Is Tech Right For you? Take Our 3-Minute Quiz!
You Will Learn: If a career in tech is right for you What tech careers fit your strengths What skills you need to reach your goals
Fact or fiction? You can start earning money with your tech skills without a computer science degree or 15, 5, or even 1 year of experience.
Fact! With just the fundamentals, you’re already ready to work on real projects that people will pay you real money for.
If you’re wondering how that’s possible, I’ll tell you: tech skills are in demand. People, organizations, and companies all need websites and web content nowadays. And most of them can’t and/or don’t want to design or develop the sites themselves.
And you don’t have to worry about being new to the tech world. You can learn what you need to know in as little as a few weeks. So, making money with new tech skills can be totally doable (remote or in person) for you in no time!
To get going ASAP, here are 8 kinds of tech jobs you can start earning money with:
- Visual Editing and Design
- Branding
- Web Design
- UX (User Experience) Design
- Digital Marketing
- Front End Development
- WordPress Development
- Python Web App Development and Data Analysis
And, for each job type, you’ll also get info about:
- The skills you need
- The Skillcrush course that will teach you these skills
- Where to find the work
1. Visual Editing and Design
Ever tweaked your family vacation pictures or helped a friend with a new resume? Then you might already have what it takes to start getting paid for image editing and document design.
Think of all the photos and graphics you see every day on the web. Creating images for social media like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook or designing infographics, flyers, and ebooks is a perfect first step to earning in tech, especially as a side gig that you can easily adjust to fit in with your other commitments.
The Skills You Need:
- Color theory
- Typography
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe InDesign
The Skillcrush Course To Learn The Skills:
- Visual Design
Where To Find The Work:
- Friends and family
- Schools, hobby groups, or organizations
- Remote freelance sites like Fiverr
2. Branding
If I asked you what the color and style of the Coca-Cola logo is, you wouldn’t blink an eye before describing that exact shade of red and the unmistakable white script. And of course you can also identify McDonald’s golden arches, the Levi stamp, or the Apple apple without a second thought. That’s branding!
Every organization needs a “look and feel” to identify it, so coming up with branded logos, icons, style guides, and sales pages is a great way to up your income.
The Skills You Need:
- Branding standards
- Asset creation
- Creative briefs
- Adobe Illustrator
The Skillcrush Course To Learn The Skills:
- Visual Design
Where To Find The Work:
- Local or small businesses
- Online design communities like 99designs
- Remote freelance sites like Dribbble
3. Web Design
Speaking of look and feel, if you practically feel physical pain when you see a website that still looks like it was made circa 1995, you’re probably a lover of good design.
Turn that passion into cash by looking for projects that involve designing wireframes and layouts for sites and landing pages and. Then, add just a touch of coding to earn even more with your designs.
The Skills You Need:
- Design fundamentals
- Wireframing
- HTML and CSS
- Responsive design
- Adobe XD
The Skillcrush Course To Learn The Skills:
- Web Design
Where To Find The Work:
- Design agencies
- Tech meetups (find developers to pair up with!)
- Remote freelance sites like Freelancer
4. UX (User Experience) Design
If you’re fascinated by the process of finding out what people want from their digital products, user experience, or UX, is for you.
The work you can do in UX includes researching users and their needs, coming up with wireframes and prototypes for sites and apps, and trying them out with users. So, this field is an excellent choice if you’re into tech and the people who use it.
The Skills You Need:
- UX best practices
- User personas and journey mapping
- Ideation and user testing
- Figma
- InVision
The Skillcrush Course To Learn The Skills:
- User Experience Design
Where To Find The Work:
- Mid- to large-sized companies
- LinkedIn ProFinder
- Remote freelance sites like Toptal
5. Digital Marketing
Getting the word out about products and services is also an ideal way to profit from your tech savviness. With digital marketing skills, you can help people and organizations reach their audience and get paid well to do it!
Digital marketing is a great choice if you’re looking for smaller gigs to add to your income or experience. Or, you can turn it into your main work by taking on several clients or working with just a few on a full-time basis. And you can offer all the digital marketing services or specialize in a few to build a niche clientele.
The Skills You Need:
- Email marketing and landing pages
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Social media marketing
- Digital advertising
The Skillcrush Course To Learn The Skills:
- Digital Marketing
Where To Find The Work:
- Companies of all sizes
- Non-profits
- Remote freelance sites like Upwork
6. Front End Development
Front-end development—building the part of the web that users actually see—is a fantastic skill for bringing home the bucks.
You can work on projects ranging from coding marketing emails to putting up blog content, making static web pages, or developing interactive websites. And, with just about everyone needing an online presence now, there’s plenty of work to be found.
The Skills You Need:
- HTML and CSS
- Git and GitHub
- JavaScript and jQuery
- Responsive development
- Text editors
- Chrome DevTools
The Skillcrush Course To Learn The Skills:
- Front End Development
Where To Find The Work:
- Development agencies
- Small business associations
- Remote freelance sites like PeoplePerHour
7. WordPress Development
WordPress is a super versatile and highly adaptable CMS (content management system) that’s ideal for freelance development work.
With WordPress, you can create all kinds of customized sites. And, once you’ve got them built, you can hand them over to your client to update on a day-to-day basis so you can move on to your next money maker. Or you can specialize in creating WordPress themes and plugins or offer maintenance services—whatever fits your schedule and your interests best!
The Skills You Need:
- HTML and CSS
- WordPress CMS
- PHP
- Theme development
- Plugin customization
The Skillcrush Course To Learn The Skills:
- WordPress Development
Where To Find The Work:
- Companies of all sizes
- Professional groups and organizations
- Remote freelance sites like Codeable.io
8. Python Web App Development and Data Analysis
If you’ve been looking for a programming language that’s beginner-friendly but also powerful and popular, Python is it.
As a Python developer, you can make a pretty penny building server-side, mobile, or desktop apps or processing and interpreting data. And, whether you prefer small projects to do on your own or working on large projects with a team, Python skills will give you all kinds of opportunities for high-paid work you love.
The Skills You Need:
- Object-oriented programming (OOP) fundamentals
- Web app development
- Databases
- REST API framework
- Python libraries
- IDEs (Integrated development environments)
The Skillcrush Course To Learn The Skills:
Where To Find The Work:
- Startups and FinTech companies
- Organizations in research, science, and machine learning
- Remote freelance sites like Gun.io
Is Tech Right For you? Take Our 3-Minute Quiz!
You Will Learn: If a career in tech is right for you What tech careers fit your strengths What skills you need to reach your goals
