How to build expertise in a new field
Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Anyone can excel in different professions as long as they are willing to learn, leave their comfort zone, and work with experts.

Much as this is possible, it still requires hard work.

Expertise can be defined as a special skill or knowledge that is acquired by training, study, or practice. Experts are usually go-to persons for assistance and advice. 

Career experts emphasise that it’s imperative to choose a specific area you would like to improve by highlighting your personal passions. 

Adrian Busingye, an entrepreneur and CEO at a local agriculture firm, is of the view that one should find time and discover what interests them most and their talents. 

Once you get a hold of something that you love doing and care about, chances are, you will give it your all and will be heartened to do even better, he says.

He also advises to focus on skills that will be more necessary in the career you pursued. For him, it’s impossible to develop motivation for something that you have no interest in. 

Busingye stresses to examine yourself and notice what it will require to be an expert and acquire more knowledge, for instance, it could be through qualifications or acquiring trainings. 

If you want to be a great public speaker, lawyer, accountant, and so forth, find someone who inspires you and walk in their shoes. 

Such mentors can advise you on how to go about a specific career, share with you the challenges they encountered and how they overcame them. 

"You may also be lucky if they connect you to other experts. Get to know what drives these people, surely, you will learn something from them,” he says.

He further notes that you can expand your knowledge via internet or social media and join professional associations, and use social networking sites such as, LinkedIn and Twitter. It’s easier to meet professionals in your career who would be willing to share their experience with you. 

Busingye states that the mistakes most workers make is to stay stagnant and stop learning, a thing he says limits most people to discover new opportunities, yet with time, the skills needed on the job market keep changing or getting better. 

"Identify what you want to improve and how you want to improve it. Identify the big goals you wish to achieve and break them down into smaller ones. It’s important to set attainable goals,” Busingye says.

He also urges that one should focus on one task at a time until they perfect it as juggling many at the same time may not yield to excellence in all of them.

The entrepreneur also stresses that one needs to get someone to hold you accountable, because feedback is key to growing in a certain skill, that way, you can be guided on what to do to excel, which may not be the case when no one shows you the path to take. 

According to Indeed Career Guide, to continually improve, you need to have the freedom to make mistakes and figure out how to improve your skills. In order to do this, you must find or create an environment where you can engage in deliberate practice. For a web developer, this may mean having a test site that no one else has access to where you can practice what you’re learning. If you are a public speaker and are practicing your craft, this may mean finding a quiet room in your house where you can deliver speeches in front of a mirror.