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Hi everyone. Welcome to my channel and welcome to another video. I’m on a mission to help you live your best career life. I’m doing so with two types of content. One is content to help you experience a successful job search. The other is content to support your on-the-job success. So, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing to my channel if you haven’t already and become a member of the HR by Nnamtique tribe. And please let YouTube know that you like this video by clicking the “thumbs up” button. That way, YouTube will share more videos like this to help you along your job search and career journey. Last, but not least, please share this video to help someone else live their best career life.
Let’s get started.
FIVE HIGH-DEMAND SKILLS
I read two articles earlier this month about the most sought-after skills in the labor market. One was a recent FastCompany article. The other was a 2021 McKinsey & Company article. Amazingly, though, despite being dated about three years apart, their messages were very similar.
That message is that job seekers must possess certain skills in order to land their dream job and pay.
It goes without saying that a high-demand skillset commands a higher salary because they are more valuable to employers. And many employers will pay a premium to have someone who possesses high-demand skills on their team. As an Associate Director of HR and a hiring manager myself. I see it happen every day. We develop our recruitment plan, including the salary budget for our vacancy. Then, our selected candidate, who has a unique combination of skills, counters with a higher-than-expected salary. And, suddenly, we’re begging the budget team for more funds so that we can try to reach common salary ground with that coveted candidate.
Let’s face it, today’s ever-evolving job market makes it crucial for you to stay ahead of the skills curve to secure your dream job. With technological advancements and shifting industry demands, it’s essential to hone your skills to stand out from the crowd.
FastCompany provides its pared-down list of the top five skills. McKinsey & Co. identified 56 of what they call foundational skills. Then they grouped those skills into thirteen groups across four categories. So, you may be a seasoned professional or just starting your career journey. Regardless, mastering the top five in-demand soft and hard skills, shared here, will catapult your success in 2024 and beyond.
My advice to you is to make certain that your candidate value proposition includes at least a basic working level of adaptability, data literacy and analysis, creativity, problem-solving, and sustainability literacy and awareness. Then, continue to hone them:
ADAPTABILITY:
According to the FastCompany article, adaptability tops the list. Increased remote work and technology advances require resilience. And adaptability is core to our ability to be rise above adversity by embracing change and meeting challenges head-on.
McKinsey’s article also placed adaptability in its first category, “Mental flexibility” skills category. This category also consists of translating knowledge to different contexts and Adopting a different perspective, among others.
These skills all contribute to your ability to use platforms like Teams. Slack, Tello and Zoom to collaborate remotely in a virtual work environment. Agile and Scrum equips you to lead projects efficiently across geographically dispersed locations. So, forward-thinking organizations will quickly snap you up if you possess this skills combination.
DATA LITERACY AND ANALYTICS:
Next on FastCompany’s list is the ability to gather and analyze data and make sound business decisions using it. It is, and will continue to be well into the foreseeable future, the world’s biggest commodity. As the article notes, employers are not looking for you to necessarily be a data expert. They do want to see that you understand the importance of data to their business and are familiar with related terminology. If you develop an action plan from your data-backed insights, you’re practically golden.
McKinsey places data literacy in the digital quadrant with digital fluency, software use/development, and understanding digital systems.
CREATIVITY:
Creativity takes spot #3 with FastCompany. Every business is competing for attention. So, every business knows that they must stand out amongst their competition. And in order to do so, they must employ individuals who can identify pain points, generate new ideas, and challenge the status quo.
Your resume’s purpose is to detail the positive impact you made on past employers. So, let it serve as the initial gateway to your creative skills.
McKinsey placed creativity in the Cognitive quadrant. It is seen as a foundational skill, along with adaptability, adopting a different perspective, and the ability to learn, which are all linked to mental flexibility. So, as you might imagine, you will likely never be involuntarily unemployed if you can effectively flex your creative muscles for a potential employer.
PROBLEM-SOLVING:
It goes without saying that problem-solving is critical to business success. That’s why it is #4 on FastCompany’s list. The business world is unpredictable, and change is inevitable. This why employers expect job candidates to demonstrate how they have solved critical business issues in the past. This lets the employer know that you can think critically, analyze situations, and use evidence to identify the most beneficial solution to challenges.
For McKinsey structured problem-solving took the #1 spot in the Cognitive quadrant, under critical thinking. It is paired with logical reasoning, understanding biases, and seeking relevant information. You must be able to think things through logically and gather enough information to inform your actions or the guidance that you give. Otherwise, you are not yet an effective problem-solver.
SUSTAINABILITY LITERACY AND AWARENESS:
Last, but not least, is sustainability literacy and awareness. So, just what is this skill? According to FastCompany, this skill is the awareness of the environment and eco-friendly practices. Those who possess this skill understand how businesses can contribute to saving the planet. This means that you can be pivotal in supporting green initiatives in compliance with government regulations. This is also another chance to show your adaptability.
A final look at the McKinsey & Co. article revealed that it did not directly address sustainability. It did rank Driving change and innovation as a highly sought after entrepreneurship quality, though.
IN CONCLUSION:
Even if you are lacking any of these skills, or need to brush up on any of them, don’t despair. You can obtain them pretty quickly and maybe inexpensively.
For example, Stanford University, through ClassCentral, offers free online courses in Mining Massive Datasets, Design Thinking for Innovation, Mining and Materials for Sustainable Development Transformations, Critical Thinking for the Information Age, and Creating Demand with Content Marketing. Believe it or not, these are only four of over two-hundred thousand offerings.
Now, I only looked at ClassCentral for this post; however, don’t forget about Bethel Tech, Coursera, SkillShare, Edx, Udemy, YouTube, and others. You can complete many of these courses in less than six months. Also, remember that you don’t have to complete the course before you include it on your resume during your job search. Doing so will immediately make you more marketable and show your ability to learn and embrace new concepts.
You know that I’m on a mission to help you live your best career life. So, I hope that today’s content was of value to you and others who you know could use the information that I share. I look forward to you joining me for the next video. Until next time…bye bye.
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