Prepare For Any Job Ever: 12 Skills You Need To Learn Now

 

Learn These Skills, Stay Employed

There’s an old saying that says, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will probably buy a huge bass boat and never come home.” That may or may not actually be the way that saying goes, but it’s something about fishing.

Regardless, the basic premise is if you want to survive, learn a skill. I was reading a blog post from Austin Kleon the other day about the importance of learning a skill (Read it here). One of the things he says is “I would recommend thinking about what the world needs, thinking about what you have to offer, and working hard to build a skill set so that you can fill that void.”

I agree totally. The only way to stay employed in this crazy world is to develop the skills necessary to survive.

The Future of Newspapers And The Mark of the Beast

After working in the newspaper industry for years, kids (and adults) would ask me the future of journalism. The short answer is: I have no freakin’ idea. But the longer answer is: It’s not going away. It may change, but it’s not going away.

People are going to want to read stories about their neighbors. They are going to want to know what’s happening in their community. The key is telling the story. That skill — the skill of crafting a story — is not going to go away. In the future that story may get told totally online, in the cloud or beamed directly into our heads through the Mark of the Beast, but we will get stories. And somebody has to tell them.

There are some very basic things that all humans should know how to do — build a fire, cook, change a tire, and how to record “Keeping Up With The Kardashians — but there are also some basic skills that will keep most homo sapiens employed long past the rise of the apes. Storytelling is one of those.

Cartoonist Scott Adams (famous for his Dilbert comic strip) said there are “12 core human skills” that if everybody can be in the top 25 percent (very good) at most or all of these skills, they would never be out of a job. Author Josh Kaufman wrote a blog post about it here here. 

You can read the 25 skills yourself, but they are: information assimilation, writing, speaking, mathematics, decision-making, rapport, conflict resolution, scenario-generation, planning, self-awareness, interrelation and skill acquisition.

The History of Every Job Ever 

I did a little research myself some minutes ago on the Internet — The Source Of All Truth — and came up with a list of basic jobs that have that have been around since homo sapiens crawled out of the goo and started talking on their cell phones. Each of these jobs requires one or more of the skills that Adams put in his list.

My list of basic homo sapien jobs and skills required:

1.     Farmer – Grows things. He solves problems and provides for a group of homo sapiens. Skills needed: information assimilation, mathematics, decision-making, planning, and skill acquisition.

2.     Philosopher — Studies the important questions of life and tries to answer the question, “Why are homo sapiens here?” And then she shares that answer with other homo sapiens. Skills needed: information assimilation, writing, speaking, scenario-generation, self-awareness, interrelation and skill acquisition.

3.     Artist — Translates the biggest questions of life and explains them to homo sapiens through words, paint, musical notes, videos, movies, acting, etc. Skills needed: writing, speaking, rapport, scenario-generation, planning, self-awareness, interrelation and skill acquisition.

4.     Tradesman — These are the homo sapiens, who build and make things. One homo sapien designs a product and a tradesman homo sapien brings that vision to reality for the rest of the homo sapiens to enjoy. Skills needed: information assimilation, mathematics, rapport, planning, interrelation and skill acquisition.

5.     Merchant — A merchant is a homo sapien with, for lack of a better term, the gift of gab. She can talk to any homo sapien and convince that homo sapien that he needs whatever she is selling. It’s a rare homo sapien gift. Skills needed: information assimilation, speaking, mathematics, decision-making, rapport, planning, interrelation and skill acquisition.  

6.     Statesman/Politician — These are the leaders of the of the homo sapien world. They set the vision, offer solutions to problems and negotiate peace between groups of homo sapiens. Skills needed: information assimilation, writing, speaking, decision-making, rapport, conflict resolution, scenario-generation, planning, interrelation and skill acquisition.

7.     Warriors — Warriors have no fear. These homo sapiens are willing to put their lives on the line for other homo sapiens. Skills needed: information assimilation, decision-making, rapport, conflict resolution, scenario-generation, planning, interrelation and skill acquisition.
    
      All of these jobs are still around today in one way or another. Nothing changes. And these skills will always be in demand. 

 

Forget the Resume, Learn a Skill

Basically, if you learn all or most of the 12 core human skills, you can do any of the jobs that have been in existence since Jesus wrote the book of Genesis. And if you can do any job in the world, ever, then you should always have a job, even if you have to create your own (especially if you have to create your own).

So forget about majors, and college and writing resumes. The key is learning skills. Fill a void that the world needs. Become very good (be in the top 25 percent of the world’s population) at each skill and set back and wait for the money to come in.

Until then, you might want to hold off on putting that down payment on that new bass boat.