What Are the Best Skills You Need After COVID?
Whether you’re looking to get into the workforce for the first time after graduation, or you’re looking to change industries, covid has changed the way we get jobs. It has also changed what kind of jobs are beneficial and profitable for the coming years.
It’s not just about hard skills, as well. Soft skills have become highly important in today’s world, and there is no dodging it. Hard skills are essentially the top skills you need to get the job done.
On the other hand, soft skills aren’t industry-based and are beneficial irrespective of where you work. Soft skills are focused on communication and emotional qualities instead.
Let’s start by taking a look at a few soft skills you need to acquire after COVID.
Soft skills have become in-demand skills.
There’s no way around it. Soft skills have become a requirement in today’s world, and they’re seen as top skills that are applicable to every industry or profession. Because there is a continuous increase in skills gaps in working environments, employees have to find ways to upskill to keep them valuable in their job.
Some in-demand soft skills include:
- Critical thinking
- Problem-solving
- Leadership
There are many more soft skills, but these skills listed above are high in demand and have become a key part of the post-pandemic workforce. Let’s take a look at each.
Critical Thinking
This skill entails the process of carefully analyzing problems and finding their solutions systematically. It requires logical reasoning and evaluation, as well as an ability to compare and contrast different solutions.
Irrespective of your field, this is an important skill you will need. To build your critical thinking skills, there are many things you can do. Before you buy a product online, carefully comb through reviews and specs before you decide on a product. Before you vote, weigh the parties and their candidates and do your research on them before making a decision. Actively making decisions
will improve this skill.
Problem Solving
This particular skill requires you to be able to find solutions to problems efficiently and effectively. It’s a highly required skill for most industries, and employers will continue looking for employees who are able to identify issues and implement solutions.
To improve this skill, you need to learn how to gather data and do research. You also need to learn how to brainstorm with the data you have gathered to search out potential solutions. Finally, you need to collaborate with others and analyze each solution to pick the most efficient one.
This skill is very valuable in project management, and in whatever industry you decide to work in, you would have a competitive advantage over your contemporaries.
Leadership
We’ve often learned that bosses inspire fear while leaders inspire trust. Leadership is a skill that requires communication skills, as well as empathy and emotional intelligence. Good leaders are able to communicate effectively with their team, empathize with any issues their teammates are having, and manage the emotions of the team.
To be a good leader, you need to learn how to listen. Whether it is listening to your coworkers, subordinates, employees, or even children, listening is an advantageous skill. While leadership requires telling others what to do, you need to be able to listen and recognize the best solutions to improve your team, as well as the lives of your teammates.
Having empathy is also important in leadership, as this helps you understand and relate to the feelings of others. Rather than just sympathizing with a person, you need to discern what they need and how those needs can shape their perception. Put yourself in the shoes of your teammates and try to see things from their perspectives. This will endear the rest of the team to you and even improve their work ethic.
Emotional intelligence is another piece of the leadership puzzle. With emotional intelligence, it is possible to drive your team towards achieving a key goal. This is never an easy task, but motivation falls under emotional intelligence, and you need to be able to motivate your team when necessary. Navigate the expectations and feelings of your teammates and motivate them accordingly to help them stay committed to the task.
These in-demand soft skills are important for work in every field, and emotional intelligence will be important to express while job hunting or in the job market.
High Demand Industries
Leading organizations across the world are continuing in their search for employees who can take on key roles in this post-pandemic era. Some of these roles are in particular industries that require technical skills, and these are in-demand skills.
Some in-demand skills for today’s workforce include:
- Machine Learning
- Software Development
- Cloud Computing
- Data Science
- Business Analytics
- UX Design
- Blockchain
Let’s get into detail about these key industries.
Machine Learning
This in-demand field has become one of the most powerful technologies in the tech sphere today. Alongside artificial intelligence and Deep Learning, Machine Learning is highly capable of changing the world as we know it.
More companies have begun to implement this tech to improve their workforce and production. This has seen a high rise in the pay of the industry. Thus, making this tech one of the highest-paying skills in the world. Good knowledge in computer science, artificial intelligence, and coding will be cardinal to achieving a serious footing in this industry.
Software Development
Excellent coding hard skills are required to achieve a career path in software. Aside from this, a degree (or good experience) in computer science will be highly beneficial as well. It also focuses on software engineering for nearly every field in the world.
Companies that develop software need software engineers to do so for a host of products and services, which makes this field evergreen when it comes to looking for highly skilled workers. There is also a good guarantee of a promising career if you are able to excel in your chosen programming language and field.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is all about the on-demand availability of computing power and storage without direct user management. Many companies and businesses have found that moving their physical computing infrastructure onto the cloud saves money, which makes it a valuable field to enter.
Cloud services and cloud storage like Microsoft Azure are highly sought after by businesses, and individuals that are experts in these cloud services have become high in demand. The significant demand for people with cloud computing skills has only increased because of the pandemic, and cloud computing is here to stay.
Data Science
Understanding and manipulating data have become an in-demand skill, with data analysts becoming a consistent part of business analytics. To enter and succeed in this field, you will need to understand how to use analytical skills and statistical methods to find results to solutions.
Data scientists have become popular in the world of cloud computing, business, and commerce, thanks to the need of companies to improve their efficiency and sales. As a data scientist, knowledge of tools like SQL will be beneficial to business analytics, and understanding finance can give you a solid foundation, especially in the IT industry.
UI and UX Design
Many apps and websites have an interface that the user has to work with. However, these interfaces have to be understood by the user. The user interface (UI) connects the hardware to the software, while the user experience (UX) evaluates how easy it is for a user to use the interface.
These two fields are key to every software app or website, which makes these skills in demand in the post-pandemic era. UI and UX designers are key to the creation of these interfaces, and an understanding of how to apply creativity, as well as a user’s perspective, will give you a headstart.
Blockchain
Thanks to the emergence of bitcoin and cryptocurrency, blockchain has become the digital transformation that has taken the world by storm. This tech has made it possible to record and disseminate information in a way that makes it difficult to hack or cheat the system and manipulate the information.
Smart contracts are an essential part of understanding how blockchain works, and many cryptocurrencies use smart contracts to enhance coin safety and value. It is a relatively new technology which means that there is a lot of opportunities to be taken within the sphere. These are skills in demand in today’s world.
Other In-Demand Fields in Tech
Networking development has become a necessity in today’s world, thanks to the impact of the pandemic. The internet needs to keep running, and networks need to keep running it. Therefore, network engineers and architects are required in this field.
Algorithm design is another field that is high-income and requires some knowledge of computer engineering, as well as software engineering. To set up algorithms, you will need to set up programs that can perform complex calculations to make decisions for users on apps for tech giants like Facebook.
The online framework is a section of software architecture that has increased in value in previous years. Frameworks are required to support the development of many web services, web applications, APIs, and resources. This field requires a lot of technical expertise.
Virtual reality and augmented reality has become a field with massive potential, thanks to the interest of some of the world’s largest companies. This includes some artificial intelligence, and people who are working in that field are in very high demand.
Cybersecurity involves everything from computer networks to internet security. With the potential for hacking increasing every day, it has become important for businesses and companies to keep important files secure. Ethical hacking is also a sub-field in this area. As companies can pay hackers to show them areas where the company is slacking in internet security.
In-Demand Fields Outside Tech
Although this has little to do with software and tech, as has been the focus of this article, public relations are a key part of how most businesses operate. It is important for a business or company to maintain a favorable image, and knowledge of public relations can help. Other forms of marketing and advertising can fall under this field.
Like public relations, this field has little to do with tech and software. Concepts of microeconomics and macroeconomics need to be understood to properly analyze how a business makes or spends money. The data provided also has to be analyzed, and solutions created for where there are problems to be solved. This field is high in demand.
In-Demand Fields Based on Social Media
Thanks to platforms like TikTok and Youtube, the video industry has blossomed. Popular comedians now include ordinary people with a phone who can grow their audience by making them laugh. If you are capable of the video editing skills required and have creative ideas, there is a possibility for these platforms to give you a neat source of income via advertising.
Audio production, just like the video industry, has also blossomed. People now love listening to podcasts, and audio content has become very favorable. Audio editing and creation are popular skills, and with some creative content, you can start a potentially lucrative podcast.
Related Articles
Digital marketing has continued to thrive, thanks to being in an era where businesses and companies need to market their products and services on the internet. More platforms for advertising continue to pop up each year, which makes digital marketing a continual winner for high-income jobs and top skills.
Content writing is also another field that has continued to grow. Although artificial intelligence has been able to create content, it has often fallen below expectations, and businesses will continue to need writers. The demand for copywriters remains high, as copywriting and content writing have become an important key to success for many businesses.
Conclusion
As an employee, it can be fairly difficult to know which skills companies are in search of. The hard skills you need to build a career in this post-COVID era will often fall into the tech, artificial intelligence, and software fields. After all, when the world sat at home, tech and software became a source of lifestyle for many people in many countries.
There is no diminishing the place of soft skills either. If you cannot build effective communication skills or teamwork, it becomes difficult for you to work with a team in nearly every industry. As much as hard skills are important, soft skills are just as important.
Soft skills like emotional intelligence and empathy come in very handy when dealing with employees, teammates, and others in your field.
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