There are skills, and then there are “holy grail skills.” What this means is that they are extremely crucial. Being skillful in these times is as important as skincare because work is attached to value. Your experience and value are more pertinent than your degree. At this age, someone without a degree can easily get a job or jumpstart their career.
However, while these experiences are important, they do not manifest without skills. These days, new skills emanate from various areas. For example, social media birthed skills like social media management and content creation, the Internet—website and app development, and so on. Hence, survival nowadays largely depends on your knowledge of these skills.
In the same light, you should note that the aforementioned skills are quite particular to certain areas. However, there are generic skills which can be applied to all industries and areas.
5 Holy Grail skills you need
Communication
Communication is important in daily activities. Everyone communicates, either verbally or non-verbally. To communicate properly you have to understand that it is a process and continuous practice makes you better. Think of communication as cooking. Everyone could barely cook well at age ten but with constant practice, one became better.
Communication has nuances. Tone and mannerisms play a huge role in the transferring of messages. Because of this, everywhere you find yourself, you have to pay attention to them. Formal communication is quite different from informal communication. Communication is also two-way; listening and speaking. Only a few people understand how to listen and this in itself is a skill.
Design
Although there are people whose job is to design—graphic designers, and UI/UX designers; it is important that you learn minimal design, especially if your work is centred around the Internet. Learn how to use apps like Canva and Pixelab. Learn how collages work, and how alignment and colour play a huge role in attracting people’s attention.
If you understand design, you would save much more money. For instance, you may want to start a small-and-medium scale business online and decide to outsource the logo and flyer design. But after that, do you keep outsourcing all your designs? Remember, you have to post regularly. Do you outsource about 300 designs per year for a business you haven’t employed anyone or earned significant revenue from yet?
Networking
Attributing success to hard work is good but do you know what makes it great? Connections. Networking is an act of connecting yourself with high-value individuals who can help you in your journey one way or the other.
The concept of networking is quite deep. You have to give value first, in order to receive value in return. Also, to network, you have to put yourself out there. What that does is make you constantly relevant. A classic example of someone who is reaping off hardwork and networking is the singer, Tems.
Digital Literacy
This is the era of the internet and social media wave. Understanding how the new media works are paramount. There are subtle things you should know, and there are content rules you should understand how to follow. For example, your following on Instagram should never be more than your followers. Plagiarism is frowned upon on all social media apps.
Also, you should understand what apps to use for certain purposes and when to use them. Digital Literacy simply involves adapting to new technologies.
Language
To communicate, you have to use language. Everybody can be communicated to through a language. Learn a language that could help you communicate faster and better. For example, on Twitter, the language skill you need is writing.
Learn how to write properly; copywriting, and storytelling—to communicate with Twitter users. But on TikTok, the language needed there is speaking and gestures. Learn how to talk and express yourself in a convincing and alluring manner for its users.
This article was written by Sola Tales.