Tim had never met anyone like him. The consultant had come in, walked around the place, and then met with the workplace staff over how they could improve the whole operation. Tim instantly knew that the consultant, who knew every fact and figure, every benchmark, every best practice, and every standard, was right in everything that he told the workplace staff. Everything the consultant said about their industry and their operation was something that Tim had already intuited deep down, without being able to express it. When the consultant left, Tim’s strongest impression wasn’t about the consultant’s suggested improvements. It was instead that Tim wanted to be smart like him.
Knowledge
Knowledge is a peculiar attribute in the workplace. Knowledge in school is one thing, while knowledge in the workplace is another thing. Knowledge in school seems like memorizing a bunch of facts on which to draw for examination, only to forget them immediately after the course is done. Knowledge in school involves items to pick up and soon later cast off. But knowledge in the workplace isn’t something to memorize, repeat once, and then cast aside. Workplace knowledge instead embeds itself into workplace demands, opportunities, and practices, beckoning you into a relationship with it that will enable you to do your job. You don’t so much acquire knowledge in the workplace as enter into a relationship with it. You coax and court knowledge, not buy it or pick it up and cast it off. Workplace knowledge also leads you on, introducing you to a mastery that you’ve always admired but don’t so much acquire as instead consent to by devotion. Get the right idea of job knowledge if you intend to improve your job performance. Don’t treat job knowledge as a cold and hard item. Instead, treat job knowledge like an old wizard whom you hope to befriend, to become more like him.
Education
Workers have several ways in which to gain job knowledge. Education is the most basic form. Many workplaces require specific minimum education, whether a high school diploma, two-year community college degree, four-year undergraduate degree, or some form of graduate or professional degree beyond college. Some workplaces employ only degreed individuals for certain jobs because of a licensure or certification requirement. Medicine, nursing, law, psychology, social work, and teaching are examples. In other workplaces, education is optional but can help. In either case, degree required or not, you may be able to advance your job success by gaining additional education, whether in a formal degree program or just additional coursework. Even doctors and lawyers who already have the minimum education and the license will sometimes go back to school for additional graduate degrees, to improve their job knowledge. Age and station don’t necessarily matter. What matters is your job interest, curiosity, and growth. Don’t overlook the opportunity to complete your degree, start a new degree, or take additional coursework, to gain greater job knowledge. Your initiative and commitment alone may be enough to open doors to your job advancement.
Training
Job training is a second traditional method for workers to gain greater job knowledge. Training may be on the job, in a vocational program, or both in an apprenticeship or intern program. Many programs of education, including medicine, nursing, accounting, law, teaching, and social work, may conclude with a clinical course, residency, or supervised work requirement before licensure. Employers offer their own orientation and training programs. Yet your training to gain greater job knowledge doesn’t have to be in a formal program. You may instead be able to arrange, inside or outside of your workplace, for an informal training course introducing you to new knowledge, methods, and practices. Identify those individuals inside your company and serving your company as contractors or suppliers who have the greatest job knowledge. Inquire of them where and how they gained their job knowledge. They may be able to share texts, manuals, journals, courses, or other resources for you to pursue, to improve your own job knowledge.
Seminars
You don’t have to enter an education or training program to substantially increase your job knowledge. Universities, professional and trade associations, government agencies, and private charitable and business organizations offer seminars to bring workers up to speed on current job knowledge. The seminars may be in person or online, synchronous or asynchronous, open enrollment or select enrollment, and free or fee-based. The formats are typically lecture, slide presentation, and preparatory or follow-up readings but may also include workshops, discussions, chat rooms, and other forms of active engagement. Survey your job functions to identify subjects where you need or want to brush up on your job knowledge. Then investigate opportunities to gain that job knowledge through seminars. Whether you gain greater knowledge or not, you may impress your employer, and your employer may be more than willing to pay for the seminars and give you work time or credit to complete them.
Journals
Reading journals within your job field is another way not only to keep up on your job knowledge but also to identify areas where your knowledge could improve. You may, for instance, come across an article that tells you something you never realized about your job and that makes an immediate positive impact on your job performance. On the other hand, you may in your journal reviews discover a sub-field in your job area about which you were unaware and that you can explore for relevant discoveries. Journals both give you specific knowledge and broad surveys of what others find interesting and important. Identify a half-dozen journals related to your job field, and then explore with your employer how you can access those journals. Your employer may be willing to pay for an online or print subscription that provides journal access not only for you but also your co-workers and supervisors. And again, your interest in learning more about your job field should impress your employer with your curiosity and commitment.
Research
You may also be able to vastly improve your job knowledge through concerted research into various topics that you find both relevant and interesting. As productive workers in ongoing operations, we tend to rely on the knowledge we have. Indeed, we tend to feel that we are experts in our own field without a substantial need to learn additional information. Our paycheck is evidence of our value to our employer and of our expertise. Yet a little genuine intellectual curiosity, spurring a little concerted research, can lead one to discover new things about one’s job that can improve or even revolutionize one’s performance. Online searches alone may turn up databases and resources about which you were previously wholly unaware. If you don’t know how to research the questions or subjects you identify, or you hit dead ends on your efforts, enlist an academic or librarian to give you some guidance. Even if your job is in a highly technical field, you can likely find a librarian or researcher connected with a school in that technical field to give you some guidance. No telling what you may discover and may be able to share with others in your workplace. One significant discovery may be all it takes to vastly improve your job performance and gain you a job advancement.
Publication
You don’t have to stop at research when making a concerted effort to improve your job knowledge. You could follow up your research with some writing for publication within your job field. If your job field has any significant degree of technical expertise, then it likely has some form of newsletter, periodical, blog forum, or trade or professional journal to keep practitioners informed. Examine the publications you see and read for job knowledge. Someone has written their posts, news stories, blogs, and articles. Publications often invite and encourage practitioner submissions. You don’t necessarily have to be an academic, journalist, or writer to contribute something to a practitioner newsletter, which may instead prefer practitioner submissions. Make a regular practice of looking for job subjects to research and about which to write for publication. Publications can quickly raise your standing within your field, give you a broader reputation and network, and lead to leadership, teaching, management, and other opportunities improving your job success.
Investigation
Your effort to improve your job knowledge doesn’t have to be broad and general. You don’t necessarily have to go looking through journals for topics of interest. Your job may instead present a special problem or opportunity that you should investigate. If so, then let that problem or opportunity lead you to new job knowledge. Your employer may even encourage you to design a prototype, conduct an experiment, or commence a pilot project to develop valuable new data and information. Your investigation may lead you to new hypotheses, opinions, and conclusions that your employer may be happy to further test and implement, or even to new processes and designs that your employer may be happy to patent, copyright, or otherwise monetize and protect. Don’t overlook the opportunity to generate new knowledge from the job circumstances surrounding you. Discoveries may be waiting for you to pursue them.
Committees
Joining a trade or professional association committee, board, or advisory group, or if you work for a large employer then a committee or working group within your company, can be another way of exposing yourself to new job knowledge. Many fields depend on practitioners to govern and operate their trade or professional associations, and other regulatory or advisory bodies, on a volunteer basis. Volunteering for committee work may be the furthest thing from your mind when you are languishing in your job. Yet committee work introduces you to other practitioners and their ideas, opinions, and perspectives. You can learn a great deal from an hour or two of interacting with others outside your own employment but in the same role and field, especially when your interaction with them is on a field subject. Find out what company, local, regional, state, or national committees you may be able to join in your field that could advance your job knowledge and broaden your job network. If you don’t learn anything new, you may nonetheless learn of other employment opportunities.
Intelligence
Employers everywhere are hearing about, exploring, and adopting artificial intelligence applications and tools to improve their processes and efficiency, and support and supplement their workforce. The growing availability and relevance of artificial intelligence tools may give you a special opportunity to grow in your job knowledge and success. You may be able to use artificial intelligence to augment your job knowledge and analyses. Just learning about the potential uses of artificial intelligence in your job function may lead you to discern opportunities for job improvement, with or without artificial intelligence. Think of the computing revolution within the workforce a few short decades ago. Early adopters of personal computers were able to quickly and vastly expand their job capabilities in many fields and roles. The same may be true with artificial intelligence or, for that matter, other new tools in your field. Don’t stop learning and growing. Your employer may depend on your continuing growth in job knowledge. And so may you.
Reflection
Can you think of a co-worker, supervisor, or other individual with whom or around whom you work, who seems to possess greater and more valuable job knowledge than others? What attitude do they exhibit with respect to their curiosity, responsibility, growth, or commitment that might be contributing to their greater knowledge? Do you need to adjust your attitude to open yourself to greater knowledge gains? Which of the above methods could you most readily pursue to test and expand your job knowledge? Choose two or three of those methods, make a plan, and pursue them.
Key Points
Keen job knowledge can make all the difference to job success.
Formal education is the usual way to gain base job knowledge.
Formal program and informal on-the-job training expands knowledge.
Seminars can also quickly test and refine your job knowledge.
Review newsletters, periodicals, and journals regularly to stay current.
Research job topics of special or general interest to see what you learn.
Writing for publication can expand job knowledge and reputation.
Consider a prototype, experiment, or pilot project to learn.
Join company or trade association committees to network and learn.
Investigate uses of artificial intelligence for your job functions.