PowerPoint is a slideshow presentation software program created by Microsoft. It is a standard part of the Microsoft Office suite. An essential aspect of receiving professional PowerPoint training to set yourself up for a career change is learning what fields and industries that training will help you find work in. Each industry will have different requirements and expectations for prospective employees, and you should consider these expectations when you start your training. This is true for students who have an idea of what kind of work they want to do and for students who aren’t yet sure what path to take after learning PowerPoint skills.

What is PowerPoint?

Microsoft PowerPoint is a slideshow editing tool built to help users organize information, communicate effectively, and produce presentations to deliver through live address or without a presenter. It is the most commonly used presentation software across almost all professional industries. With PowerPoint, users can easily create vibrant and memorable presentations that quickly communicate meaning in a professional setting. They can add animations, transitions, graphics, and other imagery to their slides, ensuring they produce both communicative and impressive presentations for their audience.

Read more about what PowerPoint is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with PowerPoint Skills?

PowerPoint allows users to create vibrant and memorable visual presentations that can serve a wide variety of purposes. Its advanced features let users integrate dynamic animations and 3D-modeled graphics into their designs, creating more complex presentations than simple text projected onto a screen. Some people use PowerPoint to create informative slideshows that condense complicated information into a single, easy-to-digest presentation. This makes the program ideal for instructors and professionals who regularly host informational seminars. Other users utilize the program to persuade audiences, such as entrepreneurs meeting with potential investors, who might use PowerPoint to create memorable and persuasive presentations that convince the audience to invest in a product.

Common Industries That Use PowerPoint

There aren’t many industries that rely on PowerPoint as a primary design tool. However, at the same time, this program is used widely and regularly for a wide range of different jobs. For instance, professionals in the business world commonly use it to condense and share information with colleagues and stakeholders. PowerPoint is also a popular teaching tool. It isn’t limited to these fields, though. PowerPoint is a valuable tool in almost any professional setting.

Businesses

PowerPoint is a great way to condense and present information and is widely used in a variety of business settings. Professionals in the business world frequently need to share information with team members, stakeholders, and others outside of the business. For instance, there might be a need to share project information with team members or to condense large amounts of data and highlight important points for stakeholders. PowerPoint is an effective tool for these purposes and many others. It is useful in live meetings and can be used to create presentations uploaded to a server or emailed to others.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides job information for various industries. According to BLS statistics, many different business-related professions will experience growth in the near future. For instance, it finds that the employment of Financial Analysts will grow by 9 percent in the next ten years, faster than the average U.S. job growth rate of only 5 percent. For Management Analysts, the growth rate is projected to be 11 percent, and for Project Management Specialists, it is expected to be 7 percent.

Education

Teachers and other educators often rely on PowerPoint to help them present information in a way that is easy to understand and remember. For example, teachers often create PowerPoint slides that show the critical points of a lecture, making it easier for students to understand these points and take notes. Teachers frequently include visuals in their PowerPoint presentations, which is another effective way of helping students understand new information.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides job outlook data for many different industries. It reports that kindergarten and elementary teaching jobs will likely grow at a rate of 4 percent over the next ten years, middle school teaching jobs will grow about 4 percent, and high school teaching jobs 5 percent. These are all close to the average U.S. job growth rate of 5 percent, meaning that teaching is likely to be a stable industry in the near future. According to BLS statistics, New York, California, Massachusetts, Washington, and Connecticut are the highest-paying states for teachers

Marketing

The marketing industry involves researching trends and designing and creating marketing strategies and campaigns to promote various products and services. Marketing professionals can use PowerPoint to create presentations and reports related to these activities and share information with team members and clients. Since PowerPoint presentations can include a wide variety of visuals and other creative elements, they can be particularly effective as a way to convince potential clients.

According to statistics provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, marketing jobs have a strong future outlook. The agency predicts that employment of Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers will grow by 10 percent in the next ten years, and employment of Market Research Analysts will grow by 19 percent. The average U.S. job growth rate is only 5 percent. California and New York rank high for both employment levels and wages for both Market Research Analysts and Marketing Managers.

Human Resources

One of the roles of a Human Resources Manager is to oversee the process of hiring new employees. This involves sharing large amounts of information about the company procedures and resources and what is expected of these new employees. Many Human Resources Managers Utilize PowerPoint for this purpose. The program allows them to present important information in a format that is easy for new employees to understand and remember. PowerPoint presentations can also be saved, giving employees access to that information at a later date.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in the next ten years, the employment of Human Resources Specialists will grow by 8 percent faster than average. It finds that California, Texas, Florida, and New York have the highest employment levels for this job, while the District of Columbia, New York, Washington, and New Jersey are the top-paying states.

Learn PowerPoint Skills with Noble Desktop

Professionals looking to learn PowerPoint may consider skills development training through Noble Desktop. These courses, available in person at Noble’s Manhattan campus and through live online instruction, will give students hands-on training in designing and organizing information using PowerPoint. 

Noble offers a PowerPoint Bootcamp, which teaches students–even those without prior PowerPoint experience–how to design compelling and evocative presentations. It covers layouts, adding animations and graphics, and working with layers, charts, graphs, and other objects, in addition to more advanced skills. Since PowerPoint is a design program, Noble offers students a PowerPoint Presentation Design course. This class focuses on the rhetorical and theoretical side of communicating through PowerPoint. 

Key Takeaways

• PowerPoint is regularly used in a wide range of different jobs.
• Professionals in many businesses use PowerPoint to share information with colleagues and other interested parties.
• Teachers often incorporate PowerPoint into their lectures.
• Marketing professionals use PowerPoint for presentations and reports.
• With PowerPoint, Human Resources Managers can present important information to new employees.
• Noble Desktop offers several different PowerPoint classes live online and at its New York City campus.