Learn today!

Skills are more important then educational qualification 

Once a newly college pass out applied for a job in a company after clearing the basic screening process, qualified for the interview. During the interview he was asked a very simple question  "What can you do ? He answered "I have Masters degree in Commerce " the interviewer asked the same question again "What can you do?" the candidate was perplexed and said "Sir, I told you I am M.Com" but the interviewer again asked the same question and said " I know you are M.Com but I want to know what can you do? , M.Com  your qualification but not skill ..

 Continuous Learning is vital!

Learning is imperative today, everything changes faster then we expect! The skills that you have become obsolete overnight and as you all will agree it has a cascading effect! 

What to learn?

Difficult to answer but easy to identify

The million dollar question! It s not easy to answer this question, since the what to learn new skills depends on various factors and there is no generic answer ! Let me attempt to help you answer this question for yourself

Identify your current skill set

Use pen and paper (strictly) to identify your existing skills. In fact, it will be better if you can put them in broad categories like 

Occupational  or Core Skills

• Such as software developer, architect, engineer, accountant, project management, administration etc. These are skills which are helping you earn bread an butter today! These skills are directly related to your current occupation, profession, or employment

Supplementary Skills

• The skills which are helping you to do your job better and prove your prowess in your field - data analysis ability, comprehension skills, communication skills, negotiation skills

  Dormant Skills

• Skills that you have but not used for a long time or dormant. Identifying this can help you identify opportunities in business, career or profession, skills such as photography, teaching, singing, drawing, writing, stock market brokering etc. One of my friend's father post retirement identified that he is a an excellent draftsman, and during a casual conversation he mentioned this to one of his friend during casual social interaction, which in turn knew someone desperately searching for someone with the same skill  and gave him the reference , it worked and he is now earning good money out of it!

The Next Step 

Once you have identified the skills in different areas, the next step is to think the take action about what to do with them. Ask yourself following questions

How updated is my knowledge about the subject related to my skill, for example if you are software developer in .NET or Java technologies, do you know what's new in this field? If yes have you updated your skills about these new enhancements? this will help you to identify what to learn now remember learning is an investment, you can reap the benefits of learning only after you have invested in it

What have I done in past three months to enhance my skill set? Have you attended any training, workshop, seminar, webinar  or  courses, on your own or  sponsored by your company; if not start searching for opportunity to do so! 

What is shelf life of your skill set? The Simple economic & survival principal "Everything (product, skills, services) has a shelf life and  if want to continue selling your product (in this case skills that you have) you must evolve it, repaint it, augment it. If you don't do this , one day you will find your skill set is outdated and there are no takers for it! The idea is to either improvise or perish. If you find that your skills are not much in demand or have no demand in the market,  start acquiring new skills or augment existing ones.

Start telling the world what is new in your skill set! People buy what is visible? Use social media, network sites, Linkedin to tell the world about your updated, newly acquired skills. Share what you learnt, how you learnt it! 

Improve & update your supplementary skills, learn about new version of spreadsheets, new ways to present information & data, new techniques for data analysis, new ways to communicate.. 

 Identify how your dormant skills can be improved or used to open additional channels of income and take your career to next level. 

Final Thoughts 

Learning is equal to Surviving in today's competitive world. The one who learns is the one who earns ! There is no dearth of means of learning. peer learning, YouTube, Udemy courses, Free online courses, e-learning, certification courses, you name it and it is there. Start using the web to acquire skills & knowledge and be successful. All the best take care!