While working on your CV or applying for a job you might have thought about highlighting the perfect skill sets. More often than not, you might have pursed your lips as a number of questions about the right skill clouded your mind. And while your answer to these questions might be pretty candid, are they ever satisfactory? What does having skills even mean?
We all go through the same situation at least once in our lives (sometimes more). And after a long-overdue conversation with his friend, Rishabh found himself in this situation too. What followed resulted in an email thread worth reading. With Muzammil and Anmol pouring in their thoughts one after another. Interested in reading it?
I knew it! Well, here’s a sneak peek into another one of GreyB’s email threads.
SUB: Sharing Anything and Everything
Rishabh Sharma
Research Analyst
Morning team!
A college friend called me yesterday and we had a long talk about our lives. It had been months since we talked last and it felt good. The guy is working with an MNC and honing his “skills”. As a human, I did the most obvious thing – Compare myself with someone else.
Today’s mail tries to answer some questions about – SKILLS. I think there’s a little gap in our understanding of the term (At least there was in mine, until last night!)
I had questions after the call – What skills am I gaining that I can use and monetize? What if I have to shift to another industry in say, 5 years? Will I have to start from scratch?
I thought to discuss these questions with someone. “I’ll let my mentor know I’m having these questions. Or maybe I can discuss it with my manager as well since he’s been in the industry longer, plus I also have a buddy who I can talk to. But those would be their answers, I need to figure out my own answer here before approaching anybody.” – I thought. After a few moments, I got busy with some other work.
It was late at night, when I stumbled upon a YouTube podcast by Ranveer Allahbadia (aka BeerBiceps), that my thoughts came back to me. The guest of the podcast was – A Sailor. That made me wonder, what skills does he have? He can survive on a ship and figure out navigation routes maybe. How could he use any of that somewhere else?
These thoughts led me to a very important discovery – SKILLS are very personal!
Some might think playing great cricket is a wonderful skill to have, to others – that might just be hitting a ball with a piece of wood. Writing a great fiction novel might be a great skill to have for some, to others – it might be just writing about something that doesn’t even exist. Although there could be an intersection of the SKILLS we value (due to our background, geographical locations, etc.), for the most part, they are very personal to each one of us.
The SKILLS we value greatly influence the SATISFACTION we have with our lives.
I got my answer! If I value anything as a SKILL that I’m learning at GreyB – be it writing e-mails, about the IP Industry, interacting with great people, or anything else, everything would work out just fine.
That was a great insight for me, so thought of sharing it with everyone.
Would you like to share your thoughts? I’d love to have a conversation on this.
Take good care of yourself!
-Rishabh
Muzammil Hassan
Group Manager
I liked your message. Here are my two cents-
I believe skills can be of different types.
– Technical skills which would be specific to some professions. Like in our case IP skills are core to our domain.
– Then there are life skills. Like interpersonal, professionalism, verbal, etc.
– Then there are core personal skills – learning capabilities, critical thinking, leadership, teamwork, etc.
The technical ones are usually confined to a particular domain. The batting/bowling technique is limited to Cricket. If you know the story of Dinesh Kaneria you would understand it. He got a lifetime ban from playing cricket. It’s been difficult for him to earn for his needs ever since.
When you are learning technical skills of a particular field you are trying to be an expert in that domain itself. If you would want to change the domain after a few years, it’s likely that you will have to learn the technical skillset of that domain.
Life skills or core personal skills could be the ones that you can carry and apply to any other field. No matter which domain you are in, you’d need some/all of them to help you perform better. An IP professional or a Cricketer both of them need professionalism, leadership qualities, teamwork skillset, etc., to grow.
Regards,
Muzammil
Anmol Saini
Technical Architect
Interesting thoughts Muzammil and Rishabh.
If I take it one step back and focus on the value of skill, why do we even crave skill? It’s a way of saying how unique you are positioned in a category. Once that category reaches the peak point, the skill becomes useless (mostly). And it will reach its peak point. That’s how the market works.
For example, the fact that I can code is not a skill anymore, it’s a requirement. But if you can code in 2000, then most likely you are a millionaire today. I know people who dictated their prices to fix Y2K issues. They were the superstars in the 2K era.
And then there are skills that don’t have a shelf life. Like how to deal with complexity. Or how to reach decisions quickly. These are lifelong skills.
One trick is to mix your lifelong skill with a hot skill in the market. Like, I can explain complex concepts. People are confused about NFT. Let me explain NFT in simple words. You just made a valuable skill.
Layer skills and find a niche where you can beat anyone. Most likely, this niche will be your hobby. Because we don’t feel like working while pursuing hobbies.
Regards – Anmol
Pretty enlightening, huh?
Well, if there’s something I got out of it, it’s that while you move forward and hone or even switch to other technical skills that your job requires it is your life and core personal skills that you hold on to. You might change a job, many jobs, cities, countries even, but it’s your personal skills that’ll define you wherever you go.
What do you think?
