If you’re thinking about making a career change, then it’s only natural that, at some point, you’re going to think about what kind of skills you might need to make that change. Even if you don’t yet have an idea of what career you want to get into, learning some skills can help you start finding the path to the work that you want the most. However, what skills should you be focusing on? Here, we’re going to look at some of the hard skills that have compatibility with a wide range of careers.

The ability to communicate well might sound like something intrinsic, but it is something that can be learned and taught. In particular, you need to make sure that you’re comfortable with the modern tools of communication, from email and chat software to teleconferencing. There are ways to practice your verbal communication skills, as well, such as taking public speaking courses that can help you be more assertive and confident when it’s needed.

All businesses require marketing. It’s what helps them reach the people who will, with luck, become their customers and clients. As such, the marketing world is always looking for more skilled and insightful marketing talents. Given how quickly the modern landscape of online marketing can change, it’s important to be flexible and to keep studying new and changing forms of marketing, as what worked a decade ago isn’t likely to work today.

A lot of people mistake marketing and sales for the same process, but they’re not. Marketing usually helps find leads, but sales teams turn those leads into clients and customers. As such, there’s a lot of customer service wrapped up in sales, as well as the ability to ensure that you understand the specific value proposition of the products that you’re selling, and how you can match these with the needs of the potential sale. Most B2B careers require some level of sales savvy since you’re likely to be playing a part in managing long-term sales relationships with high-information customers.

Just as every business requires some level of marketing and sales for success, there are very few businesses that don’t have some kind of digital component to them. Basic computer skills include things like being able to communicate through email and other software and using office software, but with online learning, you can become much more competent in the IT sector of any business. The digital world still rules most of the business world.

Quickly rising in prominence, there is an increasing demand for people with real data analysis skills. The ability to research, capture, organize, and present data in a way that is readable for the average person is growing more and more important in a business landscape where we become increasingly more data-driven.

Of course, not every career uses all of the skills mentioned above. But these are some of the most widely demanded hard skills, so it might be worth learning one or two of them.