8 High-Income Skills Worth Learning in 2024

Every job requires some combination of workplace skills and technical skills. Chances are, you have already built an impressive skill set derived from your education or past work experience.

High-income skills are tools and expertise that employers tend to value because of the important business needs they satisfy. These job skills may make you a more competitive job candidate and may make it easier to change jobs (and possibly even industries), according to a 2022 report from McKinsey & Company [1].

As you aim to advance your career or shift your career focus, you may want to find ways to highlight your high-income skills. Depending on your desired career path, you may be able to leverage these skills to reach your salary goals.

8 high-income skills to learn

Below, you’ll find eight high-income skills you can feature on your resume to help stand out to potential employers. To build this list, we looked at reports forecasting the most in-demand skills through 2030 from the World Economic Forum [2], Pearson [3], Future Learn [4], LinkedIn [5], Glassdoor [6], and Coursera [7].

The skills listed here are all transferable across a number of career paths or may be beneficial to strengthening your current career. For instance, a marketing professional may want to enhance their data skills, even if they do not want to work in data more formally, because it can help them discover key insights and build more effective campaigns.

Whether you choose to develop some of the skills below to augment your career or you're interested in pursuing a career built around a certain skill, use the list below to guide you.

1. Generative AI (GenAI)

Generative AI (GenAI) is a transformative technology that's advancing rapidly. A growing number of businesses already rely on AI tools to increase their productivity, with even more businesses interested in finding ways to integrate AI into their workstream, business model, products, or services.

Developing GenAI skills, including an ability to prompt engineer—a formal way of describing the ability to refine GenAI requests to get the output you desire—is becoming more crucial. Luckily, there are a variety of ways to build fundamental AI skills or advance what you already know.

If you're interested in an AI career, here are some roles that use AI heavily, along with average base pay in the United States as of August 2024, according to Glassdoor:

Read more: 5 AI Trends to Watch

2. Data analysis

Analytical thinking is the top skill forecasted in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report [2]. As businesses across industries increasingly rely on data to make informed decisions, they require more employees with the ability to collect, interpret, and share data that can solve their business problems.

People skilled in data analysis may use a range of tools including Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, SQL, Tableau, R, or Python.

Here are some careers that use data analysis, along with average base pay in the United States as of August 2024, according to Glassdoor:

Learn more about what data analysts do.

3. Software development

Industries now regularly turn toward technology to advance their business capabilities, and they need people skilled in developing, maintaining, and improving their technological systems. People who work in DevOps or software engineering build, monitor, and control an organization’s technology.

People skilled in DevOps or software engineering may use tools like Git, Docker, Jenkins, or Kubernetes, and may know coding languages like Python, Java, or C++.

Here are some careers that use software development, along with average base pay in the United States as of August 2024, according to Glassdoor:

4. User experience

Hand in hand with technological development comes user experience (UX), which has to do with the way a consumer interacts with a product. People working in UX figure out the best way to present a product to consumers. They may conduct research, design, or help market a product.

Although they still involve some data, UX roles are grounded in design and tend to offer room for creativity, and they require a high level of social perceptiveness—three skills that come up in multiple skill reports [2, 3, 4].

Here are some careers utilizing user experience skills, along with average base pay in the United States as of August 2024, according to Glassdoor:

Learn more about essential skills needed to work in UX.

5. Web development

Web development brings together the fundamentals of software development and user experience, incorporating the technical aspects of the former with the design elements of the latter. People skilled in web development will also be familiar with technical search engine optimization (SEO) in order to design and program websites that meet business needs.

Here are some careers that require web development skills, along with average base pay in the United States as of August 2024, according to Glassdoor:

Learn more about what web developers do.

6. Project management

Many companies use an organizational structure in which different departments, teams, or team members all work on a singular product or project. A person who is skilled in coordinating efforts across each of those touchpoints is skilled in project management. These team members may be responsible for maintaining schedules, organizing budgets, and communicating with project stakeholders (or various parties interested or invested in the project outcomes).

You can consider “project management” to be a catch-all term for leadership, communication, planning, resilience, and organizational skills—all of which are frequently cited as valuable to employers [2, 3, 4, 6].

Project management shows up in many careers and becomes especially important as you move into managerial positions. However, you can also pursue a career as a project manager. Here are some careers along the project manager path and their average base pay in the United States as of August 2024, according to Glassdoor:

Learn more about key project management skills.

7. Account management

While project management typically has an internal focus, account management taps into a similar subset of skills to work with people outside of your organization. Often highly valued in sales positions, account management skills enable you to confidently position your company and its products to customers.

Account management skills incorporate both the organizational aspects required to close a business deal as well as the interpersonal skills required to productively negotiate and maintain relationships. They often work with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool like Salesforce.

Here are some careers that use account management and sales skills, along with average base pay in the United States as of August 2024, according to Glassdoor:

8. Content creation and management

Content creation and management skills involve storytelling and are often crucial for marketing careers. This skill set incorporates creativity, originality, social perceptiveness, and emotional intelligence. Taking these skills a step further can also mean adding data analysis to your toolbox, specifically honing in on marketing analytics so that you can assess how well an audience is connecting with your content.

Here are some careers that use content creation and management skills, along with average base pay in the United States as of August 2024, according to Glassdoor:

Develop and strengthen high-income skills on Coursera

Continue building high-income skills through courses, specializations, and Professional Certificates on Coursera. Develop new knowledge, learn about important tools, and get hands-on practice through assignments to keep expanding your skill set.

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