7 High-Income Skills Worth Learning in 2024

Every job requires some combination of workplace and technical skills. Chances are, you have already built an impressive skill set derived from your education or past work experience.

High-income skills are tools and expertise that employers tend to value highly and may make it easier to change jobs and even industries. These job skills may be rare and are often crucial to running a successful business.

You should highlight your high-income skills in your portfolio as you aim to level up or shift your career focus. You can leverage these skills to reach your salary goals depending on your desired career path.

7 high-income skills to learn

Below, you’ll find seven high-income skills you can feature on your CV to help stand out to potential employers. To build this list, we looked at reports forecasting the most in-demand skills through 2030 from the World Economic Forum [2], Pearson [3], Future Learn [4], LinkedIn [5], Glassdoor [6], and Coursera [7].

The skills listed here are all transferable across several career paths. As you read this list, consider your career goals, past experiences, and the job descriptions of your desired roles, and notice whether any of these skills may naturally facilitate your path.

1. Data analysis

Analytical thinking and innovation are the top skills forecasted in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report [1]. As businesses across industries increasingly rely on data to make informed decisions, they require more employees with the ability to collect, interpret, and share data that can solve their business problems.

Data analysis professionals may use various tools, including Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, SQL, Tableau, R, or Python.

Here are some careers that use data analysis, along with average annual base pay in India as of March 2024, according to Glassdoor:

Increasingly, industries are turning toward technology to advance their business capabilities, and they need people skilled in developing, maintaining, and improving their technological systems. People in DevOps or software engineering build, monitor, and control an organisation’s technology.

People skilled in DevOps or software engineering may use tools like Git, Docker, Jenkins, or Kubernetes and know coding languages like Python, Java, or C++.

Here are some careers that use software development, along with annual average base pay in India as of March 2024, according to Glassdoor:

Hand in hand with technological development comes user experience (UX), which has to do with how a consumer interacts with a product. People working in UX determine the best way to present a product to consumers. They may conduct research, design, or help market a product.

Although they still involve some data, UX roles are grounded in design and tend to offer room for creativity, and they require a high level of social perceptiveness—three skills that come up in multiple skill reports [1, 2, 3].

Here are some careers utilising user experience skills, along with annual average base pay in India as of March 2024, according to Glassdoor:

4. Web development

Web development combines the fundamentals of software development and user experience, incorporating the technical aspects of the former with the design elements of the latter. People skilled in web development will also be familiar with technical search engine optimisation (SEO) to design and program websites that meet business needs.

Here are some careers that require web development skills, along with annual average base pay in India as of March 2024, according to Glassdoor:

5. Project management

Many companies use an organisational structure in which different departments, teams, or team members work on a singular product or project. A person skilled in coordinating efforts across those touchpoints is skilled in project management. These team members may maintain schedules, organize budgets, and communicate with project stakeholders (or parties interested or invested in the project outcomes).

You can consider “project management” a catch-all term for leadership, communication, planning, resilience, and organisational skills—frequently cited as valuable to employers [1, 2, 3, 5].

Project management appears in many careers and becomes especially important as you move into managerial positions. However, you can also pursue a career as a project manager. Here are some careers along the project manager path and their annual average base pay in India as of March 2024, according to Glassdoor:

6. Account management

While project management typically has an internal focus, account management taps into a similar subset of skills to work with people outside your organisation. Often highly valued in sales positions, account management skills enable you to confidently position your company and its products to customers.

Account management skills incorporate the organisational aspects required to close a business deal and the interpersonal skills necessary to negotiate and maintain relationships productively. They often use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool like Salesforce.

Here are some careers that use account management and sales skills, along with annual average base pay in India as of March 2024, according to Glassdoor:

7. Content creation and management

Content creation and management skills involve storytelling and are often crucial for marketing careers. This skill set incorporates creativity, originality, social perceptiveness, and emotional intelligence. Taking these skills a step further can also mean adding data analysis to your toolbox, specifically honing in on marketing analytics so that you can assess how well an audience is connecting with your content.

Here are some careers that use content creation and management skills, along with annual average base pay in  India as of March 2024, according to Glassdoor:

Keep learning

You can build many skills through your regular work activities; however, sometimes, it can help to bolster your skill set with outside classes or certifications. To determine the best skills to increase your earning potential, visit the Career Academy on Coursera. Here, you’ll get an in-depth look at the key skills across several career paths and can find specific online courses for each path.