High level and low level skills: Drawing the line

It's been almost three months since I've started my first full time job and I have realized something when it comes to developing and refining a skill set. I would like to share it with those who care to read.

Working in the battery industry and engaging 5 days a week in trying to understand the design - performance correlations in battery cells and understanding the energy storage value chain in general, I find myself applying my master thesis learnings and more broadly, my engineering education to electrochemical systems which will some day become commercial products powering the next generation of electric vehicles.

A sizeable section of my working hours is spent in actively growing a répertoire of skills which mainly consist of planning cell performance tests like DCIR and Storage testing and Data visualization using Origin. I also devote time in helping to grow my employer's R&D and manufacturing capabilities. In order to be able to do all this, I find myself studying research papers, white papers, press releases, consulting firm presentations, textbooks, annual reports among other things. I also put in efforts to hone often ignored skills like social intelligence, speedreading and presentation skills.

Like the often felt endorphin rush after running a few kilometers, an enlightening realization has dawned on me in the past few weeks.

Every skill that you're trying to learn falls into one of two buckets, understanding which skill falls in which bucket makes a real difference in your career.

I will use the terms 'high level skill' and 'low level skill' in this article to differentiate between two classes of skills:

1. Low level skills are abilities which pertain to a specific task or a process, and are rarely transferable between industries. A common example would be a programming language, knowledge of a specific manufacturing process or a specific lab test and so on.
2. High level skills are abilities which pertain to broad ideas, and are often transferable between industries. Common examples would be a spoken language used in the geography you want to work in, soft skills like leadership, adaptability, resilience, the ability to negotiate and a basic knowledge of finance and a cursory understanding of supply chains (the ones that concern your industry).

It's easier to think of a high level skill than a low level skill. Maybe it means something.

Low level skills are focused along a narrow line of thought and have low visibility. Their application is at a shorter time frame. I write and verify protocols for tests which run for maximum three months and examine specific performance characteristics of cells.

High level skills are focused along a broad line of thought and have high visibility. Look at the CV of any C-suite executive and you will know what I mean. High level skills are deployed on much longer time frames.

A specific nuance that I have observed within me and people of my age is that we often obsess too much over our ability to execute tasks involving a low level skill. I am qualified here to speak from personal accounts. I have tried to learn python multiple times and failed. As my student days were approaching their end, I made peace with this 'flaw' of mine. As a person trying to break into the battery industry, there were other low level skills which were more important. If my job current requires me to use a part of python for a specific application, I'll learn it. If python is not needed, I won't know python and I'll still be able to put a lot more than beans and rice on the table.

The importance of low level skills is very high when you are applying to your first job and are doing the initial months of your first job. Maybe the process of learning the low level skills trains your work ethic and resilience which is instrumental when it comes to learning high level skills. This is somewhat warranted as the path of learning high level skills is often unstructured and non uniform, with you having to make your own structure and framework. The high level skills that matter the most can't be learned by getting a master's degree, they must often be learnt along the way. The importance of low level skills will reach a ceiling quite early in your career, and it will not be a glass ceiling. On the other hand, having strong high level skills will take you places. The CVs of some of the most impactful executives and leaders speak volumes with regards to this thought.

Many young professionals will often underestimate the importance of high level skills before realizing that they spent too much time and energy on sharpening their low level skills.

It is worth strongly mentioning: when starting out in your career, one should never underestimate the importance of low level skills. To be honest, low level skills are precisely those pieces of knowledge which help you to get the job in the first place. To be brutally honest, it is not possible for a person who is just finishing university to know or even be aware of the higher order skills that form a basis for jobs in the higher levels of the corporate hierarchy. In my case discussion about my low level skills formed the base of my interviews when I applied for a job at my current (also first) employer. Do I know how to assemble a cell ? What is the meaning of Coulombic efficiency and how exactly does it affect cell performance ? Do I know how to use Origin ? What software do I use to run tests on the assembled cells ? What is the difference is between polymer and sulfide electrolytes ? What is an SEI and what are it's components ? Having a strong and concise low level skill set is key to landing your first job in any given industry.

Low level skills get you your first job. High level skills put you in the uppermost deciles in the industry.

If you think that this article helps you in any way, do like, comment and share with your network. Feel free to message me on LinkedIn for more insights and do follow me on Twitter here.

Action point: In fact, it may be a very insightful practice to sit every down at the end of every quarter with pen, paper and coffee and evaluate your low level and high level skill growth in the preceding 3 months, and do some suitable time allocation towards skill growth for the next quarter.

Happy learning,

Neel