Re/Up-skilling during the quarantine? You may not be learning what companies are really looking for
We have all the tendency to postpone learning and skill development until that moment in the future when we “have more time”. With all the terrible negative consequences that COVID-19 crisis is having all over the world, one of the few positive ones is that the moment for re-skilling or up-skilling has finally come and we lack excuses for not doing it.
There are 2 main purposes for which you may want to learn something new during these quarantine:
- Just for fun or because you simply love learning: if this is your case, then you can close this tab and do something better with your time (like learning that new language, improving your cooking skills or becoming a yoga master). This article will not focus on this.
- Because you think that new skill will help you in you career: then you probably want to keep reading to make sure you are using your time wisely.
If you want to learn something useful during this quarantine, you probably want to make sure the skillset you are developing is something valuable for the job you want.
I have put some time into analyzing the results of the Nova Survey we did between 2019 and the beginning of 2020, where 73 of the best employers (management consulting firms, tech startups and big corporates such Amazon, Fever, P&G, KPMG, Danone or AXA) told us which type of talent they were looking for. In the survey, they were asked to choose and rank the top 5 skills and out of a selection of 15, both for “hard” and “soft” skills.
It is not always easy to distinguish what is a soft skill and what is a hard skill, so I won’t spend time into how we chose the difference because it is easy to disagree and I could myself justify another division.
My key goal is that you know what companies are looking for so you spend your time wisely. Here I share with you the results and some insights in how to develop those.
1. The top 5 hard skills demanded by companies
Here are the results with a simple score system we implemented by which we gave 5 points to the #1 ranked skill, 4 points to the #2, 3 points to the #3, 2 points to the #4 and 1 point to the #5.
Not surprisingly, at least not to those who work in HR and recruitment, Complex Problem Solving, Programming, Decision-making, Data Analysis and Sales were the most sought-after hard skills. The 6th skill, very close to Sales, was Communication, which is something you need across most functions but particularly in sales.
I do not think there is much importance in the particular ranking we have created. For instance, Programming came 2nd with our methodology, but if you rank by #companies who considered the skill as the #1 in importance, Programming came out as first, Complex Problem Solving second and Sales third.
Here is the graph which ranks the 15 skills proposed using our methodology:
2. The top 5 soft skills demanded by companies
Using the same simple score system as before, here are the top 5 soft skills our partners chose:
Again, these results are not surprising to many of us: being able to work in team, adapting rapidly to changes, having initiative, emotional intelligence and being able to lead team of people were the 5 most sought-after.
In this case, the order is slightly more important, because an overwhelming 33% of the companies chose “Team Spirit” as the #1 soft skill they were looking for, with more than 2/3 putting is in the top 5. Other skills like Curiosity or Creativity could have made it to the top 5 with other ranking methodologies.
Here is the graph which ranks the 15 skills proposed using our methodology:
3. How should I learn during the quarantine?
I have spent some time during these last few days researching and compiling materials to learn and develop the top 5 hard and soft skills.
However, one of the key aspects you must consider is that the most important skills are normally hard to learn just watching videos on the internet or even just working on sample exercises. For centuries, we have come to understand better how the brain works and it is clear that just listening or even reading or watching something won’t make you master a new skill.
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. Confucius
When choosing what to learn to improve your career, make sure you learn things which will be valued by you future employer. For instance, if you would like to become a software engineer, it is great that you learn how to code. However, do not think knowing a bit of Sales will be of a lot of help to land your software engineering job (though is great to just learn for the sake of it!).
In the same way, some basics of coding will not give you an edge into other jobs: it may be better to refine your complex problem solving skills if you want to apply to consulting, as there will be always many people in your team who will code better than you.
4. Develop the top 5 hard skills:
a) Complex Problem Solving:
Probably the most sought-after skill in a world which is increasingly complex and more interconnected, particularly so if you work in consulting, engineering, tech or product management. The biggest issue is that it is one those skills which is mainly learnt by doing, i.e., by solving complex problems. Research shows it is hard to train in a course because even designing good problems to practice with is hard and you need to adapt them to you industry as much as possible. That is why I am skeptical there are any good online courses for it, though I would gladly include them here if you point me to one which really makes a difference.
How to learn: in my experience, preparing for management consulting interviews, which were case-based and thus consisted on solving problems in a structured way, was an effective way of getting better at this. Websites such as Victor Cheng’s or books such as Case in Point offer you many complex problems to solve. The McKinsey Mind is a great book to understand the Strategic Consulting approach to problem solving.
However, if you are not looking to make a career in consulting, now that we are living a huge crisis, probably that is the best way for you to train yourself is to find solutions to the challenges of COVID-19 in people’s life. Many organizations are now supporting projects and entrepreneurs who can help reduce the impact of this pandemic (Vinnova, FastGrants, etc.)
Remember to use the key steps in complex problem solving:
- Identify the issues (measure, analyze, research)
- Structure the problem (divide and conquer)
- Get to the root cause/s (5 why’s, issue trees)
- Design solutions for each root cause (brainstorming, lateral thinking, etc.)
- Make decisions and implement the solution/s (MVP)
- Create feedback loops to refine those solutions (test, learn and iterate)
b) Programming
Programming is learnt by doing as well, but the available online resources are far better. Websites such as Coursera or Udemy offer a great variety of courses in many coding languages which can help you get started. If you are a beginner, I suggest you start with Python, which is easy and will serve you for a wide variety of assignments.
However, once you have the basics, the best way to learn is to practice with real challenges and real projects. Leetcode will help you in that, though nothing like participating in hackathons, creating your own software to automate daily tasks or developing your own website.
If you want proper teaching in the form of a bootcamp, I recommend Ironhack, where you can learn web development, UX/UI and Data Analytics. If you do not have money to pay, you may want to consider Strive, where you won’t pay anything until you get hired.
c) Decision-making
How to make good decisions is one of the most complex things to train, and here I very much doubt any online course can make a difference. Here practice helps, but many people would consistently make wrong decisions over and over again. How to become great at decision making then?
The best thing you can to to improve your decision making is to practice to note down the criteria for your decision making (i.e. you principles) when you make important decisions (i.e. why you hire somebody or why you choose one job instead of another). This way, you can analyze your criteria, find common errors and avoid those errors from happening again in your future decisions.
This method will help you build a set of principles which you will follow to make decisions. Principles will help you make better and faster decisions in both you personal and professional life, as most things you will encounter will be just “another one of those”. I really suggest you read Principles, by Ray Dalio, the best Management book I have read which will tell you how he has mastered the art o principles decision-making and then turned those principles into algorithms to improve his way of making decisions. You can watch a short video here.
I also suggest you read this article I recently came across with, which explains the benefits of creating a decision journal to note down your decisions, find patterns and simplify your life.
d) Data Analysis
With the boom of data availability and the growing interest in Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence, it hardly comes as a surprise Data Analysis came up in the top 5 hard skills. There are pretty solid Machine Learning courses in Coursera. I suggest you start with the following: Machine Learning, by Andrew Ng (Stanford). Then you may want to go deeper with a specialization in Data Science or even enter the world of AI and Deep Learning with deeplearning.ai.
Some knowledge of Python or R is essential to actually become a proper Data Scientist, so consider taking a short course on those before.
When you want to test your Data Analysis skills, you may also want to take Wokera.ai’s standardized tests and understand how good you are in Machine Learning, Statistics, Mathematics or AI. They also provide very good algorithm and software engineering testing.
e) Sales
Sales is another of those hard-to-learn-online. Online courses give you some basic knowledge about the sales process, or could help you become a successful negotiator, but you will need to then go by yourself and sell something to someone. However, if you do not know anything about sales and wonder if you could make a career there, then you want to consider one of those online courses.
If you haven’t worked in sales, you probably have a wrong idea of what a successful sales person looks like and how he/she works. My favorite book around Sales, which I recommend to to any entrepreneur or manager in need to build a Sales organization is The Challenger Sale.
5. Develop the top 5 soft skills:
Developing soft skills is in general much more difficult than hard skills, and certainly need even more of a practice approach. Here I would just propose some good articles and books for you to reflect on how you can cultivate those.
a) Team Spirit (Working in team)
12 Easy ways to improve workplace teamwork or 10 Tips for successful teamwork will show you how simple routines like the celebration of successes, better communication, participated leadership or team building frequent exercises are helpful to foster teamwork.
b) Adaptability
Being adaptable is about embracing change in an optimist way and exhibiting extraordinary resilience. In our rapidly changing world, is one of the most sought-after skills. Adaptability skills can be possessed in both attitude and action, and one can’t exist without the other.
The best way to develop adaptability, or any behavioral change for that matter, is by practicing it in everyday ‘low stake’ situations: start small by just putting a good face when someone changed your plans for the weekend (like COVID-19 did). You will find some tips and tricks in this article or in this one.
c) Initiative
Initiative, like adaptability, will come little by little by changing small behaviors and creating habits in ‘low stake situations’. One of the best ways to work on your capacity to have initiative is to daily come up with 2/3 solutions or business ideas to solve the challenges you faced during the day. In times of quarantine, you can start by coming up with solutions to the COVID-19 crisis, either for yourself, you company or you community. Then, try to implement them with a small solution or MVP, and see how it helped you solve the problem. Little by little, you initiative muscle will grow.
d) Emotional Intelligence
“the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.” Daniel Goleman
If you want to learn about emotional intelligence, you probably want to start with the basics: Emotional Intelligence, by the “founder” of this concept, Daniel Goleman. If you want to go deeper, here you have 26 books reviews and summaries to guide you research in Emotional Intelligence and how it affects Leadership or Sales. In any case, you will need to put those readings in practice to really have an impact on your capacity as a professional.
e) Leadership
There are a zillion books on leadership, some good, some not so much. There are some things that will always play a role in effective leadership, such as trust, credibility, and ethics. One great truth that Jim Collins discovers in his book Good to Great is that the best companies enjoy “level 5 leaders”, that is, outstanding individuals with great skills, huge ambitions and a relentless drive towards results, but who manage to remain humble, give credit to his/her teams and take responsibility when things fo wrong.
However, within that framework, there are many leadership styles which can be effective in different situations. Therefore, I have found that the most effective way to learn to become a good leader is to understand how other good leaders you admire work. That is why reading biographies, such as Elon Musks’s or Principles, (Ray Dalio’s small bio), is the best way for you to learn about leadership during this quarantine.
You know other great sources to learn any of those 10 skills? Please comment with the best resources you have used so I can update the article and make it more and more useful for future readers.
