3 Key Skills For Today's Graduates

After reading the latest WSM article which told the story of professional career switching, I thought about the key takeaway that careers are not longer straightforward and that a more nimble and flexible mindset is needed in order to succeed and thrive. In this article I want to highlight 3 critical areas that young professionals need in order to survive in the current job market because the fact is, the job market is going to be tougher than ever.

Due to the economic effects of COVID-19 on many different economies, businesses and employers need to see true value in the new intake of executives and interns across all roles and employees need to have the right tools early on to make every opportunity a valuable learning process.

So here we go: 1. Professional Diversity In days gone by, the traditional perspective of professional duties were very much in the Silo School Of Thinking whereby Accountants focus on their tasks and Operations focus on theirs without any cross-teachings happening.

Those days are long gone if you want to survive in the New Normal.

A young employee should be looking to diversify their business knowledge to better understand the different departments' roles and how they add value to the business and their skills knowledge so that you can understand these different roles and the essentials of what they do. For Example, an accountant should have a good understand of how the Marketing & Product Teams operate and how they execute their responsibilities to have a good understanding of this particular team adds value to the overall business. If they can't get the knowledge because teams are too busy then look to online courses to expand your horizon.

This will create a more well-rounded individual who clearly understands the essentials of the business and how each of the departments add to that value.

2. A Growth Mindset How a person mentally approaches a challenge or task can be a strong indicator of how they perform and the quality of the output.

A Growth Mindset looks to promote the positives that every challenge and task, whether it be through a new experience with new team members or doing an unconventional task to expand your skill set. It is up to you how you perceive and tackle the task because that it is within your control.

Your manager giving you a task is beyond your control and focusing on things that you can't affect is not a constructive mindset and can lead you to be pessimistic and stagnating your growth.

When early on in your career, it is imperative that you take advantage of each opportunity with a positive and growth mindset to give you the mental skills to succeed for the long term.

3. Focusing On Developing Soft Skills Being a polite, positive, and overall helpful person doesn't end when you enter your workplace; one because you should be a nice person any and everywhere but also the fact, you won't get far in work being a selfish employee.

Having those social skills that got you friends in school and throughout your life can and should be applied to your workplace. Finding common ground, adding value to their lives, and helping them grow through advice can help build tangible relationships with those within and without your team.

This can lead to win-win working relationship whereby knowledge is shared and education is promoted which will end with 2 employees who better understand a completely different role through a positive friendship.