Level Up Your Career in 2020? Top Skills-Based NYE Resolutions

New Year's Day is just around the corner, inspiring many Americans to make resolutions that will secure them a better and brighter future— both professionally and personally!

Codecademy, the interactive online learning community teaching millions of people the expertise they need to upgrade their careers and lives, polled 1,000 employed U.S. residents to find out their top skills-based New Year's resolutions related to technology.

The survey uncovered interesting data. Consider this:

1. Some 62% of employed U.S. residents plan on making a resolution to gain or improve a tech-related skill in 2020. According to survey respondents, the top 5 U.S. states residents will make resolutions to improve their tech skills were: New York (71%), Ohio (70%), Pennsylvania (69%), Maryland (67%), and New Jersey (66%).
2. Personal growth and lifelong learning are the top motivators for people to learn a new skill in 2020. Approximately 57% of respondents say "self-betterment" is the prime driving force to learn a new skill in 2020. Professional growth is the second biggest motivator with 23%, and the potential to earn or save more money was the third most popular motivator with 20% of respondents.
3. Nearly 82% of U.S. respondents said coding and programming have the most universal growth potential– both personally and professionally. Codecademy CEO and Co-Founder Zach Sims predicts hard skills like SQL and Java are going to continue to be in high demand for the foreseeable future, but another emerging hard tech skill he suggests learning is Python. (About 18% of tech job postings asked candidates to understand Python in 2019, and it is designed to be easy to read and learn.)
4. Nearly 73% of respondents said that the best way for them to master a new skill is to 'learn by doing.' Similarly, 23% said receiving timely feedback is crucial for them to be successful in skills-based learning.
5. Roughly 68% of U.S. residents say they have completed a skills-based resolution in the past. Furthermore, 57% believe they are likely to complete their resolutions this year. "Learning new tech-related hard skills is a vehicle for evolving ourselves. It empowers people everywhere to build something meaningful," says Sims.

For the new year, Codecademy is helping people get a jumpstart on their tech-related skills-based resolutions by offering a limited edition 20% discount on its annual Pro memberships during first week and last week in January.

More info is available at www.codecademy.com/2020.