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Judging by the number of photos on social media of elaborate loaves of sourdough, completed five thousand-piece puzzles, and quarantine push-up challenges\u2014we\u2019re all looking for ways to improve our skills (or maybe just distract ourselves) while we\u2019re observing social distancing and staying closer to home.<\/p>\n
In an effort to help distract you from baking bread (and thereby ease the strain on the flour supply chain) we thought we\u2019d offer you some different approaches to skill development from some of the experts we work with at Backblaze. We polled some of our team members\u2014ranging from SEO experts, to financial gurus, to engineering powerhouses\u2014to ask them for their favorite entry-level and pro-level resources for building new knowledge and experience in their fields of expertise.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what they recommend:<\/p>\n
Toren Ajk, Backblaze\u2019s E-Commerce Specialist, says that it\u2019s integral to have a solid foundation of the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) before exploring the full range of what you can do with it. In his experience, there\u2019s more to SEO than meets the eye at first, so taking the time to get an understanding of the basic elements lets you make better decisions as you move forward.<\/p>\n
He recommends these resources for getting a good grasp of the fundamentals:<\/p>\n
For specialists who are looking to learn more about SEO, Toren recommends:<\/p>\n
Terry LoBianco, Director of Media Sales for Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage<\/a>, first became interested in sales after going on a sales call with her dad. She remembers that he had a great relationship and mutual dialogue with his distributors and it was inspiring to see that he didn\u2019t use a hard sell approach.<\/p>\n Later, she got her first sales job for a healthcare company with a revolutionary product\u2014the first blood centrifuge machine\u2014which was exciting, fun, and inspired her to keep representing a reputable company with a strong belief that she can offer a quality product and service.<\/p>\n Terry recommends that beginners in sales follow a path similar to hers. She looked to her father to understand the basics of success in sales and recommends you do the same. Ask, listen, and build relationships with people working in the field and learn what you can from them.<\/p>\n For sales professionals looking to up their game, Terry recommends:<\/p>\n Natalie Cook, Director of HR, says that HR is a great path for anyone who loves a good challenge and finds great joy in other people\u2019s developments and achievements.<\/p>\n Natalie\u2019s recommended resources for beginners:<\/p>\n Natalie\u2019s recommended resources for experts looking to hone their skills:<\/p>\n Backblaze\u2019s CFO Frank Patchel describes his job as increasing the value of the firm. Value comes from the people, products, services, and profits.<\/p>\n Frank\u2019s recommended resources for finance beginners:<\/p>\n For other financial professionals looking to learn more about the field, Frank recommends:<\/p>\n Ahin Thomas<\/a>, Backblaze\u2019s VP of Marketing, says that he\u2019s always been fascinated by pop culture, music, and food, then eventually realized that the common thread between them was storytelling. \u201cAfter I made that connection, I came to the conclusion that marketing is so much about storytelling\u2014crafting the narrative, polishing the delivery, and responding to the audience,\u201d says Ahin.<\/p>\n For people who are interested in getting started with learning more about marketing, Ahin says it\u2019s important to start thinking about the \u201cwhy.\u201d Ask yourself why someone would be motivated to evangelize a specific thing, and how they would gauge their success. What\u2019s the message, and who is their audience? Ahin believes that one of the best resources is reading and listening to the stories of other marketing experts.<\/p>\n For marketing professionals who are looking to hone their skills, Ahin<\/a> first recommends talking to other marketing professionals, especially those who are facing unforgiving marketing challenges, but are able to make things work.<\/p>\n For more pro-level resources, he recommends:<\/p>\n Jeannine Smith, Head of Business Analytics, says that one way to start learning about business analytics is to look for examples of analytics and optimization in your everyday life. One of her first jobs in high school was at McDonalds, where she was taught to measure everything with a standard operating procedure to optimize the metrics. For example, she learned to fry potatoes in a specific way that yielded the most orders of fries per pound of frozen potatoes.<\/p>\n Jeannine also says that being curious and detail-oriented is just as important as having a background in business intelligence or data analytics. You can look at visualizations of public data sources that interest you on Tableau<\/a>, which she uses regularly. Zillow Research also publishes housing data including visualizations<\/a> and the raw data<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jeannine and her team also suggested a few resources for business intelligence and analytics professionals to continue building their skills:<\/p>\n Gleb Budman<\/a>, Backblaze CEO, explains that building a business is like parenting. You play a part in creating something that you love and care for and try to make the best decisions for it with lots of conflicting input, data, and opinions. You also have to know that you’re going to screw them up in some way no matter how hard you try, but hope you provide the right guidance and guardrails, then watch them grow beyond what you even imagined\u2014all while being on a wild roller coaster ride with them throughout the journey.<\/p>\n Gleb says that the best way to start learning about running a business is by\u2026running a business. Nothing can replace the experience of trying, so he recommends that the best resource is to just go ahead and start your business.<\/p>\n Resources that Gleb<\/a> likes to explore for new inspiration and to build his skills:<\/p>\n Many of us have been spending more time at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, so we’ve turned to new hobbies and activities to occupy our time. If you’re spending this time looking to learn a new skill, read this post for some resources from our team members for building new knowledge in different areas of expertise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":95656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[111],"tags":[468],"class_list":["post-95648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship","tag-b2cloud","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
Thinking of Getting Started in Human Resources?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Curious About Finance?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Interested in Marketing?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Want to Learn About Business Analytics?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Ready to Start Your Own Business?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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