With 2019 already on a sprint, there is much speculation among young people seeking employability skills in 2019 as to what must-have skills they should learn for the ensuing months of 2019. This new year presents a brave new world of conundrums, there seem to be present a specific set of jobs that require an identical/equivalent set of skills. Even from your run-of-the-mill pool of lucrative, useful skills, you will have to be very picky.

Whether you’re a to-be global entrepreneur intern or that of global talent, even if you haven’t been to an exchange internship with AIESEC yet (though you really really should—you don’t know what you’re missing out on!), and are looking for a regular, non-AIESEC internship or job, you will soon be met with that stage where you conduct a self-analysis. You’ll be made to wonder the following:

What am I good at?

How good am I at it?

And lastly, am I the best?

Cat got your tongue? If you are on the lookout for must-have employability skills in 2019, you’ve come to the right spot.      

This blog has been divided into sections on the basis of the type and domain of different skills needed in today’s world of internships (both AIESEC and outside). Sift through to whichever domain you feel you are lacking in or are after.

We’ve got the following for you:

1. Soft Skills

2. Computer Sciences

3. Marketing

4. Business

Soft Skills – The Softer the Better

They say people get picked from the usual multitude of applicants for corporate internships and otherwise by how good they are at communicating, indulging in group discussions and activities if asked to, and your adaptability in different situations (this is often revealed by situational analyses on the interviewer’s part).

Here’s a cool, soft skills-specific blog; do give it a read.

But, have you got some or all of what’s mentioned below?

Creativity – well, duh!

More than often you are required to solve the most critical of problems with “creativity” rather than with an actual solution; your creativity is your solution. Companies are looking for individuals who can creatively solve problems, add value to the company.

Unleash your inner creative badass!

Persuasion – put them puppy-dog eyes to the test.

This is somewhat a personally needed skill. You can work hard  but sometimes that won’t be enough to rise above at your internship or job (especially outside of AIESEC). Definitely not in 2019. Or any other year of the imminent century.

The art of persuasion is what you need to teach yourself. Be it an unfair boss or supervisor assigning you more than necessary work, or a coworker being an exceptional ass, you will need to charm your way out of situations like these. And they work. Trust me. If you know what you’re doing.

Adaptability – be a cute little Chameleon.

Seen the movie Rango? That’s what you’ve gotta’ be sometimes.

The workplace is not your home. Neither is it high school, that wretched old place you get used to after a week or two of insurmountable misery. LOL-ing. It is like the worst of jungles. There is an obstacle or two always lurking around in corners. You never what you’ll get hit with. It could an unusually angry team leader, a jealous subordinate, a sudden transfer, an audit… the possibilities are limitless.

Check this article out and read more about how useful adaptability can be.

Time Management – run, before the clock strikes twelve!

Unlike those time-traveling fantasies you probably have, there are no do-overs as an employee. To increase your employability, you need to be a good manager of both time and yourself. One wrong move and everything comes falling down like a house of cards.

When interning with AIESEC in particular, you leave home and end up in a foreign country. Time zones can be tough and being productive can be made a tad bit hard. (Psst!—take a look at some of these tips). The AIESEC way to go about this, however, is to set a target, work on it in moderation, yield results, analyze and interpret, repeat. I personally keep a journal and make time-bound agendas to carry things out, and guess what?—it totally works.

Collaboration – there is strength in numbers.

Sometimes, difficult tasks and even your individual workload can be finished quickly and minimized, respectively, if you have some help. If all hands are on deck, then you need to be careful. However, a little help doesn’t hurt. Say your boss has assigned you to write 50 emails within two hours. Your most immediate reflex would either be:

1. killing them and hide their body

2. putting poison in their morning chocolate latte

3. killing yourself

I hope it is neither of the above. Divide 50 by two and you get what? 25? What if you made a really good friend at work and asked them to do half of the emails while you did the remaining half?

That’s the power of collaboration, my friend. Interviewers often ask of how good a collaborator you are. You’re in for a win if your answer is “100″ percent!

Computer Sciences – where are you nerds at?

Computers have taken over the world, though not like Skynet does in Terminator. But they’re getting there, bit by bit (pun intended).

Educational institutions, for running a more lucrative business, predicted a rising trend in the number of students for the IT discipline and added more computer science curricula to their offerings. Asia did so more than any other continent. Should you be interested in interning in India or Jaipur, check these IT opportunities out. Or head over to AIESEC’s web portal to find an opportunity of your liking.

Hit get started to, well, get started!

Here are some of the most trending skills in demand bound to increase your employability:

Scientific Computing – putting two and two together and getting a 138.

In a nutshell, Scientific Computing refers to a multidisciplinary branch of your good old computer science that involves solving complex, real-life problems by means of programming languages. Computing multinational companies like Oracle and IBM hire individuals proficient in the art of scientific computing.

Should you want to aim a little low, though, try out for your local employer. You can teach as a Computing Professor, too. Teaching’s quite the rage in IT. More so, in some countries, than actual computing.

Game Development – not as easy as playing games.

You play those fancy-ass games all day long. Ever wondered how they are made? Computer science, computer programming to be exact, is your answer. If you’ve become all sentimental at this and suddenly have had the divine intervention to become a computer games engineer, here’s how you can become one!

Games like DOTA 2, Assassin’s Creed, PUBG all use advanced level computer programming to give you the gaming experience you deserve.

These game developers make a lot of money; a pretty cool skill to have for instant employability, don’t you think?

Cloud computing – computing in the clouds?

Fresh off google, cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.

Read this resource to learn more about cloud computing, career options linked to cloud computing, and some certifications that you acquire for instant, without-a-degree employability. You might even find an AIESEC internship in cloud computing. You know what to do. Click here!

Artificial Intelligence – imaginary friends brought to life.

AI has proven to be what will remain the future of computer science for the foreseeable future.

So, what sub-skills do you need for a career in Artificial Intelligence? A good combination of mathematics with algebra, statistics, and probability. Engineering and robotics. High-level programming. Above all of this, you need an out-of-the-box thinking mind. There are a thousand people out there a thousand times better at this than you.

If you’re into hardcore robo-analytics and designing internal, machine functionality and reasoning (which kind of is artificial intelligence itself), then artificial intelligence is the field for you.

Give this blog a read to find out about the kind of careers AI graduates ought to yearn for.

Analytical Reasoning – what came first, the egg or the chicken?

It’s the one skill-slash-field in computer science that requires minimal programming acumen and more of your concentration and reasoning ability. Students with high IQ are often encouraged to play more of chess and pursue careers in analytical reasoning.

Employers of today seek individuals too good at analyzing situational contexts; those who are able to extract the root cause of the problem at hand. Providing a solution to said problem is a needed plus. People good at analytical reasoning often dedicate their lives to research and discovery.

Really, though. What came first? The egg or the chicken?

Marketing – mind your 7 Ps.

Let’s get right to them!

UX design – Final.psd, Final-Final.psd, Finalforrealthistime.psd.

Nothing spells out M.O.N.E.Y. like well-designed graphics. You are in charge of user experience, a term that needs to be taken literally should one actually be able to provide the kind of visual experience a user deserves.

Employers look for individuals with past experience and an unbridled flair for creativity. You can even make and sell your designs to businesses like Canva, Freepik, and various others.

Graphic Designers usually have their career mapped out for them as “freelancers.”

Social Media Management – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and them all.

Managing a business’s online communities is also quite the trend. Business students majoring in marketing often opt for digital media management, which is the same thing. A lot of today’s businesses generate a chunk of their clientele from social media and they are always on the lookout for people, millennials usually, who can operate on their platforms and be a virtual appeal to the masses out there.

You spend quite some time on those social media apps. Why not make some money doing the same thing in 2019?

Audio and Video Production – lights, camera, video!

Social media has advanced rather quickly and advertising agencies, mostly, employ skillful audio and video producers. Motion visuals are a more of an appeal to audiences; why stare at something really good-looking that does nothing else but what it does best?—just look good.

You can earn gainful employment today in any of your local advertising company, or as a video-maker for any IT business or others for their own social media. Fiverr is a good place to post a video-making gig.

These tips will help you get a good start.

Animation – the zombie apocalypse of graphic design…

As mentioned already, people like visuals that move.

As an animator, you are eligible for employment in film and movie companies. The market for animators is wide open and there are fewer barriers to entry as mostly you will find a well-established pool of designers out there. People have yet to reel from the trending requirements of the past and come up-to-date with what’s trending now.

This is something Graphic Designers can think of as an area of “expansion.”

Journalism – political intrigue, opinions, and gossip rags.

There will always be a need for journalists in the job market.

Nowadays, however, entertainment journalism is more of a profession than editorial journalism. Young people much like ourselves are seen working in online magazines and lifestyle entertainment agencies. This line of career starts with recognition-based-but-not-paid contributions. You slowly make your way up the ladder.

Staff journalists for newspapers, however, start their career similarly; as contributors. Once they are taken on as permanent employees, they are paid for their work.

You can send in your contributions to a lot of online blogs such as Buzzfeed, New York Times, and several others.

Business – it’s more than just leadership and motivation, you know.

Education has revolutionized over time, so has business academically. Stereotypically referred to as the place-where-one-can-fall-in-case-of-a-career-choice-gone-wrong, there is much more to a business degree now than people will admit.

The best thing about Business skills is that anybody can learn them. Quickly and easily.

Strategy – How you will do what you will do.

Business Strategists make quite a handful of money. Why do all the thinking yourselves when you can hire people to do that for you? That, precisely, is why there is a huge pool of opportunities for this one.

It is like a game of chess that requires more of your ability to absorb as much information and create feasible “moves” than actually hovering over a chessboard.

You design tactics, actions, focus, and an interim business plan which is later made permanent.

Competitor Analysis – what are those enemies up to?

High-end companies hire a specific number of employees good at research and analysis of a number of factors to determine their own place in the market with respect to that of their competitors.

This is a business science skill best suited to business students alone.

Corporate Communications – speaking on behalf of your employer.

A good skill to learn whether or not one is a business student.

You are tested for your telephonic communication, written communication, and in-person communication. Corporate communicators are often required to represent the company they work for.

Employment levels vary for this one.

Takeaway.

2019 is a year of constant innovation and requires for people to have a diverse set of both field-specific skills and otherwise for better chances at employability.

Do you think you are cut out for any particular skill from up above? Want to go on an AIESEC internship of that very skill? Most importantly, did you make till here?

Let us know in the comments!