There is a genuine fear amongst workers that automation is going to take over their jobs. As time has passed though we are realizing that automation can be something that helps us do our work much more efficiently and save us a lot of time.

Zapier recently conducted a survey for job seekers, and nearly 70% of people think that automation skills will help them land their next job.

This number doesn’t come as a surprise and here is why I think automation can help land you a new job.

Automation makes you better in any job:

If your job is like mine.  Most of your time is spent in front of the computer. There are a number of tasks that are repetitive like moving data from an application to a spreadsheet. Sending a scheduled email to more than one recipient, or following up with clients that have not been in touch for a while.

Now all these tasks need to be done and can’t be ignored, but if you can develop a system that does these tasks without taking your time. One advantage is that you don’t need to worry about these tasks. The other less obvious reason is that you can use that time to do tasks that humans are good at tasks like building relationships, brainstorming etc.

I think this is a reason why employers would like to hire you. You will have more time to think about the important things while the computer is taking up those repetitive tasks.

Easy to learn automation:

Now I think a common perception is that it is difficult to learn automation and that was the case until some time back. Now that we are in the age of ‘Zero Code,’ anyone can go upgrade their automation skills. A wide range of tools like Zapier, Power Automate and Phantombuster can help you help out with automating your repetitive tasks.

Don’t worry if you are not a “Computer Person” you can learn the skill by just starting off and building something extremely silly. Experiment constantly. By setting up a feedback loop you can correct any mistakes that you are making in the automation almost immediately.

Whether it is Zapier or power automate or any tool that you are picking, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is actually is putting some time on the task and then once you learn how it works you can put the skill into action to save time for you. This behaviour will help you in your job search, help in the interview process and ultimately make you better at work.

Add ‘Automator’ to your resume:

I think you are now ready to add the term ‘Automator’ to your resume (and no Automator is not a batman villain’ ). Make sure if you are asked in your job interview about your experience with automation you provide examples that you have personally worked on. Another thing that you need to make sure is that it is actually solving a problem in your company’s workflow.

For eg: If you are helping your client with their invoice management process you can set up their entire invoice reminder workflow on a tool like Zapier where you trigger the automation by date and send a custom email to your customer based on the info that you collected. This could potentially save you hours in a week.

Lastly, companies are struggling to be efficient and you can be valuable to the organization if you can help solve this for them using automation. So it’s a perfect time to learn this new skill and promote yourself based on it