5 Skills To Learn In 2020

“The only skill that will be important in the 21st century is the skill of learning new skills. Everything else will become obsolete over time.” — Peter Drucker, Father of Management.

The job landscape is constantly changing and to make sure we are always finding ways to make our self more marketable we need to adapt to the dynamics of the world we live in. Now, It is estimated that we, as millennial, will have at least 5 different careers in our lifetimes and many more jobs. So how can we even begin to prepare for a future that will be secure but most importantly be more autonomous and machine-driven than today?

As the saying goes that “Learning” a life long process and it has certainly come true in today’s time of high volatility in job landscape. So, it’s quite important that we always upgrade our skill quotient and since we have seen the worst in past six months when it comes to the unemployment rate across the verticals throughout the world, it’s high time that we should foresee the change that Peter Drucker talked about.

According to the Pew Research Center future jobs will specifically require enhanced social and analytical skills. Here are the specific 5 essential skills that I think are going to be essential to survive and thrive in the future. It’s so easy to learn almost anything for free online or minimal cost if you simply dedicate a couple hours of week to anything.

Some of the best free, or inexpensive, online courses can be found at Udemy, Coursera and Skillshare. I have personally taken over 5–6 courses from these platforms over the past 10 months and have learned a lot.

1. Selling & Communication Skills

Now selling is something that we all do. We are selling in almost everything we do. To sell is to convince others of the value, an idea or a product will bring to someone. Selling helps you get what you want — whether it’s a deal, a new job, or simply getting someone to agree with you. In an increasingly personalization driven future, those who can sell ideas, products, and themselves will have a strategic advantage and make more money.

And this is where communication plays a such an important role. Communication and selling are the flip side of the same coin. If you’re not good at communicating, you can’t be good at selling. This is where having the command over communication skills is so important in today’s time.

A vast majority of the world’s transactions and conversations happen between people. And despite the obvious increasing pace of technological innovation, engaging person to person will still be the dominant form of communication.

This is why selling, yes selling, is an insanely valuable skill that I recommend study and work to get better at. Seriously, in a world where competition just keeps getting more intense, people who can sell both themselves and the value of products will be in high demand. You can actually learn how to sell well pretty quickly — there is a ton of amazing and information you can turn into habits easily.

2. Branding & Influencing

We are all brands. We eat brands, we wear brands, we work on branded gadgets. Brands are everywhere.

Let me share a secret today with you all. The next set of billionaires will come out from influencers. Yes, you read it correctly, the next set of Richie-rich will be the influencers and content creators. We have fully entered into an influencer driven world. The people who both create and curate content will thrive in the future, since people are looking for someone they trust to filter the infinite amount of information now available online.

At the intersection of image and influencer, is branding. As humans we almost immediately (in less than a second) form opinions of people and products upon encountering them. Branding is the process of design and messaging, to help you make the most of that opportunity. Branding creates a feeling, an emotional response that is created by both art and science (picking up any patterns with these future-proof skills?). You can actually learn the science behind branding, which include human perceptions of color, angles, and even fonts.

3. Digital Marketing

Online is the future and if you’re not cash in on it right now, then you’re missing out on making on this fortune wagon. Getting someone’s attention online will only continue get more difficult and those people who can reach and engage other’s online are, and will be, in high demand.

What I love about digital marketing is that it’s both right brain and left brain. I’m also really competitive and love that I can use digital data to determine how well my campaigns are doing. Both marketing or the internet aren’t going anywhere, so at least learning the basics of this field can give you a huge leg up in a job interview or if you’re an entrepreneur you can market your own product. Too many early entrepreneurs try to outsource (and spend big money) on their marketing. Learning how to do it yourself, even if you don’t do it forever, will make you a more strategic thinker.

I’m a bit biased on this one because digital marketing has been one of the key drivers in my own wealth building and side hustle journey, but I strongly believe it’s an essential skill set to develop for the future. Another great thing about digital marketing is that you don’t need a degree in it to get a job. You just need to learn it, get certified for free, and prove you can do it. A vast majority of the best digital marketers I know are self-taught and a lot of them now minting loads of money.

And especially after this lock-down the demand of digital marketers are going to increase massively. Every company is putting their efforts in recovering from the losses of last 8 months and digital media is the only way they can reach out to the customers. And in order to do that, they will need a person who could set up a website, do SEO, and social media promotion, etc. There are plenty of free and paid digital marketing guide online that you can consider learning digital marketing.

4. Coding

This should be pretty obvious to many. Code runs the world. A little bit of a commitment, but you can learn the basics quickly and expand your skills when you like. There are many many many courses, boot camps where you can learn how to code in within 2 weeks — 4 weeks time, which are also great options if you want to make the full leap into a new coding world.

Coding is more like a mindset and will change the way you look at the world. It’s no surprise that being able to code will give you an advantage in the future. Even if you have no plans to become a coder, learning how to code will teach you so many things about how the world today works and how the future is literally being built. Every app, website, car, or piece of hardware that you use is powered by code.

A great place to start for free is Codeacademy, where you can get the feel of this new world and go at your own pace.

After the corona virus, there will be a huge demand for skilled developer and coder. The businesses who survive this crisis will think about to operate virtually, if they aren’t already online demand for professional developers are going to increase after this corona virus crisis. There are plenty of free courses available online that you can use to learn basic to intermediate coding. You may buy some online classes to learn advanced coding that you can purchase from Udemy or Coursera.

5. Business and Data Analytics

We no longer have to guess why people buy or engage, since there is data tracking us all the time. But the data can be overwhelming and is only useful when you can extract insights and then act on them. Data and analytics will only become more prevalent in the future, as more of our actions are tracked. Learning how to use data to power your decisions will be essential for most roles in the future. So checkout some of the courses on this new money minting field of data and analytics.

So, these were the skills that will be in demand and will rule the world. Are you future proof?? Let me know.

PS: I’ve learned first 4 of these skills though I’m not saying I’m an expert(again that’s a relative term) but certainly, I’ve come a long way in my journey of learning these skills. All the best.