Purloined from “sources?”
I glanced through a ten-point, bulleted list of what current employment looks like. Out of the list, the top three, maybe four, struck me as important. This was what employers will be looking for, are looking for, or need most?
- Creative Thinking
- Critical Thinking
- Technical Skills
- (Still important): Social savvy.
Ability to think creatively, and I would suppose, create under pressure, to aid and abet an employer was first, but it was closely followed and allied with critical thinking, the ability to actually analyze the material not just rehash previously digested material. Technical skills rounded out the top three, with that being obvious, an ability to manipulate software, I would suppose, for whatever industry.
The kicker, to me, was including the basic understanding of a social networking, and what does — and doesn’t — work. Basic skills.
Purloined from “sources?”
Basic skills in our postmodern world. Purloined from “sources?”
Purloined from “sources?”
Breaking it out, this provides such an idealized outline, and yet, I’m not sure how much elucidation is required. Creative and critical thinkers can easily follow along.
- Creative Thinking
“Creative Thinking” sounds like it is about making stuff up, the realm of fiction, but fiction, in most cases, has to make sense, so there’s an element of truth therein, plus? There’s always the moment of inception, where the idea is born. But it’s also about problem solving. Most frequently — creative solutions. - Critical Thinking
The creative thinking is useless without its companion, “Critical Thinking.” This is about an ability to objectively analyze the data — put those pretty — and creative — ideas to work. Critical thinking is also reality-based (one would hope). Run the numbers, as some suggest. - Technical Skills
I’ve lived in an Apple-centric, Microsoft/Dell-free environment for maybe, more than a dozen years, could be two-dozen, I don’t recall. Originally, I was an artisanal outsider, but now, I’m kind of mainstream. However, as an example, I have a client who regularly sends me a contract in Microsoft Word format, and I have the skill to fill it out, execute, and return said contracts. I also administer the front — and back — of the websites, which included an understanding of root-level code and cyber-security crap. - (Still important): Social savvy.
Being social media savvy isn’t the same as thousands of followers. It’s about not posting anything that might be too controversial, piss off the wrong segment, or grate on one’s followers. Straying off point. Never bothered me, but I learned — again — the hard way, back in the bad, old days.
The last two, in a combined form, social media savvy, and technical skills, it’s that ability to figure out that a message is real, whereas another, similar message is merely junk/spam/solicitation or baited hack attack. It’s not difficult, and a required skill in our modern era.
The surprising rise of the Liberal Arts degree? We were taught to think critically, and to differentiate between rhetoric, fact, fiction, and feelings.
“I saw it online; it has to be true.”
Therein might be part of the problem, a random sampling of fewer than a dozen? Out hundreds of thousands?
Oh, right, that’s math.
Creative thinking is useless without critical thinking.
the Portable Mercury Retrograde
