedIn Top Companies are learning, and made courses to learn them free until May 31st, 2021. You’ll spot a theme in these skills -- in the next 5 years, we’ll see 150M more technology-related jobs across industries globally. 

See below for the top technical skills that can help separate candidates from the crowd when applying to one of these high-growth companies, as well as unlocked courses we recommend to get started.

I hope these insights from the team, and these fantastic courses from the library help you make that next big step forward.

Amazon Web Services

Today, companies are built and run on the cloud, so it’s no surprise this skill is up 42% for employees at the LinkedIn Top Companies. They need talent who have the skills to help them drive technical architecture, design, and delivery of cloud systems. But with AWS now listing over a hundred different service offerings, getting a holistic sense of the platform can seem daunting. These courses can help. 

  • AWS Essential Training for Developers with Jeremy Villeneuve—learn key AWS services, how to decide which will fit your use case, and how to host applications within AWS.
  • Choosing a Cloud Platform for Developers: AWS, Azure and GCP with Xian Ke—Understand the benefits and challenges of developing in the cloud with the top three cloud service providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), as well as how to establish goals and timelines for your cloud migration.

Jira

Companies need people who can collaborate effectively with colleagues in home offices around the world -- we saw Jira up 31%! Planning projects, assigning tasks, tracking progress, and releasing results can all be managed in Jira, a popular tool used by software development and IT teams. These courses can help you leverage the power of Jira software to gain visibility, engage with teams, and help drive results.

  • Learning Jira Software with Robert Anthony—Learn the fundamentals of using Jira, including how to create tickets, use advanced search, and set up workflow boards to organize work, through several challenge-and-solution practice scenarios.
  • Jira: Basic Administration with Rachel Wright—Master the tools and best practices to successfully administer and customize a Jira instance, including how to manage users, roles, and groups; create projects; and build new workflows from scratch.

Python

Due to its power and simplicity, Python has become the programming language of choice for many large organizations and LinkedIn Top Companies. In our data, Python was up 25%. Python is used across a broad range of jobs that include back end development, software development, and data science. Get the latest Python skills with these courses. 

Machine Learning 

Companies are tapping into the power of big data with machine learning -- an integral component of artificial intelligence. They're doing things like speech recognition, image processing, recommendation systems, and even self-driving cars. They understand how to leverage the power of that data and use the appropriate machine learning data to deliver powerful solutions to complex business problems. Our study showed Machine Learning up 23%. Learn about artificial intelligence and how to leverage machine learning with these courses:

  • Artificial Intelligence: Tools and Concepts with Doug Rose—Learn how AI can automate customer service, business logistics, sales, and many other areas of the business, and gain an understanding of top AI tools, including TensorFlow, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure. 
  • Big Data in the Age of AI with Barton Poulson—Learn big data’s relationship to AI, data science, social media, and the Internet of Things (IoT), techniques to analyze it, and ethical issues behind its use.

Scrum 

If you've spent any time in the project management world, you've likely heard of Scrum—the popular framework for managing complex processes—part of the agile philosophy. Scrum is up 15%. Whether you're looking to learn more about Scrum or preparing for your Scrum Master test, these courses can help.  

  • Scrum: The Basics with Kelley O’Connell—Gain a basic understanding of what scrum is and how to start implementing it at work, including how to manage and measure projects, and set manageable improvement goals.
  • Cert Prep: Scrum Master with Kelley O’Connell—Master the foundational knowledge you need to pass several of the leading scrum master exams and become more marketable in your field. 

It’s a joy to be able to combine the power of LinkedIn’s data with these great courses from some of our wonderful instructors. If you think this would be helpful to your friends and colleagues, please share! And don’t forget to check out free courses (over 600!) aligned to in-demand roles at opportunity.linkedin.com.


Methodology

We looked at employees at all the parent companies in the LinkedIn Top Companies list in English-speaking countries. Among the top 100 skills added by these employees to their LinkedIn profiles, we identified the skills that had the greatest growth in the number of employees with the skill from January 2020 to December 2020. We exclude common skills which are possessed by a majority of LinkedIn members, such as Communication.

Lori With

Middle School Math Teacher

3y

Way to go Dan!!

Shonte Eldridge

Government Insider ❖ There Is No Substitute For Experience

3y

Great to see AWS (Cloiud) courses on the list!

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Elliot Grossbard

5x Sales Leader | Player-Coach | GTM Strategist | Relationship Builder | Consultative Sales | Life Long Learner Scaling founder-led sales into high-performing teams

3y

Is AWS a skill? Is Python an actual skill? Or are all of these working knowledge of software that companies are using? Top 5 trending software expertise at Top Companies may have been a more suitable title Dan. When I Googled "skills companies look for when hiring" the first search result that was not on a job site was from Boston University where they listed the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) survey of employers across the country rating the top skills they seek in candidates, specifically new college hires. They Were: 💼Ability to verbally communicate with persons inside and outside the organization. 💼Ability to work in a team structure. 💼Ability to make decisions and solve problems. 💼Ability to plan, organize, and prioritize work. 💼Ability to obtain and process information. 💼Ability to analyze quantitative data. 💼Technical knowledge related to the job. 💼Proficiency with computer software programs. 💼Ability to create and/or edit written reports. 💼Ability to sell or influence others. Obtaining the knowledge of how to use software applies as a skill only to the direct department they are needed as part of their job set. Where as one of the skills listed above is something regardless of your role in a company is sought. The social media manager does not need to have expert knowledge of Machine Learning in order to bring value to their employer, but the ability to work in a team structure does. I just think the title is a bit off. Thanks for the post though!

Very interesting to see what skills are becoming the most in-demand! Technology skills such as Python will be incredibly valuable for companies who are seeking to adjust to #digitaltransformation. Utilizing skilled, flexible workers who can quickly jump on board and help teams plug in skills where needed are key to success int he current business landscape. Great article!

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