How to build your unique skill stack

Hi friend,

One thing that matters most for your career right now is paying attention to the skills you’re building because we’ve moved into the skills economy.

This week, I’m going to walk you through some practical exercises so that you can:

You might want to grab a pen and paper.

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I went to university in 2010 when the emphasis was on both the reputation of your institution and the reputation of the company you worked for afterwards. The university you went to mattered, your degree title mattered, your job title mattered.

Importance of having the big names under our belt was drummed into us at the age of 17. It’s why I chose to study at Roehampton because at the time they ranked 3^rd in the country for languages… I did a BA in Spanish, so I guess it made sense.

But the names, rankings and external shine matter much less now because we’ve moved into the skills economy.

Companies are asking themselves: Do our people have the skills we need to achieve our business objectives? How can we develop our existing workforce? How can we find the people with the skills we need?

The World Economic Forum defines the skills economy “as a transformational shift in how businesses and individuals think about professional value and success, placing individual skills – the skills we have and need, and our ability to acquire new ones – at the forefront of decision-making, while challenging the significance of traditional credentials and job titles”.

In other words, individual skills are the new currency. Rather than thinking about people and jobs, companies must focus on the precise tasks that need to be carried out, and the skills needed to do those tasks.

This skills-based approach means companies are hiring based on what you’re capable of, rather than what you studied, where your university ranks in the league tables or the string of job titles you previously held.

It’s becoming difficult to stand out against other people with the same skills as you.

Most jobs require some level of technical skill or expertise, but if everyone has a similar level of technical expertise, how can you differentiate yourself?

Imagine you see an opportunity and the main skill they want is data science and your top skill is data science, but so is everyone else’s. How do you stand out?

You stand out by pairing data science with other skills. For example:

Stacking these skills makes for an attractive skill stack for a data science role. And, of course, pairing a technical skill with a human skill gives you a competitive edge.

Before mapping your skills out, let’s look at the different types of skills.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the terms “hard skills” and “soft skills” before. Your hard skills are the technical knowledge or expertise like data science or accounting and they’re usually used for one particular job.

Your soft skills are the ones that stretch and mould across different tasks, jobs, careers, and industries. I’ve identified three subsets of soft skills:

Skills can also be categorised as perishable skills and durable skills.

The key is to build a skill stack with a variety of hard skills and soft skills, and perishable skills and durable skills.

Looking back on my career, I kept getting career opportunities despite not being the most technically skilled because my skill stack included durable human skills that gave my technical skills an edge others didn’t have. My top three human skills are communication, relationship building and adaptability, which give me a solid base that transfers wherever I decide to work. Then, I learn specific technical skills as and when I need them.  

As a Spanish translator I needed Spanish language, ability to apply translation principles, and ability to use specialised translation and subtitling software. As a researcher I needed survey design and data analysis skills. As an educator I needed lesson planning and assessment skills. A few technical skills were needed across multiple roles like software and report writing.

Here are five practical steps to build your skill stack and articulate the unique value you bring.

Step 1: Group your work experience

I’ve had 16 jobs over 16 years, but if I were to list 16 columns in my skill stack, it’d become unnecessarily complex. That’s why I have columns for translation, research and teaching.

For example, teaching includes when I was an English language assistant on my Erasmus year abroad, teaching in language academies, teaching in secondary schools, lecturing at universities, and now workplace training. I’ve condensed five teaching roles into one teaching column.

Over to you: Organise your work experience into a maximum of 5 columns.

Step 2: Identify your technical skills

Technical skills are the domain-specific knowledge and abilities that are learned through on-the-job experience or training. They're the skills that are specific to what you do, not how you do it.

These might be:

Over to you: List your technical skills under each area of work.

Step 3: Identify your human skills

Human skills help you interact and work well with yourself and others. They help you communicate clearly, build relationships, and navigate both personal and professional challenges. They’re the skills that are specific to how you work.

These might be:

Over to you: List your human skills under each area of work.

Step 4: Connect the dots

Your technical skills don't exist in isolation. They become more powerful, more unique, and more valuable when you add human skills to them.

Let’s say one of my technical skills is data analysis. Here's how different human skills make this technical skill stronger:

Over to you: Take your strongest technical skill and combine it with your human skills. Fill in the gaps in the sentence below.

[technical skill] + [human skill] = [how this combination makes me more effective]

Think about the impact of combining these skills. How do your human skills amplify your technical skills? What does it let you do that others can’t do?

Step 5: Identify opportunities for growth

Where could human skills open up entirely new career possibilities for you?

Maybe you're brilliant at project management but your collaboration skills are holding you back from leading a team. Maybe you're a strong designer but improving your communication would see you present to clients instead of staying behind the scenes.

Which skill combinations would make you more competitive? More valuable at work? More fulfilled in your career?

Over to you: Fill in the gaps in the sentence below.

If I build [human skill], my [technical skill] will become stronger because [reason]