If your dream is to give up everything and create your own productive farm, your motivation and arm strength may not be sufficient. This isn’t a disclaimer to discourage your determination, but rather a statement of fact. Undeniably, becoming a farmer today is worlds away from becoming a farmer 100 years ago. These days, farming requires many new things such as a clear commodity market understanding, IT skills to manage automated machines and even data analysis expertise to optimise yields. The Fourth industrial revolution is now dominated by Big Data and the ‘4Vs:’ Volume, Velocity, Variety and Voracity.
For this, you will need 2 categories of skills, ‘hard’ and ‘soft’, for your professional future. Let me guide you through the top 10 of the most important ones, thus helping you build your Instagram-able dragon fruit cultivation. Enjoy the read!
The essential hard skills for your career involve technology competences. Stop panicking, not perfectly mastering one or several of these expertise fields does not imply being jobless in a few years. However, understanding them will give you a solid asset in the job market.
1. Artificial Intelligence & Machine learning competences. Kicking off the list is Artificial Intelligence. AI can be defined as a technology in which we create intelligent systems aiming at simulating human intelligence. Machine learning is a subcategory of AI, which enables machines to learn from former experiences without being directly programmed. During the last 7 years, the amount of positions requiring AI expertise has multiplied by 4.5.
2. Data Science & Data Analytics aptitudes. Data Science represents the macro scope of data analysis and aims at asking the right questions to solve a problem, whereas Data Analytics concerns the micro scope, with its goal being to find actionable data to answer these questions. Both of these fields currently present a job shortage and a high demand. Their presence is large in various industries that have direct data needs such as healthcare, gaming, travel.
3. Extended Reality (Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality) skills. Many fields such as Marketing, advertising, healthcare or even manufacturing have started to apply XR (cross reality) technology. It ranges from designing and developing with 3D modelling software to graphics programming.
4. UI (User Interface) & UX (User Experience) Design expertise. UI Design corresponds to creating websites and applications interfaces in order to make them more attractive and easier to use. UX Design incorporates research and tests to analyse how the user interacts with a website or an application. Both are mostly in demand for mobile platforms.
5. Programming Languages experience. Lastly, in the hard skills we have programming languages. Learning the basics of some of them can offer you interesting opportunities. To cite them, HTML and CSS are the easiest languages to start with if you’re new to coding, Python is the fastest-growing language, JavaScript is the most commonly used. Beside these, Scala, Ruby, Typescript and Kotlin are also highly demanded even if they are less known. Obviously, the best language to learn will depend on your precise objectives.
Combined to the above-mentioned hard skills, soft skills will also be required.
6. The first of the soft skills that are needed is creativity. ‘Think outside of the box’, is easily said but sometimes tough to apply. Creativity stems from inspiration, coming itself from facing unusual concerns, living unique experiences and feeling new emotions. Therefore, go out of your comfort zone, be curious, ask questions. Whether you are an artist, a sportsperson or a book reader, try to experience different manners of practicing your passions, or even discovering new ones. Developing your creativity also implies taking time to make your ideas grow, without being busy or surrounded by others.
7. A major one soft skill is Emotional Intelligence (EQ) coupled with multicultural knowledge. Interpersonal skills are essential. Working within a firm cannot be achieved successfully without coordination and good verbal or written communication, generated by the team members themselves. Furthermore, multicultural understanding is an incredible opportunity, both for your personal and professional development. Cultural differences are an asset if they are tackled well. Myself personally have learnt this through my studies of International Business Administration at Rotterdam School of Management, but also within the Holland Park Media team, proudly represented by 15 different passports!
8. The third one is analytical (both qualitative and quantitative) thinking. This particularly entails critical thinking and decision making. In an era filled with a huge data quantity of various natures and from different sources, it is crucial to always take a step back.
9. Another one is adopting a growth and adaptable mindset. It corresponds to a willingness to actively learn and accommodate yourself to the coming opportunities, which requires curiosity. Being curious is not only a genetic personality trait, but also a gradual work on yourself. Start with your close friends and family, I am convinced they have a lot to teach you!
10. The last skill is self-management and organisational skills. Allied with your resilience, these capacities will be your strength to also handle both your exciting personal and professional life.
You got this, good luck!