Why You Should Have A Treehouse Account
Image Credit: Treehouse
When you’re looking to bulk up your resume/CV and skill set, volunteering and internships are all very well and good. However, you can easily find online resources that will teach you valuable skills and qualities from the comfort of your computer. One of these valuable resources is the website Treehouse, which offers courses in web design, coding, web development, and more. Although most of us know our way around social media, knowing how to build a website is a completely different ball game. “Just an hour a day” is all Treehouse suggests that you devote towards learning how to be tech-savvy. Being tech-savvy will provide you with an extensive set of benefits, you just have to be prepared to invest in yourself.
So what is Treehouse, and what can it do for me? Treehouse is an online interactive educational platform that offers courses on web design and web programming for their students. The courses are comprised of videos, exercises, and quizzes, and you will also be expected to complete all of the steps in your ‘Workspace’ (a code editor). With Treehouse, you can learn how to build apps, websites, code, and learn about web design, CSS, and HTML. Treehouse also offers courses to help you understand and use programs like Ruby and Wordpress, and workshops to help improve your digital literacy.
If you’ve got an entrepreneurial spirit, then you should check out the ‘Business’ courses that are offered on Treehouse. Their topics range from starting a business to making a social media strategy for your new business. There is a cost associated with using Treehouse and depending on whether you have signed up for a Basic account ($25 a month) or a Pro account ($49 a month) the cost will fluctuate. However, if you are unsure about whether Treehouse is right for you then you can sign up for their 2-week free trial.
Benefits…
Get Employed: Treehouse uses a system of ‘badges’ that are awarded to you once you have completed significant challenges, or finished a course. These badges are an indicator of how much you have learned, and how developed your skills are. Companies like Simple and LivingSocial are known for using Treehouse to directly recruit promising new web developers and designers based on their skill and knowledge level. So if you’re interested in web design and development as a career, then Treehouse is definitely a promising first step.
Apply Valuable Skills to Everyday Life: You don’t necessarily have to have aspirations to become a web designer/developer in order to benefit from Treehouse. Rather, you can take the skills and knowledge that you gathered from the Treehouse courses, and apply them to your everyday life. Having technical skills will surely raise your value in the eyes of your employer, depending on what courses you took, you could create a website or app for the company you work for. Or you could go your own way, and use your digital know-how to start up your own business, or create the next Flappy Bird equivalent in the app market. Even if none of these options interest you, knowing how to be digitally-literate will definitely serve you in the future.
Increase Your Value In The Eyes Of Employers: For all the reasons that are already outlined for you above, knowing how to be digitally-literate and knowledgeable in web design and development will increase your value in the eyes of potential employers. Whether you can build a website or app for them or are competent in all the web programs that you will be required to use, a digitally competent employee is much more attractive than one who isn’t. You can add the link to your Treehouse profile, or include some of the most relevant courses you completed, in your resume.
Treehouse offers you the chance to learn digital skills in a world that is increasingly turning digital by the day, if not by the hour. Learning how to survive and thrive in this world gives you the freedom to be whatever you want to be. Whether that be a web designer/developer, an entrepreneur, or something completely unrelated, the choice is in your hands.