What are the essential skills for thriving in a rapidly changing job market?

The job market is always changing, like a weird weather pattern.

But you don’t need to chase every trend. Master the foundational soft skills.

You only need to be good at two out of three things: having a pleasant personality, being on time, and doing quality work.

Seriously, that’s it. Let me break it down.

1. Pleasant Personality: People like working with nice folks. If you can smile while the office printer jams for the third time today, you’re already ahead.

2. Timeliness: Complete your work when you say you will. It sounds simple, but being on time is like having a superpower. People will trust you because you don’t leave them waiting.

3. Quality Work: If you’re good at what you do, you’ll stick around. Whether you’re crunching numbers or making coffee, do it well.

Pick two. Any two. You'll be fine.

Now, let’s talk about technical skills.

Everyone’s obsessed with technical skills these days. But most of those you can pick up in a week watching YouTube videos. Need to learn Photoshop? There’s a tutorial for that. Want to code? Yep, there’s a video for that too. The same place you watch cat videos can teach you to code. It’s not rocket science; it’s just following instructions.

There is one more thing.

No matter what fancy title they give you, 80% of your job is just three things:

Excel. Spreadsheets are life.

PowerPoint. Make things pretty.

Outlook. Emails never end.

It’s like living in a tiny apartment with three annoying roommates who never move out.

Master these. You'll be unstoppable. Or at least employed.

And remember, every job is temporary. Even if you stay at the same place forever, your job will change. Embrace it.

So, what's the takeaway?

Be nice. Show up. Do good work. Learn the basics. And don't be afraid of change.

Oh, and one more thing. Always know where your towel is. That's not job advice. It's just good life advice.

Now go out there and thrive. Or at least survive. That's good too.