4 Skills to Learn Before Graduating 🎓

School doesn’t teach you everything you need to know.

While your academic courses are an effective way to develop critical thinking and reasoning skills—both of which are necessary in today’s world—they overlook practical skills you’ll have to learn on your own.

Over the past few years, I’ve had to develop several of these skills on my own, and I wish someone had told me to focus on them sooner.

In today’s newsletter, we’ll dive into what these skills are, why they’re important, and how you can develop them yourself.

Self-Advocacy

This one sounds a little vague, I know. But this is the one skill I attribute to my success as a learner and a content creator.

Growing up, you have guardrails. If you’re struggling in a class, your teacher will offer extra help. If you don’t know how to apply to college, your counselor will steer you on the correct path. Your systems provide support without you having to seek it.

But as soon as you enter college, the guardrails start to disappear. If you need extra help in a course, you will have to find the resources you need—such as office hours or tutoring centers. When it’s time to find a job, you need to figure out where to apply and how.

I say this not to intimidate you, but to remind you that you need to be your biggest advocate. Opportunities don’t randomly show up at your door. As cheesy as this might sound, you have to be the one to knock.

Email the professor whose research excites you. Reach out to the professional whose career you want. Ask for the extension, the rec letter, the coffee chat. The worst anyone can say is no.

(And most of the time, they won’t.)

Articulation

You can have the best idea in the room and still lose to someone who can explain theirs more clearly. Articulation is being able to say precisely what you mean—and one of the most useful skills any young person can learn.

This isn’t just about public speaking, but the way. It’s about writing a clear email, explaining your reasoning in a meeting, or telling a story that actually lands. The ability to translate your thoughts into words that resonate with others is the foundation of almost every professional relationship you’ll ever build.

If you’re paying attention in your English lectures, you’re well on your way to sharpening this skill. But you can also do so by reading more. Read authors who write with clarity and notice how they structure their sentences. Over time, you’ll subconsciously absorb the patterns of effective writing.

Using AI

Look, I know we all have our varying thoughts on AI. But one thing is clear: learning how to use it is a must.

If you told me five years ago that an AI tool could write 90% of the code for my company’s website, I would’ve been baffled. But with the right context and set of prompts, these tools are becoming increasingly capable of some of the most mind-blowing tasks.

The most effective way to use AI is as a thinking partner. Don’t let it replace your human ingenuity. Rather, use it to pressure-test ideas, accelerate research, draft faster, and do in an hour what used to take a day.

How to use AI “the right way” could be a newsletter in itself, but at a high level: learn how to give context, push back on weak outputs, and iterate on responses. This is a skill that will only continue to pay dividends both in school and work.

Content Creation

(This section is sponsored by Adobe.)

Maybe I’m biased, but I think everyone will become a content creator one day.

That doesn’t mean becoming an influencer. Simply being able to document your work, share your perspective, and build a presence online is increasingly one of the highest-leverage things a young person can do.

You can start small with something like a post about something you learned this week. Or a short-video explaining a concept in your field.

But if you’re looking to go deeper and actually build the skills behind great content, I recommend Adobe Digital Academy.

This is an online resource that can help you sharpen your creative skills across graphic design, video editing, digital marketing, and more. These are self-paced courses you can take across YouTube, LinkedIn Learning, or Coursera.

I’d highly recommend checking out Digital Marketing or Multichannel Content Marketing on Coursera, especially if you’re drawn towards entrepreneurship.

What I like about these courses is that they balance both the technical and creative elements of marketing. They teach you how to build robust marketing campaigns but also craft messages that resonate with your target audience.

If you’re more of a beginner, however, you can also get started with simpler courses like Image Editing and Graphic Design!

Either way, no experience is required, and you can get started for free by signing up for a 7-day trial of Coursera. Click the button below to get started!

Good luck on your learning journey. You got this!

See you next week!

Best,
Gohar