You might be jobless in 5 years

Are you wondering if you should switch your job? Or do you question if you even have the right kind of skills for your job profile?

I will be answering your questions based on the research done by BCG, LinkedIn and World Economic Forum. I will share what are the essential skills that you will need to excel in your career in five years.

In this career insight, you will learn what kind of skills you should be acquiring to ensure that you are earning a lot, getting frequent promotions and not losing your job to machine automation.

1. The relative importance of skills

The research talks about different skill groups. It showcases whether their importance is increasing, decreasing or remaining stable.

Skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, self-management, working with people and tech and development see a growth in their importance.

Whereas, on the other end of the spectrum, skills such as management and communication activities, core literacies and physical abilities are experiencing a relative decline in importance.

2. Top 15 skills for 2025

The highest-ranked skills are- analytical thinking and innovation, active learning and learning strategies, complex problem-solving, critical thinking and analysis. These skills test whether you are actively trying to learn and upskill yourself or are you happy to do an MBA and cease your growth henceforth. It also talks about your ability to ring structure in a messy situation and get a clear solution.

The next set of important skills are creativity, originality and initiative, leadership and social influence. It involves your ability to think out of the box and influence without having authority.

Skills such as technology use, monitoring and control, technology design and programming help you talk to product management or coders. It also involves using IOT, Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence to solve problems.

Certain character-based skills such as resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility and emotional intelligence also make the list. It emphasises how EQ in addition to IQ is important.

Troubleshooting and user experience, service orientation, system analysis and evaluation are important to solve problems and improve customer service.

Last, but not least, we have persuasion and negotiation. This particular skill will not only help you excel in your career but also get you a good salary.

If you need more help getting into management consulting and product management, feel free to check out my education venture- Global Governance Initiative. We invite industry leaders to host Masterclasses and teach our students the hard and soft skills required to excel in their careers.

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Author: Shatakshi Sharma, Co-CEO Global Governance Initiative, Ex-BCG Management Consultant, Former Policy Advisor, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

If you are interested in learning about GGI's MBA Scholar program, you can learn here.