If you’re still in University, Junior College, or Poly, you might be facing a dilemma. What should you choose as your major? Should you pick something that provides you with the skills needed for easy access to jobs? Or are you interested in studying something that you’re passionate about?
Deciding on what you want to do can be tough - but if you’re a practical person, this article by a reputable recruitment agency might just help you decipher what to learn. Based on some of Singapore’s booming industries of course.
Retail
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Whilst you might not need high educational qualifications to break into the industry. The threat of automation might be the reason for requiring highly qualified retail assistants.
These are the few skills that might be useful in the near future:
Tech Savvy: With the rise in the number of computers and technology used. Retail staff will benefit greatly from being tech-savvy. Staff will need to use a variety of machinery, to handle items such as cash registers, point of sales (POS), or even computers and the various programs.
Design Skills: Whilst this isn’t usually necessary, some design skills might be useful. Depending on the company, retail consultants might need to design posters needed for social media. Additionally, motivational posters can be used to help motivate other colleagues and retail assistants.
Customer Service: Despite the rise in technology and automation. Many Singaporeans still enjoy some face time as well as human interaction, to help enhance their shopping experience.
Good customer service is simple. It is being friendly and polite and puts the customer first. This is essential to creating loyal customers.Consider Mature Workers: Mature employees come with useful skills that can greatly benefit younger retail employees. With experience, comes a host of skills. Learn more about the benefits of hiring mature workers in Singapore here.
Team Working Skills: Finally, the ability to work together in a team is an essential skill that fosters a harmonious workplace environment. Unlike the other skills listed above, team working skills can be broken down to multiple small skills, including:
A) Communication Skills: This is especially important for those looking to avoid miscommunication and creating tension. Good communication skills encapsulate everything from verbal communication to the use of body language. Effective communication allows for benefits such as a better flow of ideas, and the ability to respect personal space and privacy.
B) Listening and Feedback Skills: Great listening and feedback skills help alleviate workplace tension.
C) Conflict Management Skills: Sometimes, even with great skills and tact, workplace conflict might arise. However, despite being seemingly common, how you deal with conflict can make or break your career. Which is why having great conflict management skills might help you excel in your career. This is a skill that no form of technology can take away from you.
Banking
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If you are interested in pursuing a career in banking, there is a special set of skills and qualities needed to be successful. Corporate and investment banking are competitive sectors where only the smartest and the best will make the cut.
Some skills to incorporate into the banking sector include:
Analytical Skills: Technology aside, employees in every banking sector is required to have a set of analytical skills to help identify trends, patterns, as well as conclusions from the data present.
Meticulous: Attention to detail is a needed requisite for banking. As an employee handling and producing raw, financial data, it’s imperative to be meticulous. Additionally, this skill is an asset when it comes to spotting anomalies.
Stress Management: Don’t scoff just yet! Stress management is an important asset, especially when long working hours and high-pressure situations are involved. Without proper stress management skills, bankers are more likely to burnout, which can result in a host of mental health problems. Burnout is also responsible for making people turn to suicide.
Did You Know: The World Health Organization (WHO) officially recognizes job burnout as a health issue. Learn more about combating job burnout in our latest article here.
Resilience and Confidence: Additionally, resilience and confidence should be part of your mantra, as someone who wants to work in banking and finance. If you’re still in university and college, the banking life is filled with long hours and tiring work. In such a competitive environment, your resilience and confidence are the only two things that will help propel you up the career ladder.
Information Technology
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The Information Technology sector is a hot commodity right now. With many potential jobs and a wide skills gap, talented candidates will find it easy to break into the information technology sector.
In terms of skills, programming, cloud computing, and cybersecurity skills are just some of the skills that are hot commodity right now. If you’re looking to break into the Information Technology sector, you can check out our latest blog entry, “Kickstart Your Career in Singapore’s Tech Industry with These Courses”.
However, soft skills are also essential to this developing sector. They include:
Creativity: If you’re dreading being creative in an analytical field, don’t. It is not a stated requirement to be creative for all IT jobs, but creativity can help supplement you in your next IT role. In fact, CompTIA claims that one of the major requirements in order to succeed in today’s IT industry is the ability to use technology creatively.
Problem Solving: Not your forte? You might be entering the wrong sector then. Problem-solving is one of the main tenets of the IT industry. Employees within this sector often spend a disproportionate amount of time figuring out why certain items of technology or software have trouble working. And they’re often having a blast whilst doing it.
Innate Curiosity: As someone working in the Information Technology field, you’ll need to be constantly curious. You’ll have to figure out the inner mechanics and workings of devices and software, and it’ll get you far in IT. Curiosity will help you figure out how things are like under the hood, and how easy (or difficult) it is to penetrate new systems.
What are some overlooked in-demand skills that you think is important to have? Let us know in the comments section below!