The folks at Webucator asked me to write a blog post about what I thought is the most marketable skill to help recent graduates people to enter the job market. Without a doubt, my first thought was about the communication skill. No matter the type of job you will do, communication is critical.
Let’s take a developer job as an example. Yes, you will work behind your computer most of the time, but more often than not, you will work within a team of developers on a specific project or even with people with a different expertise. Even if you were going to work on your very own project, you would have to deal with your manager or designers to make this application a success. It’s even more important if you decide to create a startup or go as a freelancer: you will have to deal with potential customers, or employees. If you think that working behind a computer will cut you off from the rest of the world, you can’t be more wrong. Maybe face-to-face human interaction is not your superpower, but again, even on the web, when you write on Facebook or publish a tweet, it’s communication. By improving this skill, it will open the door to new opportunities. Create a blog to show your expertise and share your passion, applying for a manager or project lead role, writing a book for a well-known publisher and more. I’m not saying that you should at any price be social or attracted to social events, but if you are not afraid of the crowd, combined with your communication skill, it can be super powerful. Networking is a key piece of a successful career, and you can’t do that without being able to communicate correctly. For some, it’s innate: for other, far from it, but no worries, like anything else in life, you can learn and improve this skill too.
You may think it will be harder to sell this skill in an interview, but trust me, the interviewer will be able to notice it right away. In the end, being interviewed is all about communication! Oh, and for me, communication is not just about speaking or writing well: being a good listener is as, if not more important…
