Enduring Skills and the Future of Work

Career Exploration, Career Development, Future of Work

An earlier version of this piece was published in Inside Higher Ed's Carpe Careers column on May 15, 2023. 

​Let’s start off with a statement that may read a bit alarming to the science and engineering graduate students and postdocs who are reading this: there is no “formula” for career success. No combination of your skills plus talent plus hard work definitively guarantees success in your career or life. This is partly a fact of the world not being predictable or “fair” but also acknowledges something that seems obvious when examined deeply and holistically but shocking when first encountered by an individual socialized in a modern, capitalist economy: your success isn’t up to you.  

“Greatness is in the agency of others” is a phrase often used by Scott Galloway, a faculty member at New York University’s Stern School of Business and influential blogger/podcaster.   

​The crux of this argument is that no one succeeds alone. Rather, we live in societies where collectively we produce success and opportunity, even if it is only evident to have been realized by a subset of the population. In fact, the only reason our modern economies function is through the collective and specialized actions of many individuals contributing, yes, their unique skills and abilities to the world. 

​The key word there is collective…we succeed together even if many of us don’t realize or acknowledge it. A central example is childcare and education. Even the most naturally gifted individual must be cared for as a baby and young child to reach an age where their potential can be realized. Furthermore, they need schooling and access to information that was created by others to understand the world and how they can build off the foundation of countless individuals to create new “breakthroughs” and potentially make money doing it. And this action may lead that individual to be rewarded financially and touted as a genius, a disrupter, or successful entrepreneur but their success is not 100% theirs. 

In an increasingly complex world with technology advancing at a blistering pace, no one can know it all or be 100% self-made. For many decades leveraging one’s technical skills and abilities to produce value was paramount to having a successful career. You needed to offer skills that were in demand in the current economy to be recognized as providing value in a purely economical sense. While this seemed to be rational and efficient it was not necessarily good for human flourishing. We are more than our skills and physical outputs and the acceleration in generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology has left many wondering what are we “good for” in a future where AI can produce similar creative and practical outputs to our own more efficiently and effectively? 

The answer is each other…we are good for each other in this quickly evolving world. 

The famous American poet, writer, and activist Maya Angelou has a quote that nicely embodies what we all should strive for as human beings today and always:
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

​The enduring skills of the future of “work” are human skills…making others feel something: feel valued, feel heard, feel understood, feel important.  

Human skills or interpersonal skills include a variety of skills that help us work effectively with other human beings. Communication, empathy, emotional intelligence and other attributes fall under this larger umbrella. 

• Communication is critical to so many professional roles and ultimately facilitates (or hinders) teamwork and progress toward institutional goals. 
  
• Leadership and management center around how we understand the people who report to us enough to know how to motivate them and facilitate their success. 
  
• Compassion and empathy are critical to dealing with setbacks and challenges that are inevitable in life and demonstrate to others that we care and value them.  

​These human skills are essential to succeeding and enduring professionally. The fact of the matter is that while one’s skills and abilities can land you a job interview or often an entry level job, your interpersonal skills and other attributes of your personality will make someone want to have you as a colleague or work for you.

​Unfortunately, many individuals pursuing their graduate degrees or postdoctoral research dismiss the importance of these skills. They will often discuss a frustrating job search process with statements like “don’t my skills and abilities speak for themselves?” or “my work speaks for itself”. And while skills and abilities are surely important, they are often being assessed on more than their work. I think this is a good thing because we are all more than the skills, abilities, and accomplishments listed on a resume. 

​Even in research-focused roles at companies, someone with PhD-level training will often be hired with the intention that the company considers them to be a future project or program leader. Being placed in a leadership role might not occur right away but many employers will be looking for glimpses of these skills when interviewing candidates. 

More value is placed on transferable and interpersonal skills when a Ph.D. is transitioning into a non-research role. At that point, an employer doesn’t often care as much about your specific technical skills or research accomplishments but rather that by completing a graduate degree you showed the ability to think critically, problem solve, extract insight from data, and communicate your findings. Your Ph.D. experience provides a breadth of these transferable skills valued by employers.

How does one work to build interpersonal skills? 
Through putting yourself out there and practicing.

This is best accomplished when the stakes are low and could start out as simply as attending a graduate student or postdoctoral association event and chatting with a few people in attendance. Making “small talk” can seem trivial but it works to build connection with others. In fact, it may seem trivial to you to attend an event and listen to a fellow grad student or postdoc vent about their day or talk about their new dog but that doesn’t mean it is trivial to them. Sometimes people just need to be heard, to believe that what they have to say or share is worthy of another human being’s time and attention. For the introverts reading this (of which I count myself), I think we can all acknowledge we would most often rather listen than talk. The good news is you can go to one of these community events and mostly listen and affirm what you hear from others. 

The next step in building your interpersonal and leadership skills might be getting involved in planning an event with a group or association around a topic or activity that you all care about - advocating for better student or postdoc benefits, raising funds to donate to a local food pantry, tutoring elementary students, you name it. This could lead to more formal involvement in an organization where you manage projects and people as you work toward achieving a common goal, a skillset that will come in handy in your professional life. Great places to find groups to get involved with include Meetup.com and GreatNonprofits.org or explore VolunteerMatch for service opportunities in your area. 

​Busy graduate students, postdocs, and professionals will often cite the lack of time as a hurdle to making connections with others or engaging in organizations or activities that would benefit them professionally and personally. They see these social and community engagement activities as a combination of a luxury and distraction. Time is indeed a finite resource and while there will always be more work to be done than time to do it, time with others is time well spent. In addition, science shows you will feel better from having engaged in these “prosocial” behaviors. It feels good to engage with and help others. Importantly, by building these informal networks you can begin to have people you can rely on for help. This is essential as sometimes we are the helpers and sometimes we are the ones needing help. 

Human skills are more than just valuable to you professionally but also personally. This may go without saying but sometimes we can forget how important it can be to be a caring, compassionate human when interacting with others. Saying thank you and showing other signs of appreciation, remembering relevant personal information and milestones of your coworkers, and being willing to be helpful even if an ask is “outside your job description” go a long way. And our national loneliness epidemic could benefit from more human connection and compassion. Many people want more opportunities to socialize and bond with others but it often takes someone to be brave enough to initiate the process. Will that be you? 

​Embracing your humanity and honing your interpersonal skills through practice will allow you to better relate to and understand other human beings’ needs, hopes, and desires. This will in turn pay dividends in your work, life, and society as a whole. 

​No one succeeds alone and no one (consistently) succeeds on their skills and abilities alone. Rather, greatness is in the agency of others: engaging with others, listening to others, empathizing with others, and working collectively with others is essential not only for our own personal and professional fulfillment but for a functional and prosperous society for all. 

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More from the Blog:

• The End of Work as We Know It: How an Increasingly Automated World Will Change Everything (from December 2019)
• Optimization, Oppression, and Optimism in the AI Age (from March 2023)
• Dedication

See also:

• Ten Human Skills for the Future of Work
• Unlocking Us with Brene Brown Podcast: Esther Perel on New AI - Artificial Intimacy 
• Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Workforce report from Burning Glass Institute
• Robot Ready? Labor Market Analysis Finds “Human+ Skills” in High Demand
• Research from Lightcast
• Is it harmful or helpful? Examining the causes and consequences of generative AI usage among university students
  • News piece on this study