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Top 10 SharePoint Skills You Need to Learn Today

If you’ve scoured multiple document management systems to track down a file, you know that collaborating on corporate documents often wastes time and money. Microsoft SharePoint centralizes document storage and collaboration to help companies organize, manage and share documents. Today it’s one of the top business collaboration platforms – two out of three enterprise employees use SharePoint.

As more businesses migrate to SharePoint, the demand for experienced SharePoint administrators and developers will increase. Companies need to ensure their IT teams have the skills to manage and customize the highly technical SharePoint platform.

Here are the SharePoint skills that will accelerate your career and help your organization effectively implement SharePoint solutions.

SharePoint Skills to Learn Today

SharePoint helps businesses work faster and more collaboratively. It’s a complex platform that requires knowledge of other technical Microsoft programs.

The SharePoint skills required for the job depend on the career you’re pursuing. In this article, we’ll dive into the most popular SharePoint roles and the essential skills you need to master SharePoint.

SharePoint Careers

Most SharePoint positions require a bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering or a related technical area. If you don’t have a degree, you can gain comparable education by earning a SharePoint certification.

You also need at least two to four years of hands-on IT experience under your belt before pursuing a SharePoint-specific role. Expertise in web development, networking and cloud technology will transfer easily to a SharePoint position.

Managing a SharePoint site requires overseeing a lot of moving parts. The most common SharePoint roles are:

  • SharePoint Administrator: The administrator is the first line of support, administration, user education and security. They are responsible for day-to-day management, understanding the site’s purpose and delegating tasks to other SharePoint employees to resolve issues quickly. They also understand some SharePoint architecture.
  • SharePoint Engineer: Often overlapping with SharePoint administrators, engineers manage day-to-day maintenance to keep SharePoint systems running smoothly. They manage patching, server maintenance and damage control to maintain uptime.
  • SharePoint Developer: While SharePoint offers out-of-the-box features, many companies customize the platform for their needs. SharePoint developers create custom code and applications. Developers have in-depth knowledge of programming languages and technologies that work with SharePoint and create, implement and troubleshoot new applications and integrations.
  • SharePoint Architect: Architects design SharePoint environments for optimal use and performance. Where SharePoint developers create custom applications, architects will determine when and where to use custom solutions and develop best practices to implement them. They plan out everything from the server and network layout to load balancing to ensure the platform fulfills business needs.

Administrators and developers are two of the most popular SharePoint roles. While there are several SharePoint roles, the career path isn’t linear.

As SharePoint increasingly becomes hybrid or cloud-based, job requirements and skill sets are shifting. SharePoint roles and responsibilities will merge and overlap depending on the needs of the organization.

Even if you want to become a SharePoint developer, you should also develop project management and administrator skills. Each position demands different core skills that will help you stand out to employers and confidently transition to the new platform.

Want to learn SharePoint skills fast? Discover Microsoft SharePoint training courses happening near you.

SharePoint Administrator Skills

SharePoint administrators manage the content hosted on SharePoint and help expedite user adoption within an organization. They are responsible for maintaining and securing the platform and monitoring system usage to optimize performance.

Other basic tasks include:

  • Creating and configuring new sites
  • Adding document libraries
  • Creating and configuring lists and forms
  • Backing up SharePoint sites

SharePoint administrators must be excellent communicators and maintain a business mindset. The average base salary for a SharePoint administrator is $80,000.

CORE MICROSOFT SKILLS FOR SHAREPOINT ADMINISTRATORS

SharePoint integrates with core Microsoft products like Office 365 and Dynamics 365. When evaluating your SharePoint skills, potential employers want to see that you’ve worked across Microsoft products.

When preparing for a career as a SharePoint administrator, here are some core Microsoft technologies you’ll want to gain experience with:

TECHNICAL SKILLS FOR SHAREPOINT ADMINISTRATORS

Companies use SharePoint to manage and store documents across the organization. SharePoint administrators also need a combination of business and technical knowledge to resolve potential roadblocks and user issues. This knowledge includes:

  • Windows operating system and hardware
  • Software management
  • Networking infrastructure services including encryption, security zones and firewalls
  • Business analysis skills to organize and execute SharePoint projects that align with the business workflow
  • Basic SharePoint tools like ULS Logs, workflows to automate business processes and SharePoint forms for tasks such as creating expense reports

SharePoint Developer Skills

SharePoint developers create and configure SharePoint solutions. Although the lines between an administrator and developer often blur, developers possess advanced SharePoint skills to code custom applications and websites to meet specific business needs.

For example, a SharePoint developer might be in charge of building custom workflows or implementing controls to improve a SharePoint site’s functionality.

The best SharePoint developers have a knack for understanding end-user problems and discovering the right solutions. They understand how users access and organize information in SharePoint and implement processes that streamline and simplify information management and collaboration.

Developers need a variety of scripting, drafting and design tools under their belt. IT professionals who are willing to learn the technical skills required for this position are rewarded – the average salary for a SharePoint developer is $95,249.

CORE MICROSOFT SKILLS FOR SHAREPOINT DEVELOPERS

As a SharePoint Developer, you’ll be responsible for creating and customizing SharePoint websites. Seek out experience with these core programs to elevate to a developer role:

  • SharePoint Designer: This user-friendly tool is perfect for quick building integration solutions or simple workflows.
  • Visio: Visio is useful for drafting and collaborating on workflows before exporting them to SharePoint Designer.
  • PowerShell: This tool allows you to run and automate scripts in SharePoint.
  • Visual Studio: Visual Studio provides project templates for SharePoint sites and helps bring complex site requirements to life.

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES FOR SHAREPOINT DEVELOPERS

Microsoft is moving away from server-side rendering in favor of client-side web technologies. This allows SharePoint developers to provide richer, more interactive user experiences.

Understanding different programming languages is essential to learning SharePoint. Developers should know as many programming languages as possible to make business goals come to life through SharePoint solutions.

The most important SharePoint languages to learn include:

  • .NET
  • C#
  • CSS
  • HTML5
  • JavaScript
  • jQuery

SharePoint Training and Certifications

IT training is a great way to validate your SharePoint skills and accelerate your career as an administrator or developer. Microsoft offers two certification paths for SharePoint IT professionals.

MCSE: PRODUCTIVITY SOLUTIONS EXPERT

If you’re pursuing a career as a SharePoint administrator, the MCSE Productivity certification is for you.

This certification validates your ability to move your company to the cloud, increase user productivity, reduce data loss and strengthen data security through SharePoint.

MCSD: APP BUILDER

This certification is ideal for SharePoint developers. It validates you have the skills to build modern mobile and web applications and services using SharePoint.

Learn SharePoint Skills From Real-World Experts

Hands-on, instructor-led training is the most effective way to learn essential SharePoint skills.

As the world’s largest independent IT training company, New Horizons offers comprehensive SharePoint training at every expertise level. Whether you’re just getting started, are in the middle of a huge SharePoint project or want to brush up on your skills, New Horizons has SharePoint classes for every skill level and need.

Ready to learn the SharePoint skills you need to get ahead in your career? Get prepared today with New Horizons Microsoft SharePoint training courses.

Categories: Microsoft Technical

Morgan Landry

Morgan Landry

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