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The type of skills that businesses want changes through time, but there is a surprising degree of continuity. It turns out that most companies require employees to have specific skill sets to thrive.
If you want a thriving career, it pays to know what these are - literally.
So what are employers demanding in 2020? Let’s take a look.
Blockchain Skills
If you thought that cloud computing skills were the number one priority for businesses in 2020, you’re wrong. It’s actually anybody who understands the blockchain.
Photo on Pixabay
Many analysts believe that blockchain could be the most crucial technology of the decade - perhaps more so than AI. The tool has the ability to reshape the very market itself radically. Instead of having centralized gatekeepers, like banks and governments, the tech lets you shift trust to the network itself. In the future, it may be feasible to trade with somebody on the other side of the world you’ve never met without worrying about losing money. Blockchain creates an immutable ledger of transactions and stores it in the network itself, making fraud next to impossible.
Companies are looking to take advantage of this technology to build new products and lower their costs. And they’re desperate for people who actually understand how it works.
Analytical Reasoning
Data is fast becoming the foundation of practically every business. Companies need it to gain insights into how they should modify their processes and what customers want. Very few enterprises are willing to leave it to chance.
There has been a surge, therefore, in people interested in becoming a business analyst. New entrants into the job market see it as a way to secure long-term employment and embark on exciting, fulfilling careers.
At root, analytical thinking requires learning both statistics and strategic thinking skills. Once you get to grips with the basics, you can infer knowledge from numbers in a database and create value for executives.
Artificial Intelligence Skills
A couple of years ago, artificial intelligence skills were massively in demand. Companies from Facebook to Google believed that we were about to enter an AI summer when cognitive computing would enter a golden age.
Progress in the field has been impressive, and it is still in massive demand. However, it is becoming clear to many researchers that scientists need to make further fundamental breakthroughs before we get genuine, general-purpose intelligence.
With that said, the science of AI progressed enormously over the last ten years. And so for this reason, there is a tremendous demand for people with the skills to transform that information into new products.
Affiliate Marketing
Traditional advertising is in a long-term secular decline. As younger generations flock to social media, companies are discovering that they need people who understand the landscape. Affiliate marketing skills, therefore, are in high demand.
In case you don’t know, affiliate marketers work on behalf of companies, partnering with them to sell their products through third-party channels. These marketers often have better access to influencer communities than companies themselves. Demand for people with this hard skill is going to skyrocket as online digital marketing becomes more pervasive.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence and IQ tend to go hand in hand. Many companies, however, make the distinction, suggesting that there’s a difference between the two.
Firms ask for people who can effectively respond to their own emotions and those of others. They need individuals who can perceive the feelings of customers, clients, and colleagues, and consider them while performing their roles. People with high EQs tend to progress further in their careers than people who don’t.
Collaborative Skills
Working in a team is another highly sought-after soft skills employers are looking for right now.
Companies now realize that teams are more important than ever before. You can’t build world-beating products, relying on individual employee skills. Instead, you need a range of experts who can all communicate with each other.
People who display both a high level of technical expertise and collaborative skills are scarce. Usually, you get one but not the other. If you have both, you will be able to make more money than your peers.
The Ability To Adapt
As the coronavirus makes clear, businesses need people who can adapt to changes in circumstances, no matter what the world throws at them.
Adaptable people tend to be open-minded, positive, and keen to learn. Furthermore, they can maintain their professionalism, even when feeling the pressure. They tend to be less prone to burnout because they can better regulate their behavior. And this makes them more valuable to their bosses.