How I Stayed Productive Over Break with Lynda.com
For many, winter break can be a time to work, relax, travel or maybe a mixture of all three! With graduation looming and the reality of working in the real world fast approaching, I thought it would be a good idea to stay productive and pick up a new skill or two over this winter break. So I turned to Lynda.com.
A tool I discovered that allows me to grow and strengthen my skills is Lynda.com. Lynda.com is an incredibly easy tool to navigate, full of videos on a wide range of topics. Lynda.com can teach you specific software applications like the Adobe software tools or even professional life skills, such as organization and time management.
Having a Mass Communication minor, not major, has limited my course options in the Mass Comm department. As a young professional aspiring to work in PR, social media or event planning, there are a wide variety of skills and software I should be familiar with. Because of my limited knowledge in certain departments, I wanted to take advantage of what I could learn on my own to qualify as the best candidate for when I apply for jobs.
Notebook in Lynda.com
For my specific career aspirations, I first dove into an introduction to the Adobe software applications Photoshop and InDesign. As a beginner, learning all the features of Adobe tools was overwhelming. What I love about Lynda.com, is there is a way to record and organize fast facts. As you walk through a tutorial, Lynda.com allows you to take notes. The notes you type then automatically save, drop down and display while you continue watching your video.
Challenges in Lynda.com
Another cool feature I came across is challenges. The challenges throughout this course are what helped me learn Adobe Photoshop on my own. So what is a challenge? The challenge feature acts similar to in-class activities or homework. Specifically, for Adobe applications, a challenge will start out like this….
At the beginning of a challenge, you will be given a problem followed by a list of objectives for the particular activity to complete. The challenge will then walk through a few samples of the problem on the Adobe platform. Along with the examples, a certain amount of time will be given to show about how long it should take you to complete the challenge. Because the challenges throughout the Adobe course give you the opportunity to dive into Photoshop hands on, the muscle memory will help you catch on quickly.
Searches in Lynda.com
When I started using Lynda.com, I thought it could only teach skills pertaining to software or applications. However, over break while I was surfing Lynda.com, I found that it also assisted me in becoming what I aspired to be in my career! This was one of my favorite features of Lynda.com. By clicking on one or multiple career titles, Lynda.com brings up thousands of results. Lynda.com has a huge variety, and all videos that pop up will be related to the career of your choice. Also, as graduation approaches, videos such as these will come in handy to help narrow down the direction I hope to take as I begin my career.
Like I mentioned earlier, my break was spent working and playing. I spent time with family back home in California, and also got to explore Portland, Oregon for the first time. During all that travel, Wi-Fi was not always accessible at every location. However, that was not a problem for Lynda.com. On Lynda.com I could download videos offline and watch from any location on my iPad. This feature was incredibly helpful during my travels over break!
Lynda.com is a friendly resource that I definitely will continue to use and I am excited to explore what else it has to offer.
About The Author:
Madelynn Emmerich is a Senior majoring in Organizational Communication Studies and minoring in Mass Communications. Madelynn was a Social Media Intern at a non-profit in Oakland, California over the summer. Madelynn will pursue traveling after graduation and let the her location be wherever her job takes her. Madelynn has been writing for eWazoo since 2016.
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