Want a high paying hybrid job - 4 skills you will need

The trend is unmistakable. Employers were beginning to ask for more than technical skills. The employers not only wanted a great coder, but someone who was a great communicator and one who worked well in a team. Now that trend has sharpened a little more. Employers will pay more for people who bring interdisciplinary thinking to complex jobs. They are called “Hybrid Jobs”.

Four years later the trend has some distinct patterns. A report predicts “hybrid jobs” will grow by 21% over the next decade and get paid 20% to 40% more than other jobs. Regular jobs will grow at a slower pace. Hybrid jobs is where you should focus now 

A hybrid job is interdisciplinary. It needs left brain as well as right brain thinking. The HR person needs to be skilled in HR tech besides having strong interpersonal skills. The Data Scientists and techies need to build language skills.

Four Skills needed to prepare for “Hybrid Jobs”

1.   Digital tools and digital tech

Learn new systems, configure and customise your work with digital tools. Learn to do basic coding. Take a class. Ask a friend to teach you. A Marketing Manager with SQL knowledge makes 41% more than his or her peers.

2.   Tell stories with data

Learn how to analyse data. Then interpret, visualise, and communicate it in simple terms. The ability to understand complex ideas but being able to simplify and teach others is a future skill for sure.

3.   Business, leadership and projects

Engineers with business and leadership skills get 20% more salary than peers who have strong tech skills but lack soft skills. It may be a good idea to take a project management course. If you can track and manage complex projects that involve the human skills of persuading and nudging people to complete tasks without annoying them gets you a premium in the job market

4.   Design, creativity and user experiences

“People do not buy products or services, they buy experiences.” 54% of engineering jobs need digital design. More than 815,000 job openings in every field from business analysis to finance and manufacturing asked for skills in design. I am at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas where designers, coders and storytellers are rubbing shoulders with CEOs like Satya Nadella. It is all about using design to drive adoption of your ideas. Follow #AdobeSummit on Twitter to get live updates.

Stay curious. Be multi-disciplinary

The future belongs to experts. Build deep expertise in your field whether you are a data scientist, security analyst, product manager, marketing manager or UI designer. Bring skills from other disciplines like design, data analysis and  business acumen to your field of expertise.

Those are the jobs that are harder to automate. You can automate say the data crunching, but it is harder to automate the role of a Data Scientist who is a brilliant designer and storyteller. Steve Jobs said that the future lies at the intersection of brilliant technology and discipline. He was on to something!