Aditya Kothadiya's Blog

Targeted Audience: Students, Recent Graduates

This is a classic problem for recent graduates who are searching for jobs. Most of the job openings require you to have certain skills and prior experience for that job. And recent graduates exactly lack that. They don’t have huge list of skills and work experience under their belt. Recent graduates see this as a problem and they get panicked. I don’t see this as a problem, if and only if you show you have enough talent to acquire those skills. Sure, if you fail to show off your talent, then you are in trouble. 

Talents and skills are two different capabilities. Talent is inherent and established since birth. Skills are the abilities acquired along the way. We have to understand what we have and what we lack. We know that not all people are equally talented. But that doesn’t mean that the one with highest talent is the best. Talent without discipline to acquire skills is as useless as having less or no talent. 

We can categorize these abilities into following four quadrants.

Don’t Have Talent and Not Acquiring Skills: Nobody wants to be in this quadrant. Sure, you were unlucky to have no or less talent, but not acquiring skills is solely your mistake. Working hard to acquire latest skills is the only option to survive in this competitive world. At the same time, not having talent itself suggests that you have to work harder compared to your peers to acquire those same skills.

Have Talent and Not Acquiring Skills: This is the worst case. You were lucky to born with certain talent, but you are wasting that talent by not following certain discipline in life. It’s as good as you are doing some sin. Make sure you don’t stay in this domain for long period. 

Don’t Have Talent and Acquiring Skills: It’s unfortunate that you have less or no talent, but it’s commendable that you are working hard to acquire required skills to compensate your talent potential. Believe me, it’s your ability to put maximum efforts and passion to learn new skills will differentiate you from talented people who are not working as hard as you are.

Have Talent and Acquiring Skills: Of course, this is the best case. Just keep doing it. As you have talent, you have an added advantage over rest of the competition. But you cannot stop a process of acquiring new skills.

Now you must have understood that in which domain you are and in which domain you want to be. 

For talented students, who have fewer skills, you have to show off your talent and your desire to acquire new skills.

For students with less talent and less skills, you have to work hard on acquiring required skills only. So start soon. Seriously, there is no other option.