Learning a new skill or learning how to monetize an existing skill can help you land new opportunities. The best part is, you’ll likely be able to learn most of these skills for free!

Are you thinking of learning some new skills to increase your earnings in 2022? If yes, there will be quite a few to choose from. Here they are:

1. Blockchain Development

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Despite being a relatively recent development, blockchain technology has become a multi-billion-dollar industry. According to Statista, global expenditure on blockchain solutions will reach $19 billion by 2024. This is partly due to its application in creating and managing cryptocurrencies.

As the world continues to figure out ways to apply blockchain technology, there will be an abundance of jobs for people with blockchain skills in 2022 and beyond.

Blockchain Career Paths:

  • Blockchain Developer
  • Blockchain Quality Engineer
  • Blockchain Solution Architect
  • Smart Contracts Engineer

2. Web Development

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Web development skills are in high demand across a broad range of industries, giving birth to an equally wide range of careers. These include more traditional roles as front-end, back-end, or full-stack developers, cybersecurity specialists, etc.

One interesting niche to pay attention to is low-code programming—where developers are able to build highly functional, beautiful websites with little or no raw code at all.

Much of web development is now done with low-code platforms such as WordPress that make it easy for total non-techies to build beautiful, professional websites in very little time.

Programming Career Paths:

  • Frontend Development
  • Low-Code Web Designer
  • Backend Development
  • Full-Stack Development
  • Cybersecurity
  • Database Management

3. Cloud Computing

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Cloud computing is an exciting new field that promises to change much about the way people work online. Essentially, what cloud computing does is allow organizations of all sizes to use remote servers and data centers, instead of having to install and maintain their own physical IT architecture.

As more and more organizations seek to modernize their operations, we can expect to see rapid and sustained adoption of cloud computing technologies. And with this, there will be a higher demand for cloud computing experts.

So how do you get into cloud computing? Well, there isn't one skill to learn in particular. There are various pathways to consider, most of which leverage other skills such as web development or cybersecurity.

Cloud Computing Career Paths:

  • Cloud Engineer
  • Cloud Architect
  • Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
  • Cloud Security Engineer
  • Cloud Administrator

4. Content Marketing

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As long as new brands continue to emerge and older brands continue to attempt to maintain or grow their market share, content marketing will remain a high-demand skill.

According to a report, content marketing will experience a whopping $417.85 billion growth between 2021 and 2025.

While the market for content is currently very competitive, with such high levels of growth, there will continue to be room for new entrants.

Content Marketing Career Paths:

  • Content Manager
  • Content Marketer
  • Content Strategist
  • Content Writer
  • Search Engine Optimization Specialist

5. Big Data

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Big Data is broadly the science of harvesting and processing massive amounts of data to derive useful information that improves decision-making, both in business and otherwise. More accurate decision-making can save money and time, and this explains why data analysts are in such high demand.

According to the World Data Science Initiative, the income of data analysts may go as high as $130,000 in 2022, making this a lucrative field for anyone seeking a new career.

Big Data Career Paths:

  • Data Architect
  • Data Engineer
  • Data Analyst
  • Database Manager
  • Data Scientist

6. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

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In an age of unprecedented technological breakthroughs, few innovations offer as much promise as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. With the aid of both, technologies such as self-driving cars, facial recognition software, and surgical robots are emerging, with a wide range of applications for business, health, the environment, and so on.

Semrush predict that the global AI market will experience a snowball effect in the next few years, reaching a size of $190.61 billion by 2025. As AI and machine learning are still emerging fields, the demand for AI and machine learning experts will likely exceed its supply for some time.

Artificial Intelligence Career Paths:

  • Machine Learning Developer
  • Data Engineer
  • Software Engineer
  • Data Scientist

7. UX/UI Design

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User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design are emerging fields within web development, both geared towards ensuring that users are able to derive the most value out of their visit to a website.

Organizations all over the world are scrambling for UX/UI designers to design and help implement user-friendly experiences and products that will drive demand for their products and services.

At the time of writing this article, there are over 6,000 job listings related to UI/UX on Indeed alone. A similar search on Glassdoor and LinkedIn brings up about 3,000 and 1,500 job listings respectively, clearly showing that there is no shortage of jobs for product designers in 2022.

UX/UI Career Paths:

  • UX Strategist
  • Information Architect
  • UX Researcher

8. Video Marketing

Image of a video camera

Search Engines like Bing may seem like Google's most immediate rival, but they aren't—not even close. As it turns out, YouTube, with over 2 billion logged-in users per month—according to Search Engine Journal, is the world's second-largest search engine.

Video is predicted to be the major source of viewed web content by 2022, amassing 85% of all web-related traffic, coupled with the fact that 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. Video marketing is an unsaturated gold mine that promises so many opportunities for people with the right skills.

Video Marketing Career Paths:

  • Content Creator
  • Video Producer
  • Video Editor
  • Search Engine Optimization Specialist

9. The Internet of Things

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is the bridge that links digitally enabled devices and enables them to communicate, share data, and so on, across the internet. In the past, the internet was mainly used on computers—but today, you can connect to devices such as watches, fridges, cars, and so on.

As you might imagine, this could have a wide range of applications including in industries such as healthcare, agriculture, transportation, consumer products, etc. This suggests Is that there will be a high volume of IoT jobs in 2022 and beyond.

The Internet of Things Career Paths:

  • Data Analytics
  • Network Specialist
  • Cybersecurity Engineer
  • Artificial Intelligence Engineer

Find a New Career in 2022

As technology evolves, more and more job roles and functions will be created. For 2022, these are some of the most promising fields for employment.

In addition to these, you can also learn some of the most in-demand soft skills that can help your career!