Whatever career path you choose to pursue, certain skills are essential for success. The start of the year is a good time to re-assess your skills inventory and make adjustments where necessary. The Government of Canada, along with other national and international agencies, have identified and validated nine essential skills that are used in nearly every occupation regardless of job description. Briefly, these essential skills include:

• Reading: A large amount of information is communicated through writing. This includes not just newly created information but also past wisdom accumulated over thousands of years. The skills to find information, read effectively for content, and evaluate information are extremely important.

• Numeracy: Basic mathematics skills are fundamental to every occupation. Numbers are used in calculations, measurement, budgeting and with most instrumentation. Knowledge of statistics helps you to make important decisions with confidence.

• Writing: In today's environment it is important to express yourself clearly and effectively with the written word. Status reports, discussion papers and project reports are but a few of the documents that require effective writing skills.

• Speaking: Speech is a primary method of communication for exchanging thoughts and information. Learn how to articulate your ideas effectively, and how to ask the right questions.

• Computer skills: Almost every job today requires some level of computer technology and computer application skills. Information entry and retrieval is almost always done through computational technology.

• Teamwork: No person is an island. Working with others to achieve goals is necessary for individual and group success. Today's workplace is increasingly diverse, so you need to learn how to work with others whose generation, culture, and primary language may be different from your own.

• Continuous learning: Knowing how to learn to gather the skills and knowledge to be a contributing member of our society is essential. Discover your learning style, how to locate resources, find information, and identify opportunities.

• Document use: Most jobs today require handling and creating documents. These documents may be in any number of formats and media.

• Thinking: Creative thinking, decision making, planning and organizing are all important in today's knowledge-based economy. Some of these thinking skills include: problem-solving, decision-making, critical thinking, and job-task planning and organizing.

Further information can be obtained from the Canada Human Resources and Skill Development Web site: http://srv108.services.gc.ca/english/general/readers_guide_whole.shtml#26.

In addition, check out the archives of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer for many interesting articles that will assist you in skill development and strategy to manage your career and journey through life. By reviewing them, you will find many interesting insights that can help you achieve personal and career success.

Other Bytes

Here are some of the things going on in and around the engineering community:

• In today's competitive business environment, many organizations expect their employees, particularly senior management, to put in long hours. In 'Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-hour Workweek" [Harvard Business Review, 84(12), pp. 49-59, 2006, www.hbr.com] Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce discuss the phenomenon of workaholism particularly for overachieving professionals who hold 'extreme jobs" requiring 60 or more hours a week. The authors' research indicates that, in general, extreme professionals do not feel exploited and that a large majority of them enjoy their jobs. The article provides many interesting insights on the complexities of the all-consuming career that is rewarding in many ways, yet not without its problems.

• Many organizations have no processes in place to effectively manage career development and succession of their human resources. Identifying good performers and mentoring promising employees is an important responsibility of organizational leadership. In 'Talent Management: From Hire to Fire" [Training and Development, 60(11), pp. 42-48, 2006, www.astd.org/astd/publications/td_magazine], Michael Laff discusses issues associated with talent management, from hiring to retirement.

• 'Create Jobs, Eliminate Waste, and Preserve Value" is an article discussing Inc Magazine's ‘Entrepreneur of the Year' [Inc Magazine, 28(12), pp. 94-106, 2006, www.inc.com]. This 2006 winner, Ken Hendricks, has a personal wealth estimated at $2.6 billion. Author Leigh Buchanan examines how Hendricks identifies and exploits business opportunities. And interesting read on one person's path to business success.

• Information technology is ubiquitous in today's workplace. Business and IT are struggling over the issue of who controls the management of business process improvements. In 'Whose Business is Process Improvement Anyway?" [CIO, 20(3), pp. 75-86, 2006, www.cio.com], Meridith Levinson discusses issues and strategies that IT people can use to resolve business process management control issues. Levinson suggests that CIOs need to become more proactive in business process management.

• With changing social norms, authoritarian management style is not effective; rather, influence is what gets the job done. In 'The Art of Influence" [CIO, 20(3), pp. 48-59, 2006, www.cio.com], Allan Holmes discusses techniques that you can use to motivate colleagues to do what is needed. Although directed towards IT personnel, the influence strategies Holmes describes are applicable to a wide variety of fields.

• In 'The Manager Boom" [Informationweek, #1108, 2 October 2006, pp. 38-46, www.informationweek.com], Eric Chabrow discusses trends in IT management jobs. In his introduction, Chabrow says that the 'number of IT managements jobs is up 44 percent since 2001." Interesting reading on IT career forecasts for those in the IT sector.

• The workplace is a complex social unit. In 'Workplace Bullying" [Canadian Business, 77(18), pp. 87-89, 2006, www.canadianbusiness.com], Sarah Hood discusses the disruptive influence that this unacceptable practice has on the workplace and discusses strategies on how to cope with it should it happen to you. A number of Web links to sources of further information are provided.

 

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