8 Most important skills for future jobs and career

We are all witnessing the way in which the job market is changing every single year. The jobs which existed some years back are getting replaced with the new ones. And, this is something that is going to continue in the years to come. The situation looks scary but if you go with a right plan, the future is actually approaching you with a lot of opportunities.

If you are a parent of young children, a professional or a college going student, this article is going to be tremendously useful to you because these skills are an absolute must to survive this continuous change in the job market and do well in your career.

So, if you really want to stay relevant in the coming job market or want your children to be one, read on!

Let’s begin.



The way this world is changing we are moving towards a continuous technological advancement, globalization and changing demographics. This means that gone are the days when people used to retire from the same job that they started with. Not working on a same job for life also means that you’ll need to keep working on skills that’ll help you stay relevant. Otherwise the wave of change can get you out of the market very soon.

And, the first must have skill that appears in my list is:

1. Ability to solve complex problems - Now see, we may witness any amount of technological advancement but the job of solving the complex problems will always be left to humans. However effective the machines may be, how much ever data they may get for you, it is humans who will be needed to make business sense out of that information. So, this is one skill that you must develop to always stay relevant.

Solve a lot of complex puzzles, look at the problem from various angles, stay solution oriented and don’t complicate it. Staying physically active also increases the ability of your brain to easily solve problems.

So, this is one skill that you can definitely not ignore if you want to stay in the job market tomorrow.

2. Critical thinking - To explain it in simple words, Critical Thinking is the analysis of facts for you to reach a conclusion. You would see that most of the employer’s check your critical thinking abilities before hiring you. The reason is they want to establish you are able to recognize the problems and find workable solutions to them. One of the qualities of critical thinkers is their readiness to dump their previous assumptions if they are not taking them anywhere and look at things from another angle. These type of people follow reason and evidence to reach the conclusion. They are proactive. And, all these qualities help them make right business decisions.

So, definitely a quality that you require for your life not just profession. And, this is something that can again not be solely left to Machines, AI and Robots.

3. Creativity - The form of creativity may change over the years but this is a skill that will never let you go out of work. I’ll give you an example – Since the time Internet has started penetrating the market, we are seeing people from various domains making various kinds of videos establishing successful channels. The medium of delivery may have changed but it is their creativity that has got them where they are.

The opportunities for professionals from various creative domains like music, arts, drama etc are going to grow. When machines will do a lot more jobs, people will use the extra time to indulge in this creative entertainment.

So, allow your creative self to take over if you really want to do well in your career.

4. Emotional Intelligence - We are all worried that  Artificial Intelligence and Robots will soon take away all our jobs. Let me tell you, however strong and effective the machines may become, they can never be at par with humans because, they may compete with human brain but they can never get a human heart. And, this heart is our biggest strength. It gives us our empathy, compassion and other emotions which machines can never get.

So, another skill that you should work on to stay relevant in all times is your Emotional Intelligence.

Every position in future is going to need a bit of it and there will also be positions where your Emotional Intelligence will be the key skill required for your profession.

5. People Skills - Another skill that’ll always be in demand will be People Management Skill. This will become all the more important as we will have people from different regions and nationalities working together more closely.

So, another important skill that you need to develop is your cultural sensitivity so that you are able to work with all these people.

Till now, technical people could survive in the industry even without much interpersonal skills. But, this is going to change with time. As the number of people required to do a job reduce, even the technical people will be required to possess good interpersonal skills.
So, even if you are doing your computer science or mathematics courses, pay attention to develop your interpersonal skills as well.

6. Openness to change – More than a skill, it is an attitude. As I said earlier, we are no more in the age where an employment would last a life time. The quick changes that are taking place in the world will rather need you to be a life long learner. So, have an attitude of getting outside your comfort zone and learn new things.

And since, the changes will be quite fast, you may not find certification and diploma courses in new skills available immediately. So, even if it is self learning through online videos and practical application at home, it will be OK. What employers would need is the people who have the skills rather than the certificates.

7. Cognitive Flexibility – The term may look tough but if you try to look for the meaning of Cognitive Flexibility, it says, “ Ability to switch between thinking about two different concepts and to think about multiple concepts at a time.” Well, this is something expected from professionals from today but as the number of people for a single role reduce, the need for this skill is going to increase further. Work on it.

8. Digital Literacy – Now, when we talk about Internet and Digital Literacy, it doesn’t just mean Facebook posts or videos or watching your favorite series online. It means ability to make use of Internet in a productive way like finding out the new opportunities, information on how to do various things and putting them to use in the real world to earn a livelihood out of them. Internet is going to rule the world in the times to come. So, this is definitely a skill that you need to master.

So, next time someone talks about AI and Robots, don’t get scared of loosing your job to them. It is just a shift in skills and professions and if you are able to keep yourself relevant with these skills, you’ll never be out of work.