During my time at Iowa State, I’ve learned a lot. The school courses, club experiences and my part-time jobs have taught me a lot, but there are still some things missing. I mean I could learn many skills through more college courses, but why not use some online resources that could do the same? 

Furthering your skills in any area is a good way to boost your worth and make yourself more valuable to potential employers. Here are a couple skills that I’ve found that could be worthwhile for you to look into. 

1. Learn to code

Picking up this skill could prove invaluable in a technology-driven future, plus it can be a total career booster in your near future. From building websites to building apps, learning how to program teaches you how to solve problems and test your ideas.

My favorite resource is Codecademy, an interactive website that teaches you different skills through performing your own code projects. You can learn skills like how to code in HTML and CSS, Javascript, PHP, Python and Ruby on Rails.

In this modern age, young people need to become digitally literate by learning to read and write code, so keep this important skill in mind.

2. Pick up a second language

It can be a long and difficult road, but learning to speak another language can be a huge career and pay boost. I’d recommend Duolingo, which an online language-learning resource that’s totally free. The languages available include Spanish, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Sweedish, Turkish, Esperanto, Norwegian and Ukrainian.

3. Improve your Adobe Creative Cloud skills

I would suggest vamping up your Photoshop and InDesign skills especially. These tools can be used for so much more than just photo editing, manipulating or any of the other basic uses. The possibilities are endless if you’re literate with these programs, and it’s easy enough to buff up your skills.

LifeHacker.com, Adobe help sites and searching through YouTube videos are just a couple easy ways to pick up some new knowledge. You can also start up a discounted student contract with Adobe, allowing you to have the programs on your desktop computer, laptop and even on your smartphone.

4. Become a better photographer

So many of us snap some photos and leave it at that, but improving your photography skills can pay off in the long run. LifeHacker.com provides information on the basics of photography, teaching you how your camera works, some composition basics and how to edit the pictures after you take them.

5. Be a healthier you

Start researching ways to live a healthier lifestyle. There are plenty of general sites online that can help you prepare better meals, choose the right vitamins and supplements and build workout plans.

One dorm-friendly, kind-of-simple way to get fit is to learn the basics of yoga. It can be difficult to find a free resource to learn this popular skill, but I’ve found Yome to be a good website. Yome provides free online videos detailing yoga poses that can be tailored to different skill levels, ages, styles, to those involved in different sports and to different styles of meditation.