Why Will They Hire You When There are Others More Qualified?

There's a lot of people (Filipinos and more) coming into the virtual assistant world. They call it online freelancing though - and there are many more than when I started 10 years ago.

How can you get the attention of clients with all these talented millennials lapping at your feet?

What if you're a millennial yourself and you know that 90% of your friends can do EXACTLY what you're doing online - and for cheaper because they don't know how to charge high- yet? (Unlike you)

What will happen to your "stable virtual assistant business"?

"You get another client!" is what they would say.

Yes, but this other client may be looking for a skill that many people already know how to do - online.

Unlike 10 years ago, today a lot of people are familiar with:

Google Drive, Canva, Dropbox, Audacity, Wordpress, Hootsuite and a host of favorite apps we considered "wow" before.

Clients are not just looking for these app skills today.

They're looking for other things.

THE TREND TODAY IS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS

The sad trend in the freelancing space is that more and more people are looking to create SOFTWARE - so they're looking for Software Engineers, NodeJS, Angular, PHP and PHYTHON.

All the above are development frameworks or coding talents and skills.

Note: I once asked 2 young developers "What's a framework?" and they couldn't explain it to me! Is it really that complicated?

PROOF IN UPWORK

A glance at the top Upwork skills for 2019 reveals this fact - how many of these skills do you understand?

Here are the top 20 fastest-growing skills for Q4 2018:

Hadoop

Dropbox API

Genetic algorithms

Microbiology

Computational linguistics

Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)

Digital signal processing

Intercom

Interactive advertising

Invision

Employee training

Kubernetes

OAuth

Autodesk Revit

App store optimization

App usability analysis

Vue.js framework

Learning Management Solution (LMS) consulting

3D scanning

React.js framework

Ref: https://www.upwork.com/press/2019/02/12/q4-2018-skills/

Let me know how you feel about the future after reading this.

LET'S FACE IT! The world wants more developers!

I put a *Dev for those skills that require you to code:

1. Hadoop - *Dev

2. Dropbox API - *Dev (yes you know dropbox, but not the Application Programming Interface)

3. Genetic algorithms  - *Dev

4. Microbiology - Wow! You know any microbio grads?

5. Computational linguistics - *Dev (think: Voice Search)

6. Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) - You'd have to be a Security Geek here. *Dev

7. Digital signal processing - Audio Processing Geeks required. *Dev. (think: Voice Search)

8. Intercom - this one you can study. This is a customer service app.

9. Interactive advertising - This is a marketing course. You can study this with FB Ads

10. Invision  - You have to be a UX designer for this one.

11. Employee training - If you're a trainer - this may be for you!

12. Kubernetes - *Dev!

13. OAuth - *Dev

14. Autodesk Revit  - For architects and interior designers

15. App store optimization - Marketing for Appstores

16. App usability analysis - Data Analyrics

17. Vue.js framework - *Dev

18. Learning Management Solution (LMS) consulting - I'm teaching this one soon.  Been doing LMS for more than 10 years.

19. 3D scanning -  You may need to be a graphic designer for 3D for this. Think photoshop for 3d. Lots of detailed work .Ideal for real artists.

20. React.js framework -*Dev

ANALYSIS:

Out of 20 skills, fully half - 50% require you to be a coder, developer, super tech geek.  I included the security skill as *Dev because it's that complicated. They may not code, but they go command line most of the time so it's a pretty tech-heavy job.

Of the 20 virtual assistant skills above, 2 addresses the future trend of Voice Search : Digital Signal Processing and Computational Linguistics. Both of which are *Dev skills.

Only 2 skills are non-techie: Microbiology and Employee Training.

How about you? 

Which one of the skill above do you possess today?

But...you don't have these skills.

You can learn them...

But I warn against it.

It takes an extremely interested person to learn how to code.

And it takes a lot of logical thinking (most people are emotional) to make it work.

And I'm speaking as a developer - I've been coding computers since the BIRTH of computers - so I know exactly what I mean.  Coding machines in 1986 is easier compared to today - when you have to deal with conflicting web tech running on your clients different devices. Really complicated.

So what am I saying?

The rare person reading this MUST LEARN HOW TO CODE. If you want to and really have the logic-strength.

Otherwise you need to UPSKILL in other areas so you're protected from the changes happening in the industry.

LEARN SOMETHING ELSE BUT NOT CODING!

If coding scares you, congrats! You're normal.

But what skill can you learn that will keep you updated?

Well, I've already demonstrated it to you the other week - it's called "VOICE SEARCH".

You're already doing it if you're ordering your phone around to Google for you.

And trend is showing that this is going to be more and more common - in the future.

So how you to insert yourself into voice search?

You learn the skills needed to support a world where search is done by voice?

What skill is that?

The skill you can learn is creating an ALEXA / ECHO FLASH BRIEFING.

This one skill - is not yet available to a lot of people today.

In fact this thing - the "Alexa / Echo" is not yet legally available in the Philippines at of this writing.

But this will quickly change - though you may not have heard of "Alexa or Echo" - it's being shipped with all sorts of gadgets today.

TV Remote controls have it. Smart Tvs, Washer Dryers, Lights! and Smart Speakers all have Alexa installed.

That makes it possible for you to just "Tell" these devices to do anything it can do.

Alexa Flash Briefing + What Alexa Can Do
Video Training: