The most important skills in

life
On the Internet, you can find many lists of skills that will be in
demand in the future. In general, I agree with the vector of skills of
the future. You can look at them to dive into trends, but you will not
be able to blindly follow them. Often the skills in such lists are very
general and voluminous.

When you look at them, you think it will take forever to master half
of the list. In such a situation, you need to prioritize and be as
flexible as possible. You need to be ready to constantly retrain and
manage your career. I believe that most of the skills of the future
come down to one main skill: problem-solving. It is also called
troubleshooting.

“The most important skill that will allow you to stay relevant in IT,
management, and generally anywhere is the ability to solve
problems”

Vastrik

Vastrik is a programmer from Berlin who runs a blog vas3k.ru on

the topic of technology, IT and travel. I strongly advise you to
subscribe to his blog, he’s really cool. When I read these words in the
article, my brain experienced an orgasm. After all, Vastrik writes
that there will always be people in demand who can turn a problem
into a task, find resources, organize other people and take
responsibility.

Photo by Ben Sweet on Unsplash

This is very much in line with my own thoughts. Of course, the skill
is very extensive, and it includes many other great skills, but this is a
clear vector where to aim and what you need to be able to achieve
goals in any conditions. If we look at the whole range of skills, I can
distinguish six main groups:

1. Self-organization: skills of personal effectiveness, self-

management and organization of your life;

2. Communication: skills of writing and speaking to public

speaking, relationship building, persuasion and negotiation;
3. Project approach: skills of organizing people and resources
into projects for purposeful activity towards results;

4. Adaptability: skills of working with your condition in

unforeseen and stressful situations, as well as skills of scenario
planning and adjustment to external circumstances;

5. Learnability: skills of building an effective process of learning

new things, as well as the skill of metacognition (thinking about
thinking);

6. Problem solving: skills to prevent problems, identify root

causes, search for strong and creative solutions, as well as their
implementation.

As you can see, the first five groups help to solve problems, but this
division helps to prioritize the direction of training. Below I will
decompose some skill groups to form a starting set of skills that, in
my opinion, will allow you to be a sought-after specialist. How to be
an adaptive person in the modern world can be described endlessly,
and it is possible to identify priority skills that will distinguish you in
the labor market. If you don’t know what to develop, then start with
them.

Self-organization
Advanced time management.

Today it is not enough to know the techniques of time management.

It is necessary to systematically manage a large number of tasks and
information. Clearly and correctly prioritize in the mode of
uncertainty. Time management is no longer just calendar slots and
productivity rules, but a comprehensive operating system for life.
Learn the basics and build your own self-organization system.

Discipline and reliability.

Strive to be a person who performs tasks on time, does not allow

delays, does not violate agreements and promises. For you it is a
skill, for others it is your characteristic. Demonstrate reliability to
people. There are people to whom the main thing is to deliver
information, they will understand the task themselves, clarify the
details and make the result. They definitely won’t forget, won’t let
you down or will warn you about the changes in time. There are also
people who need to be reminded and monitored, but there are no
guarantees. Such people are unreliable. I think it is not necessary to
explain who is more pleasant to deal with and work with. If you have
problems with this, then figure out what’s bothering you and how to
fix it. Be the ones who keep promises and who you can rely on.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Communication
A skill that is included in my personal top. When people think about
developing communication, they often focus on negotiations. They
present the negotiations as a scene from the movie “Vicious
Passion”, where Richard Gere verbally presses an opponent and
knocks out a good deal. Negotiations are not about that. Negotiation
is the ability to negotiate. Set yourself a goal to learn how to
negotiate, and the development of this skill takes on a different
meaning.

You don’t need to learn how to manipulate people, resist monsters

and squeeze. Look at communication as the ability to convey
thoughts, explain, get to know and hear people. Then everything will
be fine with the negotiations, too. Communication, self —
organization and enthusiasm for learning are the main skills that I
test in interviews. With such a set, it is easier to teach a person about
a project approach and problem solving.

Ability to explain.

Explaining is an incredibly difficult activity. Although many people

think that it is easy. Often, they also think that they explain well, and
people are stupid and do not understand anything. With such a
philosophy, you will not go far up the career ladder. If you remove
the facts that all people have their own picture of the world,
experience and peculiarities of perception of information, then it is
still very difficult to explain. If it were so easy, then you wouldn’t be
nervous when you explain to your older relatives how to use the
phone.

For an objective assessment and training of the skill of explanation,

use the Feynman method. It is used for teaching, and there the first
stage is called “teach this to a child”. When you describe something
in simple words that even a child can understand, you help yourself
to understand the essence on a deeper level. Understanding the
essence helps to simplify. Try it and see for yourself where the
difficulties arise. I’ve spent years training this. From explaining to
parents how to use a computer, to transferring complex projects at
work. I hope I’m doing well, and everything is clear in the book.
When you become a master of explanation, you will see how your
thinking and relationships with people will change.
Brevity.

The skill is included in the ability to explain, but I single it out

separately, since at the time of writing the book, brevity in oral
speech is a personal challenge for me. It is very difficult to be concise
when explaining complex things, but I try to learn the skill of
brevity. The fast pace of life, information overload and lack of
attention of people does not work in our favor. Therefore, brief
communication means effective. There is no need to confuse brevity
with superficiality or dryness of information.

Be concise without compromising the meaning. Therefore, learn

brevity in order to convey more meaning with fewer words. You will
definitely stand out from the chattering majority. It will also help to
structure thinking and speech and concentrate the attention of the
interlocutor. Save people time, communicate the main thing and get
feedback faster.

«Brevity is a force against inattention, extraneous interference,

excessive information and irritability”

Joseph McCormack

Visual communication.

It is proved that the key type of perception for a person is visual one.
Throughout human evolution, visual information has been
paramount. Everyone knows that it is better to see once than to hear
a hundred times. Visual communication helps to think and explain.
If a person hears the information, then after 3 days he can reproduce
only 10%, and with visualization this number goes up to 65%.

You don’t have to be an artist. Even the most primitive, but logical
schemes will help to convey the message faster and clearer. Every
day I reason with drawings, keep notes of meetings, take notes and
draw diagrams of processes. It’s a habit that helps me a lot. Learn
scribing. Or rather, start using it, since you already know how to
draw.

Scribing is the process of visualizing complex meaning with simple

images, in which the rendering of images occurs in the process of
conveying information.

Train the ability to explain complex things using visualization.

Someday you will definitely have to or already have to draw on the
blackboard, explaining thoughts to people. Without preparation and
presentation. Be ready to make a great impression and get the result.

Argumentation and facilitation.

We constantly have to convince people and justify our position. At

work, at home, at school, at the airport, or in line. All our lives we
practice and improve these skills. But many people still cannot
understand others or justify their point of view. Especially if several
people participate in the discussion. Useless meetings are held in
companies where no decisions are made. Conflicts arise in teams,
and efficiency decreases.
The inability to negotiate is like herpes. It exists in every person, but
you don’t know when it will appear. They even came up with such a
role as a facilitator. This is a person who provides successful group
communication. He follows its logic and does not let it go to wrong
places. How to approach logic is written in the section about
optimizing thinking. Being a facilitator for yourself and the team is a
very valuable skill.

When you look at any explanation or communication as a

construction of theses, arguments, arguments and proofs, you will
look at people’s conversations differently. You will be able to
effectively manage group discussions, help participants identify
problems and make decisions through constructive dialogue.
Facilitation is not only associated with complex discussions. The
skills of the facilitator will also be useful for brainstorming or
synchronization with the team.

Storytelling.

I have always considered storytelling to be the lot of screenwriters

and before its popularization by marketers I did not pay much
attention to it. Many people still think so. Although storytelling
helps us explain, sell, negotiate and make an impression every day.
In 2014, at every interview in Moscow, I was asked if I was from that
Donetsk we all heard about. Everyone was aware of what was going
on there and asked a lot of questions about the move. I told my
story, and they listened to me with their mouths open.
They liked these stories, and it helped me to establish contact and
win over HR. I realized that later. I didn’t try to use storytelling on
purpose, because I didn’t know what it was. Stories help to interest,
and therefore capture people’s attention. It helps a lot in
communication. Storytelling is much more than just a skill. These
are psychology, copywriting, empathy and attention management. I
highly recommend reading where storytelling is used, and how it can
be useful. Learn specific storytelling techniques and practice. They
will definitely strengthen your oral and written communication. You
will also begin to notice these techniques in films, and you can
always pretend to be smart pants later.

Networking.

Networking is not a skill to endlessly make new acquaintances.

Networking is effective communication for building a network of
contacts and achieving your goals. The ability to find the right
people and get to know them is very valuable. Communication is
already a complex soft skill, and then you also need to make
acquaintances from scratch. Not acquaintance with a girl or a guy,
but business contact with the search for mutually beneficial. To do
this, you need to be able to present yourself and quickly establish
contact with people. Learn to consciously plan and shape your
environment.

Hone the algorithms of dating, self-presentation and strengthening

relationships. At work and in life, this will always be a trump card
that can be played. It does not mean that you need to be selfish and
make friends just for the sake of profit. Strive to be yourself and
someone that people will want to get to know themselves. Look at
people as partners, but first focus on yourself. Ask yourself the
question: how can I be useful? Try to help and do not be afraid of
new acquaintances in any circumstances. People are just as afraid to
talk to you as you are to them.

Help them get rid of fear, start first. Subscribe to Anton Telyakov to
relax and make sure it’s not scary. Anton makes jokes of people on
the street. Makes it cool and funny, without obscene language and
negativity. I strongly advise you to subscribe to him in order to learn
first contact with people, storytelling and attention retention. He
does not teach this on purpose, so we will have to observe for
ourselves. You will be surprised how long people can talk about the
most absurd topics and be polite in extreme situations. I hope Anton
will do a course on communication someday. This is always needed.
Watch his pranks and you will understand the joke in the previous
sentence.

Use communities and human guides for networking. There are

plenty of them now, and there are people ready to help everywhere.
You just need to write. Think about which social circle you want to
get into, set yourself a goal and decompose it into tasks. You know
what to do next. Practice. As with any skill, it will be easier with
experience. Build your environment for development, establish
trusting and strong relationships with people. No one knows what
kind of acquaintance will create a turning point in your life for you.
Digital care.

By digital care, I mean the convenience of the consumer of your

information in written communication. We’re all online already.
Every day people exchange a huge amount of information. Digital
literacy has become hygiene. People have mastered email clients,
messengers and conference services. People who take care of the
submission and assignment of information will always stand out
from others. As a basis, it is better to study digital etiquette, so as
not to be a person who records a two-hour audio message without
warning or writes a hundred separate messages in a row.

Then you need to develop the ability to understand what the

recipient will do with your information. Take care of its appearance,
structure, readability and further usage scenarios. Previously, at
work, I often had to request an assessment of the work at the request
of the client. I received two kinds of assessments with notes. Some
sent their arguments, which I had to digest and structure in order to
send to the client. Others sent the text in the first person, which I
copied and forwarded. Such concern for the consumer of
information creates a good impression, increases your coolness and
brand consistency. According to my observations, such care is a very
rare skill, so hurry up to engage in working on it.

Goal setting and priorities.

In the book, we have already devoted enough text to goal setting and
priorities. As I wrote, few people know how to set goals correctly and
set priorities in cold blood. The skill is easy to test and demonstrate.
Study and practice until you feel that it makes your life easier.
Believe me, you will notice it.

Project management.

At the beginning of the chapter “Management”, the topic of the

project approach has already been touched upon. Everything in life
is projects of different scales. Therefore, the ability to package any
activity into a project and bring it to a result is extremely useful for
life. There are a lot of books and articles on this topic, but you don’t
need to read everything if you don’t work as a project manager. Start
with the HBR Guide “Project Management” and Scott Berkun’s book
“Implementation of the Plan”. Understand the principles and
approaches of project management, and then try to apply them in
life. Moreover, you already know a lot, since my book is about the
project approach to life.

Photo by Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash

Organization.

By default, organizational skills belong to project management, but

not every manager is a good organizer. Therefore, I single out
organizational skills separately. It is important not only to formulate
goals, put together a plan and distribute responsibility. We also need
to assemble the infrastructure, launch processes and organize the
work of the team in this system. When hiring people without
experience, I always pay attention to organizational skills. If they are
in order, and a person has the motivation to develop in IT, then he
will quickly get used to it and strengthen his project management
skills. Learn to organize yourself, and then others. Organizational
skills, like superfood among products, have a positive impact on the
development of many skills at once.

Decision-making and responsibility.

You could write “Leadership” in the title, but this is a very

multifaceted and big concept. That’s why I highlighted the main
skills of a leader at the beginning: decision-making and
responsibility. One cannot exist without the other. You need to be
able to make decisions and take responsibility for them. In a
confusing situation, without data or enough time, it doesn’t matter.
A person who can make a decision will always be ahead of those who
constantly doubt or postpone a decision.

“If you don’t take responsibility, then you’re not the boss. You need
to take full responsibility for everything you do…”

Guy Ritchie
The mechanics of decision-making are also very important, which
contributes to the probability of making the right decision. Decisions
that bring the desired consequences. There are many patterns and
techniques for making decisions. For example, in the book “The
Book of solutions. 50 models of strategic thinking” by Mikael
Krogerus and Roman Chappeler. The book contains a set of
techniques and a description of how to use them. The book will not
give promises, but it will help you learn how to make decisions in
different conditions. Not making decisions is also a decision. But
remember what Guy Ritchie said. Don’t you want to be the boss of
your life?

Analysis of motives.

At work and in life, it is very important to be aware of the position

and motives of another person. To understand what motivates him,
and why he acts this way or does not act at all. It is especially useful
in project work. If a manager works with you on the client side,
whose goal is to sit at work from 9:00 to 18:00, he hates the bosses,
and you are an extra job for him, then cooperation becomes difficult.
Knowing that he has no motivation, you will choose the optimal
approach to the project.

If you work with a motivated person, then his motive may not be a
quality project at all. His motives may be outside the project. For
example, he may seek a promotion or try to promote a personal
brand. Usually no one says this openly. Often, I see how people do
not analyze the motives of other people and treat them as roles. Or
vice versa, they attribute far-fetched motives and draw wrong
conclusions. Because of this, false expectations happen, and then we
have a bunch of surprises. Try to make empathy friends with the
analysis of human behavior and actions in order to read people
better. It will be difficult to demonstrate this skill at the interview,
but in life it will be very useful to you.

Stress resistance

You will see this word in any job description. Usually people read it
as “work is a continuous stress, it will be painful and difficult, but
you have to endure, otherwise we will find another one.” Many
people work like that. They tolerate and believe that they are stress-
resistant. I believe that stress tolerance is the ability to calmly deal
with uncertainty or unforeseen situations, as well as to show
flexibility.

About the attitude to the VUCA measure, uncertainty, problems and

errors is written at the beginning. All this will happen, and there is
no way to avoid it. The only way out is to get knowledge about stress.
How stress works, how to prevent it and how to work with yourself
during stress. The tools in this book will help you avoid stress, but at
least basic knowledge about the brain and the nature of stress is a
very strong investment in yourself for the long term.
Photo by Vika Wendish on Unsplash

Product thinking.

The principles of the product approach can be applied in any field.

As a product, you can consider yourself, career, job, and anything
else. The product approach is needed to obtain optimal results with
minimal costs in order to quickly get feedback. To do this, you need
to learn to explore the environment, put forward hypotheses, test
them, analyze feedback and prioritize tasks.

Since the product approach was invented for the development of

new products in uncertainty, it is useful to use its techniques for
personal purposes. For a basic presentation, you can read Denis
Pushkin’s article “How to apply product thinking to the world: on
the example of a hoodie” on Habr ( use the page translation in the
browser). There are many examples and a link to Denis’s speech.
Without basic knowledge, it is difficult to understand and shift the
principles of the product approach to life, but when you get the base,
you can find a person who will help you figure it out. I am sure that
any product owner will talk with interest on this topic.

In an interview, Elon Musk said that at the beginning of the SpaceX

launch, no one believed in commercial flights into space. Cool
engineers didn’t want to work with him. So, he decided to become a
chief engineer himself and started reading books. He just sits there
and calmly tells me that he decided to figure out rocket science. Not
just to figure it out for yourself, but to do something that no one has
ever done yet. What will the majority answer if they are offered a
new profession or to learn a new difficult topic? We will hear that
“it’s too late, the brain doesn’t work like it used before anymore, I
could, but only if…” — and so on.
Photo by Shiromani Kant on Unsplash

There are some people who like to study, and everything is fine with
their motivation, but they do not know how to approach a difficult
topic and study effectively. Everything is simple here, there is a lot of
content. There is no need to be Elon Musk. You need to take the
time and learn to learn. New experience and knowledge are a
challenge. Such calls are very useful. When a person is capable of
self-learning, he can do anything. To understand new things and
acquire skills on your own is a huge bonus to flexibility. The
responsibility for your endless learning is only up to you. In our
world, there is already a question “how to learn faster?”, and not
“how to study constantly?”. So don’t hesitate to get this skill.

“Development is the best game”

Peter Klimov

Synthesis of information

To learn new things or immerse yourself in a subject area, you need

to study a lot of information. It is important to be able to catch the
main thoughts from the information and compress them into
understandable theses. When we analyze information, we divide the
whole into parts, and synthesis helps to put a new whole back
together from the parts.

This is how understanding is formed, not memorization. At the

university, I saw excellent students who could memorize the
material, but did not understand it. With any questions outside the
topic of the learned material, they had a system failure. Don’t do
that. There is more and more information in the world, and you
need to learn how to work with it. Group, classify, compress,
highlight rules, laws and systems. Information synthesis is a
mandatory part of self — study.

Read articles with basic techniques and methods. Then plunge into a
part of an unfamiliar area, figure it out and practice explaining using
the Feynman method. It will take time to develop the skill, since it is
not only technical techniques and algorithms. Thinking plays a
significant role in synthesis. And you already know how to optimize
thinking.

Reflection

The previous chapter is devoted to this skill. I want to draw your

attention once again that reflection is a vital skill that has a
tremendous impact on a person’s life and results. By the way, when
you are asked about failures at an interview, they want to make sure
that you are reflecting, and not blaming the cruel world and falling
into a trap.

There are many other skills involved in the problem-solving skill.

The accumulated experience and the necessary combinations of
skills help to solve problems. To use them more effectively, learn the
basics of problem solving. Understanding the algorithm optimizes
problem solving. There are also algorithms and methods inside this
algorithm that structure your thinking in a scenario and help you
think outside the box. For example, methods of analyzing problems,
generating ideas, making decisions, etc. I think you have already
solved many problems in life. Maybe you even know how to solve
any problems. Try to go to the next level.

Photo by Olav Ahrens Røtne on Unsplash

Read articles about “Troubleshooting” or “Problem-solving”. When

you understand the algorithms and methods of solving problems, try
to apply them to solving a big problem. Not necessarily of your own.
You can take someone else’s problem or solve problems from the
book “Half the Kingdom for an idea!” by Sergey Faer and Viktor
Timokhov. I am sure you will notice the difference in the approach
to solving problems before and after. The ability to structure a big
problem into a task and clear steps to solve it is a very necessary
skill.
Attitude to problems also plays a significant role in solving
problems. At the beginning, I already wrote that there is no need to
be sad and sigh languidly because of problems, and even more so to
avoid them or postpone a solution. Act according to the algorithm,
using your best qualities and knowledge. Don’t be afraid that you
don’t have the knowledge or experience. Develop and improve your
approaches to go into uncertainty with a cool head and not be afraid
of problems. You will always have to go into it. Make the journey
comfortable and useful.

“When you think that you don’t know how, it doesn’t mean that you
don’t know how, it means that it’s time to look for answers to your
questions”

Igor Khobotov

As of June 5, 2022, I believe that these are the main skills in each
group that will help you adapt faster and be competitive in the labor
market. I wrote only about soft skills, and, of course, the list of skills
for each category is incomplete. There are a lot more of them, and
you can write a book about each one. For example, I didn’t describe
great critical thinking, leadership, or negotiation skills. I chose
average and understandable skills so that I could immediately start
developing and get a positive effect. I think it’s more important to
give the whole picture and highlight priorities, rather than paint the
details.
Treat it as if at a mentoring meeting you asked me what skills I
consider important, and I answered what I have in focus. If you want
more, then using the search query “top skills + year” you will find
many lists of skills that will be in demand by the specified year. In
general, they are similar to each other and do not differ much from
my list. Do not be afraid that in the future you are required to be the
perfect omnipotent monster. You won’t need everything at once at
the same time, you already know how to do a lot, and the rest can be
learned.

The main thing is to do it effectively and compare it with your goals

so as not to waste time. Strive to achieve goals, not follow processes
and trends. Back off or abandon the plan if necessary. Given the
critical risks, improvise and make quick decisions when there is no
other way out. This will definitely have to be done while you are
learning, because sometimes you need to react instantly.

Try to get the most knowledge from your own and other people’s
experience, broaden your horizons, develop thinking and apply
knowledge from different fields to new tasks. Be that loser classmate
or the son of a mom’s friend who understood life and adapted, and
not an excellent student who just memorized.

How to train your skills

Where to start and how to develop skills correctly? To answer these
questions, you need to figure out how adults learn. Who does not
know it, spoiler alert: adults do not learn like children. The science
of upbringing and educating children is called pedagogy. The science
of development and learning is andragogy. We have been well
acquainted with pedagogy since school. Remember how you came to
the first grade, and the training began. The teacher was an
omniscient authority by default. He knew everything, and the
children listened to him. The process of education looked like this:
theory — practice — evaluation.

First, we read a textbook or listened to the teacher, then we wrote a

test, and then the teacher gave us grades. Thanks to this process, we
gained knowledge at school. Then we went to the university, where
we were asked to forget them. We spent another 5 years on the
process of studying, just like in school. Then the ship of our destiny
went into independent life, where we can open a business or find a
job. We need to provide for ourselves in order to survive. Knowledge
by itself does not help much in this. We need experience. This is the
key difference in teaching children and adults.

When you are an adult and there are other records in your
apartment (that’s a line from a cheesy 2000s Russian pop song), you
already have experience and knowledge. There is already much less
motivation to gain new experience and knowledge. There is no time
and effort for training, since you have to work to buy food.
Moreover, most of adult education is based on the model of
pedagogy, which is boring and useless for an adult. For example, a
coach comes to the company, gives a lecture, gives exercises and a
list of books. Only the coach is no longer an authority for you by
default, like a teacher at school.
In such a situation, an adult always asks himself the questions:
“Why do I need this?”, “What benefit will I get?” and “Why should I
believe this person?”. Motivation to study will increase if a person is
explained what he will receive. What new learning experience will
help to form or develop the necessary skills to work better.
Therefore, to increase competitiveness and develop a career.
Experience will help answer all these questions. The coach
demonstrates and proves personal experience to justify authority.

Learning should also be built through experience, so that a person

understands that he does not have enough of it, and learns by
experience. No one wants to hear about negotiation techniques.
Everyone wants to get a skill that will start benefiting them
tomorrow. This is the only way to connect with basic values, which
provides a natural motivation for learning. If a person who has read
a lot of books will tell you about the negotiations, but has never
asked for a salary increase in his life, then nothing will happen to
your skills. In the best case, the training will reach the end “just
because it must be done”, but the time will be wasted.

To implement effective learning, the “Flask Cycle” learning model is

used. Its author is a specialist in the psychology of adult learning,
David Kolb. It consists of 4 stages:

1. Getting a specific experience;

2. Analysis of this experience;

3. Theoretical justification of the acquired knowledge;

4. Testing in practice.

Kolb’s Cycle

After the fourth stage, the cycle begins again. As you can see,
everything starts with experience. This method allows you to teach a
person to use his current or new knowledge in practice to form a
skill. When the skill is brought to automatism and can be applied in
new situations, so the skill is formed. It is important to note that
here I am writing about training in a very concise and simple form.

Since I work in the Verno educational unit at red_mad_robot, I

understand perfectly well that the learning process is a very large,
complex and multifaceted topic both from the position of students
and teachers. To make sure, read Sonia Smyslovaya’s articles about
designing the educational process for teachers. You can read about
corporate education and how to solve business problems with it in
our Telegram channel “Do not interfere with people’s work” from
Verno.

In this section, I want to draw attention to the fact that practice-

oriented training should always be a priority. Today the situation is
gradually changing. Companies are increasingly aware of the
importance of training employees not “just to check the box”, and
schools are thinking about how to introduce more experience and
personalize the approach. But while everything is changing, you are
responsible for your own learning.

Approach learning like an

adult
Take a look at your skills and analyze what activities they help to
carry out better. How it affects life and career. Also highlight what is
missing for the desired activity. After the first chapter, you should
have an analysis of the current situation. Use it to figure out where
to start. Then try to pump skills through experience. Choose a skill,
read about it to decompose into components for a better
understanding. Get to know the tools and application examples.

Then try it in practice. You can use training examples, someone

else’s or fictional tasks. Everything is like in Kolb’s cycle. Fall into a
trap in small iterations, reflect and repeat again. The main thing is
that the practice should not be like at school. Abstract tasks in a
textbook are not practice. You can’t read books about negotiations
and become a great negotiator. It is impossible to master the project
approach without real projects. Try to get involved in work, projects
and situations that will help you get through the right experience.
Forget that you will not succeed the first time, or you will make a
mistake. Remember about the attitude to mistakes in order to
prepare yourself. No one immediately smoothly released the clutch,
gracefully skated or launched projects.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Everyone made mistakes in the beginning in order to gain

experience. Don’t be the one who doesn’t go to the gym because he
thinks the fitness people will laugh at him. It is better to gain
experience in the main activity in order to use the time usefully,
rather than spending additional time on training. If your current
activity does not allow you to experience the right experience, then
look for ways to learn with such experience. I consider mentoring,
approved online courses, simulators, books and articles to be the
most effective ways.

1. Mentoring

When I realized that no one needed a diploma, and I had to study

again, I started watching all the IT-related content in a row without
any strategy. I was interested in web development. I watched a video
on how to make landing pages, what is the layout, what are the
engines for websites, etc. Like at school. I received knowledge that I
could not apply. Accordingly, I could not even understand them
correctly. Fragmentary pieces of content helped me figure out how
to do a separate task, but I didn’t understand where it came from,
why it was being done, what roles were involved, and what the whole
site creation process looked like.

Then I could not find such information on the Internet. In fact, I

found it, but I couldn’t put all the pieces of the puzzle together
because of a misunderstanding. When I got into web development,
saw the process from the inside, walked around the rake and gained
experience, then I figured out the topic. I have a complete picture of
how everything works. I understood how it was necessary to study
and what skills to develop in order to enter the profession faster. I
also realized what I was doing wrong and paid for it with time. Many
friends asked for advice on what’s the best way to get into IT and
which direction to choose. In response, I was happy to give them a
long read with a step-by-step plan on how to become a frontend
developer. I thought that this profession is the easiest one to enter.

Eh, how such a plan would have helped me at the time. How much
time I would have saved and how many bumps I would not have got.
Without even realizing it, in moments of helping friends, I was a
mentor. A mentor is a more experienced specialist who transfers
knowledge to his ward (mentee) and helps to develop
competencies. If you find a good mentor, you can learn faster. A big
plus is that this is an informal transfer of knowledge from a person
who has already passed the path ahead of you. You can ask direct
questions, chat, sort out personal tasks or ask for advice. Here you
have knowledge, experience, and support. The main thing is to find a
person with real experience, and to make it comfortable for you to
communicate. Now mentoring is gaining momentum and becoming
fashionable. There are platforms and communities where you can
find a mentor.

This is logical, since mentoring is a really cool and effective thing. I

know this from personal experience, and we also have a Mentoring
School course at Verno by red_mad_robot. We teach corporations
and small IT companies how to organize mentoring of young
professionals. I often conduct workshops on this course and see the
difference between companies where there is mentoring taking place
and where there is none. Therefore, do not ignore such an accessible
and powerful resource. Find a person who understands the topic you
need.
Write to him with a request for help. Offer coffee or help in return if
it’s awkward to ask a stranger. You can use special sites, write a
request to the general Mesto group or on the feed of a social
network. Just try it. You will see that people will be happy to help or
advise someone. Often, you can get a lot more for one call than for a
whole paid course. No one will lead you holding your hand, but they
will tell you the right vector and indicate what not to do. It’s very
valuable when you don’t know what to do. Don’t waste time, find
yourself a guide and when you become cool, don’t forget to help your
mentee.

2. Approved courses

What kind of education even is it without courses? The reputation of

this method of training is ambiguous, since the army of info gypsies
and pseudo-experts spoils the reputation. Therefore, not all courses
are equally useful. Almost every blogger has already done his course,
guide or marathon. Tons of useless videos with a dull feed are
advertised on social networks and do not benefit people. Despite this
trash, I would not give up on the courses.

There are people who have knowledge and experience. They do

courses as best as they can or they are found by course producers to
help them and earn money themselves. Our task is to choose courses
carefully. There are course authors who earn money due to people’s
unwillingness to read books. But we can read, thanks. Therefore, it is
important to choose courses where you can get a new experience,
listen to someone else’s experience and discuss your tasks. I believe
that a good course should be similar to mentoring. The expert must
have real experience that he can confirm. There should be an
opportunity to view materials or get demo access to see how an
expert talks about his experience and presents information.

There must be practice in the course. Checking assignments by an

expert with comments and discussions, one-on-one sessions or
collective reviews, working in pairs, thesis, analysis of your tasks or
relevant real tasks. A good sign is when streams with preliminary
interviews are recruited for the course, or in another way, a request
and expectations are collected from you. See if the course is being
finalized, and how changes or additions are made after feedback
from students. Communicate with those who have completed the
course, and do not look at fake reviews. When the author is a
professional, he has nothing to hide, and you will find all the
necessary information. Evaluate the courses in cold blood and
choose wisely. Choosing a course is not an easy task, since there are
few quality courses. Use the advice of the professional community
on the topic or a mentor. When you take a class course for the first
time, you will understand the set bar and will be able to choose good
and affordable courses faster.

3. Simulators

Interactive services that mimic the real experience are gaining

momentum today. One of the first in IT was the Go Practice
simulator. It is still working and collecting positive feedback. Go
Practice simulates working in a product company. As a product
owner, you develop the product, communicate with different roles
and make decisions. All training is built through a chat. No bells and
whistles, just a dialog box, but the script and real tasks do their job
since exactly such tasks will need to be solved at real work. In this
format, a new experience is learnt better and more useful.
Simulators are also appearing in other areas.

There are ones for startups, project managers, and financial literacy.
Using only simulators is not very effective. They can be good in case
of the lack of practical knowledge and gain new experience, but
without the theory of full-fledged training, they will not work unless
enough theory is given in the simulator (and it is difficult to find this
balance of theory and practice). But this format is similar to a game,
so it’s interesting to learn. The more the content is similar to reality,
the better. Simulators can also include offline simulations. For
example, negotiation clubs, role-playing games, hackathons or
group discussions of cases.

Offline simulations can be in courses. For example, in Verno, the

“Mentoring School” is conducted in the form of an inverted class.
Students watch short videos with theory on the topic of the block,
and at the end of each block there is a workshop where real
problems are solved and cases are discussed. All the training cases
are written on real situations, so the audience responds a lot and
discuss them with interest. Choose simulators which are similar to
courses. Check whether the simulator is just an e-book or a universal
robot answering machine. Look at the scenario and case examples.
Try it, and then buy.
4. Books and articles

The simplest and most obvious way, about which it makes no sense
to talk for a long time. Simple books can be used to immerse yourself
in the topic, and after trial and error, move on to more complex
books. This way knowledge will be better transformed into skills.
Otherwise, it may happen when you read books in English that are
not at your level. You start with a difficult one, you don’t understand
anything and quickly quit. One piece of advice can be given about
books and articles: just read them.

I clearly remember life before and after reading. Until 2014, I didn’t
have the habit of reading. Boring school curriculum discouraged the
desire immediately and for a long time. Everything has changed in
the subway. In 2014, the daily four-hour commute to and from work
helped forming the habit of reading. My phone didn’t connect to Wi-
Fi, so I downloaded dozens of books at home and went through
them on the way until I liked it. Books have greatly influenced my
life, thinking and development. I completely agree with Ivan
Zamesin’s position about reading books. Read his article “How to
Read a Lot” and watch podcasts with him. You will definitely have
no problems with the choice of books. At the end of the book, you
will find a list of 60 books that will help you delve into the processes
of analysis, planning, management, optimization, reflection and
learning.

Whatever method and format you choose, try to learn from

enthusiastic people — experts in their field who live by it and share
knowledge not only in paid formats. Most often they have their own
channels or community, which is full of free useful information.
Whether a person is passionate or not, you will understand without
unnecessary movements. I will never forget one of my first projects
at red_mad_robot with Sergey Galtsev as art director. We were
making an application for couriers, and after testing the MVP, the
concept changed dramatically. As a result, the deadlines are
burning, there are no additional resources and no budget.

The client and I are thinking about what decision to make, and
Serega has been thinking all this time about how to properly make a
warning for couriers so that they do not interact with the interface in
a moving car, since it is unsafe. That was the first time I saw that
“thinking about the user” can be not only beautiful words for an
interview. Of course, Serega saved everyone, and everything ended
up well. You always want to learn from such people. They set the bar
high, give energy and result. In the case of Galtsev, it is enough to
see where his graduates work and how his mentee’s career is
developing. I was lucky, I got to know a lot of such people in
red_mad_robot. If there are no enthusiastic people in your
environment on the right topic, then add them to your networking
plan and find points of interaction.

When you get into the taste of learning, get used to learning and
begin to better understand the composition of skills, then take the
process to a new level. Collect a skillset for yourself and make a
development plan. A systematic approach to learning will lead there
sooner or later anyway.
Just don’t try to make yourself a superman who knows everything.
Always ask yourself, “why do I need this skill?” to strengthen what is
strong and valuable for you, and not to fill out the skillset. It is
necessary to learn not because it is fashionable or shameful not to
study, but to develop one’s standard of living regardless of the
development of events. By improving the standard of living, I mean
not only improving financial conditions for greater freedom and
security, but also improving my emotional state, thinking and
perception of the world.

“Studying chess textbooks only paves the way for learning to think
independently”

M. Euwe