Most Valuable & Marketable Skills

What makes you an asset to the company you are about to work for?

What makes you an important co-worker to your future colleague?

What makes you a great employee? 

The answer of those questions are of course, skills. 

To get a job in this century requires much more than a piece of degree certificate. You will need to equip yourself with valuable and essential skills. You won't do any good by having good cooking skills in a clerk job or vice versa. However, to prepare yourself to face the ever-changing world of workplace, I have come up with four necessary skills to match it up with. Skills that are necessary, skills that are marketable and skills that are important to encourage growth in your career.

1. Programming

Whether you are talking about Java, HTML or C++, programming skills are inevitable the most important skill that you will ever get in this century, probably in the next too. As technology grows, the hunger for programs grows too. Notice how ten years ago smartphones were basically an overpriced phone with little to none exciting features, and how did smartphones managed to get so far till this date? It is all courtesy of coders/programmers. They have developed apps for the phone in order to increase functionality of the smartphones. Heck, you can even get rich by developing a smartphone apps just like Flappy Bird and implement ads. If your apps is good enough for the public, your bank might just call you to sign up for a Centurion Card. 

I have learnt C programming for engineer during my first semester in university. It wasn't easy, but the more you code, the easier it becomes. Programming does make use of your brain too. You need to spin your brain in order to create a good program. You can head over to Codecademy and sign up for an account there. They have step by step tutorial to teach you how to code HTML, Javascripts and Python. Pretty interesting too! 

2. Designing

Designing requires creativity. Remember how we used to scribble all over on a piece of paper when we were a toddler? That is creativity. As we grew older, we start to be bounded by more and more works and eventually creativity starts to shrink. As designing governs a very big area, it is too vague to talk without specifying. Let's talk about Photoshop. The said software is not a stranger to any of us, especially designers. They enhance the looks of the project and can bring up better effects of the photo without losing the originality of the photo (depending on the designer). You would be immediately appreciated by your boss if your company happens to be needing a new advertisement poster for a new project and you happen to be the Pokemon Master of Photoshop. You might even get a new promotion and salary increase. 

Head on over to Photoshop Essentials or read this photoshop article on Mashable to learn some basics of Photoshop! Personally, I have played with Photoshop few years ago when my friend started playing with it. I must admit, there are so many buttons in that piece of software, you will end up using only some of it. I did not tried to learn much that time, as my interest was generally reserved for gaming only.

Nonetheless, you shouldn't just limit yourself with Photoshop only. You can go on with other designing softwares too. Web designing don't sound too bad.

3. Communication

You do know that communication is two way right? That is the purpose of communicating. It is supposed to be in two way. If the waiter brought a hedgehog goulash to your table when you think you ordered a bolognese spaghetti, how do you expect yourself to communicate well with your colleagues, or even your BOSS?! Communicating well is an indispensable skill that you will require in your workplace and daily life. You need to transfer the information you want to the one listening to you and you need to make sure they understand and receive your message well too! 

You can learn how to communicate well by communicating always. Learn from your past communication mistakes and do not repeat it. Use appropriate body language and do not interrupt others while they talk. Be a good listener and only speak once you thought it over but don't be afraid to speak up! 

4. Time Management

Time management is a crucial skill. You need to manage your time properly so that your work could be finished in time. Do you think that your manager would be glad if you hand in your task late every time? Definitely not! Do you think your wife would be happy if you have to work overtime every single day cause you can't manage your work time well enough? The answer is yet again, no! Managing your priorities is the key to a healthy time management. Work when you work. Be efficient and effective. Overtime would not be necessary if you can finish your work in time by 5pm. Only those who are not keen in time management will have to stay back and finish up the work. Your boss wouldn't want to pay your overtime as well.

Focus on planning your time. Make a to-do-lists if you have to. By cultivating a good time management, you will achieve balance between work and personal life. I have find this article pretty useful to those that want to learn on time management. 

I shall end the list with a quote.

"Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it, you can never get it back!"

I hope that both you and I learn something from this post. I would like to hear from you if you have any better ideas for valuable and marketable skills. On a side note, I must thank Bob Clary from Webucator for giving me an idea to write this post. Webucator is an online training company that also provides public and private classes onsite. They offer training in areas of web design to project management.  Webucator also offers ongoing free monthly self-paced Microsoft training courses as part of their way to help individuals prepare themselves for the workplace and make themselves more marketable to employers. If you want to look for their tutorials, check it out here!